CNN is a seemingly endless fount of dumb ideas.
Yesterday, we caught a CNN correspondent recommending that if Anas Al-Sharif was a Hamas terrorist, instead of killing him, the IDF should have asked Al Jazeera to fire him!
Today, it was CNN contributor and former NPR host Lulu Garcia-Navarro's turn. Criticizing Trump's use of federal agents to supplement DC police, Garcia-Navarro said the real solution to "girl brawls" is to have "better social media policies and better money for schools."
So, limit teens to 15 minutes a day on TikTok, perhaps? Yup, that'll bring girl brawls and other crime by the city's 'yuts' to a screeching halt! Assuming you could even enforce such policies: "Sergeant, we just tracked a girl at Union Station who's been on TikTok for 27 minutes. Get a SWAT team over there: STAT!"
As for spending "better money for schools," in 2022-23, guess which school district ranked #1 in the country in per pupil spending? Yup! And the returns on that lavish spending have been dismal. In 2024, two-thirds of students failed to read at grade level, and almost 80% failed to reach grade level in math. Entrusting even more money to the tender mercies of the teachers' union isn't going to fix the problem.
Garcia-Navarro managed to work in a shot at Trump for meeting with Putin regarding Ukraine. Guess what? To negotiate the end of a war, you have to talk with the other side.
She also parroted a current liberal trope, saying that "of course," the "biggest episode of crime" in D.C. was on January 6th. For the record: the biggest episode of crime in the history of D.C. was the riots in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Hundreds of stores were looted, and the fire department reported over 1,000 fires set, with arsonists setting buildings ablaze.
The man-in-the-DC-street interviews, which aired at the top of the segment, backfired badly on CNN. Surely the hope was that local residents would condemn Trump's moves, and agree with the liberal "experts" that crime is down in the city. Nope! One man did say that instead of using federal agents, the city should hire more police officers. But other than that . . .
The first person interviewed, asked what she thinks of Trump's actions, said: "I love it! I think this is long overdue. I've been wanting the National Guard in this area for years."
A store clerk, told that the city says crime is down, replied: "I don't think the crime is down. Crime is up." A lady in the store seconded that: "[Crime down] in D.C? Who told that lie?!"
Note: Flaunting her hip knowledge of kid-speak, Garcia-Navarro said that Trump's actions on crime and his summit with Putin demonstrate that "we live in the dumbest timeline." Ironically, Lulu, you might have uttered the dumbest line of the day!
Here's the transcript.
CNN This Morning
8/13/25
6:01 am EDTAUDIE CORNISH: So we're going to start here, where National Guard troops hit the streets. And President Trump leaned into his campaign to clean up local crime with US military resources. 800 National Guard members are now supporting law enforcement. Armored vehicles and soldiers have been seen along the National Mall. An army official tells CNN they are on patrol without openly carrying their rifles. Hundreds of officers from the FBI and DEA are also out suited up in bulletproof vests.
All this bringing mixed feelings for the people in the city.
REPORTER: What is your opinion of this?
DC RESIDENT #1: I love it. I think this is long overdue. I've been wanting the National Guards [sic] in this area for years.
DC RESIDENT #2: Hire more police officers. Instead of -- I'm quite sure the feds got something else better they can be doing.
REPORTER: The city keeps saying crime is down, but do you feel safe?
CONVENIENCE STORE EMPLOYEE: No, I don't think the crime is down. Crime is up.
LADY IN CONVENIENCE STORE: [Commenting on claim crime is down]: In D.C.? Who told that lie?
. . .
DOUG HEYE: Clearly, Donald Trump feels, though, that this issue of crime, and I think Republicans writ large, it's terra firma for them. Whenever they can talk about being tough on crime, they're really where they want to be. And D.C. is ripe for these issues. You know, obviously, the Capital Mall, the National Mall is a safe place. Nobody really gets in any trouble there.
CORNISH: I mean, not obvious from the imagery [of military vehicles and personnel there], but, yeah, now it is.
HEYE: But if you walk on the mall, whether it's today or two weeks ago, you feel safe. You go in different neighborhoods, and you start to feel less safe very quickly.
Three blocks from here is Union Station, where I unfortunately encountered a girl brawl at the Metro stop just two weeks ago. And the things that I see at Union Station and smell at Union Station every day, every week, are troubling.
. . .LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO: Umm, we live in the dumbest timeline, to say what the kids say. The fact that we have a president who is deploying federal forces on the streets of the capital city, and meeting with their enemies for a listening tour, I'm talking about Vladimir Putin, shows how unserious this is to tackle what, you know, is, of course, a problem in every city across the world where you have many, many people together. There's always going to be crime.
When you're talking about girl brawls, which I've seen, too. You know, we should have maybe better social media policies and better money for schools, not take away a billion dollars from the D.C. budget, instead give money to schools to help children.
And I'll also say that I live in D.C. in a historically black neighborhood, and last night, you know, there were helicopters whirring over my head. I'm a former war correspondent. I've spent many years in conflict, and I never thought that this would be something that I would feel in an American city, other than, of course, on January 6th, which was, of course, as we know, the biggest episode of crime in the city.
You know, D.C. is a city where, last year alone, it had the highest rates of tourism. I think historically over 24 million people came to this city. People did not feel unsafe. And so this is a solution without the kind of problem that Donald Trump and his administration is presenting it as.
