In a video that went viral on social media, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Washington, D.C.’s non-voting delegate, can be seen struggling to walk after delivering remarks at a press conference on Trump’s decision to mobilize the National Guard to secure the streets.
For context, Norton has been a vocal critic of the decision, calling the takeover “anti-democratic,” “counterproductive,” and a “historic assault on D.C. home rule,” while emphasizing its threat to the city’s 700,000 residents in a series of statements.
In any case, the footage shows the non-voting delegate concluding her comments and then stumbling off stage. The elderly delegate, who is best known for her woke policies, seems almost lost as aids leap to help her walk.
In her most recent remarks on Trump’s decision to take over local police, she used the federal takeover to cynically advocate for her own power. Norton whined, “We have made significant progress in our historic march toward making D.C. the 51st state, and President Trump’s comments, a continuation of the anti-democratic rhetoric from Republicans concerning the District of Columbia, despite their basis in falsehoods, is evidence of that progress.”
Still not done, she whined, “These types of remarks are attempts to remove what small measure of democracy the more than 700,000 D.C. residents, a majority of whom are Black and Brown, have. He deployed more than 2,000 National Guard troops, put guns in their hands, and sent masked ICE officers to forcibly take community members from our streets.”
Ironically, she complained that the president was using the situation as a political prop. Norton alleged, “President Trump has used D.C. residents as props in a political play to showcase his own power. While the president claims that federal control of DC is necessary to combat crime, his actions severely jeopardize public safety in the District.”
Concluding her comments, she claimed, “President Trump’s derogatory comments calling for a federal ‘takeover’ of D.C. are anti-democratic, based on misinformation, and belittling to the 700,000 residents of the nation’s capital.” In other comments, she said the takeover was“counterproductive,” a “historic assault on D.C. home rule,” and “more evidence of the urgent need to pass my D.C. statehood bill.”
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As we reported, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser took a similar line on the National Guard deployment. She said, “My message to residents is this. We know that access to our democracy is tenuous. That is why you have heard me and many Washingtonians before me advocate for full statehood.”
Additionally, infamous woke activist Reverend Al Sharpton slammed the decision to send in the National Guard. He declared, “Donald Trump was inspired to take this disgusting, dangerous, and derogatory action solely out of self-interest. Let’s call the inspiration for this assault on a majority Black city for what it is: another bid to distract his angry, frustrated base over his administration’s handling of the Epstein files.”
Watch the clip here:
However, despite the shrill and dishonest opposition, Trump gave a cogent justification for his decisive decision. He explained, “City government’s failure to maintain public order and safety” and crime rates posed “intolerable risks to the vital Federal functions that take place in the District of Columbia.”
Featured image from embedded video