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law enforcement. Plus, Democrats struggle to unify around the response to the president's actions as lawmakers walk a tightrope of looking tough on Trump but not soft on crime. And President Trump claims his tariff agenda has no impact on inflation and picks a longtime critic of the agency in charge of key economic data to lead him as it releases new data showing prices ticked up in July. By the way, welcome to Ms.
Press. Now on Ryan Nobles in Washington, where hundreds of National Guard troops are being deployed as part of President Trump's efforts to crack down on crime in the nation's capital Capitol. It comes after the president announced he would be also taking control of the District's police force. Today, White House press secretary calling these actions and some of the law enforcement activity we've seen so far, only the beginning.
Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the District who breaks the law, undermines public safety and endangers law abiding Americans. President Trump will not be deterred by sock on crime Democrats and media activists who refuse to acknowledge this rampant violence on our streets. But while the White House doubles down on its rhetoric about the city, the reality on the ground is a bit more nuanced. D.C.
officials have pointed to data showing that violent crime has indeed decreased significantly over the last two years, reaching a 30 year low in 2024. But polling from earlier this year suggests that that drop isn't really being felled by D.C. residents, with half describing crime in the city as extremely or very serious. And nearly 30% say they believe it is getting worse.
The head of the D.C. police Union tells NBC that the force could use the help from the federal government, even as he cautioned that there is no short term fix for crime. It'll be nice to have the feds come to back us up and try to get the numbers down. What I'm concerned about is that if there aren't longer term, more impactful changes that take place over that 30 days, that the feds and the National Guard and anyone else who's involved is just going to go about their business and the NPD will be left holding the bag, which will only allow crime to again, you know, regain its foothold and start growing it again today.
DC's Democrat Mayor Mariel Bowser, echoing those comments after meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi, telling reporters she's focused on making the most of the additional support. Bazar has struck a decidedly more measured, even conciliatory tone than some other democrats from the D.C. area who've largely slammed Trump's actions. Senators from Virginia and Maryland calling them a, quote, unnecessary escalation and accusing the president of, quote, playing dictator, while House Democrats from both states writing in a joint statement, quote, trump's temporary takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department is not intended to prevent crime.
It's a soft launch of authoritarianism. Joining me now, NBC News White House correspondent Yamichel Sindor and NBC News legal affairs correspondent Gary Grumback is outside the D.C. army. So you should start with you.
Attorney General Bondi met with DC's Mayor Bowser today. Are we getting a sense of what the level of coordination is there between DOJ and the city with his takeover of the police force? We are getting a sense of what this is going to look like on the ground. The mayor went into that meeting with very few details.
She hadn't been briefed really on what the president wanted to happen on the ground in the city that she's of course, been tasked and elected to lead. What we know is the National Guard from all our understanding. I just talked about White House officials about this. They're not going to be arresting people or really performing any sort of law enforcement duties in the way that we think the police act when it comes to crime.
And so they're going to be sort of supporting that role. White House officials just told me they're going to be ensuring that it's a safe environment to make arrest so if someone is caught doing something illegal, the National Guard might hold you, but then if there's no local police around, you'll then be essentially arrested by local police once they get on the ground. Even though the idea is that this coordination means that you're going to have federal law enforcement and city law enforcement working hand in hand together on the streets. You're going to get a local police officer, a national Guard.
Another thing someone from the mayor's office told me is that while there is a lot of concern about what this might mean long term, while the mission is 30 days, there is also wondering whether or not the sort of local police are going to be able to really be in power to continue doing their job the way they've been doing. And the mayor sewing has some questions about that in terms of chain of command. So we're watching closely to see all this play out. One other thing, Ryan, we've been really asking sort of where are these people, where are these federal officials and law enforcement officials going to be?
Well, they won't say really clearly. Sort of here are the zones. My understanding is that it is going to be hot spot, it's not going to be in residential areas and that they are leaning on the local police to really tell them where federal law enforcement officials should go. Ryan and let's talk about the position that Mayor Bowser finds herself in at this moment.
She's repeatedly pointed out the limitations of D.C. power and bicentennial. Her power is mayor. How much does she really need the federal government?
And not just specifically about this issue, but some broader issues that the city is working on. Well, right, I'm going to take up my White House hat and put on my local reporter has a long time DC Reporter. I've covered the mayor a bit here. And what you have is both the confluence of where she was before all this.
DC Is so unique in that the federal government already has so much power. The president can already do so much by stashing in the city like already take control of the National Guard. You already have a city like Washington D.C. where there are already a number of federal agencies operating within their border.
Think of park police and all these other things. So you already have. Muriel Bowser was already trying to not get into conflict with President Trump because she knew essentially that he could overstep her at any time into a federal takeover at any moment. So that's something that she's been trying to balance.
