President Trump is cracking down on crime in Washington, DC, and Glenn Beck believes it’s a “brilliant” move. Glenn explains why Trump is taking action, whether it’s legal, and what he believes it says to the world.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: So the president yesterday, taking control of our Capitol back. And he said this, cut three. Listen.
DONALD: My father always used to tell me. I had a wonderful father. Very smart. And he used to say: Son, when you walk into a restaurant and you see a dirty front door, don't go in. Because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen is dirty also. Same thing with the Capitol. If our Capitol is dirty, our whole country is dirty, and they don't respect us.
GLENN: It's absolutely true.
This is the broken windows theory. You know what that is? The broken windows theory is something that Rudy Giuliani used to turn the country around. And that theory is, no one, no one, picks up a rock or can or bottle or anything, that's in a nice neighborhood that's clean and everything else.
You don't pick up a rock and break a window. However, if you're in a neighborhood where there is a lot of broken windows and everything is broken down, the average person is much more likely to pick up a rock and throw it through a window.
Why? Because the entire neighborhood says, we don't care.
So what Rudy Giuliani did, was he used this theory, and he cleaned up the -- he cleaned up the subways by doing a couple of things.
First thing he did, was he made sure, that if you were jumping the turnstile, for the -- for the subway, you were stopped right there.
Before, people just weren't paying a fair, they were just jumping a turnstile.
And nobody was doing anything about it.
He says, no one was crossing that turnstile. Now, what is it?
Is it a dollar to ride the subway? No one rides it for free. And so he put police, right there.
And they stopped you, and arrested you, if you were jumping the turnstile.
The second thing is, was he stopped the graffiti. He said, I don't care if they have to be repainted every single day.
When those things pull into the station, at night. If we get there in the morning, and they've been spray-painted, I want them all painted again, and then they go out.
Everything had been covered in graffiti.
And when he changed those two things, all of a sudden, the attitude, of the subway, it became safe again.
Because it was sending a signal to the bad guys and to the good guys, we care. We're not going to let this happen, anymore.
So what he's saying here, about dirty doorstep, means a dirty kitchen. It's absolutely true.
You ever gone into a restaurant. Gone into their bathroom. And you're like, oh, boy.
Oh, God.
I can't eat now.
Because if the -- the bathroom for the customer is like that. What is their kitchen like, where the customer never sees it. That's what he's doing, and he has the absolute right to do it. He's got 30 days, before he has to bring Congress into it.
This is the -- back in 1973, Congress passed this Home Rule Act. And they didn't have a mayor. They didn't have a city council. They didn't have any of these things.
This has been from the beginning of our country, the Founders wanted the District of Columbia, to be a district that is a federal district, run by the federal government. Not by local rile.
And in 1973, they started that. And it was all just to get them to be declared a state. First a city with a mayor. Then we should have power to elect the president of the United States.
Yada. Yada. Yada.
This has not been worked. This has been an experiment that has not worked at all. So he can deploy the National Guard for law enforcement, because there is no governor of DC. He can use it for emergencies, crowd control, and to execute federal laws. However, he just declared an emergency.
Now, under the Home Rule Act, he can assume control of the Metro PD, which he didn't, for up to 48 hours, during special conditions of emergency.
And that time period can be extended.
But he -- what he's doing here, is he's using these 30 days, hoping that the home rules act is going to be revealed. Only Congress can reveal that. But there's movement to reveal it now. And if Congress appeals the home rule act.
Then this nonsense in the District of Columbia is over. And if anyone tells you, you know what, the crime status are going down.
To what?
To what?
Even if they went down to 2019 standards, is that good enough?
I mean, it is still more dangerous than walking around in Bogota, Colombia.
It is twice as dangerous as walking around in Islamabad!
I don't know. I don't think that's really a good thing.
And, by the way, they changed the way -- you're a stat person. Did you read this about the stats.
PAT: Playing with them.
GLENN: Oh, my God. Playing with them.
Felony assault is not considered a violent crime now in their crime stats. Not assault. Felony assault. Felony means usually prison is -- is tied to that.
STU: Yeah. Not just some easy misdemeanor, where you get your hand slapped.
GLENN: Felony assault.
STU: Yeah. If you're not going to include that, it's hard to even take that seriously.
But your point is more crucial to this, than even the statistical games.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: Because they keep -- they keep bragging they're getting it back to 2019 levels, or maybe a tick below. That's not good.
GLENN: No. It's not.
STU: What you're saying is acceptable is not acceptable.
That's the message from the White House.
I would love to see it.
And we're seeing it so far. I would love to see the Democrats try to win that battle those rules.
If what you're trying to tell me, because we were there for the inauguration.
