Speaker 1: Also media, Welcome to another episode if it can happen here.
Speaker 1: I am your guest co host Bridget Todd, host of
Speaker 1: There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Speaker 2: I'm joined by the.
Speaker 1: Lovely Molly, host of award winning podcast on Pool Zone,
Speaker 1: Weird Little Guys.
Speaker 2: Molly, how you doing great?
Speaker 3: Glad to be here in bridget Okay.
Speaker 1: So I wish we were here to talk about all
Speaker 1: the exciting stuff going on in your life. But I
Speaker 1: wanted to bring this topic to the it could happen
Speaker 1: here audience because I live.
Speaker 2: In the district.
Speaker 1: I know you're a Virginia Gail, so you might know
Speaker 1: a little bit more about how it works in the
Speaker 1: district than your average person. But I don't know that
Speaker 1: people really understand what is happening to residents of the
Speaker 1: District of Columbia like myself. So I live in DC,
Speaker 1: I've lived here for most of my life. I have
Speaker 1: a lot of like hometown pride. This is not just
Speaker 1: where I happen to live. It's like my city, my home.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 3: And you don't have representation, It's true, right, It's something
Speaker 3: that infuriates me.
Speaker 1: And so so you know, the first thing to know
Speaker 1: about DC is that it's not a state. So that
Speaker 1: means that what happens federally has a huge impact on
Speaker 1: the day to day minutia of the life of people
Speaker 1: like me who live in the district. If you don't
Speaker 1: live in the district, when it comes to decisions about
Speaker 1: how your like local tax dollars are spent, that usually
Speaker 1: lies with like your state and local leaders. That's not
Speaker 1: really the case for me and the other like over
Speaker 1: half a million residents of the district. All of this
Speaker 1: has made worse but the fact that we are essentially
Speaker 1: disenfranchised just like you said, right, all of this stuff
Speaker 1: is playing out in our home, like all of these
Speaker 1: big national conversations are happening in our own backyard, and
Speaker 1: we arguably have less electoral power and agency because we
Speaker 1: aren't a state.
Speaker 2: Fun fact, DC residents only.
Speaker 1: Got the right to vote in nineteen sixty one in
Speaker 1: presidential elections. What I know, Like I didn't know that
Speaker 1: we have not been voting in presidential elections for very
Speaker 1: long when you think about it, in the fullness of time.
Speaker 1: So when people are like, oh, you know, call your
Speaker 1: congress person, call you're lesson official to oppose X y
Speaker 1: Z we really have like nobody to call our congressional representative,
Speaker 1: Eleanor Holmes. Norton cannot vote on bills that are being
Speaker 1: considered by the full House, and so we really just
Speaker 1: like don't have us say whenever those big campaigns are
Speaker 1: going on. I'm like, oh, it must be nice to
Speaker 1: have even if that person ignores you, it must be
Speaker 1: nice to have someone you can call.
Speaker 3: Wouldn't know, it always seems disrespectful to be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: you guys, you guys have a representative. But it doesn't
Speaker 3: do anything exactly. It's just vibes.
Speaker 2: It's just vibes.
Speaker 1: So all of this matters for Trump's return to my
Speaker 1: hometown because as President, Trump has a lot more authority
Speaker 1: to dictate how things are run locally for DC residents
Speaker 1: like myself. You know, we all know that the Trump
Speaker 1: administration is hell bent on making all of our lives worse.
Speaker 1: But imagine if Trump was also in charge of how
Speaker 1: your local police force in your city policed your city,
Speaker 1: Like that would.
Speaker 3: Be horrible, right, that sounds a good nightmare.
Speaker 1: And that is that threat is like literally the reality
Speaker 1: that we are here in DC. So there's been some
Speaker 1: pretty big changes this time around in the Trump administration.
Speaker 1: During his first administration, I feel like Trump largely ignored DC,
Speaker 1: like he would pick a fight every now and then,
Speaker 1: but he didn't really seem to meddle and how DC
Speaker 1: was run like locally, that does not mean that he
Speaker 1: was not like out in the district doing terrible things,
Speaker 1: which he very much was. You might recall in twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: during the racial Justice uprisings in the wake of George
Speaker 1: Floyd's death, Trump cleared protesters using chemical agents so that
Speaker 1: he could go out in front of Saint John's Church.
Speaker 3: And like post upside down Bible, side down Bible. Remember
Speaker 3: that distressing.
Speaker 2: It was distressing. I was there that.
Speaker 1: Day, and I'll say, like it was like genuinely very excessive.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of it,
Speaker 1: but in the after mess of that event, internal reports
Speaker 1: made it clear that like it wasn't exactly clear what
Speaker 1: happened and under what authority, Like was it DC's local
Speaker 1: police force, Metropolitan PD, was it Park Police? Like It
Speaker 1: really underscored the tensions of DC locally versus the federal government.
Speaker 3: And it doesn't help that there's half a dozen different
Speaker 3: police forces operating on any given block of d C.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, girl, Like you genuinely never know when
Speaker 1: you see flashing blue and red lights, you genuinely is like,
Speaker 1: this could be federal, Like this could be federal.
Speaker 3: You never know if I just committed a federal traffic
Speaker 3: violation exactly.
Speaker 1: And so the New York Times actually described that event
Speaker 1: as quote a burst of violence unlike any scene in
Speaker 1: the shadow of the White House in generations, and possibly
Speaker 1: one of the defining moments of the Trump presidency. And
Speaker 1: so I remember that as like a moment that played
Speaker 1: out nationally, but also it.
