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Vice President JD Vance touted the progress National Guard troops have made tackling crime in Washington the past nine days — and suggested that their mission may extend past 30 days.
President Donald Trump unveiled plans Aug. 11 to deploy troops from the D.C. National Guard and to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department to tackle crime in Washington. And, so far, those efforts are paying off, according to Vance.
“We are seeing really substantial effects because these guys are busting their a–,” Vance said while meeting with National Guard troops at Washington’s Union Station Wednesday.
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“Right here in Union Station, you have vagrants, you have drug addicts, you have the chronically homeless, you have the mentally ill who harass, who threatened violence, who attacked families,” Vance said. “And they’ve done it for far too long. This should be a monument to American greatness.”
The 1973 Home Rule Act permits a temporary federal takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department for emergency situations up to 30 days. However, after that time frame, Congress must intervene and sign off on any extensions. No such limitations exist for D.C. National Guard troops, however, in the Home Rule Act.
On Aug. 13, Trump said that the administration’s goal was to ramp down crime quickly, but signaled that “we’re going to want extensions.”
When asked if extensions were on the table, Vance said that Trump would reevaluate, depending on how much progress occurs in the next several weeks.
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“We’ll ultimately let the president of the United States determine where we are after 30 days of this, of this emergency order. I think that we’re going to make a lot of progress over the next 20 days,” Vance said. “I think we’re nine days into this thing. But if the president of the United States thinks that he has to extend his order to ensure that people have access to public safety, then that’s exactly what he’ll do. If he thinks he doesn’t have to do that, obviously we’ll make that determination.”
Meanwhile, Washington officials filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s move to federalize local police Friday.
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“By illegally declaring a takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its temporary, limited authority under the law,” Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb wrote in a Friday X post. “This is the gravest threat to Home Rule DC has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.”
In addition to the DC National Guard, National Guard troops from Ohio, West Virginia, South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee are participating in the Trump administration’s crackdown in Washington, and approximately 1,300 have already arrived in the nation’s capital.
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