Republicans living in Washington, D.C. were relieved that the city’s out-of-control crime was elevated to a national conversation after President Trump decided to take federal action to quash it. In a segment on Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Republican strategists Lauren Tomlinson and Doug Heye out classed former DNC communications director Karen Finney in proving that D.C. had a crime problem. They even got host Jake Tapper to admit that the city’s judicial system wasn’t adequately prosecuting repeat offenders and that cashless bail was a problem.
While Finney was claiming Trump’s recent budget cuts were somehow responsible for D.C.’s years and years of a steadily worsening crime situation, Tomlinson pointed out that even the left-wing Atlantic was able to admit that the city’s crime problem was homegrown. This led Tapper to point out which liberal policies played the larger of roles:
TOMLINSON: What's interesting is The Atlantic, of all places, had a great article that was reporting that there's this idea of the few that keep perpetrating the same crimes. And D.C. is one of these places where they're not actively prosecuting. So, it's the same people going out --
TAPPER: Well, especially if they're underage teenagers.
TOMLINSON: Especially if they're under 18, which is why the carjacking.
TAPPER: Or there's cash-free bail.
TOMLINSON: Yes.
Without giving any actual solutions, Finney tried to counter by whining that Trump wasn’t trying to bring down crime correctly (not that the Democrats were even trying at all). “Except, if you get these people and you get them off the streets on a permanent basis, it would reduce crime by 60 percent,” Tomlinson pushed back.
On the point about young repeat offenders, Heye chimed in with his personal story about being mugged not too far from the CNN studio they were in. Finney’s reaction was dismiss it because it happened two years ago and pushed the debunked lie that crime was down in the city:
HEYE: The kids that mugged me five blocks from here two years ago did the same thing half an hour earlier, a mile away, and the cop said, ‘good luck, we're never going to catch them.’ One way, if we catch them --
FINNEY: How many years ago?
HEYE: Two years ago.
FINNEY: Two years ago.
HEYE: Okay.
FINNEY: Crime rate’s going down. Just saying!
Heye brought thing to the hear-and-now to put Finney in her place. “Let's go to Union Station, three blocks from here, and I can talk about the girl brawl that I saw two weeks ago. I can talk about the public masturbation that I saw. That was fun. I can talk about all kinds of public urination and all kinds of things that we see in real time,” he proclaimed.
Imagine hearing a story about the person sitting next to you getting mugged and you’re such a shill that you write it off and back up your argument with “just saying.” Tapper had enough class to step in after the dust up and tell Heye, “on behalf of everybody, I'm sorry you were mugged.”
Karen, indeed.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Lead
August 12, 2024
6:37:25 p.m. Eastern(…)
LAUREN TOMLINSON: But I do think though what's interesting is The Atlantic, of all places, had a great article that was reporting that there's this idea of the few that keep perpetrating the same crimes. And D.C. is one of these places where they're not actively prosecuting. So, it's the same people going out --
JAKE TAPPER: Well, especially if they're underage teenagers.
TOMLINSON: Especially if they're under 18, which is why the carjacking.
TAPPER: Or there's cash-free bail.
TOMLINSON: Yes.
KAREN FINNEY: But that same piece also said that the way Trump is going about this is not actually how you would do it if you were trying to go after those individuals.
TOMLINSON: Except, if you get these people and you get them off the streets on a permanent basis, it would reduce crime by 60 percent.
FINNEY: If you cut the budget, you can't convict people.
DOUG HEYE: The kids that mugged me five blocks from here two years ago did the same thing half an hour earlier, a mile away, and the cop said, ‘good luck, we're never going to catch them.’ One way, if we catch them --
FINNEY: How many years ago?
HEYE: Two years ago.
FINNEY: Two years ago.
HEYE: Okay.
FINNEY: Crime rate’s going down. Just saying!
HEYE: Great. Let's go to Union Station, three blocks from here, and I can talk about the girl brawl that I saw two weeks ago. I can talk about the public masturbation that I saw. That was fun. I can talk about all kinds of public urination and all kinds of things that we see in real time.
FINNEY: So, is cutting the budget for D.C. the way to make that better?
HEYE: No. I think the first thing we can do once we catch these -- I think the best thing that this president can do, aside from declaring emergencies, which he does on everything, is if we want to fix this problem, yes, increase policing, but also appoint judges. So when we do catch those kids who mugged me and somebody else on Capitol Hill, that they have a trial and they go to jail. We have a real judicial shortage here. That's one of the things that Trump can do, and do it now.
TAPPER: Let me just say, on behalf of everybody, I'm sorry you were mugged.
HEYE: They didn't get me.
FINNEY: Sure.
TAPPER: Thanks everyone for being here. I appreciate it.
