Veteran journalist Geraldo Rivera defended President Donald Trump's efforts to ramp up law enforcement in Washington, D.C., telling Newsmax on Thursday that people need to feel safe in the nation's capital.

"You can't have 200 murders in the nation's capital in a year," Rivera told "American Agenda."

D.C. police crime figures show an average of 202 homicides a year since Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, was elected to a second term in 2018, including a record 274 in 2023. Last year, homicides dipped to 187, still higher than any total from 2006 to 2019. There have been 101 homicides so far this year, 12 fewer than at this time last year.

"A hundred already in the first six or seven months of this year and [some] claim that crime is down," Rivera said. "Crime may be down if you include, I don't know, scofflaws or people stealing tires or something like that. But it's a very, very dangerous place.

"And the president very astutely has put the finger on it. Of all things, you need the nation's capital, the center of the free world, to not be a place where you're afraid to walk around at night."

Trump announced Wednesday he will ask Congress to pass a crime bill related to D.C. and for a "long-term extension" of the federalization of the district's police force, a day after National Guard troops were deployed. Under the Home Rule Act of 1973, the president can oversee the police for up to 30 days, but any extension would need congressional approval or a legal amendment.

Trump "has a very astute way of putting his finger on an issue that people care about," Rivera said. "And I think people care about the nation's capital.

"And interestingly enough, the most important, to me, evidence of the righteousness of this focus is the fact that the Metropolitan Police Department itself has endorsed this new federal scheme to use National Guardsmen and other enhanced law enforcement to make the nation's capital safe again.

"The cops want it. The 3,000-member metro force has said that they endorse it. Let's give the president his due. Give him these 30 days. Let's see what can happen. But I know that, when it comes to murder, you can't have blood flowing in the streets of the nation's capital when you want the world to visit Washington, D.C."

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