Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Gabe Gutierrez in Washington as we continue our breaking news coverage of that deadly mass shooting at a Catholic church full of elementary and middle school students. As you just saw, we just got an update from Minnesota elected officials, clergy, and law enforcement officers. Two children were killed in this shooting and 17 other people, including 14 children and several elderly parishioners, were injured.
Police say the shooter was armed with a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol. And that the shooter fired from outside of the church through a window at the children attending the school mass. Here's the police chief in this morning's briefing and then just moments ago. This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping.
The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible. Police officers from the Minneapolis Police Department immediately responded, entered the church, and attempted to provide first aid and rescue some of the children that were hiding throughout the building while other first responders came and EMS responded to rush victims to nearby hospitals. Two young children, ages 8 and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews. The coward that shot these victims took his own life in the rear of the church.
That coward has been identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman. No prior criminal history. As to the weapons used to perpetrate this horrific attack, there was a rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol. All three had been lawfully purchased by the shooter.
At this stage, we believe that the shooter had acted alone. There is no indication of other suspects directly involved in carrying out this attack. And as students were being reunited with their families after the shooting, a fifth grader approached reporters with his parents and grandparents. He described in harrowing detail the moment the shots rang out and how his friend shielded him from the bullets.
We want to warn you that this child's first-hand account of what he experienced is disturbing. It was like shots fired and then we kind of like got under the pews. They kind of, they shot through the stained glass windows, I think. And it was really scary.
And then we went to the gym and then the doors locked just to make sure he didn't come. And we waited in the gym for more news and everyone was okay. My friend got hit in the back. Did he go to the hospital?
Yeah, he went to the hospital. What went through your mind when you saw that? I was super scared for him, but I think now he's okay. Yeah.
Yeah. Did you get reunited with your parents? Yeah, my mom was waiting outside of the church when it happened. Yeah.
And then what was it like seeing her? I was super happy because like I was scared that I wasn't gonna see her because I didn't know what was happening really. I was like two seats away from the stained glass windows. So they were like, the shots were like right next to me.
That's scary. Yeah. And you went under the pew after that happened? Yeah.
Is that what everyone tried to do? I think I got like gunpowder on my neck. Yeah. When you heard the shots, what went through your head?
I was like, the first one I was like, what is that? I thought it was just something. Then I heard it again. I just ran under the pew and then I covered my head.
My friend Victor like saved me though because he laid on top of me, but he got hit. Your friend laid on top of you? Yeah. And he got hit.
Is this something that you've practiced before? Yeah, we practiced it like every month or I don't know. But yeah, we've never practiced it in the church though. Only in school.
So it was really different. Was your mom super happy to see you? Yeah. Give you a big hug?
What was that hug like? I just felt like relieved kind of. Yeah. I was very happy.
Just heartbreaking. That boy is just 10 years old. We've also gotten emotional reaction from the Minneapolis mayor as local leaders confront the tragic situation facing their community. We need to be doing more than talking.
It can't just be words. There needs to be action. And when we have seen school shooting after school shooting, when we have seen churches get shot up by horrible actors, I think the impetus has to be on all of us as leaders to do a whole lot more. FBI Director Chris Patel says the shooting is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime against Catholics.
Law enforcement officials tell NBC News the shooter left behind videos posted online with writings and referenced suicide as well as extremely violent thoughts and ideas and an apology to their family. President Trump, meanwhile, has ordered flags at the White House and all federal buildings flown at half-staff in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting. He's been fully briefed on the shooting and a White House official tells NBC News that the president has spoken to Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to express his condolences. Joining me now is NBC's Shaq Brewster, who's on the ground for us in Minneapolis.
And also with me is NBC News national law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter. Shaq, I want to start with you. Walk us through what police say happened this morning. Yeah, and I'll tell you, Gabe, there's still a heaviness here in the community.
This is the area where we just heard from those officials. And it was this morning that they gave somewhat of a tick tock of exactly what took place at this church behind me. They said it was about 8 30 a.m. local time when a shooter drove up and before opening fire, actually barricaded, used a two by four, they say, to barricade and block off at least two of the entrances to that church and then started firing into the church through the stained glass windows there.
Inside the church was a welcome back mass for a group of students, dozens of students inside who you heard from that 10 year old fifth grader there. They ducked down. They were ducking under the pews. They were part of this participating in this service, and many of them got shot.