GLENN: Police everywhere.
STU: Of course that was -- police everywhere -- it's a totally different --
GLENN: But I had a guy threaten my life, and not for political reasons. Just because I think he was batcrap crazy.
STU: Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, a lot of sane people threatened your life on a regular basis. Crazy.
GLENN: This is a nutjob.
STU: Yeah. But, like, unless you're at the mall, during the day, it's -- and even there, can get sketchy at times.
GLENN: Oh, yeah.
STU: You feel it.
GLENN: You feel it. You feel it.
STU: You want to stay inside your hotel room.
GLENN: And, you know what, everybody knows this. Washington Post. There -- this is a story on how safe the city is.
This is a safe city, but overhearing witness game threats and then watching the camera footage of the thuggery is disturbing, said one resident.
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, over --
STU: Anonymity, over concerns of personal safety.
GLENN: Yes. Anonymity, over concerns of personal safety. So I don't want my name in the paper, because I'm afraid of the thugs finding out who I am, and killing me. But it's perfectly safe. Oh, my gosh!
STU: Everyone knows this! Anyone who has ever been to DC. You know it, by walking around.
Weird crap happens to you. People approach you, in threatening ways.
GLENN: You know, Rikki told me just a few minutes ago, our executive producer. She said, last time I was in DC. And she lived in DC for many, many years. She said, I was in my old neighborhood.
She said, I used to walk at 2 o'clock in the morning.
I never had a problem with that. She said, I went to this restaurant. And I was there with a friend.
And I had gone there a million times.
She says, it's in the middle of the day. Within just a few minutes, she's sitting on a patio outside, some huge guy, she said, 300 pounds, at least 6 feet, comes up and says, I'm going to kill you. And starts threatening her and her life.
They call the cops. It takes them 15 minutes. She's not far from the Capitol. Fifteen minutes to get there. And then they don't do anything about it.
He -- she's like, anybody who says, this isn't happening, has just never been there. Here's an ABC anchor. Now, remember, their whole spin is, this was fascism.
There's no -- it's a safe city. Listen to this ABC anchor. Listen to this. Cut one.
We've been talking so much about the numbers, and usually that's how you play devil's advocate. You talk about, oh, well, stats say crime is down.
However, I can tell you firsthand here in downtown DC, where we were, right here around our bureau, just in the past six months, you know, there were two people shot. One person died. Literally two blocks down here from the bureau.
It was within the last two years, that I actually was jumped, walking just two blocks down from here. And then just this morning, one of my coworkers said her car was stolen, a block away from the bureau. So we can talk about the numbers, going down. But crime is happening every single day, because we're all experiencing it firsthand while working and listing down here.
GLENN: Hmm. Hmm.
STU: You know.
GLENN: Go ahead.
STU: I was just going to say, I was on vacation last week. You know, it's like saying I'm cutting my calories from vacation levels to normal levels.
It's still not healthy. Right?
It's just -- even if there is an improvement from 2023, which some numbers do show, although the numbers are questionable.
2023 was just absolute catastrophe. And this is just terrible. Right?
Like, that -- there's no reason to embrace this norm.
As the norm.
GLENN: So let me give you -- I want to show you the response. The response on the left.
Here is -- show the full screen here of the free DC.
This came out yesterday.
Free DC. Like it's under some fascistic.
Look at this deal. And what it says is it is encouraging residents to protest Trump's federalizing of the city's police force. And what it wants to do is starting tonight at 8:00 p.m. And then every night, go out to stop this occupation.
Go out and bring pots and pans. And bang on them. And then when you're -- your neighbors go, what the hell is wrong with you!
Say, don't you care about the fascistic government.
STU: People will love that.
GLENN: This is crazy. This is crazy.
Now, if Donald Trump and I think with Jeanine Pirro.
I think some things are going to be happening quickly there.
STU: Hmm.
GLENN: He actually has a chance. And I don't think he's doing it this way, for this reason.
But he actually has a chance of turning DC Republican.
Because you're living in that. Imagine --
STU: It's hard to imagine.
GLENN: It's hard to imagine. But imagine living there. And now you're seeing your side, that you've always voted for. Say, it's not so bad. And you know it's bad.
You can't have your wife go out to the grocery store at night.
You've had your carjacked. Maybe crazy people on the streets.
And then he's doing something. And if it works, if it works, people will be like, you know what, I'm sorry.
But that is a better solution.
He is -- this is very brilliant of him. He's very good at this.
He knows where people live.
You know, spiritually. And physically. He knows right where they live.
And where they're living in Washington it can't. Is a hellhole.
And everybody there knows it. And if he can actually change their lives, he changes everything.