But then you have local politics here. Maybe we don't know, but the commanders, the football team that Washington D.C. cheers for. My husband was an Eagles fan.
The commanders they're looking for in this stadium and the mayor has essentially brokered this deal and got the city council behind it to bring the commanders back into the city. Right now, I think they gather in Virginia for training and they have their games in Maryland. She wants to bring all she wants to release the games to D.C. so she's hoping that the president gets behind that.
So actually the mayor's also trying to get behind while she's dealing with, of course, this law enforcement issue as well. Riot. Okay. Of course, that armory where the National Guard is gathering right outside of RFK Stadium, where that new stadium is scheduled to go.
Yamiche, thank you for that. And speaking of the armory, let's move to Gary Grumback, who is there at the armory. He could probably see RFK Stadium from where he is right now. Gary, what more do we know about this National Guard deployment and do we have any more of a sense of how the chain of command will work in conjunction with the other agencies on the ground?
Yeah, we are seeing a steady stream of folks arriving to the National Guard background. We see them behind me right now arriving with some belt bags here and they are arriving for the next 30 days. They're going to be here at the armory and they're going to be living here while they're going out and supporting federal law enforcement across the city of Washington. There's been a lot of complaints for from folks in federal law enforcement about what exactly they're going to be doing in assisting with metropolitan police and others around the city.
President Trump announced this big announcement Yesterday at about 11am and then meetings were held across the federal government as to exactly what ATF is, what FBI, how Homeland Security would be involved in all of these actions. So that is something that will certainly will play out over the next few weeks here on the streets of Washington. Just to give a reality check here of what DC Looks like right now, I was trying to run around quite a bit around the city earlier this morning. It looks like the other day in Washington, D.C.
you're not seeing National Guard stacked up on every street corner. You're not seeing federal lives of law enforcement all over the place. There are certain pockets, Union Station, Victorian Station here in Washington, some of the other big social hangouts where there are some individuals from federal law enforcement that are certainly based, but that's not on every street corner. That's certainly not what we're seeing.
Plus, I think it's important to note here, Ryan is as pointing on the local news report hat as well. Some of the biggest issues of crime in Washington D.C. are not happening right next to Washington. They're happening in the and it's our understanding that the Guard really doesn't have an enforcement power.
Right. Are they serving more as a backup or maybe is part of their function here just to see as many people as possible in uniforms and big military vehicles to basically just trying deter people from committing crimes? I think it's a little bit both there. I think we saw in Los Angeles with this immigration Protestant California National Guard was put out there.
It's a lot more to see here. They're certainly going to be there assisting with law enforcement. They're going to be helping with crowd control if that's necessary. Right now that's not necessary.
They're going to help me with perimeter control around federal buildings, if that's necessary. Right now that does not appear to be necessary, but they're certainly going to be available should that happen. There's 800 of them that are arriving to the armory behind me. Help me.
Okay, Gary Grumbach on the ground outside the D.C. armory. A great. Thanks for that.
Let's bring in now the chair of the D.C. city Council, Phil Mendelson, to talk more about this. Councilman, the National Guard has been deployed to your city today. I mean, what is your understanding of their role and what kind of communication have they had with local and federal law enforcement?
My understanding is that they will be providing logistical support sort of behind the scenes, maybe some posted on the streets, but as your reporter just pointed out, there's not a lot of need for that, especially in the downtown areas. So it's, you know, I was briefed yesterday by the Chief of Police and wasn't until the weekend that there was any discussion between any of the federal agencies and our Metro Police Department about how they were going to coordinate. And it's interesting that even though this is supposedly a takeover of our local law enforcement, it's actually they're looking to our local police department for guidance on how to be helpful. The D.C.
council yesterday released a statement saying that this is, quote, a manufactured intrusion and that calling the Guard was unnecessary. But I want you to take a listen to what one D.C. president told me earlier this morning about the National Guard deployment and anything respond. Sure.
I think they are here because the D.C. council failed us. I think it's time instead of looking at the D.C. national Guard, that we look at the D.C.
council and say do your job. We are here because they wrote Laws that kill juveniles. So instead of pointing figures at the National Guard, it's time to point figures at the D.C. council.
Say, do your job, write the laws, hold people accountable, and then we are going to be where we are there. What's your response to her and to some other residents who have similar frustrations, particularly about juvenile crime and dealing with that? Well, there certainly are some residents who are disgruntled with local government, but the reality is that crime is the lowest it has been this century. Crime this year is down.
Violent crime is down 26% compared to last year. If you look at violent crime over the last 10 years, it's down 43%. There were 3,469 violent crimes committed last year. That's 3,469 individuals, victims who have really bad stories to tell.
No question about it. But overall, we are reducing crime. And this city is not the pandemic of rampant lawlessness, which is what the president said in his announcement yesterday. It's a false narrative.
