Topline
Democratic leaders denounced President Donald Trump’s plans to deploy federal agents and national guardsmen in Washington, D.C. calling the takeover a “ploy” and a distraction from the Epstein scandal.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the takeover a “political ploy and attempted distraction from Trump’s other scandals,” while Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who represents a district bordering the city, called the move in a statement a “phony, manufactured crisis if I’ve ever seen one.”
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of similar takeovers in cities like Chicago and New York, but Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker brushed off the idea before connecting it to one of the administration’s largest ongoing controversies: “By the way, where are the Epstein files?”
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, also a Democrat, called the move “unsettling and unprecedented,” but struck a calmer tone while addressing Washingtonians at a press conference on Monday.
Some protests have already been organized, and about 150 people rallied near the White House at a rally organized by the Free D.C. group, local station FOX 5 reported.
Federal agents from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol were spotted on the streets of Washington on Monday night. The Trump administration reportedly reassigned about 120 FBI agents to patrol the city. The president also deployed about 800 national guardsmen to the city, and a provision Home Rule Act of 1973 to take over the Metropolitan Police Department, placing it under the control of Attorney General Pam Bondi. Over the weekend, the Trump administration previously deployed about 450 federal agents to the streets of D.C., where they reportedly made arrests for crimes including gun possession without a license and driving without a license, while also seizing three firearms.