And all two were killed, 17 others injured and hospitalized. We know about seven of them were injured critically. So that's why you have officials here on the ground calling for thoughts and prayers for those who are still fighting for their lives in the hospital and then the others who are going to have those emotional scars for years to come. I'll also tell you that there are witnesses.
This is a residential neighborhood. People who either saw the shooter or heard the gunshots, who described it as a nail gun at first and then realized that something was wrong when they saw dozens of children streaming out, some of them covered in blood. We also learned in that press conference that this is going to be an active investigation. This is just one of the active crime scenes here in the Minneapolis area.
The chief saying that there are at least three other crime scenes at residential areas as they go through and pour through to see why this shooter acted in this manner. There's a manifesto that they said they're looking into. So a lot to come over why this happened. But right now I'll tell you a lot of heartbreak in this community as it deals with and copes with the loss of two students and several others who are fighting for their lives, Gabe.
And speaking of those fighting for their lives, Shaq, you mentioned there are several victims in the hospital right now. What are we learning about them or what do we know perhaps about those young children that passed away? The vast majority of those in the hospital are children, seven who were in critical condition. Each of them were children.
They were sent to three different area hospitals, two of them children's hospitals. So hospital officials aren't giving us any more details. We know that at least one has been released from the hospital. One child has been released from the hospital at this point, but we're still waiting to learn more about those who lost or those who are still fighting for their lives.
As for the two who were killed, the eight year old and 10 year old, we don't know the names of those two students, but that's definitely something we're hoping to learn more in the next couple of hours, Gabe. And Shaq, of course, the community facing so much heartbreak today. I understand we're also learning more about a potential gathering tonight. What more can you tell us about that?
Yeah, we believe there's a vigil happening this evening. I believe it's about 8 p.m. as the community comes together to mourn the two who were killed and really the heartbreak that they're feeling. While we talk about this school, it was the first week of school at this Catholic school, but the public schools here in Minneapolis have not returned.
Just imagine and think about the fear as next next week, rather, when public schools return, when you have the majority of students returning to class, what they'll have on their mind. minds, the city, the county hoping to give a space for that, a space for the community to come together and find a way to heal in the midst of this tragedy. Shaq Brewster live for us on the ground there in Minneapolis. Shaq, thank you.
I want to turn now to Tom Winter and Tom, we just heard from investigators that they said that they were limited in what they can say about a potential motive here about the suspect. But what are we learning about the shooter at this point, Tom? Yeah, according to the videos that we've watched and that have now been confirmed by Chief O'Hara of the Minneapolis Police Department, apparently this individual timed a video to be released right around the time that the shooting was to have occurred. Gabe, it lays out in a series of videos that have been posted prior to this, that have all since been taken down, lay out a series of disturbing thoughts and writings.
So basically what he's doing, if you were to hold up a book and just kind of go page to page and you would read a diary or writings, that's what a lot of these videos show, not all of it is written in English, some of it is written in an Eastern European language. There was actually a handwritten sketch and diagram of the interior of a church, not confirmed that it was the church that he fired upon today. Look, this investigation is showing a whole host of different ideologies. There's an affinity for other mass shootings.
There's suicidal thoughts. There's an apology to his family, as you mentioned earlier. This individual shows a series of ammunition magazines, and on one of them, it is written, kill Donald Trump. So there's just a whole host of things that are there.
That's why police are having a hard time at this hour saying, what's the motive? Who even knows what this person was thinking about? Now, the FBI is going to take a look at this, according to FBI Director Cash Patel, as a potential act of domestic terrorism and as a hate crime against the Catholic community. But as we heard the chief say at this point, they don't believe anybody else is involved and that they say that the three weapons, it was a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a handgun, a pistol.
All of those were purchased legally and all of those were purchased recently. So that's sometimes an area where you could see additional people being charged if somebody bought the gun for him to be able to use. But right now, Gabe, no indication that that's the case. And so the investigation into this individual continues.
And Tom, you mentioned something I want you to expand on. And again, I know it's very early in this investigation and it can be hard to nail down a specific motive. Sometimes there could be multiple motives here. But what are investigators thinking about that?
Could this be politically motivated? You mentioned some writing about killing the president. Where where does that leave us? Where investigators think how much of a motive do you think that may have been?
Yeah. So what typically will happen, Gabe, is the FBI will work with the local police department. We've seen these investigations in the past. The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit that studied a number of individuals like this that have been involved in shootings.
