Top US Senate Democrat rules out congressional extension of Trump's DC police takeover
'We'll fight him tooth and nail. And right now, as you said, he can only do it for 30 days,' says Chuck Schumer
Members of the DC National Guard assemble with military vehicles in front of the Washington Monument as part of President Trump‘s crime reduction efforts in the District of Columbia in Washington, DC, United States on August 12, 2025.
WASHINGTON
The US Senate’s top Democrat on Thursday roundly rejected the possibility that Congress would extend President Donald Trump's forced takeover of local police in the nation's capital.
Asked about the possibility during an interview with independent journalist Aaron Parnas, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer flatly rejected the idea.
“No f------ way,” he said of Congress approving the extension.
"We'll fight him tooth and nail. And right now, as you said, he can only do it for 30 days, or now, I guess it's 26 or 27, whatever, and he needs to get Congress to approve it," Schumer said.
"And not only are we not going to approve it, but there are some Republicans who don't like it either. This is, again, just a distraction. He's afraid of Epstein. He's afraid of all that. And we are not going to give up on Epstein," he added, referring to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump last month found himself facing one of his worse crises to date when his base revolted over the Justice Department's determination that Epstein was not murdered, also denying the existence of a "client list" of high-profile individuals for whom the convicted child sex offender trafficked young girls.
On Monday, Trump took control of the Metropolitan Police Department and deployed 800 National Guard members to Washington, D.C., using Section 740 of the 1973 Home Rule Act as a legal pretext for federalizing the district's police. The article allows for a president to declare an emergency in the capital and assume control of the department for up to 30 days.
Trump said he may declare a national emergency to extend his hold over D.C. police even further, but also called on Congress to pass legislation to do so.
"If it's a national emergency, we can do it without Congress, but we expect to be before Congress very quickly," he said.
"We're going to need a crime bill that we're going to be putting in, and it's going to pertain initially to D.C. We're going to use it as a very positive example, and we're going to be asking for extensions on that, long-term extensions, because you can't have 30 days," he added.
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