A committee meeting on bills to exert greater federal control over Washington, D.C.’s criminal justice system erupted on Wednesday as Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) got in a shouting match, with Frost calling Higgins a “lapdog” for President Trump.
Frost had asked Higgins, the sponsor of a bill to allow police greater authority to pursue suspects in fleeing vehicles, why he was not calling for National Guard troops in his state as in the capital city.
“Louisiana is the state with the second-highest rate of deaths in this nation,” Frost said. “You are more likely to be shot standing on a random street in your state than you are in Washington, D.C. So my question is, where’s your bill for the occupation of the people of the state of Louisiana?”
Higgins responded that he is a Constitutionalist and supports his state’s efforts to combat crime there — prompting Frost to ask about California.
“I don’t live in California,” Higgins said.
The two congressmen then talked over each other with raised voices.
“You’re here because you’re a lapdog to the president of the United States,” Maxwell said.
Higgins objected to the name-calling, and called for Frost’s words to be stricken from the record.
Frost subsequently asked for his words to be taken down, but rephrased his charge.
“This body is full of lapdogs doing exactly what the president wants when he wants it, not pushing back,” Frost said, accusing Republicans of not knowing anything about Washington, D.C., and calling for statehood for the federal city.
Minutes earlier, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) got into a back and forth with Republicans on the panel as she questioned charging ahead on the bills without a hearing.
“I don’t think it is any mistake that this markup to vote these bills out of committee is happening on the last day that Donald Trump has ordered our nation’s national guard to occupy this city,” Stansbury said. “There are no coincidences here, folks.”
Trump’s emergency takeover of DC police expires at midnight, and the Army has authorized the National Guard through Nov. 30.
Stansbury asked Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) if the president asked him to bring up the bills without a hearing.
“We’re debating the bills. That’s what a markup is,” Comer replied, adding “I haven’t talked to the president … There’s always coordination. We support the president’s Make DC Safe Again.”
Higgins called Stansbury’s “display demonstrates the sort of elitist arrogant tone that Americans across the country are going to recognize as a hallmark of your party.”
