NewsNation host Leland Vittert pushed back on Democrats and other critics of President Trump who have cited the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol as evidence the president does not care about violent crime in D.C.
“Jan. 6 was awful. I was in the middle of it. I was confronted by the mob, on multiple occasions” Vittert said on his nightly show, calling the attack “a stain on our country’s history.”
“But it was four years ago,” he continued. “It has nothing to do with the current crime epidemic in D.C.”
Vittert’s comment came a night after he hosted progressive pundit Medhi Hasan for a segment on Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington, during which Hasan said of the president “if he cared about crime in D.C., why did he pardon 600 people who assaulted police officers?”
The host shot back, arguing, “You’re going to sit here and say, ‘if Trump cures cancer, Jan. 6 was terrible.'”
“The fact is you can’t have an argument about what’s happening on the streets of D.C. without going back to Jan. 6,” Vittert added.
Trump this week declared a crime emergency in the district, seizing control of the local police force and deploying National Guard troops to patrol its streets.
The move is being widely condemned by Democrats, who argue crime is down in D.C. and warn Trump is overstepping his authority as president.
