'UNHINGED': Hillary Clinton hammers Trump over DC crime crackdown

Yeah, the Trump administration announcing a sweeping crime crackdown in our nation's capital, putting the police under federal control for 30 days while deploying 800 National Guard troops to the streets.

Crime in DC is ending and ending today. We are going to use every power we have to fight criminals here. No more crime rampant in our beautiful capital. No more teenage girls beating a disabled man to death. No more of that.

No more drive-bys. We're going to do everything we can. We're going to make DC beautiful. We're gonna make DC safe again.

Our next guest has been doing his part recently, helping to convict a DC suspect of abduction and attempted rape. Attorney Virginia Attorney General Jason Meares joins us now. A. G. Meares, thank you so much for waking up with us this morning. What is your reaction to what President Trump is doing in Washington D. C. And how much does it impact neighboring Virginia?

Well, first of all, I don't think it's good for the nation's capital to be when so many people from all over the world come to visit D.C. and they see lawlessness, they see homelessness. And it's absolutely having an impact in Virginia. We have so many vote citizens in Northern Virginia that work in the district, and they have shared with me, and I've seen and talked to them, as soon as they're done with their workday, whereas before they maybe stayed and went out to dinner at the Kennedy Center, they come immediately back to Virginia. And I just think of, you know, Christy Bautista. She was a recent JMU grad,

beautiful young woman from Arlington who had gone into the district to go see a concert, and she was brutally stabbed to death at her own hotel. And so these type of stories, the rampant carjacking, the, the awful violence is absolutely happening in the district and it's a very, very different model of what we've implemented in Virginia. And what the president wants to do is go after these repeat offenders that are creating such of the lawlessness right now in the district.

It's making it unsafe for everyday Virginians and it should be one of our great cities in America we could brag about. Right now we can't do that.

Yeah. You know, it's hard to understand why someone can take objection to what president Trump is saying and doing. This is what Democrats are doing. They take objection to everything he says and does. Let's take a look at some of the things that were posted yesterday. Hillary Clinton wrote, as you listen to an unhinged Trump try to justify deploying the

National Guard in DC, here's reality. And then attached a DOJ press release from before Trump took office saying violent crime in DC is at a 30-year low. And then House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says violent crime in Washington DC is at a 30-year low.

Donald Trump has no basis to take over the local police department and zero credibility on the issues of law and order get lost. The only problem with that is, you know, with minimal research, I can see that in 2012, which was actually a 30 year low.

That was 112 and a half percent lower homicide rate than in 2024, so we're not only are they taking issue with making DC safer, they're also putting out false information.

Well, it's not just that. You had a DC police commander fired earlier this year that was fired for manipulating data to make it look lower than it was. Here's the reality and the facts. Washington DC has the fourth highest homicide rate in the country. Their homicide rate's actually six times higher than in New York City.

And so when you look at what Washington, D.C. is, and you look at where Virginia is, it is night and day. And in Virginia, we had a very different approach. Governor Young and I launched Operation Ceasefire in our 13 most violent cities. We went after these repeat violent offenders. We investigated them, indicted them, and prosecutedute him because roughly 5% of felons commit over 50% of violent

felonies according to the Manhattan Institute. So what does that mean? You go after that small subset of repeat violent offenders and in Virginia, in our ceasefire cities after we took seriously crime and went after the repeat violent offender, 66% drop in the murder rate in our targeted ceasefire cities in Virginia. That's the Virginia model that works versus the failed model in D.C.

And President Trump wants to go after those repeat violent offenders.

Yeah, something else that President Trump wants to go after and a U.S. attorney for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, has been talking about it a lot, is a calling to allow teenagers as young as 14 years old to be prosecuted as adults and face lengthy prison sentences. How challenging will that be to change and implement? Oftentimes you hear about kids as young

as 1314 committing murders, getting a slap on the wrist one year in juvenile detention back out on the streets and doing it again. Well, this is what we know about

Washington DC and this is from actually their former police chief as well. That the average arrest rate back out on the streets and doing it again? Well, this is what we know about Washington, D.C., and this is from actually the former police chief as well, that the average arrest record of somebody arrested on a murder charge in Washington, D.C. is 11 prior arrests.

And yes, you have a problem in the juvenile system right now of so many in D.C. that go through, they commit an absolutely heinous act, they're given a slap on the wrist and they're right back absolutely on the street committing carjacking and other violent crimes. So you absolutely have to have a component of this that is a reforming of the system. But think about that, 11 prior arrests on average when you're picked up on a murder

charge in DC. Well, that tells me is you have too many of those individuals that are being a catch and release program. And all that means is more victims. That number just means 11 more victims before everybody took you seriously to make sure that you're accountable.

Yeah. Well, with a murder rate that's six times higher than New York City, as you just said, and the fourth highest in the nation, clearly something needs to change. And President said, and the fourth highest in the nation, clearly something needs to change. And President Trump is aiming for that. Virginia Attorney General Jason Mejiares, thank you for joining us.