Chris Cillizza: Donald Trump Is Setting a Political Trap for Democrats on Crime in Big Cities

TRANSCRIPT:

CILLIZZA: "Now that Donald Trump has officially taken over, at least for the near term, D.C.'s police department and deployed 800 National Guard troops to the city, Democrats have a decision to make. And I think there’s a trap in here, politically speaking, for Democrats that they have to be really careful to avoid. So, the natural inclination, I think, from Democrats is to resist this strongly, to say, rightly, that the data, the broad data that we have shows crime, violent crime, assaults, all sorts of crime in Washington is actually down, that there’s not a crime spree, it’s down from 2024 even, but certainly from 2023 and earlier. Okay. And to resist Trump more broadly, that this is a takeover of a local municipality, that this is how authoritarians work, that, you know, he's strong- arming people. I get all of those arguments. And yet, I really do think that Democrats have to be mindful not to go too far on this for a couple big reasons."