Speaker 2: Felt very local and like I think it.
Speaker 1: Underscored how we really felt the impacts of how militarized
Speaker 1: the city could locally get during Trump's first administration.
Speaker 2: So that was like something that really sticks out to me.
Speaker 3: I mean, I I rarely visit d C because I'm
Speaker 3: afraid of traffic, Like just the act of driving to
Speaker 3: through northern Virginia too yet to d C is too
Speaker 3: frightening for me, So I try not to go. But
Speaker 3: I think people who don't live in the area don't
Speaker 3: think of DC as a place where people live. They
Speaker 3: don't think of it as anyone's home, right It's like
Speaker 3: Congress lives there, the laws live there, but like a
Speaker 3: lot of people live there, people who have nothing to
Speaker 3: do with the federal government, mostly a lot of black people. Honestly,
Speaker 3: I mean.
Speaker 1: DC used to be called chocolate City for a reason.
Speaker 1: These things were more like like a latte city. But exactly,
Speaker 1: I can confirm that people don't think of the you know,
Speaker 1: over half a million DC residents who have nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the federal government, sometimes who nothing with politics,
Speaker 1: who justike live here and is our home, Like I
Speaker 1: was born in DC, like this is I didn't just
Speaker 1: you know, move here to work in politics, like my
Speaker 1: family can be traced back to our roots in the
Speaker 1: district through generations. And so I have a be in
Speaker 1: my bonnet about this because I feel very unseen, and
Speaker 1: I think the way that the Trump administration is playing out,
Speaker 1: I feel like the reporting really can sometimes overlook the
Speaker 1: way that this is playing out in the lie the
Speaker 1: life of your average you know, DC resident who might
Speaker 1: have nothing to do with politics or you know, the
Speaker 1: federal government.
Speaker 3: Like seventh graders trying to get to middle school.
Speaker 1: Exactly that exactly that so during Trump's first administration, after
Speaker 1: the incident at Saint John's Church.
Speaker 3: Our mayor, DC's Mayor, Muriel Bowser. She's still the mayor.
Speaker 2: She's still the mayor. She's still the mayor. She's old
Speaker 2: and strong.
Speaker 1: She erected what became known as Black Lives Matter Plaza,
Speaker 1: where she wrote black Lives Matter in like big yellow
Speaker 1: letters outside of the White House.
Speaker 2: You remember this.
Speaker 3: I've had some unpleasant experiences in that zone.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, you and me both. This could be a
Speaker 2: separate conversation.
Speaker 1: And so I will say when she did that, it
Speaker 1: was largely like a symbolic move, and a lot of
Speaker 1: DC activists thought the mayor was kind of co opting
Speaker 1: or racial justice ethos that she didn't really embody and practice.
Speaker 1: But I do think that that really is at the
Speaker 1: tone for the mayor's relationship with Trump during his first term.
Speaker 1: Like she was defiant, she was someone who was going
Speaker 1: to stand up to him publicly. And something to know
Speaker 1: about DC's Mayor Muriel Bauser is that she kinda.
Speaker 2: Has two modes.
Speaker 1: Defiant like the version of herself that painted Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter outside of the Trump White House, and then sort
Speaker 1: of diplomatic, right, like somebody who like wants to find
Speaker 1: common ground, which I think is the is the version
Speaker 1: of her that we're seeing this time around that is
Speaker 1: very different than how she was the last time around,
Speaker 1: Like she started trump second term sort of counting the
Speaker 1: goals they have in common, and like she met with
Speaker 1: him even before he was in office. And so I
Speaker 1: have a lot of critiques about DC's marriage, like anybody
Speaker 1: would have their political leader.
Speaker 2: But I do think it is.
Speaker 1: Important that folks understand that she is navigating something that
Speaker 1: literally no other lected official in the United States has
Speaker 1: to because of DC's lack of statehood. Like we our
Speaker 1: city is uniquely threatened by Trump, and she knows this,
Speaker 1: and Trump knows this, and so she really has to
Speaker 1: like walk a tight rope, greased and shit if you will.
Speaker 1: She's like navigating this public relationship with an unstable, lying
Speaker 1: fascist and has to do so in a way that's
Speaker 1: going to end up with like what's best for the city.
Speaker 2: So you could say whatever you want.
Speaker 1: About mayor Bouser, like I certainly do, but this is
Speaker 1: a complicated thing to navigate.
Speaker 2: I do not advocate.
Speaker 1: For anybody complying in advance with a fascist, but in
Speaker 1: this situation, I do think it's fair to ask life
Speaker 1: well would being defiant toward Trump make things worse for
Speaker 1: DC residents like.
Speaker 3: Myself, but it results in martial law in the city.
Speaker 1: Exactly exactly, So like I don't like it, but I
Speaker 1: get it. I guess if there was like a mantra
Speaker 1: for my feelings on this, it's like I don't like
Speaker 1: it at all, but.
Speaker 2: I get it.
Speaker 3: It's a no win situation.
Speaker 2: It is a no win situation.
Speaker 1: And you know, Trump spent even when he was on
Speaker 1: the campaign trail before he was president, he talked this
Speaker 1: time around about how he was planning to take over
Speaker 1: the city and because DC is on a state like,
Speaker 1: any president does have the authority to interfere with how
Speaker 1: DC is run. Like any president can take over the
Speaker 1: police department and the powers of the mayor and in
Speaker 1: the DC City Council. Any president has the power to
Speaker 1: federalize DC's like local police force, metropolitan police, deputize the
Speaker 1: National Guard, and give law enforcement powers in DC, and
Speaker 1: activate the military and federal law enforcement agencies such as
Speaker 1: the Park Police in DC.