It's a manufactured crisis. I think it's because he can do here what he can't do in California or any other state because of our unique relations. And so he is doing here or trying to do here what he tried to do in California, bring out the National Guard and also to so called federalize our police force. I understand the president's rhetoric aside and how he can often be overblown when he tries to latch onto an issue.
And I understand where you're coming from when it comes to these statistics. But these are average everyday Washington, D.C. residents this morning that I talked this morning as a Democrat and she doesn't feel safe right now. What do you say to those folks who you can read the statistics to them over and over again, but they still don't have a sense of safety in their city.
And what can you do to make sure that the trend line that you're working on in terms of those crime statistics continues to go down, but at the same time gives a sense of security to the people you represent? Well, that trend line is going down now. I live in the city and I feel safe in the city. But I get it that there are some who don't feel safe.
And that is a duty of government to address that and try to make folks feel safe or safer. I don't know anything about this individual, whether she was victimized or whether she knows someone who was and maybe not. But you know, when it comes to crime, there is how people perceive and what the reality is. And perception is clearly a challenge and we need to make folks feel safer.
The president's rhetoric, though, makes the challenge harder for us. With the president, United States stands at a podium and says that Washington, D.C. is lawless. Then we have to spend our time talking about statistics, which is kind of boring.
But the fact is we are not lawless. Now, she was criticizing the council. The fact is that the council just strengthened our juvenile curfew law a month ago. We have passed two major crime bills that everybody has complimented that have strengthened some crimes and also made it easier to hold individuals and juveniles pending trial.
These are actions that the council has taken in the last two years to actually make our laws tougher and enable our police to be able to do more. There are other issues that are making crime fighting difficult, such as we have judicial vacancies that we are relying on the federal government to appoint and the fact that there is a large number of cases, arrests that the police make that the U.S. attorney declines to prosecute. Changing those dynamics will actually help us with fighting crime.
And then finally, the attorney general and the mayor met today. The mayor said the city needs to take advantage of these federal resources. I know you weren't supportive of the president's move, but is there an opportunity here to at least curb crime over this 30 day period and take advantage of that situation? Well, I want to say crime is being curbed.
It is down. However, your question about resources? Yes, we welcome resources. Now, there's been a lot of collaborations between federal agencies in the District and our local police for years.
But if they're going to add additional resources, that can be a good thing. Adding resources is a little different than federalizing our police department. I would agree, I do agree with the mayor that additional resources are welcome and will help us further. Quickly.
Before we go, the House says that they're planning to hold a hearing next month. They'd like to invite you, the mayor and the D.C. attorney general, Brian Schwab. Do you plan on attending that hearing?
Oh, absolutely. I'm looking forward to it because any chance we have to to present the reality what's actually going on is welcome. Okay. Chair Phil metals in the D.C.
city Council. I Chairman, we appreciate you being here. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Coming up, we're breaking down today's new inflation report and response from the White House and from Wall Street. Plus a look at President Trump's polarizing pick to lead the Bureau of Labor. Statist called for the agency to suspend its monthly jobs report. A former BLS commissioner joins me ahead.
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Turning now to the economy, new inflation data out today shows that Trump administration's sweeping new tariffs aren't yet having a major effect on prices, but they're having some effect. The Labor Department reporting the prices were up 2.7% in July compared to one year ago. Core inflation, which includes more volatile food and energy prices, climbed to 3.1% overall. Prices, though, have been slowly ticking up.
Wall street like the numbers though, with stocks rising on the hope that inflation is low enough that it won't disrupt the Federal Reserve's plans to cut rates. Some economists, meanwhile, worry that today's CPI numbers may be among the last reliable reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics with President Trump announcing last night that he's Planning to nominate E.J. and Tony, Chief economist at a chief economist at conservative think tank and a long time critic of the BLS to lead that agency. In an interview with Fox Business just before Trump picked him.
And Tony called for a temporary suspension of the agency's monthly job numbers, which of course follows the President's baseless claims that the numbers were being rigged to make him look bad. NBC News Business and GAAD correspondent Brian Chung joins me now. So, Brian, what do these numbers tell us about the state of the economy and what impacts, if any, the tariffs have had on inflation? Yeah, certainly there are so many undercurrents that these Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, for all the reasons that you just outlined, strip out the economic implications of everything.
The numbers that we got this morning show that prices in America are rising and they're rising at a rate of 2.7%. That's how much prices rose in July of this year compared to July of last year. And you can see that it's going the opposite direction of where we want it to. We want inflation to go down and it was doing that at the beginning of this year.
It's kind of going the other way now. Here's the interesting thing about this report is that really the categories that we experience the most closely in terms of, yeah, we might notice price increases in food, energy and also the cost of just putting them roof over your head right now. Some mortgage payments. They look pretty good in this report.
