Tempers erupt in Oversight hearing over DC law enforcement surge

Racial tensions flared Thursday as a House Oversight Committee hearing on President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement surge erupted into a shouting match between Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Republican Rep. Byron Donalds, underscoring the deep partisan and racial divides over crime in the nation’s capital.

Tlaib said her Republican counterparts were painting a distorted picture of the capital as they tried to justify Trump’s plans near the end of the seven-hour hearing.

“They want to paint you all as this ugly, dark, all just out in the street,” Tlaib addressed D.C. leaders who were before the committee. “I mean, the way -- it's just unbelievable, because they all live here -- I don't see it. I don't see what they see. I don't understand why we're allowing that to happen, because I actually think it's going to hurt our communities,” Talib added. “People are going to look at Washington, D.C., folks, in a way that I think is going to be very painful.”

“I think it's really important we need to stand up against this fascist takeover. That's not a bad word. It's a fact,” Talib said.

“You all live here, and you're not telling people the beautiful parts that you do see in our nation's capital. And no, no, no, it's just wrong!” She added.

Donalds erupted at that.

“She's going to refer to me and some of my colleagues like we’re from the Third Reich? This is insane! It's insane! It's insane! it's insane! Do I look like a member of the Third Reich to you, Ms. Talib? Is that what I look like to you?” Donalds shouted.

“I think it's radical, and I think it's radical, and I think it's insane, and I'll respect everything that you say, but to say something like that to myself and all of my colleagues is way out of line! It's way out of line! Regular order!” Donalds added as Tlaib tried to shout over him.

Tlaib argued the exchange between her and Donalds was symbolic of deeper issues, like D.C. maintaining its autonomy against a the president’s threats to take over the city.

“D.C. home rule was won out of Black freedom struggle in the fight for civil rights. We can't be passive right now,” Talib said.

Oversight Chairman James Comer had earlier pressed D.C. officials on juvenile crime, arguing that it drove the need for the federal surge.

“Looking out the window at night, there were a lot of kids running around. a lot of the carjackings were committed by juveniles,” Comer said. “Just an excessively high juvenile crime rate, if you define juvenile as, you know, the way your definition under 24 is.”

D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb corrected Comer to point out that juvenile is defined as under 18 in the District, “and my office is addressing every violent juvenile crime that we have.”

“So there's no crime. There's no juvenile crime crisis in Washington? Is that what you want to say?” Comer asked.

“You can't say there's a crime, a juvenile crime problem in Washington, DC,” Comer said. “That's why we have to come in and help out a little bit.”

Comer pointed to his support for criminal justice reform and admitted a “trace of racism” existed in the disparities in sentencing Blacks vs. whites for marijuana crimes, but he argued that reforms had gone too far.

“But over time, the activists, you know, continue to expand that and expand that to, you know, no bail, cashless bail, to raise the age of what is a juvenile, and to treat juveniles to where they got a slap on the wrist, even if they committed a serious crime. And that's why we stepped in.” Comer said.

Democrats also focused on the Jeffrey Epstein files and D.C. statehood during the hearing.

D.C. leaders warned that Trump's federal law enforcement surge has undermined public trust and threatened the city's autonomy, even as they pressed Congress to help the District rebuild its police force and fill critical judicial vacancies.

"Sending masked agents in unmarked cars to pick people up off the streets; flooding our neighborhoods with armed national guardsmen untrained in local policing; attempting a federal takeover of our police force -- none of these are durable, lasting solutions for driving down crime," Schwalb said. "In fact, this threatens to destroy critical trust between local communities and police, which is essential to effective, efficient policing and prosecution."

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called the Trump's emergency declaration "a manufactured crime crisis to justify an intrusion on the District's autonomy."

D.C. officials have maintained that crime in in the District has fallen dramatically over the last few years, even before the surge, but several Republicans on the committee suggested that D.C. was “cooking the books” on its crime rates as they touted the success of the surge.

Republican Rep. Paul Gosar pointed to an ongoing investigation into crime statistics allegedly altered by Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department, saying that earning back trust “does not happen just by blatantly manipulating crime statistics, seeking politically motivated litigation and spending irresponsibly. Mayor Bowser, I must say, I never felt safer in D.C., there's a record low crime rate.”

Schwalb pushed back against claims that juveniles offenders are not being prosecuted in Washington. He said his office brought charges in 84% of all violent youth cases last year, which included more than 90% of homicides, 87% of carjackings and 86% of gun cases.

Schwalb, Mendelson and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser urged Congress to restore funding to help address longstanding vacancies on the D.C. courts and to fund a new psychiatric residential treatment facility for youth to fight crime.

Bowser had a contentious exchange with GOP Rep. Nancy Mace over gender definitions in D.C.’s criminal code, with Mace finally asking her “Mayor Bowser, what is a woman?”

“I’m a woman. Are you a woman?” Bowser replied.

“100%, I’m a woman,” Mace responded.

“You’re looking at one,” Bowser said.

Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi questioned the cost of the National Guard deployment and questioned if the $200 million cost to taxpayers was being spent on fighting crime.

“Let's see how this money is being used -- Trump says it's for fighting crime,” he said before showing photos of Guard members, “but here's a guardsman carrying trash, here's a guardsman mowing the lawn. Here's a very nice gentleman, a guardsman carrying a leaf blower.”

“Honorable work, certainly, but this is not why the taxpayers fund the National Guard,” he said. “If Trump was serious about crime, he wouldn't cut nearly $4 million in federal funding for local violence prevention groups in Chicago.”

And Ranking Democrat Robert Garcia sharply criticized Trump's motivation for the surge.

"President Trump is obsessed with trying to run Washington, D.C., and if President Trump wants to run Washington D.C., he should resign as president and run for mayor."

"We should, of course, all of us spend our time working with local elected officials. And Congress should not be undermining the elected representatives and the people of Washington, D.C., and if the majority today wants to talk about crime in D.C., in the District, we're happy to talk about crime in D.C. we know that some of the worst crime and corruption in D.C. is actually found at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," he said.

Garcia then brought up Trump's pardons for Jan. 6 insurrectionists and the Epstein files.

"In his first days in office, Donald Trump pardoned hundreds of his followers who beat, tased and attacked brave D.C. and U.S. Capitol Police. And right now, since we're talking about crime and corruption in DC as we speak, Trump is leading a White House cover up of the Epstein files," Garcia said.