Speaker 3: So oh, I didn't need so, Like the governor of
Speaker 3: any state has control of their national guard, but DC
Speaker 3: has its own national guard, right correct?
Speaker 2: And that you don't have.
Speaker 3: A governor, so those are the President's national Guard.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 3: That's not great.
Speaker 2: So it's not great. It's not great.
Speaker 1: And you know the prospect of just just like let
Speaker 1: that sink in, the prospect of Trump having its own
Speaker 1: military and police force in the district. Like, I cannot
Speaker 1: tell you how much this terrifies me. Like I cannot
Speaker 1: stress to listeners how much of as shit hitting the
Speaker 1: fan moment this would be for the city to give
Speaker 1: you a sense, like I have a go bag, and
Speaker 1: I like, get the fuck out plan for that scenario
Speaker 1: playing out.
Speaker 3: Virginia's so close you no, I mean yeah.
Speaker 1: Honestly, anybody in the DMV, if you're in Maryland, Virginia,
Speaker 1: you should all be thinking about this. The Trump has
Speaker 1: continued to like pressure the mayor and threatening to like
Speaker 1: take over if she will not do the things that
Speaker 1: he says, things like clean up the city.
Speaker 2: Trump notified Mayor Bowser that.
Speaker 1: She has to clean up all the unsightly homeless encampments
Speaker 1: in the district, especially around federal buildings. If she is
Speaker 1: not capable of doing so, we will be forced to
Speaker 1: do it for her, he said. And so far, her
Speaker 1: strategy has really been one of like quiet appeasement, so
Speaker 1: that Black Lives Matter plaza that she erected in defiance
Speaker 1: during his first term that came down.
Speaker 3: Did it really they'd painted over it.
Speaker 1: I think they paint they dismantle. I think that they
Speaker 1: were like, Oh, we're going to like take it up
Speaker 1: so that it can go someplace else, but we're removing
Speaker 1: it from this part of the city, if that make sense.
Speaker 3: That's I mean, that's a symbolic moment, right, just like
Speaker 3: pouring the asphalt over the words black Lives Matter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I do really think it it underscores this
Speaker 1: moment that we're in right now.
Speaker 2: Where it does? I mean, I'm curious for your thoughts.
Speaker 1: It does sort of feel like a pendulum swing in
Speaker 1: some ways where all of these like largely symbolic gestures
Speaker 1: are now like being bulldozed over, oftentimes like voluntarily, like
Speaker 1: without even really being pressured into doing so.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 3: I guess it's hard, right because like painting Black Lives
Speaker 3: Matter on the sidewalk did nothing for black people, right,
Speaker 3: Like did that help you to that materially improve your life? No,
Speaker 3: it was purely symbolic. But negating that symbolic gesture I
Speaker 3: think does a lot more harm than never having had
Speaker 3: it right, because that is a that is an imposition
Speaker 3: of of will over over. It was again a symbol
Speaker 3: that did nothing and accomplished nothing and didn't actually help
Speaker 3: anyone or change any situation. But taking the time out
Speaker 3: of your day to bulldoze that symbol sends a strong message.
Speaker 1: I feel the exact same way, and Republican Representative Andrew
Speaker 1: Clyde actually wants it to go further. He introduced a
Speaker 1: bill that would have amended the US Code to withhold
Speaker 1: certain funds from DC unless Black Lives Matter was taken
Speaker 1: off the street and that area was renamed quote Liberty
Speaker 1: Plaza and for the district to remove all Black Lives
Speaker 1: Matter Plaza references from city websites and official documents. So
Speaker 1: they want to like memory hol it and be like
Speaker 1: it never happened.
Speaker 3: That's such cribyby bullshit too for the like these free
Speaker 3: speech warriors right like, oh the facts, don't care about
Speaker 3: your feelings. Free see the most important thing, like the
Speaker 3: marketplace of ideas, Like I guess you can't compete in
Speaker 3: the marketplace of ideas.
Speaker 1: Buckoh exactly, Clyde said, quote it's time for our nation
Speaker 1: to leave this failed agenda behind, starting with the removal
Speaker 1: BLM Plaza from America's capital. Trump is what one hundred
Speaker 1: percent right, we must clean up for the American people.
Speaker 1: I believe that removing blm Plaza must be part of
Speaker 1: this critical effort. After all, BLM is a radical defund
Speaker 1: the police organization.
Speaker 2: But we are not a defund the police nation.
Speaker 3: So I know this. You know, clean up the city
Speaker 3: rhetoric is sort of fascist in and of itself, like
Speaker 3: that that's scary rhetor regardless, but pairing it with like
Speaker 3: back to back in the same breath, like we have
Speaker 3: to clean up the city, we have to get rid
Speaker 3: of BLM plaza. Like are you saying being reminded that
Speaker 3: black people have civil liberties is dirty to you? That
Speaker 3: that's what's making the city dirty is the black people.
Speaker 3: I would argue that's exactly what he's saying.
Speaker 1: But DC is like getting upset about black people. It's
Speaker 1: like go into the beach and getting upset with when
Speaker 1: they're sand right. It's like, we could have a whole
Speaker 1: conversation about DC's demographics, but like a, we are.