These are monthly changes that you're looking at. Food prices basically went sideways between June and July. Energy costs even went down by 1.1%. Shelter costs basically staying at the same pace of 2/10 of a percent.
But there were some goods categories, like furniture, that did see increases, which some economists are saying could be related to the tariffs. You didn't see it in all categories and you didn't see it in especially the categories that you might think would have been most impacted by the tariffs so far. I think about cars coming from Canada, clothing coming in from Vietnam, cheese coming in from the European Union. When you look at the monthly rates of change, they basically went sideways.
No change for new car prices, 1/10 of a percent, respectively, for clothing and for cheese. But I want to point out these are tariffs that haven't been impacted yet and they would not have been seen in this report because it covers the month of July. When did a lot of these tariffs begin? They began last week.
So it's going to take some time to bleed through. The one category where we did see inflation, coffee beans, up 2.3% in just one month. That is in part because of a drought that's happening worldwide. So let's talk now about the revenue this is bringing in the government.
The government revenue rose nearly $28 billion last month. We have the idea who's absorbing that cost. Yeah, that roughly $30 billion was a similar case that we saw in the month prior to that as well. These are record numbers that we're seeing.
But again, the question is who is paying that tariff revenue? When you take a look at some of these tariffs, which just went into effect last week, the way that this works is that once something gets pulled off a boat after midnight last Thursday, well, now it's going to face these levies of 20%, let's say, for example, from Vietnam or 15% coming in from the European Union. It's an American importing company that's going to pay that cost. The question is, does that company choose to eat it in the form of lower profits or do they pass that on to the American consumer in the form of a higher price?
That's why we all see this in the data. Yeah. Because companies are trying to reason through that they might take it on the chain, it might be months before they pass it on to consumers. But make no mistake, in almost all cases, it's going to be American companies paying for it, not other countries.
Okay. Brian. Sean, thank you for your reporting. I'm joined by Erica Groschen, who served as commissioner of Labor Statistics during the Obama administration.
She's also the former vice president of the Federal Reserve bank of New York. Erica, thanks for being here. Just first, your initial reaction to Trump's pick of E.J. antonio to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics?
Well, I'd say that my first reaction was who? I just, I'm not all familiar with him or his work. They're not well known in the business, academic or public service communities. So that was my first reaction.
And what I've learned since then is that his pretty much all of his writing has been in service of a policy position rather than the more technical academic writing that would be typical of former BLS commissioners. So would you say then you have equal parts concerned about his lack of experience and his partisan tilt? Is there one that makes you more concerned over another? No.
I mean, the things that we're looking, you know, that I'm looking for and that my successor, Bill beach and I have, you know, talked about as being important to being able to do a good job at bls. And granted, nobody has all of these things. Right. But we're looking for, you know, we talked about this.
We wanted for the sake of bls. Right. We wanted qualifications that could really shore up trust in the BLS's credibility and excellence. So this includes things like management experience, but also expertise in economic statistics with a respect of other experts, familiarity with the BLS and its products, engagement with the statistical agency so that, you know, what they're, how they do what they do and why and a commitment to following the principles and practices for federal students Statistical Agency, which is this kind of flagship publication of the Committee on National Statistics, which guides the norms under which the statistical agencies practice.
It's interesting that you point to credibility being the number one concern you may have among your top concerns because that's been the Trump administration's biggest critique of the BLS is that they can't trust their figures. And Anthony, or Antonio, I should say himself, have suggested pausing the release of the monthly jobs reports until the data can be proven to be more accurate. I want to read to you what he told Fox Business. He said how on earth are businesses supposed to plan or how is the Fed supposed to conduct monetary policy when they don't know how many jobs are being added or lost in our economy until it is corrected?
The BLS should suspend issuing the ones the job reports, but keep publishing the more accurate, the less timely quarterly data. Does the BS commissioner even have the authority to do this? So before January I would have said no. I mean that's a legal question.
Now that I'm not qualified to answer, I suppose. But in the previous norms that we had in place, I would have confidently said no, they can't do that. Now I don't know if the president decides to issue a directive saying we're going to stop the release of this, I have no idea exactly what would happen on the legal front. But I do know that it would be very disruptive to financial markets, to our international standing, to the businesses that rely on this information and to the credibility of the entire statistical system.
So yes, I guess that's my, you know, to stay on this theme of credibility and the importance of being able to trust this data. If somehow that credibility is undermined, where would we see that evidence that the information isn't culture, a market reaction? Is there some other metric by which we could judge the information that's coming out of bls? So what would be the signs?
