Overview

• Joe Scarborough read a text from a “very liberal” source saying they were not wholly opposed to deploying the National Guard, citing rampant crime and personal accounts of carjackings and shootings.
• President Trump on August 11 invoked Section 740 of the 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act to assume temporary federal control of the Metropolitan Police and mobilize National Guard troops under a declared public safety emergency.
• MPD statistics show a 30-year low in violent crime and a 26% year-to-date drop, a figure critics say omits aggravated and certain assaults, while FBI data indicate only a 10% decline and rising aggravated assaults.
• Scarborough and other on-air voices have highlighted anecdotal evidence and quality-of-life concerns to challenge the official crime decline, arguing resident perceptions matter regardless of metrics.
• Mayor Muriel Bowser, the D.C. Council and local officials have denounced the federal takeover as political overreach and signaled imminent legal challenges to extending the 48-hour order.