They're going to take some time and look through the phones, look through the videos, look through everything this person has said, and then figure out whether they have some sort of long running ideology or motive or whether or not it's just really all over the place and we'll never know exactly why. And of course, no explanation that we're going to get out of the investigation is going to be good enough for those families or frankly, probably for the rest of us. But that's what they'll do. And they'll take their time doing that.
And there's a reason why they do it, even if they're not going to charge anybody else. This has been very valuable research in the past as far as trying to teach people at schools, people that study behaviors of of young individuals in this country, psychologists, the types and certainly law enforcement, the types of behaviors to look for in terms of somebody that might potentially be a problem, somebody you want to take weapons away from, somebody that you want to intercede, somebody even that you want to talk to family about. So that's the research that will go into that. But that's work that's going to take some time.
Our law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter, Tom, thank you. And joining me now is Maderia Arandando, who served as the chief of the Minneapolis Police Department from 2017 until 2022. Chief, thank you so much for joining us here on Meet the Press. Now, at this point, what do you think investigators are zeroing in on?
Yeah, Gabe, thank you for having me on during this difficult time. I think Chief O'Hara's team of detectives and investigators, they are going to, as Tom mentioned, they're going to be sifting through all types of evidence at the scene, from the obviously the weapons purchase, also in terms of that vehicle. That vehicle, they're going to obviously obtain a search warrant for if they haven't already done that, Gabe. They're going to continue to see if there's any other evidence there.
Also, the digital forensics, social media, some of the videos that were already pulled and taken down. They're also going to be on the ground canvassing, talking to family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and trying to develop this profile of this of this suspect, of this shooter. And quite aptly, of this coward that Chief O'Hara has rightly named him. And so they're going to really do a deep dive.
Obviously, the shooter is deceased, but they need to. There's a lot of information that can be gained and knowledge from gathering all of this this information and evidence. And Chief, you're obviously familiar with that community. But as we just heard, police do say that the gunman opened fire from outside the building.
How difficult is it to secure to secure a facility like that and a school in particular if the shooter can just still hit targets from the outside? Yeah, Gabe, and that's that's one of the challenging things. You know, one of the things, sadly, that Mayor Jacob Fry had mentioned is that, you know, we are not immune to this in the state of Minnesota. And so our places of worship, certainly our schools, have gone under several layers of trying to make them obviously both welcoming for family and students and staff, but at the same time making them sure that they're they're secure enough so that they can prevent, hopefully, some of these things from occurring.
But based on at least the preliminary information, Gabe, at the scene, you know, this person walking in there certainly fully armed, taking shots, firing the weapons into the building, into the school through the windows. I mean, these are some of these things are going to be difficult, particularly this person did not have a criminal history that Chief O'Hara had mentioned that was known to law enforcement. So there's there's challenges in that. But certainly as part of the Minneapolis Police Department's investigation into this, there's going to be some some things that they can hopefully learn from this and obviously pass that along to our educational institutions here.
It's such a difficult situation moving forward. And one of the things that stuck with me is that sadly, that 10 year old boy that we just heard from, he said that they practice drills for situations like this every month in the school, but not actually in the church. So, Chief, I want to ask you, there had been some other deadly shootings in Minneapolis before this morning's tragedy. Has the city seen an uptick in violent crime in recent days and weeks?
Certainly, Gabe, to your point and question, your viewers may not know, but over the last 24 hours, it's it's certainly been violent in Minneapolis. As Chief O'Hara had mentioned during that last press conference, they've had three homicides prior, shooting homicides prior to today's tragedy at Annunciation School. And so Minneapolis, in terms of the violent crime rate, in terms of the data, it has been down this year, but obviously, certainly within the last 24 hours and now this tragedy at Annunciation, where we've lost two precious souls and still have young people, children and adults in critical condition. So, yeah, it's been a lot that Minneapolis, the city has gone through over the last 24, 48 hours.
Chief Arandano, former head of the Minneapolis Police Department. Chief, we thank you for your time. Thanks so much, Gabe. And we'll continue to follow the breaking news out of Minneapolis and we'll bring you any major updates as we get them.
Coming up, we'll turn to some of the top politics news of the day. And President Trump putting the pressure on Vladimir Putin. A staggering 50 percent tariff is now in effect on India as the Trump administration looks to penalize countries for doing business with Russia. With any progress on the peace talks stalled.