I think the first signs would be a disruption within the agency itself because these are really the most dedicated data nerds on the face of the earth. Totally world class expertise and world class dedication to the integrity of the numbers. And so you would get pushback, leaks, resignations, whistleblowing. There would be because it could not be done subtly or easily because all of the methods in the process for producing the data and it's much more factory like than most people realize.
All of that is baked in the cake because remember, they have to do it over the course of a few days every month. And so this is a highly automated, orchestrated process. Any disruption of which would be easily noticeable to the staff. And they would, if they felt that it was damaging the integrity of the system, they would resist it.
And then outsiders, I think would probably key off of that more than anything. But if you got, for example, a delay in the production of these statistics and remember, they have not been delayed for anything other than government shutdowns, you know, for in recent memory. Right. So the BLS manages to get it out no matter what.
And if there were a delay, then that would be also a signal that something was not going right. And the reasons allowed for a delay in the OMB statistical policy directives do not include a time to fudge the numbers. Okay, Erica Grosser, we're going to have to leave. Thank you so much for your time.
You're welcome. Up next, clash of the candidates. New York City mural contenders Cuomo and Mondami spar over President Trump as new poll shows McDonald with a double digit lead over the field. Our analyst ex you're watching through the press now.
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Democrats responding to President Trump's deployment of National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. and his threat to target other major cities. But they don't appear to have one unified message. As we mentioned, DC's Mayor Bowser is taking more measured approach trying to coordinate with the Trump administration while Senate minor leader Chachi recalled a political ploy and attempt to distract from the president's other scandals.
While California Governor Gavin Newsom is warning President Trump is gaslighting his way into militarizing any city that he wants. Joining me now to talk about all this is our panel. Julian Manchester is the national political reporter at the Hill, Cornell Belcher, Democratic strategist and an NBC News political analyst and Stephen Hay, the editor and CEO of the Dispatch, and he's also an NBC News contributor. So, Julia, let's talk about this interesting dynamic that Mayor Bowser finds herself in in the president's response to all this.
Why do you think President Trump has decided now is the time to tackle what he thinks is a real crime problem? Well, the Timing of this is obviously a huge part of it. It comes as we've had less than desirable economic numbers come out as the Trump administration is really trying to tout economic growth under his administration, we've seen that inflation remain pretty steady today. We've seen what roughly 100,000 jobs were added in July.
So not as positive as Republicans want. On top of that, you also have the Epstein files plaguing the Trump administration. President Trump asked about that constantly. So I think what you're seeing and what a lot of Democrats I talk to tell me is that President Trump is going to a safe issue for Republicans and that is crime and law and order.
And even though we see violent crime down here in D.C. there' perception that crime is still an issue in this city. And there's a lot of residents that feel that there could be some improvements there. So you have President Trump taking this to the heart of the nation's capital.
Unclear whether he'll move to other cities, but it is somewhat reminiscent from what he did back in June in Los Angeles and deploying the National Guard. And he be sending trap of Democrats here trying to debate them in this idea that they're trying to convince the rest of America that D.C. is a safe city when the perception out there may be different. Look, I don't see this actually in those sort of partisan political terms and notion.
I think American people, look, if you could just make up facts and use those facts, then to deploy the military, we're in a really bad place in this country. Barack Obama says, you know what? The crime is out of control in Orange county. Right?
Republican strong, Orange County's out of control. Miskiyevs then deploy the military. It's a real problem. But to your point, look, the president's rule numbers are said, and this is unfortunately the oldest trick in the political book.
It's from a dark, ugly historical. Well, where there's a problem, you can always scapegoat. What scapegoat? Black city, black crime.
It is just that simple, right? It is a. It's a classic scapegoat issue. If you look at last time he deployed military, he was underwear 13 points when he deployed last deploying IT underwear 25 points among independents.
However, among Republicans overall approving of it, it is a base issue and a distraction. I wonder those folks that live in this bubble, is this something that's resonating outside of the Washington D.C. metro area? Are Americans like Cornell and Julia are talking about, are they looking at this and seeing it as a simple law and order?
Type issue. Are there concerns outside of Washington about the broader reach of militarizing law enforcement? How does it play? You know, I spent the last week in Wisconsin and talking to people there.
People don't know what to believe. They don't know whether to believe what Donald Trump's. People who are predisposed to agree with Donald Trump tend to, tend to give him the benefit of the doubt. And the people who don't come with some degree of skepticism.
I'm sympathetic about the arguments that Cornell's magnetic. There's a lot truth to the things he's saying. Having said that, one of the things that Donald Trump is able to do and shown again and again and again on this issue and others is take something that has a kernel of truth and blow it up. So it's definitely the case that he's sort of exaggerating the problem, making up facts and figures, doing all the things that Cornell says.
That said, while crime has gone down over the past two years, it's worse than it is in many major metropolitan areas. It has been a problem many of us, and we've had conversations on this panel and elsewhere. No people have been the victims of those crimes. They're well publicized.
