On Thursday, President
Joe Biden
announced the first competent decision he’s made since taking office:
I support D.C. Statehood and home-rule – but I don’t support some of the changes D.C. Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections – such as lowering penalties for carjackings.
If the Senate votes to overturn what D.C. Council did – I’ll sign it.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 2, 2023
Biden is referring to the Washington, D.C., City Council’s proposed rewrite of the city’s criminal code, which would reduce the maximum penalties for violent crimes, including carjackings, robberies, and burglaries, eliminate most mandatory minimum sentences, and allow for jury trials in almost all misdemeanor cases. The bill is egregious and would undoubtedly make crime in Washington even worse, which is why Democratic Mayor
Muriel Bowser
opposed it and Congress is set to override it.
WHEN POLITICIANS FORGET WHO THEY WORK FOR
Washington has some local autonomy, but Congress has the authority to block city policies under the Home Rule Act. The House of Representatives voted to pass a resolution striking down Washington’s Revised Criminal Code Act last month, and the Senate is set to do the same as early as next week.
Leftist Democrats seemed to have been blindsided by Biden’s decision to support the override. To be honest, the move comes as a bit of a shock to those of us on the Right, too. Biden has spent his entire presidency thus far pursuing the progressive wing’s policy priorities, from climate religion to DEI to student loan debt forgiveness, so his willingness to make a public break with them on this matter is a relief.
It’s also politically motivated. If there was ever any question of it before, there should be none now: Biden is running for reelection in 2024. He is deliberately positioning himself as more of a moderate on crime because that’s what you have to do to win an election nowadays. He watched Gov.
Kathy Hochul
(D-NY) come within a few points of losing her seat to Republican challenger Lee Zeldin last November, all because Hochul downplayed the problem of rising crime rates in her state. And just this past week, Chicago voters ousted Mayor
Lori Lightfoot
, citing crime as their top concern.
It seems Biden isn’t willing to make the same mistake as his unfortunate colleagues. However, if there’s one thing we’ve learned from this president, it’s that what he says on the campaign trail is a very poor indication of how he’ll use his power.
