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An MSNBC contributor had a strong reaction on Monday to President Donald Trump’s announcement that his administration would take over the Washington, D.C. police department, and claimed that the president was trying to distract from the Epstein story.
“I’m trying to hold my temper… you have to understand this within the context of Donald Trump’s racial politics and within the context of his effort to get Epstein off the front pages,” MSNBC commentator Eddie Glaude said.
Trump announced that he was sending 800 National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., and putting the district’s police department under federal control on Monday. He also announced federal legislation to end the practice of no-cash bail, which allows judges to send suspects home from jail without them paying bail.
The Metropolitan Police Department’s 3,400 officers will be under the command of DEA administrator Terry Cole. The National Guard troops will be commanded by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced. Trump vowed to remove homeless encampments popping up around the city and have the U.S. Park Police remove graffiti in the nation’s capital.
TRUMP’S PLAN TO DEPLOY NATIONAL GUARD IN DC SPARKS BACKLASH FROM RESIDENTS—BUT SOME WELCOME IT
“He really doesn’t really care about what’s actually happening in D.C. On a certain level because he’s not trying to get at the underlying root causes,” Glaude continued.
The president is allowed to federalize local D.C. police for up to 30 days in the event of an emergency, according to the Home Rule Act which granted the nation’s capital self-governing rights in 1973. Congress can lengthen the president’s emergency powers through a joint resolution.
“Watch them, the police are standing, and they’re told not to do anything under any search or this, and you can see they want to get at it. And they’re standing there and people are spitting in their face, and they are not allowed to do anything, but now they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want,” Trump said.
Trump has long railed against what he sees as out-of-control crime in the nation’s capital. Metropolitan Police Department data shows that while the homicide rate is falling, the last five years saw the greatest number of murders since 2008.
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Glaude, a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University, claimed that Trump’s announcement was just an attempt to throw “red meat” to his base in an attempt to distract them from the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Epstein, a former longtime friend of Trump, former President Bill Clinton and other high-profile individuals, killed himself in federal prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking of minors charges. Many in the MAGA world have demanded the release of the so-called “Epstein files,” while Trump has dismissed the affair as “pretty boring stuff” and denounced the “past supporters” agitating around it.
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