They're the kinds of things that, you know, other news channels or demagogic politicians can take and make a bigger issue. That's what he's doing. The president should be drinking the right. Correct.
You can have a crime problem that needs to be addressed and using as a political weapon. Don't politicize this and use it as a blatant sort of political weapon here. Look, the Republican House is now holding up a billion dollars in D.C. tax revenue.
Deal with this specific. If you want to help fight crime in D.C. release those funds, which we should put out our local funds as a D.C. taxpayer.
Crime is an issue. We've seen some real headway being made on crime that the mayor of Baltimore was on in NBC talking about this. We gotta have all hands on attempt to sort of take down crime with violence, intervention as well as policing, but also buying from the community, not just putting military on our streets. But you would agree, I think that Democrats have sort of created this problem for themselves to a certain extent by talking about defunding the police, in some cases disbanding the police.
There's this fight taking place inside the Democratic Party that I think lends itself to the kind of demagoguery that we're seeing from Donald Trump. It's not to justify him. He makes stuff up. But at the Same those kinds of arguments have been prevalent.
They create this opening for Trump to do it. And for our young folks who are calm agent that's listening home, that's a perfect pivot to make put us on defense because no Democrats are actually talking about the fun crime. No elected Democrats. Jefferson talked about it should never talk about.
No one Democrat leadership talks about the funding class. Not now, but it has been the case. I mean, remember the famous comments, the famous comments from Representative Spanberg saying, hey, I don't know why I hear Democrats talking about the funding police. Well, again, mainstream Democrats have never put the funding police at the top of the charts in the fact that we're talking about now as a beautiful pivot away from the president's overreach.
But let's talk about the unique position finds herself in. Right, because she's someone who does not in any way, shape or form feel comfortable with the federal government overtaking her police department. But she also says she's got a work with honor from rightly and it's not just on issues of crime and law enforcement, the home rule situation that she finds herself in, but she's also trying to to bring the NFL team back to Washington. And that requires Donald Trump's support.
She really has a difficult tightrope. She absolutely does. It was interesting to see her walk out of her meeting with Attorney General Pam Body and to see the two of them kind of striking a reconciliatory tone with each other. I think for Mayor Bowser, this is a case of, you know, I'm going to pick my battles.
This probably isn't one of them. We've seen her walk this fine line throughout the course of the second Trump administration these seven or eight months or so. For example, her decision to sign off on repeating the Black Lives Matter plaza by the White House is an example of that. So she definitely has a difficult tightrope, I think, in general.
And Democrats I've talked to today, operatives and strategists, they've essentially said, look, don't take the bait when it comes to Donald Trump on crime. Focus on kitchen table issues. This is obviously more national perspective than what Bowser is coming from, but focus on kitchen table issues like the economy, like health care, even corruption. Also say we should tell our viewers that coordinating between the federal, federal law enforcement agency is something that The Bowser and D.C.
government always has. So, look, this is actually having an impact on the New York City mayor's race so we can make this more NSL corner than we already have. This is What Andrew Cuomo posted on X yesterday, what you're seeing in D.C. today is exactly what will happen if Zoran Mandami becomes mayor.
Trump will flatten him like a pancake. Then he goes into saying about how he's going to send the National Guard into other states in New York City, can't afford rookie meetings on the job training. Is this a good line of attack for Cuomo? I'm sympathetic to the substantive line of attack that he's using on the front runner, but he's using it on the front runner because he's a new Cuomo trying to erase a double digit significant almost 20 point leading polls that Mamdani has.
And he's doing this. He's suggesting that Donald Trump is going to come in and beam. He's attacking him on renting stabilized run control departments. He's trying to make news and be tough and be the fighter that he was in the primary in any way that he can.
Talk about his poll numbers with our holster Cornell. I mean we have those numbers up there. He's at 44%. I mean his favorable numbers.
He may be among the most popular Democrats in New York right now, but Governor Hochul Le Schumer learnt Jefferson has all yet to get behind him. What are they waiting for? Well, first of all, I know we do polls and as a pollster we do polls way too much on television. 44% you get a long way, he's still a long way going and you get down the side of that data, he's still underperforming where Democrat nominee usually is coming out, coming out there.
So there's still some work to be done. There's still some votes there to be moved. I think we'll see with Andrew Cuomo as he's looking for a way to sort of hit the front runner and pull back some of that and sort of rally around the rest of those voters and still a lot of Democrats are hanging out. Okay, we're going to leave there guys.
Julia Quinnell, Steven, appreciate you the all being here after the breaks. Leave quackies at the big board to break down new midterm polling on the race for control of Congress and the Democrats political standing. Don't go away where it leaves your world up, ready to go. You're watching Media Press now.
