Trump's Plan to Fix Crime in D.C, Putin Summit Details, Cuomo Teases "Zohran's Law": AM Update 8/12

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Good morning, everyone.

I'm Megan Kelly.

It's Tuesday, August 12th, 2025, and this is your AM update.

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

President Trump declaring a crime emergency in Washington, D.C., announcing a federal takeover of the city's police department and the deployment of the National Guard.

So I'm going in to speak to Vladimir Putin, and I'm going to be telling him, you got to end this war.

Mr.

Trump also previewing his message to Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of their high-stakes summit this Friday over the Ukraine war.

And things get personal in New York City's mayoral election with candidates Andrew Cuomo and socialist Zoran Momdani trading attacks.

All that and more coming up in just a moment on your AM update.

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President Trump declaring Monday at the White House that he has seen enough in Washington, D.C.

when it comes to crime, homelessness, and general squalor.

The president invoking Section 740 of the D.C.

Home Rule Act to take over the city's police department, as well as deploying 800 members of the National Guard to the city's streets.

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.

Under the authorities vested in me as the President of the United States, I'm officially invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.

You know what that is?

And placing the D.C.

Metropolitan Police Department under direct federal control.

And you'll be meeting the people that will be directly involved with that.

Very good people, but they're tough

and they know what's happening.

And they've done it before.

In addition, I'm deploying the National Guard to help reestablish law, order, and public safety in Washington, D.C.

And they're going to be allowed to do their job properly.

President Trump also signing an executive order declaring a crime emergency in Washington, delegating control of the D.C.

police force to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Ms.

Bondi emphasizing the need to make the city safe for its millions of visitors every year.

Let me be crystal clear.

Crime in D.C.

is ending and ending today.

We are going to use every power we have to fight criminals here.

Families come here every summer.

Our museums are free.

We have the National Zoo.

We have the National Gallery.

D.C.

should be a place where everyone can come and feel safe.

Behind me and to my side, we have some of the best career law enforcement and prosecutors in the country who are ready to take this on.

We're going to all work together.

That's what we all do in this room.

We work together.

We fight.

Do not underestimate one person in this room.

We're going to make D.C.

beautiful.

We're going to make D.C.

safe again.

Under the Home Rule Act, the emergency controls expire in 30 days unless Congress authorizes extended federal control.

Mr.

Trump's foes pointing to statistics showing D.C.'s crime problem is on a downward slope.

Hillary Clinton writing on X, as you listen to an unhinged Trump try to justify deploying the National Guard in D.C., here's reality.

Violent crime in D.C.

is at a 30-year low.

CNN's Dana Bash using the story as an opportunity to bring up, what else?

January 6th.

I think I should note that the most violent moment in recent history in D.C.

was January 6th.

And it was an attack on the United States Capitol by a lot of people who were doing it in the name of Donald Trump.

And it included the people who were hurt, included members of law enforcement.

And of course, there's the race angle.

MSNBC's Eugene Daniels asking D.C.'s Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser Sunday if Donald Trump was targeting the city due to its high minority population.

One of the things that we have seen over and over from the president, from his team, you know, Stephen Miller saying it's like Baghdad and Ethiopia.

They seem to hold their harshest criticism sometimes for cities that are majority black and brown.

Do you see that and what do you think that means?

I think that

I have been dealing kind of with this issue for a number of years.

It's kind of easy fodder on the campaign trail.

But now we're talking about governing.

Mayor Bowser, reacting Monday after President Trump's announcement, also pointed to stats that show crime is down in the district, but affirming the city will comply with President Trump's orders while appearing to take a shot at the president's characterization of her city.

This year, crime isn't just down from 2023.

It's also down from 2019, before the pandemic.

And we're at a 30-year violent crime low.

We're not satisfied.

We haven't taken our foot off the gas, and we continue to look for ways to make our city safer.

The Home Rule Charter requires the mayor to provide the services of MPD during special conditions of an emergency, and we will follow the law.

And while this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we're totally surprised.

Attorney General Bondi calling newly confirmed U.S.

Attorney for the District of Columbia, Janine Pirro, the administration's secret weapon in combating D.C.

crime.

Judge Pirro appearing on ABC to push back on claims that the nation's capital does not need help to combat crime.

There is a crime emergency in D.C.

And, you know, people say, well, you know, crime is down from last year.

Well, so what?

Last year, crime was too high.

You know, we had the fourth largest, highest homicide rate in the nation.

I mean, so let's stop, you know, Namby Pambying this.

What we've got in this great city, and the president has a constitutional obligation to make sure that this city is safe.

And he's doing just that by today deploying the National Guard and making sure that there is enough armed forces.

forces,

I should say enough forces with the DEA, the FBI, the ATF, the National Guard to make sure that we send a message to young people and criminals throughout the district that we are watching you, that it's not going to be the same old, same old, that we are taking crime seriously.

NBC News's Washington affiliate reported last month that a DC police commander had been suspended and was under investigation.

for changing crime statistics in a way that made the city appear less dangerous.

Allegations he denies.