Speaker 2: A black city, like that is what makes DC what
Speaker 2: it is?
Speaker 1: Is like why I continue to live here, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: I think that's exactly what he's saying, is we don't
Speaker 1: want our nation's capital to be one that honors the
Speaker 1: you know, agency of black people, black bodies, and black lives.
Speaker 3: Right, Like, I think that's like what he said, then
Speaker 3: moved the White House to South Boston. I guess I
Speaker 3: don't know what to tell you.
Speaker 1: So, you know, the mayor pretty quickly relented and bielm
Speaker 1: plazas no more. She basically said, like, you know, we've
Speaker 1: got bigger fish to fry, like focusing on DC's autonomy
Speaker 1: and budget, and to be honest, like a lot of
Speaker 1: residents agreed with her that like it probably was not
Speaker 1: worth the fight.
Speaker 2: That's kind of that's kind of the theme here is.
Speaker 1: That all of these little things that individually are probably
Speaker 1: not worth the fight, but then collectively you're like, well.
Speaker 2: Who is sort of in charge of this city?
Speaker 3: You know, when if none of these little things are
Speaker 3: worth the fight? Are you fighting?
Speaker 1: That's a great question. Are you fighting? If nothing is
Speaker 1: worth the fight? Are you fighting?
Speaker 3: And I feel like that's kind of I don't know,
Speaker 3: on a larger scale, sort of the National Democratic Party's
Speaker 3: line has always been. We got to keep her power dry.
Speaker 3: We gotta keep her power dry, keep it drive for
Speaker 3: fucking what dog right, You're gonna end the war, you know,
Speaker 3: with the pile of bodies and a bunch of dry powder.
Speaker 2: Exactly.
Speaker 1: So the next demand that Trump made a bows Or
Speaker 1: was the need to clear homeless encampments near the White House,
Speaker 1: saying that if Bowser didn't do it, he would.
Speaker 2: Be forced to do it for her.
Speaker 1: So within hours of Trump's call to Bowser, DC city
Speaker 1: crews arrived at these encampments to tell residents they had
Speaker 1: to be out the next day. It's not great, like,
Speaker 1: to be clear, it is not like our mayor does
Speaker 1: not clear encampments in DC. In fact, her administration said
Speaker 1: they have been planning to clear the encampment in question,
Speaker 1: but just doing so in like a more planned, rolled
Speaker 1: out way. So it's not like she's like someone who
Speaker 1: is not, you know, down with clearing encampments. The Washington
Speaker 1: Post spoke to some of the people who were residents
Speaker 1: of those encampments when they were cleared. Shelley Byer's is
Speaker 1: someone they spoke to who has been chronically homeless in
Speaker 1: DC for three years. She was living at an encampment
Speaker 1: that was cleared in twenty twenty three before winding up
Speaker 1: at the one that Trump wanted cleared, and she said
Speaker 1: they were basically given no notice that they needed to vacate.
Speaker 1: She said, now we have only less than twenty four
Speaker 1: hours to get out, as she threw her clothing out
Speaker 1: of her tent.
Speaker 2: I liked it here.
Speaker 1: They keep shoving us off from place to place, making
Speaker 1: it so we don't have anywhere to go. The post
Speaker 1: also to the president of Miriam's Kitchen, which is a
Speaker 1: big nonprofit here in DC that provides services for the homeless,
Speaker 1: and he said that it wasn't even clear, like he
Speaker 1: wasn't even sure if the city followed proper protocols with
Speaker 1: this hasty encampment clearing at Trump's direction. Encampment residents are
Speaker 1: meant to be given two weeks notice, but people who
Speaker 1: were cleared so that they only learned about that action
Speaker 1: within twenty four hours. And so I think that's part
Speaker 1: of the issue here. DC, like any city, has issues
Speaker 1: like crime and homelessness, but like hitting people housed takes time,
Speaker 1: like just wanting to quickly move people who might have
Speaker 1: anywhere else to go because they look as Trump said,
Speaker 1: unseemly or unsightly is not solving the problem. What you're
Speaker 1: actually doing is just traumatizing people who are already vulnerable
Speaker 1: and then forcing them to go elsewhere, exactly like that
Speaker 1: woman told the post.
Speaker 3: Really, even in the best case scenario, even the most
Speaker 3: organized clearing of an encampment is I mean, it's violent,
Speaker 3: and it's inhumane, and it doesn't really serve a greater
Speaker 3: purpose other than I don't know, so that people don't
Speaker 3: have to think about homelessness on their way to work.
Speaker 3: But there is a way to do it that is,
Speaker 3: at least theoretically could result in something that is not monstrous,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. Like I said, there's no
Speaker 3: good way to clear an encampment unless you're giving everyone
Speaker 3: an apartment. But right like, you're giving people two weeks notice,
Speaker 3: let's social services get involved, lets them go, you know,
Speaker 3: tent to tent for those two weeks, talking to people
Speaker 3: about where they could go, giving them options, connecting them
Speaker 3: with services if that's what they choose. But if you're
Speaker 3: just rolling up overnight and throwing people's show a way,
Speaker 3: you're not You're not solving a problem. You're not even
Speaker 3: trying to solve a problem. You're not even pretending that
Speaker 3: you're trying to solve a problem.
Speaker 1: But I think that's exactly how Trump thinks about this issue.
Speaker 1: It's just like looks bad and unseemly to him. So
Speaker 1: I don't care where they go. I don't care how
Speaker 1: you do it, just I don't want to be looking.
