Somebody from Doge was very badly hurt. Last night you saw that a young man who was beat up by a bunch of thugs in DC, and either they're going to straighten their act out in terms of government and in terms of protection, or we're going to have to federalize and run it the way it's supposed to be run. [00:00:18] President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened to federalize Washington, Washington, DC, especially after a 19 year old Doge staffer by the name of Edward Cornstein was allegedly the victim of a brutal and violent attack. [00:00:35] Now, if that name doesn't really sound familiar to you, that's okay. You might recognize him by his now infamous alias, Big Balls. But what happened to him is serious. So let's get into the details now. Elon Musk, the former head of Doge, said in an ex post. [00:00:52] A few days ago, a gang of about a dozen young men tried to assault a woman in her car at night in DC. A Doge team member saw what was happening, ran to defend her, and was severely beaten to the point of concussion. But he saved her. [00:01:07] Now here's another account of the incident. According to a DC police report, about ten juveniles approached Carestini and one other person who were standing next to their vehicle, then demanded the [00:01:23] vehicle and assaulted one of the victims. So it looks like, based on what the police report says, it was some sort of carjacking or attempted carjacking at that point for her safety. Carestini pushed his significant other into the vehicle [00:01:40] and turned to deal with the suspects. Officers happened to be on patrol nearby, and luckily, they were able to see what was happening. So the officers immediately exited their vehicle and the juveniles began fleeing on foot. [00:01:55] So Trump also posted a picture of the Doge staffer and the condition he was in, so he was bloodied. I want to give you that warning before we show you the image. Oh, we're not even really showing you the image. Okay, well, you can find it online. Youtube likes to censor things that they shouldn't censor, because I guess they [00:02:11] think that everyone is a child who can't handle seeing a little bit of blood. Anyway, so, as you can see, we had to completely blur out the image, but again, available online now, 215 year olds, one boy and one girl have been arrested [00:02:27] for carjacking in connection to the case. And Trump wrote in a post, Washington, DC must be safe, clean and beautiful for all Americans and importantly, for the world to see if D.C. Doesn't get its act together and quickly, we will have no choice but to take federal [00:02:45] control of the city and run this city. How it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they're not going to get away with it anymore. Now, look, Trump does actually have some options here. If he does want to act like, for instance, he could deploy federal law enforcement [00:03:01] officers or the National Guard. I mean, he did it to LA even though LA didn't want it. But fully revoking DC's ability to govern itself would require congressional legislation. He would also invoke the Home Rule Act, which allows the president to temporarily [00:03:19] take control of DC's police force, but only in certain scenarios. Trump can order the mayor to provide the federal government with DC police services in special conditions of an emergency, as the president may deem necessary and appropriate. [00:03:35] But carjackings continue to be a problem in DC. I'm going to get to the details on that in just a minute. I don't think Trump really has any plan to make that any better. But I'll give you the details and stats in just a moment. - What are your thoughts? - Yeah. [00:03:51] So first of all, look, I of course I don't agree with those. I don't agree that we should have let big balls have access to our information, etc., but on this one. Attaboy. Okay. What a what a guy, what a man is supposed to do is get the woman out of harm's way. [00:04:07] Okay? If you don't like that and you think I'm too old school, that's fine, I like it. Okay, so, but good job on protecting her. And obviously at great personal risk to himself and his. You know, you could partly tell from that picture he's bloodied pretty badly. And so I'm glad that they took it super seriously. [00:04:25] I'm glad the cops were there. I'm glad that they then arrested at least a couple of the people doing this. We're going to tell you about crime stats and how they went up, and now they're going down a little bit. And but to me, home rule like Donald Trump trying to take over Washington doesn't make any sense, right. [00:04:42] That tackling the crime problem makes sense. Right. But is the federal government going to run it any better, or is there now all of a sudden going to be new rules about how you can't criticize Israel, otherwise you'll be arrested in Washington? I don't know, but the federal government has done a great job in any of that stuff. [00:04:58] Let them do what they're doing. They're actually, at least in the last year, bringing the crime down a little bit. - But let's give you the whole context. - Yes. So look, there was a huge crime spike in 2023. But Jake is right. The numbers are trending downward, which is good news. Okay, so for instance, in 2023, DC recorded the highest spike [00:05:15] in crime in the country overall. In that year, there was a 39% increase in crime compared to 2022. In 2023, there were, for instance, 274 homicides in DC, the highest number since the 90s 1998. [00:05:31] Homicides were down 31% in 2024, so hopefully they continue to trend downward. Robberies were also very high in 2023. There were 3460 robberies that year. And that was up 67% from 2022. [00:05:49] The good news is now the numbers are starting to trend downward. In 2024, robberies went down 39% to about 2100 cases. But guys, the car thefts are the real problem in DC and I don't know what's causing it. I don't know how to explain it. It typically involves teenagers. [00:06:08] And so there's a real problem here. So, motor vehicle theft shot up 82% in 2023 to about 6800 cases, from about 3800 cases the year before in 2022. [00:06:24] In 2020, for motor vehicle theft went down 24% to about 5100 cases. Obviously, that's still insanely high. Okay. So again, in 2022, you have 3800 and last year it's 5100. [00:06:40] Sure. It trended a little bit downward compared to 2023, but it's still astronomically high for that area. Crime numbers have continued to fall this year in every category except one. - And that's motor vehicle theft. - Yeah. So like different cities have different problems, partly because of different [00:06:58] gangs, different organizations, but also different laws and rules and policing. Right. So is it true that crime went up between 2019 and 2023? Indisputably true. Right. Although I just saw today, some on the left are still denying it. Just exhausting. We don't have to. [00:07:15] Okay. Hold on, hold on. No, I do have to address it because people have to deal in reality. Okay. So now, by the way, now the right wing and Trump and Jeanine Pirro are like, no, crime is not going down. We have to take over Washington. No, but crime is going down now. No. So, like for political reasons, everybody's going to make up numbers [00:07:34] and live in fantasy land. Very true. You know, half the country says there was no crime in four years. In that four years. Now the other half of the country is saying crime is going up when it's going down. It's like it's it's hopeless. There's tribalism blinds everyone. [00:07:50] Okay. So now in terms of what they should do, guys, part of the reason like there's different things that are causing these local problems. Right. So in this case it's very likely that the organized crime [00:08:07] is taking advantage of the fact that kids under 18 get lower penalties, and so they're likely using teenagers because they'll have reduced sentences and they'll be out of jail soon. Right now, that's a super difficult issue to tackle, because you don't want to send [00:08:25] 14 year olds to prison for the rest of their lives or for 20 years, etc. But then when you set it up this way, then they recruit young kids and teach them how to do vicious crimes. Right. So we're in a lose lose situation there. That's very difficult to solve. [00:08:42] But we all have to tackle this stuff. And the best way to tackle it, whether it's all of these different kinds of thefts and crimes, etc., is to be rational. Look at facts, see where it came from, and do our best to address it. But if you go to tribalism and you just are in fantasy land for in either [00:08:59] direction, we're never going to solve it. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets his wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.