You're watching Meet the Press Now. Stay with us. And welcome back. President Trump's sweeping tariff hike on imports from India officially took effect today with goods from the country now facing a 50 percent levy, one of the highest in the president's tariff toolkit.
The rate was initially set at 25 percent, but was doubled to punish the country for purchasing Russian oil. As the White House tries to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin economically to reach a peace deal with Ukraine. Here's National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett earlier today. And the bottom line is that we've had long trade negotiations with India.
They haven't been particularly productive. And so it's still a work in progress to see where it's going to end up. But it's part of a program to put pressure on Russia to get a peace deal. Well, the U.S.
and India have yet to reach a bilateral trade deal despite holding five rounds of negotiations. Joining me now is NBC News Business and Data Correspondent Brian Chung and NBC News Correspondent 25% to 50% is going to mean more staggering price increases on the many things that we bring in from India. This is not necessarily one of our top five trading partners, but as one of the more significant, especially fast-growing economies in the world, there are a number of imports that we get from India that now could be subject to these tariffs. When you think about things like textiles, electronics, machinery, as well as gems and jewelry.
But I do want to point out there are two things that are not on this list that are worth mentioning as well. These are major exports from India to the United States, and that is pharmaceutical products as well as smartphones. So many drugs are made in India at a generic level, and the iPhone, in many cases, is made in India and then shipped to the United States. Those will not be subject to the 50% tariffs, and I want to point out that is because not necessarily of negotiations with India, but because of separate industry-specific tariffs that the Commerce Department is weighing on both of those industries, meaning that tariffs could be coming later, but they are not part of the tariffs that are being applied today.
You know, Brian, over at the White House, officials say that the president is always open to striking new deals. But really, are trade negotiations between the U.S. and India still ongoing? Could we see a reversal of this high tariff rate?
Yeah, we'll have to see, but what we do know is that the administration is clearly not happy with India's purchasing of oil from Russia. That is kind of what sparked this whole thing, where the president a few weeks ago said, all right, well, if they don't stop those oil purchases, we're going to ratchet up the tariff rate from 25% to 50%. So whether or not those conversations are ongoing remain to be seen. Apparently, there were these reported summits that were supposed to take place in India with their U.S.
counterparts that did not happen this week, and that's why we are here where we are now with the tariff rates having gone up to 50%. But as you point out, and as you've been covering, Gabe, the administration is seemingly always open to negotiations. So how long these are in effect is kind of the next question now that these are put into effect. So higher tariffs on India, but as of now, no more economic sanctions on Russia anyway.
Well, Brian, the U.S. has for years been working to improve relations with India, as it's not to mitigate the rise of China. So does this tariff hike risk pushing India closer to China? Yeah, well, look, when we talk about a lot of these trade negotiations, I think that we have a tendency to talk about things bilaterally, the United States and India, India buying things from Russia.
But we have to remember that the entire trade network is extremely complex. And I think when we talk about India's relationship with China, it is within the context of what they're doing with Russia as well, because they're part of this economic alliance known as BRICS. It's an acronym that stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. And by the way, even though those are the five nations that make up that acronym, there are a number of other countries around the world that align themselves with BRICS as well, seeing themselves as kind of these developing countries that can help each other out in lockstep.
So to your point, yes, if negotiations with the United States don't end up in a good place, well, yes, India could just further tighten its already strong economic relationship with China, which again is part of an extension of the relationship that they have with Russia, with Brazil, with these other countries. And that's another reason why, by the way, another country that also faces 50%, it is Brazil. The BRICS relationship is very much a part of this. Brian Chung, thank you so much.
And Danielle, I want to turn to you. We just heard, as we mentioned, from White House economic advisor Kevin Hassett that this tariff hike is part of a pressure campaign on Russia to get a peace deal with Ukraine. Now, are there any signs from Russia that this will actually push them any closer to a deal? Yeah, great question.
And I suppose part of the answer depends on what India decides to do next. Russian officials have said in the last few days that they expect India to continue to buy Russian oil. We've heard also from the Russian trade representative in India in the past few days. And he says, and I quote here, definitely there are some mechanisms on how to continue the supply of crude oil.
