Trump administration makes plea to Republican governors: National Guard personnel will be deployed from red states to Washington, D.C., under a deal between President Donald Trump and three Republican governors.
Some 800 National Guardsmen are already deployed in D.C. for Trump's law-and-order show of force. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster will send another 200 from his state; Gov. Patrick Morrisey will send 300–400 from West Virginia; and Gov. Mike DeWine will add 150 Ohioans to the mix. "Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters Thursday that [National Guardsmen] will not be making arrests, but they may 'temporarily limit the movement of an individual who has entered restricted or secured area without permission,'" reports Axios, which makes it sound like their role will be somewhat pointless and performative.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, called this whole thing a "manufactured emergency" (and pivoted to talking about January 6, naturally) and "an opportunity for Donald Trump to play dictator" on MSNBC. "Crime in D.C. is at a 30-year low and on a downward trajectory," he added to ABC, repeating a common talking point that's grounded in possibly-suspect stats (more here). Many Democrats, including D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, can't quite decide the stance they want to take: just citing the "30-year low" statistic, or conceding that there are specific problems in D.C.—hotspots of carjackings, for example—but that Trump's deployments aren't actually targeting them effectively so far.