Welcome back to 2026. Midterms can't come soon enough for Democrats looking to get back some power in Washington and the historical odds look to be in their favor. The last three times the new president took over the party took over the party out of power flipped the House control in the subsequent midterm elections. But Democrats are going to have to overcome some major headwinds as their party's brand struggles with voters.
Joining me now at the big board is my museum's colleague, Steve Kornacki. Steve, I'd say there's some good and bad news in recent polls for Democrats. Take us into these numbers. Yeah, right.
I guess the word that comes to mind is contradictory, a contradictory set of numbers here, at least on the surface. Let's show you what we mean here. So this is the image of the Democratic Party right now compared to Republican Party. And you can see, first of all that it's positive for the Democrats, 22, the Republicans 36.
This is from CNBC's latest poll. This is something that we were finding in our own NBC poll at the start of this year, the start of the second Trump term. Democrats much less popular, more unpopular than Republicans. And again at 22% positive, 55% negative, you're looking at some of the worst numbers the Democratic Party has had in terms of its image in decades.
So this is about as bad as it's gotten for the Democrats. And yet when I say contradictory numbers, this is what I mean. From this new CNBC poll, they asked about which party you'd like to see control Congress after the 26 midterms, and lo and behold, the Democrats are ahead here. They're ahead by five points.
So the party has not been this unpopular in decades and yet is five points ahead on the generic congressional ballot. Is that contradictory? Is that possible? How could that be?
We'll dive inside the numbers and this starts to give you a window into it. So first of all, we're taking a look here at Republican Republicans view of their own party. This is what you normally expect. It's overwhelmingly positive.
About 3 in 4 Republicans with a positive view of the Republican Party, single digits negative. There are some neutral. Now take a look. Democrats here, totally different story, totally atypical story.
We're not used to seeing voters feel this way about their own party. Less than half of Democrats have a positive view of the Democratic Party. A majority of Democrats have either a negative or neutral view of their own party. So that's why the Democratic number is so low, so particularly low.
There's dissent within the Democratic Party. But the key for Democrats right now, when you look at that generic ballot number I just showed you, is these are not voters. These voters who are dissatisfied with the Democratic Party, they're not defecting when it comes to the midterm election, at least not right now. Again, let's show you.
This is the generic ballot. Democrats by five points. Break it down two ways here. These are the folks who make up the 49% who say they'd like Democrats to control Congress.
Among Those voters, only 44% have a positive impression of the Democratic Party. 30% negative, 26 neutral. That's a coalition. It's not really for the Democrats, maybe as much as it is against the Republicans.
Now take a look at the other side of it. The 44% who say they want Republicans to control Congress. Again, overwhelmingly positive toward The Republicans, only 5% with a negative view. This is something we are not used to seeing, but it's an important point because we're watching this Congressional.
This is a generic congressional ballot over the next year. Plus, as 26 takes shape, Democrats want to see that generic ballot stay at this level, even be higher. This is important to keep in mind. Every time you see polls showing the Democrats with very low popularity number numbers, it doesn't necessarily mean.
That's what these numbers are telling us. Doesn't necessarily mean that they can't still win the House despite being incredibly unpopular. It's because the unpopularity is coming from Democrats themselves who maybe think the party isn't fighting Trump hard enough. Maybe they don't like the party's leaders.
Whatever their dissatisfaction is, it is not translating into votes for Republicans ride. At least not right now. Okay. Long way to go still.
Thank you for breaking that down. We appreciate it. Still to come, meet the Democrat reality in a special election race to fill Virginia's vacant housing. I'm going to talk to him live about his party's priorities and his vow to take on Trump at next month's contest.
You're watching Beat the Press now. Welcome back. And maybe the heat of summer, but in just a few weeks, voters in Northern Virginia will go to the polls to fill the seat vacated when long time Virginia Democratic Congressman Jerry Connolly died earlier this year from esophageal cancer. The field is already set for the September 9 race with former colleague, Chief of staff and Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw taking on former FBI agent and think tank staffer Stuart Winston.
We're joined now by the Democratic nominee in Virginia's 11th congressional district, James Walkinshaw. So, Supervisor Walkinshaw, I want to start with the president's announcement yesterday and the deployment of National Guard personnel in Washington. I know a lot of people in your district work in D.C. a recent Washington Post poll had 50% of D.C.
's residents rating crime as an extremely or very serious problem. Are folks in your district welcoming this crackdown? What's their response? I don't think folks in Northern Virginia are welcoming the crackdown.
I mean, look, I think it is not a coincidence that this announcement was made the same day that we learned that inflation is on the rise and prices are rising because of Trump's tariff policies and, you know, so called big beautiful bill. I think it's another attempt to distract from the Trump administration's failure to address the real issues that are facing folks across this country, which is rising prices. So if you were in Congress right now, how would you be responding to this move by the president? Well, I'll be doing what I've done today, which is speak out against it, highlight the flaws.