From the Ukrainian perspective, Zelensky is clear. He says that Russia has given absolutely no signals that they want to stop this war. In fact, they are continuing this war, he says, because they want to avoid negotiations and that that can only change with strong sanctions and tariffs, which we're starting to see now. You know, and Danielle, of course, we saw those high-profile meetings between Trump and Putin and Alaska and then Trump and European leaders here in Washington over the last few weeks.
But as you said, you know, peace talks seem to have currently stalled. At least, you know, we really haven't seen much movement. Now, the Ukrainian government reported today that Russian troops have pushed into a new region of Ukraine. What can you tell us about that?
The Ukrainian military has acknowledged that the Russians have entered for the very first time the region of Dnipropetrovsk. This is a key area in the country to the east. You've got Donetsk, which, of course, is occupied by Russia. And it's been reported, of course, that Putin told Trump that he would end the war if the Ukrainian leader, Vladimir Zelensky, gave up the areas he still controls or Ukraine still controls in Donetsk.
Now, the Ukrainians claim the Russian forces have not managed to gain a foothold in this region that they've now entered and that there is currently a lot of fighting going on. So we'll see what how this unfolds in the next few days in terms of the talks. We heard Vice President Vance over the weekend in an interview with Meet the Press, where he says, or he claims that the Russians have for the first time made concessions for the first time in three and a half years and that they are willing to be flexible on some of the core demands. He says that they've accepted that there's not going to be a puppet regime in Kiev.
He's also said that there is recognition now that Ukraine will have territorial integrity after this war ends. He did not specify, however, what the boundaries would look like in post-war Ukraine. And Serapina, that is and always has been a huge question. What will those boundaries be?
Danielle Homanjian, thank you so much. And still to come, new data on where the public stands on public safety as one in five Americans say crime is a major problem in U.S. cities. The panel's next.
You're watching Meet the Press now. And welcome back. We have some new insight into how Americans feel about the issue of crime as the president threatens to deploy more military assets to Democrat-run cities. 81% of respondents in a new AP poll say crime is a major problem in large cities.
A majority approve of Trump's handling of the issue, 53% in total, though his approval on crime was underwater in a Quinnipiac poll today. And 55% say the federal government's use of the military and the National Guard to assist police is acceptable. But the same share of Americans say it is unacceptable for the federal government to take control of local police departments. And the new Reuters Ipsos poll asks specifically about the National Guard's deployment to D.C.
And 46% say they believe troops should not be deployed in the nation's capital compared to 38% who support the move. Joining me now is the panel. Here on set with me is Daniella Diaz, congressional reporter for Notice. Simone Sanders-Townsend, former senior advisor to President Biden and Vice President Harris, and she is also co-host of The Weeknight on MSNBC.
And Mark Bednar, former advisor to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a principal at Monument Advocacy. Thank you all so much for joining me, Daniella. I want to start with you. What do you make of those poll numbers?
It's not surprising. It's clear that Americans are very frustrated with crime across the country, especially in major cities. You know, we've seen Los Angeles and Chicago and D.C. We're in D.C.
residents. We've seen what has happened post-pandemic here. But what I found interesting, too, is if you really delve into those numbers, Gabe, you see that there's a major divide between Republicans and Democrats and how they feel on this issue. Democrats saying that they oppose a lot of what President Donald Trump is doing on this issue and Republicans largely praising him.
Now, it's going to be very interesting to see how this plays out when Congress comes back into session next week. They've been gone the last couple of weeks in recess, but they've been hearing from their constituents in town halls, the few that have been having them when it comes to this issue. And you're seeing that constituents across the country are seeing what's happening in D.C. and sharing concerns, especially with Republicans, about where they are on this issue.
So this is not going to go away anytime soon. Yeah. And pointing out the Reuters poll has people not on board with what's going on in D.C. with the National Guard.
But what do you think these poll numbers mean for, you know, if the president, as he's threatening to do, is threatening to send more federal resources into other cities across the country? Well, if he sees that there's support in this and especially blue states where he does not have much a lot of support and he can try to do something good, it seems like he's very open to this. I mean, we're seeing that he wants to Well, is there a limit to what Pritzker would call President Trump as a way to fundraise to potentially run for 2028? I think what's also striking with regard to Washington, D.C., a poll conducted by WaPo a week or so ago showed that 17 percent of D.C.
residents actually supported it, which sounds really low, but President Trump got six percent of the vote in D.C. So in addition to me, that's probably all the contacts on my phone who voted for the president. We did hear Simone, you're laughing. I'll let you respond to that, Simone.
