Senate overwhelmingly approves rebuke of D.C. crime bill that lowered violent crime sentences after it sparked Democratic fury when White House sided with Republicans
- The Senate overwhelmingly passed a GOP-led resolution Wednesday night to repeal a Washington, D.C. crime bill
- Critics of the bill called it soft on crime amid rising crime rates in the nation’s capital
- Most of the Senate Democratic caucus joined Republicans, with the final vote being 81 to 14
The Senate overwhelmingly passed a GOP-led resolution Wednesday night to repeal a Washington, D.C. crime bill that critics labeled soft on crime amid rising crime rates in the nation’s capital.
Most of the Senate Democratic caucus joined Republicans, as the final tally was 81 to 14.
The vote came after the chairman of D.C.’s City Council tried to pull back the legislation Monday so it wouldn’t get hit with a Senate rebuke.
A number of Senate Democrats pointed to this to excuse their votes.
‘Both the city council chairman – who has withdrawn the legislation – and the mayor have suggested that these changes to the D.C. criminal code are not ready for prime time,’ said a point statement by Virginia’s Democratic Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner.
‘We will vote for the resolution of disapproval and urge the mayor and council to work together to create a safer city for all, including the many Virginians who commute to D.C. for work every day,’ they added.
D.C., Council Chairman Phil Mendelson announced Monday that he has withdrawn a controversial criminal code bill, in a move meant to forestal a Senate vote on it
The Democrats who voted in the affirmative were following in President Joe Biden’s lead.
Biden had signaled that he would support the Republican bill to block the measure – – even as his administration took heat for violating its own admonitions about protecting home rule in the city.
The process had already started by the time Council Chairman Phil Mendelson wrote to Vice President Kamala Harris to try and pull the bill.
‘Not only does the statute not allow for a withdrawal of a transmission, but at this point the Senate Republican privileged motion will be acting on the House disapproval resolution, rather than the DC Council’s transmission to the Senate,’ a Senate leadership aide, who told DailyMail.com: ‘We still expect the vote to occur.’
The vote wrapped up around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, concluding an episode that exposed a rift in the Democratic Party over Washington, D.C.’s autonomy.
Without statehood, D.C.’s Home Rule Act allows Congress to review the city’s laws.
Mendelson said the Council, which backed the combined changes to the criminal code over the objections of Mayor Muriel Bowser, would modify to the law and submit it to Congress later.
Mendelson suggested that Biden and Congressional Democrats sided with Republicans to make the point that they weren’t soft on crime before the 2024 general election.
‘This is about next year’s campaign,’ he said. ‘That’s what this is about, it’s about doing videos that so-and-so senator voted to be soft on crime in the District of Columbia.’
A number of House Democrats who voted against repealing the crime law also expressed outrage at Biden.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had said that ‘if the bill comes to the president’s desk he will sign it.’
At the same time, she said Biden continued to support D.C. statehood.
‘He believes and he has for some time that DC should be a fifty-one state,’ she said. The move ‘doesn’t change that he encourages Congress to pass a bill that makes D.C. a state, and he will sign it.’
But she justified Biden’s move by saying that the president cares about the safety of Americans.
‘One thing the president believes in is making sure that the streets in America and communities across the country are safe,’ said Jean-Pierre. ‘That includes D.C.’
