President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to bring the death penalty to Washington, D.C. The presidential memorandum directed Pam Bondi, the U.S. Attorney General, and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, to fully implement the death penalty in Washington, D.C.
While signing the order, Trump once again said that after deploying the National Guard in the capital, crime rates have gone down. He said that there wasn’t a single murder in four weeks, an unverified claim.
“This is a very safe city now”, Trump said.
“This went from the most unsafe city in the country to the safest city in the country”, Trump said while making these unverified claims.
Trump said that female workers at the White House have been thanking him for making the city safer.
“Capital punishment for the capital city”, he joked.
The attorney general said that the administration is seeking the death penalty not only in the capital but across the country.
Last month, Donald Trump said he plans to bring capital punishment back to Washington, D.C., as he discussed his crackdown on crime in the nation’s capital during a Cabinet meeting.
“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, D.C., we’re going to be seeking the death penalty,” he clarified. “And that’s a very strong preventative. And everybody that’s heard it agrees with it.”
Capital punishment has been abolished in D.C. since 1981, when the D.C. Council voted to repeal it. The last time anyone was executed in the district was in 1957, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Trump also signed an executive order that says a proposed agreement on bringing TikTok under U.S. ownership meets key security concerns. He said that China’s Xi has approved of proposed deal putting TikTok under U.S. ownership.
