Some Democrats are reportedly furious President Joe Biden would sign congressional Republicans’ resolution to terminate the controversial Washington, DC, soft-on-crime law if the Senate passes it in coming weeks.
“The White House f***** this up royally,” one House Democrat told the Hill via text message, claiming the White House had previously promised to veto the resolution.
After meeting Thursday with Democrats on Capitol Hill, Biden’s Twitter account indicated he would sign the resolution to block a D.C. law that reduces punishments for criminals.
Biden’s promise to sign is at odds with many in his party as the 2024 election cycle ramps up.
The district’s criminal law, which reduces punishments for a variety of serious criminal offenses, was enacted by D.C.’s city council that overrode the mayor’s veto while crime soared at the beginning of 2023.
Violent crime has surged by 23 percent in 2021 as Democrats control Washington, D.C., and most large metropolitan cities. https://t.co/DBJoSKZkLt
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 25, 2021
“So a lot of us who are allies voted no in order to support what the White House wanted. And now we are being hung out to dry,” the Democrat lawmaker added. “F****** AMATEUR HOUR. HEADS SHOULD ROLL OVER AT THE WHITE HOUSE OVER THIS.”
In Biden’s tweet he mentioned the District’s soaring carjacking. According to the Metropolitan Police Department, 94 carjackings occurred in the District in 2023. Homicides have dramatically increased (25 percent), along with theft from auto (21 percent), theft (16 percent), and arson (300 percent).
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) also expressed her frustration with Biden, suggesting the high crime rate is the reason he promised to veto the bill.
“Today has been a sad day for D.C. home rule and D.C. residents’ right to self-governance,” she said. “[B]ut with the nationwide increase in crime, most senators do not want to be seen as supporting criminal justice reform.”
Holmes Norton added the resolution “would empower the paternalistic, anti-democratic Republican opposition to the principle of local control over local affairs.”
Not all Democrats oppose the resolution, and many local Democrats have spoken against the District’s law.
Numbers mark shell casings at shooting that had one fatality at the Potomac Avenue Metro station at 14th and Pennsylvania Avenue SE on February 1, 2023 in Washington, DC. (John McDonnell/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Former District Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner of the Hill East neighborhood for eight years, K. Denise Rucker Krepp, requested Congress support the resolution. Krepp, a Democrat and former political appointee in the Obama administration, told Breitbart News she opposed the District’s law because it “enables the early release of convicted rapists.”
“As an advocate for sexual assault victims and as a locally elected D.C. official I asked Congress to disapprove the bill,” she said. “I’m grateful to Rep. Clyde, Senator Hagerty, and President Biden for stopping the DC bill from going into effect. Rapists must serve their full prison sentence.”
The Democrat Party debate over the soft-on-crime law comes as the Republican’s resolution will likely receive a Senate floor vote in the next few weeks. So far, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) supports the resolution, leaving Republicans one vote short to pass the resolution with a simple majority.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