But he put that many more people support it, even in a liberal hotbed city like D.C. You know, what is very, first of all, our founding fathers, they thought about this, about the quartering of troops, about using the military to do domestic policing. And across the board, they did not agree. The Federalist Papers, number 9 and number 29, talk about this.
Literally, the Second and Third Amendments grew out of this debate about who should have control over militias or armies and troops and civilian control at that and keeping it away from one man. So what the president is doing is actually the opposite of what our Constitution sets out. But here's what's interesting about the polling numbers and the internal debates and people living in this city saying, well, yeah, maybe it's not that bad what Trump is doing, because, you know, I haven't seen a carjacking this week. The president is not, the people around the president are being strategic, in my opinion.
And I say that to say, there's just enough there there to have well-meaning people who otherwise would not agree with what he is doing say, okay, well, maybe it's not that bad. Same thing on immigration. That does not mean that he cares about crime because what we are seeing, particularly here in the city, is that this pretext of crime is actually being used as a crackdown by ICE. There are, you know, prior to this federal surge in D.C., Uber driver, Uber delivery drivers were not being snatched up by metropolitan police department.
They were not canvassing neighborhoods, literally asking people to show their papers. They were not standing outside of restaurants intimidating the workers that could potentially work in there. So this is actually not about crime, it's about control. And I think that's why J.B.
Pritzker is using that kind of language. Speaking of control, Mark, so to bring up something you just said, do you think it is okay for the president to test the limits, really, of power with regards to the executive branch as long as, in his words, he's being successful? Because that's what he was trying to argue yesterday. Oh, things are getting better.
Crime is going down. I can basically do whatever I want if that happens. He said, oh, I'm not a dictator, but then in the same breath, he kind of jokes about being a dictator. Is that okay to use that type of rhetoric, even if some of his supporters would say he's doing a good job?
Well, what we've seen in D.C. thus far, he's had a pretty good relationship with Mayor Bowser. She actually had a press conference today touting the crime statistics that have gone down in the previous 20-day block a year ago. And basically, she was saying about how she's having a good working relationship with him.
So in terms of how things are really navigating throughout D.C., he seems to be doing a really good job with a large support of the population broadly. What this means for law enforcement interactions in other cities, in other states, that's yet to be seen. Okay, so Daniela, we heard from Republican Congressman Mark Alford. He said at a town hall yesterday that he's not exactly okay with Trump sending National Guard troops to other states without the consent of governors.
Could we see Republicans start to push back on this or no? Well, to note, he's actually one of the few Republicans that is holding town halls. It's really interesting. He's doing 12, while a lot of his colleagues are not holding town halls.
So just want to note that. He tried to distance himself from Trump in these town halls, and that was one of the ways he did it. When you hear Republicans arguing that what's happening in D.C., and of course Mark could speak to this much better than I can, he's a congressional expert as well. When you see what they're saying about what's working in D.C.
with what Trump has done, they actually say we're okay with, for National Guard to come to red states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Ohio, and also try to clean up what's happening in those states as well. So you're hearing that they're largely praising the operation, but really it's unclear whether that's actually going to happen, where that funding is going to come from, what's going to happen after it escalates. It's costing about a million dollars a day, but I just want to reiterate, the National Guard is actually not doing domestic policing work. The people that you see with the metropolitan police officers are special agents.
We don't know where they work. Their faces are covered. These are not the troops. The troops are picking up trash.
They started as of yesterday. The CDC needs that too. Yes, on the federal grounds that if DoD had not cut the money from the National Park Service that had the people who were staffed and being paid to pick up the trash, the troops would not have to be there picking up trash. Like, he's saying he's surging troops to clean up the city and tackle crime, and that's not what is happening.
I used to do juvenile justice work for the bulk of my career. And the issue in D.C. is actually juvenile crime. How is the National Guard and targeting Uber delivery drivers addressing the issue of juvenile crime in the city?
Is that putting more resources into the judges? Is that putting more resources into prosecution? Carjackings are down to 87% versus a year ago because of this. Okay, well, Mark, I'll let you have the last word because we are out of time.
You know, we could always talk for so much longer here. Thank you, Simone. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Danielle.
I really appreciate it. And thank you all for watching. I'm Gabe Gutierrez, and we are back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now. There's more ahead on NBC News Now.
Stay with us.