Speaker 3: At them, right, because for him, it's not about getting
Speaker 3: these people connected to services so that they might eventually
Speaker 3: find stable housing. It's about I don't want to fucking
Speaker 3: see these people because they're gross, exactly.
Speaker 1: And like he is encroaching on how our city is run, right,
Speaker 1: and so like if that is the ethos that you have,
Speaker 1: I don't want to see these gross people. I don't
Speaker 1: care where they go. This is not an ethos that
Speaker 1: that responsibly is able to run a city like that.
Speaker 3: Like that is really disruptive. Yeah, it's absolutely disruptive because
Speaker 3: they'll go somewhere else. They'll go somewhere else, and now
Speaker 3: they now their lives have been uprooted, they don't have
Speaker 3: maybe the documents got thrown away, and it's going to
Speaker 3: be even harder for them to find stability. Like you
Speaker 3: have not addressed the problem.
Speaker 1: Exactly, and I think that's what that's like the name
Speaker 1: of the game. With the way that Trump has already been,
Speaker 1: you know, meddling in the way that DC runs its
Speaker 1: local affairs. This next example, I got to say, it
Speaker 1: really gets to me. So DC's Attorney General Ryan Schwab
Speaker 1: recently dropped a lawsuit against the Proud Boys and the
Speaker 1: Oathkeepers for their behavior during January sid So. The suit
Speaker 1: was initially filed by the former DC Attorney General carl A.
Speaker 2: Racine.
Speaker 1: It initially marks the first effort by a government agency
Speaker 1: to hold the individuals and organizations civilly liable for violence
Speaker 1: at the Capitol on January sixth, but a federal judge
Speaker 1: in DC granted the district's request to dismiss that case.
Speaker 1: The suit was fashioned after a modern version of the
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy one law known as the klu Klux klan
Speaker 1: At that was enacted after the Civil War to safeguard
Speaker 1: government officials carrying out their duties to protect civil rights.
Speaker 1: This was actually a similar challenge that prevailed against groups
Speaker 1: involved in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which Molly,
Speaker 1: I know you might know a thing or two about.
Speaker 3: Let's just see very familiar with Clan Act lawsuits, and
Speaker 3: they are effective. They're effective. It's one of the only
Speaker 3: things that we still have from reconstruction that hasn't been
Speaker 3: taken away from us is this civil remedy for civil
Speaker 3: rights violations. And it works. It works, but like you
Speaker 3: have to carry it out, and.
Speaker 1: Basically the city decided that it wasn't worth it given
Speaker 1: all of the threats to DC's autonomy by the Trump administration.
Speaker 3: So it's extortion. I mean, yeah, like that's exactly what
Speaker 3: it feels like. I mean, this is extortion. They're being prevented,
Speaker 3: they're being prevented from seeking a viable civil remedy through
Speaker 3: the courts out of fear of retaliation. That seems very bad.
Speaker 1: It's like, I mean, I'm glad that you use the
Speaker 1: word extortion, because it really does feel like if you've
Speaker 1: seen one of my favorite movies, Goodfellas, it feels like
Speaker 1: what Henry Hill the mobster calls real grease ball shit, right, like, ooh,
Speaker 1: great city you have here. It would be a shame
Speaker 1: if something were to uh happen to it.
Speaker 3: Like extortion, right, God. But usually, I mean, sometimes you
Speaker 3: get something out of a protection racket. DC's not even
Speaker 3: fucking getting anything out of it.
Speaker 1: I guess you could argue that they are like not
Speaker 1: raising the iyre further of the Trump administration, and that
Speaker 1: like that might lead to DC having more autonomy and
Speaker 1: like DC, you know, like Trump officials not meddling in
Speaker 1: DC's affairs.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know if any of these people
Speaker 3: have read a book, but appeasing of fascist is historically
Speaker 3: not resulted in you getting what you want.
Speaker 1: No, And I gotta be honest, girl, this one's fucking stung.
Speaker 1: Like it sucks hearing people like the Proud Boys leader
Speaker 1: Enrique Terrio basically brad about having this case dropped. The
Speaker 1: oath Keeper's founder, Stuart Rhodes, his attorney, said, we are
Speaker 1: very pleased to see the District of Columbia has come
Speaker 1: to the same conclusion that the American public and President
Speaker 1: Trump have the narrative that January sixth was some sort
Speaker 1: of armed insurrection to overthrow the government plus falls from
Speaker 1: the very beginning. Enriquetario posted after the district requested to
Speaker 1: dismiss this lawsuit, saying another exoneration. If God is with us,
Speaker 1: who can be against us? Like he just chaps my
Speaker 1: ass to hear this shit.
Speaker 3: Like, God didn't do this, baby, God didn't do this.
Speaker 1: You also have DC's Metro Police investigating the vandalization of
Speaker 1: tesla's as a hate crime. This again, like it really
Speaker 1: makes me wonder, Like, as far as I know, Trump
Speaker 1: is not in charge of our Metropolitan Police department, but
Speaker 1: stuff like this makes me wonder.
Speaker 2: We're like, is he kind of in charge?
Speaker 3: I mean, pressure's clearly being exerien correct.
Speaker 1: Basically, if somebody wrote quote political hate speech on a Tesla,
Speaker 1: the statement from the Metropolitan Police departments that they were
Speaker 1: investigating these offends as being motivated by hate or bias.
Speaker 2: To be clear, Mayor Bowser was like, I.