Look, we need our DEA agents doing their work to prevent fentanyl from getting into our communities across this country. We don't need them standing on the mall taking pictures with tourists, which is what the administration has them doing now. It makes no sense. And with respect to the D.C.
national Guard, you know, who are highly professional, highly trained, we now know that President Trump knows how to call out the National Guard. He should have done it on January 6, 2021, when one of the most significant crimes in D.C. history took place. Unfortunately, President Trump pardoned all the criminals who participated in that crime.
Your former congressional staffer. So you want to talk about the politics of this situation. For as long as I've been covering politics, Republicans have gone to great pains to paint Democrats as soft on crime. Now, despite some of these recent figures in major US Cities, are you concerned at all about the optics nationally about pushing back against what Republicans are painting as an anti crime effort?
Well, look, I serve on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. And we're very proud of the fact that we are the safest large jurisdiction in the United States of America with the lowest violent crime rate. And that's a result of decades of leadership from Democrats like myself and Jerry Connolly and others. So Democrats know how to keep crime down.
It means investing in our police departments, investing in our communities, building partnerships across our communities. That's how you keep crime rates low. And it's also a fact that there are dozens of Republican members of Congress who represent districts where the violent crime rates are as high or higher than that of Washington, D.C. right now.
So as the situation unfolds in Washington, the delegate in Congress right now is Eleanor Holmes Norton. She took office in 1991. She said she plans to run for re election next year. She'll be 89 years old.
Do you think right now that she's capable of giving the people the district representation they deserve right now? You know. Right. That'll be up to her and the people of the District of Columbia.
I look forward to connecting with her and engaging with her. I'm successful in this special election on September 9th and maybe I'll have additional thoughts on it at that point. Okay, let's talk now about the circumstances about your upcoming election. You're placing Jerry Connolly.
He sadly died of cancer earlier this year at the age of 75. Looking forward to the midterms. Should Democratic groups and voters consider the health of candidates before backing them? Absolutely.
I think that is a fair thing for voters to consider. And just with respect to Jerry Connelly, before the November 2024 election, he was in great health. As you know, he learned of his cancer diagnosis. Right.
The election and sometimes circumstances like that happen. It could happen to me. I'm 42 years old. I hope not.
But I think absolutely voters should consider candidates health, among other attributes and make the right decision for their district. You may heard our conversation with Steve Cornetti before you came on and show some new numbers from CNBC that just 22% of people nationwide with a positive opinion of the Democratic Party. How do you explain that? I think Steve did a great job of laying it out.
I watched the segment. A lot of that is driven by Democratic voters who, you know, support our policies, say they're going to vote for Democrats in the midterms, but are frustrated by the fact that they don't see enough opposition to Trump in Washington. And you know, I experienced that in the 11th district I'm running to represent. We have 80 federal workers who are uniquely under attack by Trump in the Trump administration and they want to see Democrats standing up and fighting.
I think the midterm elections provide us with an opportunity as Democrats to lay out a coherent national agenda. What we will do if we take control of Congress in January 2027. To that point, I want to put up something that New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker told the Wall Street Journal. He said the Democratic Party and Americans writ large have to find better ways to stand up and fight.
You seem to be agreeing with that statement, but tangibly, what does that look like? What does standing up and fighting mean? Well, one, I want to acknowledge that there are a lot of Democrats in Congress doing it. And over the course of my campaign I laid out a three step process of what I hope to do if I'm elected.
Investigate litigate and mobilize. I think Democrats in Congress can be even more aggressive in launching investigations and into the corruption, the wrongdoing, the incompetence of the Trump administration. I think we can do more to support the hundreds of lawsuits across the country that are at times slowing down some of the most egregious abuses of the Trump administration. And most importantly, we need to be helping to mobilize the resistance in our community.
Work with the hundreds of thousands of people who are organizing to stand up and speak out against what the Trump administration is doing. Okay, with less than 30 seconds, what should be HR1 if you're elected and a Democratic overhaul. 10, 20, 27. Welcome to me, Ryan.
I'm Ryan. To represent Northern Virginia and HR1 will be to delete Doge, defund Doge. The last thing we need to do is make Doge permanent. It's hurting not just our community, it's hurting the federal government's ability to accomplish its mission across the country.
We saw that in the wake of the floods in Texas. We've seen VA clinics not being able to serve veterans. So we need to endosh. All right, James Wolkenshaw, thank you so much for your time and we're going to invite your opponent on as well.
We're back tomorrow with more Mika Press Alba. Here's Hal Accent with more news. Right now, it's here. The Ford is a big deal.
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