What Next | D.C’s Senator Knew This Would Happen

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News, Daily News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Donald Trump was able to take over the Metropolitan Police Department and send in National Guard troops and federal agents to patrol the streets due to Washington D.C.’s strange, not-a-state status. One of the district’s (non-voting) Congressional representatives believes D.C. statehood could come in the backlash. Guest: Ankit Jain, U.S. Senator for Washington, D.C. since 2024. Want more What Next? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen. Podcast production by Elena Schwartz, Paige Osburn, Anna Phillips, Madeline Ducharme, and Rob Gunther. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	On Kit, can we start with, um, how do I address you?
0:12.2	On Kit, Jane, has a job that is both really important right now, and also kind of powerless.
0:19.2	Do I address you as Senator?
0:20.9	Yeah, I think Senator Jane is fine.
0:22.5	I mean, you can tell people when you're introducing me that.
0:24.5	Senator Jane represents Washington, D.C. in Congress.
0:28.3	But D.C., of course, it's not a state.
0:31.5	So technically, he's not a senator at all.
0:35.2	He's a shadow senator.
0:37.0	To be clear, he's elected, like everyone else, he just
0:40.8	can't vote. I mean, shadow senator is kind of a weird concept. Yeah, I agree. I did see it once in
0:48.6	like a clip I saw of my colleague where they kept the saying, so shadow senator, what are you
0:53.2	thinking? It was just kind of weird. I don't think. It didn't really work.
0:57.7	Shadow senators have been around for a long time. Before Tennessee or Michigan were states,
1:02.9	back in the 1700s, they had shadow delegates. Many of these shadow delegates became actual
1:08.8	delegates. But Senator Jane is serving at a pretty different time,
1:14.1	a moment when the federal government is using its special authority over Washington
1:17.9	in new and alarming ways.
1:21.0	I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime,
1:27.1	bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse.
1:31.1	It started last week when the president placed D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department,
1:35.6	the MPD, under federal control.
	...

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