DC Police Union Chairman Greg Pemberton Pemberton, announcing his union's support for President Trump's plan, saying in a statement, quote, we stand with the president in recognizing that Washington, D.C.

cannot continue on this trajectory.

Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits.

For President Trump, it's not just about crime.

It's about cleanliness and the image of the capital city.

And we're getting rid of the slums, too.

We have slums here.

We're getting rid of them.

I know it's not politically correct.

You'll say, oh, so terrible.

No, we're getting rid of the slums where they live.

We're going to be removing homeless encampments from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks, which now a lot of people can't walk on.

They've been very, they're very dirty, very,

got a lot of problems.

But we've already started that.

We're moving the encampments away, trying to take care of people.

You know, my father always used to tell me, I had a wonderful father, very smart, and he used to say, son, when you walk into a restaurant and you see a dirty front door, don't go in.

Because if the front door is dirty, the kitchen's dirty also.

Same thing with the capital.

If our capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty.

And they don't respect us.

Coming up, President Trump gives a preview of what to expect at his Alaska summit with Vladimir Putin and insults fly in New York City's mayoral election with Andrew Cuomo unveiling his Zoran's Law.

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President Trump set to meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska this Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine.

There are still no details about the event, including timing or where exactly in the state it will take place.

But President Trump revealing to reporters Monday what he plans to say to President Putin.

Would have never happened.

This could end up in a third world war.

This could have been a third world war.

I don't think that's going to happen now.

But I thought it was very respectful that the president of Russia is coming to our country as opposed to us going to his country or even a third-party place.

But I think we'll have constructive conversations.

Mr.

Trump's saying a deal will involve some sort of land swapping.

There'll be some land swapping going on.

I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody to the good for the good of Ukraine.

Good stuff, not bad stuff.

Also, some bad stuff for both.

There's good and there's bad.

But it's very complex because you have lines that are very uneven.

And there'll be some swapping.

There'll be some changes in land.

And the word that they will use is, you know, they make changes.

We're going to change the lines, the battle lines.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously insisted his country would not trade land for peace.

President Trump did not directly answer a question about whether Zelensky would be invited to Alaska, but revealed that there are plans for Presidents Putin and Zelensky to meet with one another at a future summit that may or may not involve President Trump.

The next meeting will be with Zelensky and Putin or Zelensky and Putin and me.

I'll be there if they need, but I want to have a meeting set up between the two leaders.

Mr.

Trump also revealing he will communicate with Zelensky and European leaders soon after the Alaska summit concludes.

So I'm going to go and see the parameters.

Now I may leave and say good luck, and that'll be the end.

I may say this is not going to be settled.

I mean, there are those that believe that Putin wanted all of Ukraine.

I happen to be one of them, by the way.

I think if it weren't for me, he would not be even talking to anybody else right now.

But I'm going to meet with him.

We're going to see what the parameters are.

I'm then going to call up President Zelensky and the European leaders right after the meeting.

And I'm going to tell them what kind of a deal.

I'm not going to make a deal.

It's not up to me to make a deal.

I think a deal should be made for both.

President Trump adding Monday that he will know very early in his conversation with Mr.

Putin if an agreement can be reached, as only he can.

Well, we're going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made.

The New York City mayoral race heating up ahead of November's election, with former New York governor Andrew Cuomo attacking Democratic primary winner and socialist Zoram Mamdani for living in a rent-stabilized apartment.

Mamdani, who makes $142,000 a year as a state assemblyman and who is the son of a movie director mother and a Columbia professor father, lives in a $2,300-a-month one-bedroom apartment in Queens, an amazing deal by New York City standards.

Former Governor Cuomo saying he's proposing Zoran's law that would prevent wealthy New Yorkers from living in rent-stabilized apartments in a video that went viral on X.

Rent-stabilized units when they're vacant should only be rented to people who need affordable housing, not people like Zoran Mandami.

You don't need to be renting rent-stabilized units to wealthy people.

Otherwise, what you're doing is you're abusing the system.

I'm going to propose not rent that apartment by law except to a person who actually needs affordable housing.

And I'm going to call it Zoron's Law because it's an abuse of the system.

Mr.

Cuomo not offering specifics on the law other than it would create a quote means test for rent stabilized apartments.

Mamdani responding Monday.

What do we know about this policy proposal beyond the fact that it seeks to evict me from my apartment?

Like so much of Andrew Cuomo's politics, it is characterized by a petty vindictiveness.

What Andrew Cuomo is proposing, be it the rent control he cited, the rent stabilization he intends to speak about, is in many ways reflective of the fact that I live rent-free in his head.

Between now and November, you can expect a whole lot more of this from one man who stares dreamily at communist China and another who stares amorously only at himself.

Okay, that's just my opinion.

It's not fact.

Well, it was kind of factual.

It's pretty factual.

We report, you decide.

And that'll do it for your AM update.

I'm Megan Kelly.

Join me back here for the Megan Kelly Show, live on SiriusXM Triumph Channel 111 at Noon East, on youtube.com/slash Megan Kelly, and on all podcast platforms.

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