Mid-Day Update: August 21, 2025
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Summary
D.C. under investigation for allegedly skewing crime statistics. A new poll shows a majority of D.C residents oppose the use of the National Guard to restore law and order in the city. Tulsi Gabbard says she s reducing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence staff by 40%. And Texas passes a bill that could cement the GOP's dominance in the House of Representatives.
Transcript
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Hello everybody, I'm John Fawcett with this Great America Show midday update for Thursday,
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August 21st. Happy Thursday, folks. The Department of Justice is investigating
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fake crime reporting data from the Metropolitan Police Department
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as Trump takes federal control of Washington, D.C. and deploys federal troops and agents to
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remove criminals from the streets. That's right, folks. D.C. under investigation for allegedly
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skewing some numbers. The D.C. crime numbers from 2024 show that violent crime was down 35%
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compared to 2023, and it's at a 30-year low. In addition to the overall violent crime reduction,
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homicides, they said, are down 32%, robberies are down 39%, armed carjackings down 53%,
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assaults with dangerous weapons down 27% when compared with the 2023 levels.
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Districts reporting the fewest assaults and dangerous weapons with burglaries in over 30
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years. This was according to a January press release from the United States Attorney for
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the District of Columbia. Donald Trump is saying BS on it, and now they're investigating. Take a
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listen to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on with Laura Ingram last night to address the matter.
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These allegations first came out earlier this year. This was after the Metro Police
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suspended this Commander Michael Pulliam for allegedly changing some of these crime stats.
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Can you tell us anything tonight about whether that goes further than just one commander?
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Well, no, I can't tell you for sure whether it goes further, but we're, as you just suggested,
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we're, of course, looking into this because the reality is that we know that D.C. has been an
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incredibly unsafe place to live for a very long time. And so in some ways, it's not surprising that
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we hear about reports of this type of conduct that suggests that D.C. is safer than everybody
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that lives here knows to be true. So we're investigating it, and hopefully we'll get to
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I think D.C. is ripe for an investigation, perhaps a few investigations. Vice President
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J.D. Vance taking a little trip to Union Station in Washington, D.C. this week was asked about a
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new poll that claims D.C. residents don't support President Trump's deployment of the National Guard
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troops to restore law and order in D.C. His answer, folks, did not disappoint. Take a listen.
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Polls show that a majority of D.C. residents don't support the Guard here. So what's your message
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to the majority of D.C. residents? I'm highly skeptical that a majority of D.C. residents
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don't want their city to be, to have better public safety and more reasonable safety standards
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within Washington, D.C. I don't know what poll you're talking about. Maybe the same polls
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would set Kamala Harris under the pocket of the road by 10 points.
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An excellent response from the Vice President of the United States. A new Washington Post poll
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shows that of 604 D.C. residents, 89 percent of whom described their neighborhood as
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excellent or a good place to live, 78 percent describing their neighborhood as safe, and
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82 percent opposing President Trump, show that 79 percent oppose federalization of police
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and deployment of the National Guard. That seems a little biased to me, and those numbers seem
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pretty dang high. I think J.D. Vance was right to question a Washington Post poll, let alone
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one, that shows 90 percent of people agree on anything. Almost near impossible to get
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that to happen. And there's a political earthquake happening. Tulsi Gabbard, this week, said she's
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reducing the Office of the Director of National Intelligence staff by more than 40 percent.
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Spy agencies are expected to go from more than 1,800 employees to approximately 1,200.
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Quote, over the last 20 years, the ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence
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community is rife with the power of abuse, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence,
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and politicization weaponization of intelligence. Tulsi Gabbard said in her statement, an estimated
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500 to 700 staffers expected to receive the acts. It'll save taxpayers about $700 million a year.
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I'm all in favor of that. And Texas's redistricting, approved by the House of Representatives,
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is going to add an additional five seats to the U.S. House of Representatives, predominantly to
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Republicans, cementing the GOP's dominance in the state's delegation, from 25 to a potential 30 out of
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38 seats. Texas House of Representatives passed this congressional redistricting bill by a vote of 88 to 52.
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Those Marxist Democrats who were on their little tour around America to New York and Chicago,
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wherever they wanted to go on that little private jet, well, they had to come back and vote. And
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now they got it. Folks, please be sure to join us tonight and each and every night for The Great
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America Show, 6 p.m. Eastern Time, Rumble, Twitter, YouTube, wherever you guys join us. We'll see you
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there tonight for The Great America Show. I'm John Fawcett with this midday update. Have a great day, everybody.