'Do We Want To Live In A Permanent Police State?': Pete Aguilar Slams Trump D.C. Takeover

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) spoke about the National Guard takeover in Washington, D.C.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Stephen. Happy to field questions for Vice Chair Liu and Mr. Horsford.

00:08Hello, thank you. Just pivoting to the crime situation we're seeing right now,

00:14crime rates have fallen significantly since the President's federal takeover of D.C. law enforcement.

00:21Would you consider that a success with rates dropping so much?

00:24I think we've seen post-COVID in big cities across the country crime continue to go down.

00:31I think what folks in D.C. need to understand and think through is,

00:38do we want to live in a permanent police state?

00:41And I think that that's an important piece of how Americans are thinking through.

00:46As someone, and I'll defer to Vice Chair Liu, who saw this close to our homes in Los Angeles,

00:54what the administration did is illegal and wrong.

00:59If they want to protect federal assets, they can.

01:01I don't think spreading mulch or picking up trash in the mall is exactly what the National Guard had in mind.

01:08And so we'll continue to ensure that public safety is a top priority.

01:13It has been for the House Democratic Caucus.

01:16If someone was serious about public safety, though, they wouldn't pardon 1,500 insurrectionists on day one who committed crimes.

01:25If someone was serious about public safety, you wouldn't submit a budget that cut COPS grants and programs

01:30to local law enforcements across this country by hundreds of millions of dollars.

01:36If you were serious about public safety, you would do that.

01:39You would support local law enforcement carrying out their jobs and duties.

01:42That's how the House Democratic Caucus feels.

01:45Vice Chair Liu?

01:45Sure.

01:48Local law enforcement deals with crime.

01:51And what House Republicans did is they cut millions of dollars from COPS grants to local law enforcement.

01:57So you have to fund local law enforcement, and then you can reduce crime.

02:01If you want a police state with military folks running around all over the place, well, sure, that's going to reduce crime.

02:07But that's not the free and open society we in America want to live in.

02:10I'm sure there's really low crime in North Korea because they have military troops all over their place.

02:15That's not the society we want.

02:17The United States military is designed to fight foreign adversaries, not designed to be unleashed on the American people.