Can Washington D.C. Be Granted Statehood Without a Constitutional Amendment?

The Rich Zeoli Show

Audacy

News

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 2: 4:00pm- On Monday, President Donald Trump announced a 30-day federal takeover of Washington D.C.’s police department—while simultaneously deploying 800 National Guard troops—to fight violent crime in the nation’s capital. In response, Mayor Muriel Bowser has responded by insisting D.C. needs “full statehood.” However, Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 (the “District Clause”) gives Congress exclusive legislative authority over the federal district that serves as the nation’s capital. The framers intentionally set it apart from any state to avoid a single state from having undue influence over the federal government. While Congress could grant D.C. certain state-like powers through legislation, turning it into a state outright would remove it from the federal district—something many legal scholars believe can’t be done without amending the Constitution’s “District Clause.” 4:10pm While speaking with the press on Monday, President Donald Trump previewed his Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin—noting that he will insist “you’ve got to end this war.” 4:30pm- Restaurants are shrinking portion sizes in reaction to Ozempic user preferences, Rosie O’Donnell releases a cryptic video to social media, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is 71—and ripped! Plus, never eat a potato chip cooked in olestra oil…unless you don’t mind “leakage.” 4:50pm- While speaking with Maria Bartiromo on Fox News, Vice President JD Vance argued that “California has way more House seats than it should because they have such a high population of illegal aliens.” Noting that “they get rewarded for welcoming illegal aliens into their state…asking the taxpayers of states like Ohio to subsidize them.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Rich Zioly Show podcast is sponsored by Mike Vaneria Jr.
0:03.6	With Osperity Private Wealth.
0:05.4	Hi, I'm Mike Vaneria Jr., wealth management specialists.
0:08.2	Make your retirement dreams a reality by creating your retirement plan today.
0:11.7	Call me at 856-252-0107.
0:16.0	Big show for you today, but an even bigger show on Friday when we're live in Cape May at the Grand
0:21.3	Hotel of Cape May, New Jersey. And I want you to join us. And it's our last show of the
0:26.8	summer, so make sure you come out and you join us for that. Okay, it's going to be a lot of fun.
0:31.7	We'll have a great time. Live shows are always a blast. And if you miss out, you're going to miss out you don't want to
0:39.2	miss out now the president was talking about his meetings coming up with vladimir putin and by the way
0:45.1	i should mention too you know the the the reason why the founders the framers of the constitution
0:50.7	did not want dc to ever be a state is because they would have undue or extra influence over the federal government.
0:58.0	They didn't want to create a special advantage.
1:00.0	It's controlled by the feds, as I mentioned.
1:04.0	It exists because of the feds and it is controlled by the feds.
1:09.0	Whereas the states created the federal government, the federal government created the District of Columbia. And the District of Columbia, some of Maryland, some of Virginia, is completely governed by the feds. They decide how much power gets. They decide how much power to take away. And this has been a seesaw that's been going on for a long, long time. But statehood, not going to happen. Not permitted by the Constitution and not going to happen. That doesn't mean Democrats won't try. They will try because it's a guaranteed, guaranteed blue state, guaranteed with a guaranteed
1:51.5	blue member of Congress, member of the House, and a guaranteed two blue senators.
1:57.3	And most importantly, it's a guaranteed three electoral votes for Democrats who
2:03.6	badly, badly need more electoral votes. So this is the issue and this is the problem and this is
2:11.2	why it should not ever be a state, among other things, among other reasons. But the president talked about the meeting with
2:20.0	Vladimir Putin. And this is going to happen in Alaska. It's going to be historic, no question
2:25.5	about it. And this is cut number nine from today's press conference at the White House. Take a
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