Naomi Biden is the latest high-profile person to have a brush with rising crime in the nation’s capital.
The oldest granddaughter of President Joe Biden, Naomi Biden, was at home in Washington’s upscale Georgetown neighborhood when an attempted carjacking took place outside her residence Sunday night. Luckily for her, a Secret Service detail charged with her protection opened fire on the suspects, who promptly fled the scene.
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It was far from an isolated incident, proving again that even Washington, D.C.’s elite are not safe from its violent crime wave. The political question is whether voters will be fed up enough to vote in new leadership next November.
“Crime rates all over the country are up right now, and in some places, there is no accountability for these criminals,” said Richard Marianos, a Georgetown University professor and former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives officer. “Many of these individuals are being charged only to have their cases dismissed. There has to be some accountability.”
That’s what Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) said after she was assaulted in the elevator of her Washington apartment building in February. Her assailant had been arrested and released a dozen times before the incident.
“If you throw somebody in jail for 10 days and think, ‘There’s your punishment, and we’re gonna let you right back on the street,’ what the hell do you think’s gonna happen?” she said.
Craig later joined with Joe Biden and her Republican colleagues to overturn a Washington crime bill that would have lowered penalties for murder, carjackings, armed robberies, armed home invasions, and sexual assault offenses.
Last month, Rep. Henry Cuellar (R-TX) was the victim of an armed carjacking in Washington’s Navy Yard neighborhood. Earlier this year, a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) suffered a deep knife wound to the head that required surgery in a district attack. And last year, Washington Commanders running back Brian Robinson Jr. was shot twice during another carjacking.
Joe Biden has built a decadeslong reputation as being tough on crime, one he may return to during election season. He was a key lawmaker behind the 1994 crime bill and as president has called for funding police departments rather than defunding them.
Still, the Democratic Party has flirted with slashing police budgets and reducing penalties for violent crime over the last several years, with Republicans lashing out at “Soros-funded” district attorneys who let offenders back out on the street to endanger law-abiding citizens. Joe Biden sought to distance himself from the “Squad”-backed defunding push, drawing bipartisan applause during the 2022 State of the Union address by calling to “fund the police” with resources and training.
When those crimes hit politicians and members of the president’s family, it causes awkward questions for the White House.
“Is the president concerned that city crime could get this close to his family?” a reporter asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday.
“I’m not going to speak to the incident,” Jean-Pierre responded. “That’s something for the Secret Service to speak to. I’m not going to talk about it from here.”
Jean-Pierre did point to the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan stimulus bill Joe Biden signed in March 2021 as sending billions of dollars into cities “to protect communities.” However, the bill hasn’t lowered crime rates in Washington or most other major cities.
According to the Metropolitan Police Department, homicides are up 34% in Washington this year compared to 2022, while robberies are up 67%, property crime is up 25%, and motor vehicle thefts have risen by 98%, nearly double last year’s rate.
Republicans campaigned hard on rising crime ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, only to see Democrats outperform expectations after campaigning on abortion rights and the threat of “ultra-MAGA” Republicans taking over the government.
The GOP is likely to promise law and order on the 2024 campaign trail as well. The question, according to Minneapolis-based Republican strategist Amy Koch, is whether those other priorities continue to outweigh crime in the minds of voters.
“If we get a fair shake and a fair discussion of the issues, I think most people are on our side on this,” she said. “People across all political stripes want to keep their families safe.”
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Koch warned that many Republican women are turned off by GOP messaging on abortion, which often lacks compassion, and she fears that voter concerns about former President Donald Trump’s polarizing personality could also hurt the GOP ticket.
“Most of America has not bought into the woke nonsense — they haven’t,” Koch said. “But Republicans aren’t offering reasonable, well-thought-out alternatives at this point. These are self-inflicted wounds, and we’ve got to stop doing that.”
