From the New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is The Daily.

President Trump said on Monday that he would take control of the Washington, D.C. Police Department

and send hundreds of National Guard troops to the city.

Today, we talk with Devlin Barrett

about why the president says this is necessary

and how it fits into his broader strategy

for dealing with democratically held cities.

It's Tuesday, August 12th.

So, Devlin, since President Trump took office, we have seen him deploy the military for a whole host of reasons, securing the southern border, dealing with protests in Los Angeles.

And now it seems that he wants to deploy federal agents, including the National Guard, into D.C.

So just to start off, could you tell us what exactly is going on?

So the president is once again using the military to try to address what he sees as a looming domestic crisis. In this case,

crime in Washington, D.C. We're here for a very serious purpose, very serious purpose. Something's out of control, but we're going to put it in control very quickly like we did on the southern border.

So Monday morning, he holds a pretty remarkable press conference at the White House.

I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed,

bedlam, and squalor and worse. This is Liberation Day in D.C. and we're going to take our capital back.

We're taking it back.

And the president announces that he's sending National Guard troops to Washington, D.C.

And he's going to send additional federal agents, whether it's FBI or DEA or others, out onto the streets as part of this crackdown on crime

that he says is making the nation's capital unlivable.

Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth,

drugged out maniacs and homeless people.

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