High-Ranking House Dem Compares Trump’s Crime Crackdown To North Korea

Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu compared President Donald Trump’s crime prevention efforts in Washington, D.C. to a brutal totalitarian regime on Wednesday morning.

Lieu, a member of House Democratic leadership, invoked North Korea when pressed by the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation if he viewed falling crime rates in the nation’s capital as a success since President Donald Trump took control of D.C. law enforcement. Total crime in the nation’s capital has fallen by 21% since the president’s crackdown, accordingto statistics released by the D.C. Police Union on Monday.

“If you want a police state with military folks running around all over the place, well sure, that’s going to reduce crime — but that’s not the free and open society we in America want to live in,” Lieu said. “I’m sure there’s really low crime in North Korea because they have military troops all over the place.”

“The United States military is designed to fight foreign adversaries not designed to be unleashed on the American people,” Lieu added.

House Democratic Conference chair Pete Aguilar, the third-ranking House Democrat, invoked Jan. 6 when asked about falling crime in the district since Trump’s takeover of D.C. law enforcement.

“If someone was serious about public safety though, they wouldn’t pardon 1500 insurrectionists on Day One who committed crimes,” Aguilar told reporters in response to the question asked by the DCNF.

Lieu and Aguilar’s opposition to Trump’s efforts comes as the White House is touting a significant drop in violent crime in the nation’s capital over the past several weeks.