Buttigieg: Trump Is Taking over D.C. Police ‘to Solve His Political Problems’

Buttigieg: “As we speak, the federal government is taking over the policing of a major American city, Washington, D.C.. The president is doing this not in order to make the city safer — that’s the job of local law enforcement — but the solve his own political problems. He needs to get his base talking and thinking about something besides his refusal to open up the Epstein files because he’s mixed up them, and he wants the rest of the country focused on something, anything, besides the work that he has done and continues to do to kick millions of Americans off of their health insurance, to close down rural hospitals, and to undermine basic functions of our government in order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest. I hesitate to use a word like ‘distraction,’ even though distraction is part of his goal, because it is a legitimately important thing that he is taking power in this way. And he has threatened to do it in other cities, maybe the community where you live, maybe the community where I live. So how are we supposed to handle this? We have to deal with both. We have to stand up to the dangerous authoritarian actions of the president is taken and keep a focus on the everyday impacts of his disastrous and unpopular economic policy and budget. We can and must do both.”