Dem Strategist Clashes with Scott Jennings over Washington, D.C.: ‘You Cannot Sit Here and Tell Me that I Don’t Know How It’s Affecting My Community’

JENNINGS: “I don‘t know why they wouldn‘t all need to be dealt with.”

BROWN: “Hold on, let me just jump in because you talked about immigration and then you brought up what happened in Chicago over the weekend. Those are two different things. The 53 shot in Chicago over the weekend. That is true. And on that note, ABC News had this headline: ‘53 shot over the weekend in Chicago as governor rejects Trump‘s threat to send in National Guard.’ If you look at it through the crime prism here, what do you say to people, Adrienne, who see that headline and say, well, maybe this isn‘t such a bad idea?”

ELROD: “Well, I think — look, here‘s what‘s happening. I can at least speak to what‘s happening here in Washington, D.C., where I‘ve lived for the past 30 years. You know, yes, crime is an issue here, but sending in the National Guard is not the way to solve for this. Put more cops on the street. Give the federal government and Washington, D.C., more funds to hire more cops so you actually have more community policing, so you have police officers who are integrated into the community that are helping to solve these issues of crime. Instead, you‘re sending in the National Guard, which is causing intimidation, which is causing a lot of discord among communities. We‘ve all seen the viral videos of people being yanked off of their scooters and thrown into cars with people in masks that you‘re, like, are these actually National Guard members? Are they ICE members? Who are these people? So, the end of the day, I do agree that, yes, it‘s politically good if we‘re going to talk about politics, politically good for Pritzker and, I guess politically good for Trump. But at the end of the day, Trump is trying to use the National Guard in a way that‘s not being received well in communities. And I think he is going down a very dangerous path. If he‘s using the National Guard for this, is he going to decide that he doesn‘t like the way the elections are being run in 2026 —“

BROWN: “Let me ask you, Scott —“

ELROD: “— is he going to use the National Guard for that?”

JENNINGS: “Can I just respond to the National Guard? You told me I’ve been here all month. I‘ve been here every week this month since they‘ve been deployed.”

ELROD: “I‘ve been here all summer, Scott, except for the last few weeks.”

JENNINGS: “Here’s —“

ELROD: “I live here in Washington.”

JENNINGS: “So, since National Guard has been deployed?”

ELROD: “Yeah. You cannot sit here and tell me that I don‘t know how it‘s affecting my community that I‘ve lived in for a very long time.”

JENNINGS: “Here’s what I‘m telling you. I‘ve been walking around here all weekend and every week for the last several weeks since they‘ve been deployed. Here‘s what I‘ve seen. I‘ve seen extremely friendly National Guard members having extremely friendly interactions. I‘ve seen them pose for numerous pictures. Other than a few soreheads out doing protesting, who tend to protest everything, I think they have been extremely well received from my observations, and they‘ve been quite a bit. I‘ve been here for most of the last month.”

ELROD: “Yeah, but is that good use of our National Guard —“

JENNINGS: “Yeah.”

ELROD: “— to come into communities —“

JENNINGS: “We‘ve arrested thousands of criminals, taken illegal guns off the street, picked up illegal aliens, and gotten some pretty bad characters gone.”

ELROD: “And intimidated people in communities and created just discord across —“

JENNINGS: “Who is intimidated?”

ELROD: “People who are wondering why there’s a police state in Washington, D.C.”