Speaker 1: Didn't tell them to do this, Like she was like,
Speaker 1: I have nothing to do with the police department's decision
Speaker 1: making on this, Like that's them.
Speaker 3: I hate crime typically implicates a protected class like race, gender, religion,
Speaker 3: national origin. What is the protected class of being a
Speaker 3: Tesla owner? It's like it's being a big loser of protected.
Speaker 1: Class unclear, And they wouldn't even say, like, what was
Speaker 1: the nature of what was written on this car that
Speaker 1: made it a potential hate crime?
Speaker 2: We don't even know, which.
Speaker 3: Is so funny. Because these guys never believed in hate
Speaker 3: crimes before.
Speaker 1: Unless it's against like Elon Musk and people who like
Speaker 1: him something.
Speaker 2: That's the best I can figure.
Speaker 3: But I've heard full throadd arguments against the existence of
Speaker 3: the category of hate crime, and now suddenly they're very important. Yeah,
Speaker 3: now they're very important, and I.
Speaker 1: Do think, I mean, like, when I heard about this,
Speaker 1: it really made me think about how different categories of
Speaker 1: crime and legislation around it is like very well intended
Speaker 1: and well meaning, and like I understand who hate crime
Speaker 1: just is meant to protect, but then you also have
Speaker 1: the ways that it can be sort of like perverted
Speaker 1: to protect a protected class.
Speaker 3: That is not a protected class, right, like it, I mean,
Speaker 3: it's the same as the language around terrorism, right that, Like,
Speaker 3: terrorism wasn't something that we were talking about or charging.
Speaker 3: It's not even very well defined in the law, to
Speaker 3: be honest, But it's something that became part of the
Speaker 3: conversation when America became very afraid of Muslims, became very
Speaker 3: afraid of Middle Eastern people, right, So terrorism had that
Speaker 3: implication for a very long time, and then there was
Speaker 3: this brief window in the last couple of years where
Speaker 3: they were using it against domestic white extremists. And now
Speaker 3: they're not doing that anymore, and they're just going to
Speaker 3: charge you with terrorism for looking sideways at a Tesla exactly.
Speaker 1: Here's how my co host and friend Michael Shaeffer, who
Speaker 1: writes the Capital City's column for Political put it. He says,
Speaker 1: now the White House is beating the drums about Tesla vandalism,
Speaker 1: creating another incentive for locals to play ball. The FBI
Speaker 1: director called tesla vandalism domestic terrorism. The President suggested sending
Speaker 1: vandals to jail and l Salvador if likening the run
Speaker 1: of the mill political graffiti to criminal bigotry. It's what
Speaker 1: it takes to keep the FEDS from padlocking city Hall.
Speaker 1: The logic goes, maybe it's worth it.
Speaker 3: No, it's not.
Speaker 2: I would say it's not.
Speaker 3: No, it's not Maybe they want to do through you
Speaker 3: extraordinary rendition to vandals, but maybe it's worth No, it's
Speaker 3: not worth it.
Speaker 2: It's not worth it.
Speaker 3: You're not gonna you're not holding back the tide of
Speaker 3: fascism if you allow fascism to happen.
Speaker 1: Unlike local governments in Cleveland or Boston, DC is really
Speaker 1: stuck between a rock and a hard place. And I mean, like,
Speaker 1: I understand why city officials are taking this like appeasement angle.
Speaker 2: But like I guess, as you said, like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: How you can make the argument that it's like worth it, Like,
Speaker 1: what are we getting if every single day it's going
Speaker 1: to be a new threat to DC's autonomy, a new
Speaker 1: threat to DC, a new EO from the Trump administration?
Speaker 2: What are we.
Speaker 3: Really getting by playing ball in this way?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: And if you're saying you're saving your energy for the
Speaker 3: big fight, it's like, well, what do you think the
Speaker 3: big fight is going to be If it's not the
Speaker 3: slow erosion of the safety and civil liberties of everyone
Speaker 3: who lives here. Exactly what is the big fight?
Speaker 1: Well, some might say the big fight is DC's tense
Speaker 1: budget showdown, which is ongoing.
Speaker 3: It's a little in the weedze, So like, I'm not
Speaker 3: going to get too too.
Speaker 1: Into it, but I'll try to give the quick and
Speaker 1: dirty version of what's going on. The district is overseen
Speaker 1: by Congress thanks to provision in the Constitution, So this
Speaker 1: means that DC is occasionally treated like a federal agency
Speaker 1: rather than like a city or a local government under
Speaker 1: various laws. This used to mean that DC's budget was
Speaker 1: regularly delayed. Because of this, the city had to wait
Speaker 1: for Congress to approve DC's local budget alongside other federal agencies,
Speaker 1: which Congress is like almost never does on time. So
Speaker 1: pretty much everybody agreed like this was a problem, So
Speaker 1: in the early two thousands, they changed it so that
Speaker 1: if Congress was behind schedule, DC could just keep spending
Speaker 1: at its current budget levels without disruption until Congress is
Speaker 1: able to formally prove a new budget. But in March
Speaker 1: that all changed because the language was omitted from a
Speaker 1: new funding bill that Congress passed in March that would
Speaker 1: basically force DC to omit one billion dollars from its budget.
Speaker 1: Just to be clear, like, if DC were to omit
Speaker 1: one billion dollars from the budget, we basically could not
Speaker 1: function as a city. The things that you need to
Speaker 1: run a city, schools, garbage collection, all of that would
Speaker 1: be cut to the point of like not being viable.
