New York Times columnist and regular Donald Trump basher Maureen Dowd begrudgingly implied over the weekend that Trump is right on the politics and policy when it comes to crime in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
Couched in some of her boilerplate attacks on the 47th president, Dowd, a longtime, influential favorite with liberal readers and pundits, wrote:<\/p>\n
The diva of distraction is putting on a show. (They\u2019re eating the cats and the dogs!) But progressives should not fall into Trump\u2019s trap and play down crime, once more getting on the wrong side of an inflammatory issue. As with inflation, they should remember that personal experiences can count more than sanguine statistics.<\/p>\n
Even if Trump is being diabolical, Democrats should not pretend everything is fine here (in DC). Because it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
The columnist built her conclusion with a series of anecdotes about her sister, \u201cPeggy,\u201d who was having a \u201cbad day\u201d by ending up at D.C. police headquarters after her Buick was stolen in front of Dowd\u2019s house while they dined in trendy Georgetown.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo polite officers who responded to our call said they could do little, amid a rash of brazen car thefts by teenagers,\u201d she wrote. \u201cOne officer said that, even if they saw the perp driving in her car, they could not chase him, because of laws passed by the D.C. Council.\u201d<\/p>\n
The car turned up in a Maryland suburb the next morning, where sister Peggy paid a $215 towing charge and found it littered with junk food, \u201ca used condom,\u201d and some stolen debit cards.<\/p>\n
Her sister had the car detailed and then \u201ccelebrated its return\u201d by going shopping at Bloomingdales, only to return to her car and find it had been T-boned in the lot.<\/p>\n
Dowd continued:<\/p>\n
Then, icing on the cake, she got over $1,800 worth of speed-camera tickets that the car thieves had racked up going 70 in 25-mile-per-hour zones, and some for running red lights. One ticket revealed that the car was stolen just after she got out of it, at 7 p.m., still light outside. For all we know, the thieves watched her get out. She had to go down to headquarters on Friday to get the police report so she could appeal the tickets.<\/p>\n
Dowd added, \u201cIt\u2019s hardly the most heinous crime, but you hear a lot about Washingtonians and their personal experiences being preyed on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The columnist did bemoan FBI agents \u201cleaving their desk\u201d to become \u201cbeat cops\u201d and the National Guard troops raising the \u201cspecter\u201d of martial law. She also called Trump the city\u2019s number one \u201cscofflaw\u201d for \u201cinciting\u201d the January 6 mob and then pardoning the protestors.<\/p>\n
However, \u201cIt is also true that many D.C. residents are secretly glad to see more uniforms,\u201d she wrote. \u201cNo matter what statistics say, they don\u2019t feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
She admitted she finds herself \u201cpacking pepper spray,\u201d feeling \u201cmore wary\u201d walking around the city, and being disturbed by asking someone to \u201cunlock the Claritin at CVS because the police don\u2019t lock up the smash-and-grabbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dowd is not the only liberal commentator citing secret liberal support of the crime cleanup.<\/p>\n
As Breitbart News reported, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough last week told his audience that D.C. \u201cisn\u2019t safe, it\u2019s a mess\u201d and said he\u2019s been getting calls from liberals who are quietly supporting the Trump effort.<\/p>\n
Dowd quoted Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst and the author of the forthcoming book When You Come at the King: Inside DOJ\u2019s Pursuit of the President, From Nixon to Trump, in summing up \u201cthe dilemma.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Trump is hypocritical and scattershot on public safety,\u201d he told the columnist. \u201cAnd yes, he\u2019s likely doing this as a flex. But he happens to be within the law here and he happens to be right.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New York Times columnist and regular Donald Trump basher Maureen Dowd begrudgingly implied over the weekend that Trump is right on the politics and policy when it… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37955,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-37954","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n