House Democrat: DC 'not the safest place in the world'

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Sunday that Washington, D.C., is “not the safest place in the world” amid President Trump’s crackdown on crime in the District and pushback from Democrats over the president’s actions.

“Both of my children live in Washington, D.C. You know it's not — it's not the safest place in the world,” Smith told NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt on “The Hill Sunday.” 

“And also some of the policies the Democrats advanced around crime over the course of the last 10 or 15 years very clearly did not work. There was not enough transparency and not enough accountability,” he added.

Last week, Trump announced he was taking federal control of D.C.’s police department and deploying the National Guard in the city to combat crime. Since then, he has received heavy pushback on his law enforcement moves from Democrats and District residents.

On Monday, Mississippi became the fourth Republican-led state to unveil plans to dispatch National Guard troops to D.C. to boost Trump’s crackdown on crime in the District.

“I’ve approved the deployment of approximately 200 Mississippi National Guard Soldiers to Washington, D.C., to support President Trump’s effort to return law and order to our nation’s capital,” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said on social platform X.

Smith said last Tuesday it was “pretty clear” Trump “wants his own domestic police force.”

“Look, this president is trampling on basic freedoms of the American people to a degree we — I don’t think we’ve ever seen,” Smith said on CNN. “You see that with what the ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents are doing, in terms of picking people up off the streets with no evidence, no due process, locking people up.”

“This is happening all across the country,” the Evergreen State Democrat added. “Look, it’s pretty clear the president wants his own domestic police force, and step by step, he’s trying to create it, and we should be deeply alarmed by that, regardless of how you feel about crime in Washington, D.C., or any other city.”