‘Americans Don’t Feel Safe’: Former Dem Strategist Calls On Party To Support City Crime Crackdown

Former Democratic strategist Dan Turrentine on “The Morning Meeting” Tuesday advised his party to welcome a crackdown on crime in cities following President Donald Trump’s moves to combat violent crime in Washington, D.C.

Trump announced on Monday that he was taking measures — including declaring a “public safety emergency” and deploying the National Guard — to counter violent crime in the district. Turrentine said on the 2WAY show that Democrats should argue his push “is insufficient” and introduce legislation for more police officers in other cities.

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“As a party, what I would do is say, ‘Look, I’m going to introduce legislation for 100,000 new police officers paid for with tariff revenue. This is a problem in New Orleans, in Memphis, in St. Louis, red cities, blue cities. Americans don’t feel safe,” Turrentine said. “The last like six or seven years for whatever reason, COVID, etc., crime has kind of come back to where it was in the 80s and stuff where people who live in cities don’t feel very safe anymore. We should embrace that. We should be on the side of common sense.”

“And I think I would say, like ‘Great, I expect now, Trump, you ought to send it into New Orleans,’ which is having another crime wave. Like I would try to go on offense and outflank him because look, he’s pulling the FBI off on stuff like immigration enforcement,” he continued. “So, it’s a twofer to kind of hit him, make him be insufficient and try to get back on offense on crime and safety.”