Speaker 1: I'm not even sure what that would mean for the
Speaker 1: city to make that deep of a cut. And the
Speaker 1: worst part is nobody really knows why Congress did this. Like,
Speaker 1: in my capacity as co host for a local DC podcast,
Speaker 1: City CASDC. I've spoken to a lot of people in
Speaker 1: DC government and reporters, and the best I can come
Speaker 1: up with is that Congress just really does not understand
Speaker 1: what they have done. A reporter that I spoke to
Speaker 1: you said that there seemed to be confusion with lawmakers
Speaker 1: that we were talking about DC's local tax money and
Speaker 1: not federal money. And so this was happening in March,
Speaker 1: during the height of like those efficiency I'm putting efficiency
Speaker 1: in like heavy scare quotes.
Speaker 2: It was at the height of that, and so the best.
Speaker 1: I could think was that lawmakers thought, like, oh, this
Speaker 1: will we will be able to like say that, you know,
Speaker 1: making DC cut a billion dollars from the budget will
Speaker 1: be a big show of federal tax dollar savings.
Speaker 2: But we're not talking about federal money.
Speaker 1: We're talking about local tax money, not federal money. Doesn't
Speaker 1: save anybody any federal money. And so I think that
Speaker 1: from what I've heard, it sounds like people like Mike
Speaker 1: Johnson just maybe like did not really have a good
Speaker 1: understanding of that.
Speaker 2: It is a little bit complicated, but like if you're
Speaker 2: a lawmaker, like come on, dude, But.
Speaker 3: Again, because you have no representative who is really involved
Speaker 3: in this process, Like there's nobody in that room going
Speaker 3: to bat for DC. There's nobody in that room whose
Speaker 3: constituency is DC who understands what it means to run
Speaker 3: DC exactly.
Speaker 1: And what's funny is that, Like for all the talk
Speaker 1: about like how how like we're not a defund the
Speaker 1: police nation, this bill would kind of defund a police.
Speaker 3: It would have to mean who defund everything?
Speaker 1: I mean like it would mean like sixty seven million
Speaker 1: dollars caught from the DC police budget, along with cutting
Speaker 1: funding for DC public schools and the Department of Human Services,
Speaker 1: which serves the city's forest residents. Right, So, like it
Speaker 1: would defund everything, including the police. So it's like funny
Speaker 1: to be like, we're not down with defund the police,
Speaker 1: but we are down with this bill that kind of
Speaker 1: does it.
Speaker 3: We're like, who do you think is gonna fill the potholes?
Speaker 3: Who's gonna mow the grass? Like nothing will get done,
Speaker 3: the city will fall apart.
Speaker 1: Well, So our mayor has really been doing her diplomacy
Speaker 1: thing and appealing to exactly that, right, Like Trump has
Speaker 1: been really clear about all these goals he has for
Speaker 1: the district, like beautifying DC and cracking down on crime
Speaker 1: and homelessness. There is no way to do that if
Speaker 1: you are slashing the budgets of these departments that are
Speaker 1: meant to work on those things by tens of millions
Speaker 1: of dollars.
Speaker 3: Who's gonna prune the cherry trees? Donald, I mean, ifo's
Speaker 3: gonna prove.
Speaker 1: Almost as if Trump doesn't really care about doing any
Speaker 1: of this stuff. He's just like talking big and doesn't
Speaker 1: give a shit about how it actually plays out.
Speaker 3: He doesn't know how anything works.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's really the bottom line for me
Speaker 1: is that when you have Trump really loudly talking about
Speaker 1: the ways that he is meddling in the way that
Speaker 1: DC is run. He's not someone who is good at
Speaker 1: efficiently governing. And so like, you know, say what you
Speaker 1: know about DC. We had a function we have a
Speaker 1: functioning local government, a functioning city. Putting somebody like Trump
Speaker 1: in charge of how things get done. What happens to encampments,
Speaker 1: what happens to education, what happens to Crome Like, like.
Speaker 2: That's just a terrible, terrible move for the city.
Speaker 3: I mean it's like, you know, at a shitty retail job,
Speaker 3: you get a new assistant store manager and they try
Speaker 3: to change the way the schedule gets made, just so
Speaker 3: they can look like they're doing something, so they can
Speaker 3: feel like they're in charge. And it's like, yeah, dog,
Speaker 3: that's just not how things work at this store, Like
Speaker 3: it won't function if the keyholder doesn't open.
Speaker 1: I wish I could tell Trump that, Like I'm taken
Speaker 1: back to my days of working retail at the mall
Speaker 1: or where you could just be like, actually, Greg, that's
Speaker 1: not how it works here at this Claire's.
Speaker 2: I used to work at Claires.
Speaker 3: It just won't work like that. Like I know, so
Speaker 3: you're very important and you're in charge here, but it's
Speaker 3: just like it won't work.
Speaker 2: It won't work.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I mean, as of today, there has not
Speaker 1: been a vote on DC's budget. Trump actually signaled that
Speaker 1: he is on board for a fix that would prevent
Speaker 1: this billion dollar cut, and he urged the Senate to
Speaker 1: vote for it. He posted, the House should take up
Speaker 1: the DC funding fix that the Senate passed and get
Speaker 1: it done immediately, all caps. But everybody's on recess and
Speaker 1: so in the meantime, like it's not clear what's going
Speaker 1: to happen. And the city did announce that they're looking
Speaker 1: at making cuts and furlowing staff because it's not clear
Speaker 1: what's going to happen. So, you know, so it's not
Speaker 1: that the city doesn't have them. It's not like the
Speaker 1: city's broke. Like the city has the money, they're just
Speaker 1: not allowed to budget it.
