ACLU: Trump’s DC takeover ‘a brazen abuse of power’ that reveals need for statehood

Trump was able to execute his recent takeover of Washington D.C.’s law enforcement because of the level of control the federal government still holds over the city. Despite being home to more than 700,000 people, more than many major US cities, residents of the capital city weren’t able to vote for president until 1961, couldn’t elect their own mayors until 1973, and still have no voting representation in Congress. Monica Hopkins, executive director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia, tells Ali Velshi that this status quo is “sort of comical.” Proposals for statehood– which would shrink the constitutionally mandated federal district to include just federal buildings– have failed three times in Congress, most recently in 2021. But Hopkins says that what she calls Trump’s “brazen abuse of power” in sending the National Guard, FBI, and ICE into the streets of DC further shows the need for DC to be a state. At this point, says Hopkins, “it’s all politics.”

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