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly that and for no reason.
Speaker 2: Problem.
Speaker 1: It's a fake it's a fake problem. But again, I
Speaker 1: don't know that people like Mike Johnson understand that there
Speaker 1: are people who live here who you know, just want
Speaker 1: to have their trash pickn out this, want to be
Speaker 1: able to educate their kids, just want to be able
Speaker 1: to like live our lives in the city. And I
Speaker 1: think I said this on happened here before. But I
Speaker 1: have to feel like it's punitive, right like DC nobody
Speaker 1: didn't vote for Trump, Like DC didn't vote for Trump,
Speaker 1: like you know, Nicky Hayley won DC's Republican primary, not
Speaker 1: even Trump, right, so like we have made it very
Speaker 1: clear that we don't like him and we don't want
Speaker 1: him here. And I guess I just have to say
Speaker 1: the only thing that makes sense as to why Congress
Speaker 1: would do this, it's punitive.
Speaker 2: This to be like fuck DC.
Speaker 1: And the progressive, hippie, dippy educated people who live there,
Speaker 1: Like it just feels like like a punitive attack on
Speaker 1: the district.
Speaker 3: But again just like shooting themselves in the dick because
Speaker 3: like if the city falls apart, like you still work here,
Speaker 3: you still have to drive on the streets here.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, if Trump gets his way and DC
Speaker 1: just becomes like a instead of a city, like a
Speaker 1: military compound that is controlled by like his goons.
Speaker 3: Right, Like it's sort of like a Trump Vatican City
Speaker 3: where he's the king of this little tiny country.
Speaker 1: That is my ultimate biggest fear about what is on
Speaker 1: the horizon, And for DC, that is like the ultimate
Speaker 1: ultimate like negative fear that I have.
Speaker 2: And I guess bottom line is like this.
Speaker 1: Is why DC needs statehoods, Like we are facing such
Speaker 1: unique threats from the Trump administration that no other place
Speaker 1: in the United States faces. You know, there are a
Speaker 1: million reasons for DC to become a state, but this
Speaker 1: just I think that the way that Trump is acting
Speaker 1: toward our city, toward our our mayor toward our council
Speaker 1: with regards to our budget, like it all just makes
Speaker 1: so much sense that our residents should not be at
Speaker 1: the behest of somebody like Trump to have our.
Speaker 2: City run the way that we want it to be run.
Speaker 3: And yeah, it just doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3: It doesn't mean the city should be able to make
Speaker 3: its own budget. There's no reason for it to function
Speaker 3: like this.
Speaker 1: There is no reason for it. So from your lips
Speaker 1: to God's ears.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So, like, I guess what should people look for?
Speaker 3: Like what's the next step in this process? Like when's
Speaker 3: the next vote on this?
Speaker 1: So when lawmakers are back in set, we should have
Speaker 1: some sense of what's going on with DC's budget. The
Speaker 1: thing I would end with is like give a shit
Speaker 1: about DC, Like, don't be somebody who perpetuates the idea
Speaker 1: that the only thing happening in DC is like national politics,
Speaker 1: and like where national conversations are happening, because you know,
Speaker 1: there are six hundred thousand people who live here and
Speaker 1: we want to be able to control our city and
Speaker 1: control our tax money. Like I pay taxes just like
Speaker 1: anybody else, and it's ridiculous that I get less of
Speaker 1: a say.
Speaker 3: Than everybody else.
Speaker 1: So if you don't live in DC and you hear
Speaker 1: about Congress or the Senate voting on stuff that impacts
Speaker 1: DC residents, like you might hear about them voting on
Speaker 1: the DC budget fixed bill. You can call your representatives
Speaker 1: and advocate on our behalf and kind of be our
Speaker 1: voice because we don't really get one. Hopefully this all
Speaker 1: gives you a sense of what's at stake for us,
Speaker 1: So please give a shit about DC.
Speaker 3: Give a shit about DC, and hopefully you guys still
Speaker 3: have garbage services.
Speaker 2: We'll see.
Speaker 1: Molly, thank you for running through all of this with me.
Speaker 1: You're such a good co host.
Speaker 3: Yeah, this was fun. Yeah, I listened to Bridges' podcasts.
Speaker 3: There are no girls on the internet listen to Weird
Speaker 3: Little Guys, a Webby Award winning podcast.
Speaker 1: Yes, so deserved. Are you like keeping your wedding secret?
Speaker 1: Is that something I can talk about?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 3: I did tell the listeners, just because there's gonna be
Speaker 3: some reruns coming out. I'm getting married soon, so I
Speaker 3: will be out of town for a little bit. But yeah,
Speaker 3: so I got a lot going on. I got my
Speaker 3: Weird Little Guys, I got my weird little wedding. Well, congratulations.
Speaker 1: I was telling you off Mike that, like, I love
Speaker 1: it when women who do work in the like extremism
Speaker 1: right wing space have happy, thriving personal lives.
Speaker 2: So it brings me a lot of joy.
Speaker 3: Deeply, congratulations, thank you. Yeah, I am experiencing a lot
Speaker 3: of joy.
Speaker 2: You deserve it. Thank you.
Speaker 4: It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
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