When Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt joined Chuck Warren and Sam Stone on Breaking Battlegrounds, the discussion zeroed in on a striking fact: Washington, D.C. went seven straight days without a single homicide. At the same time, carjackings dropped by more than 80 percent and robberies nearly in half.

Schmitt pointed to a simple explanation — a renewed focus on law enforcement. Unlike the narratives that downplay the role of policing, he argued that the presence of officers and prosecutors makes an immediate difference. A relatively small number of repeat offenders drive much of the violence; once they’re off the streets, communities feel the change.

The lesson, he suggested, is that public safety isn’t complicated. For all the debates about “reimagining policing,” the reality is that putting resources into law enforcement works. D.C.’s week of peace was proof of that.

Schmitt also highlighted a major shift closer to home. St. Louis is set to receive the largest permanent FBI investment in the nation per capita, with agents assigned directly to tackling violent crime. Rather than adding bureaucracy, these agents will be embedded with state and local partners to focus on gangs, carjackings, and other persistent threats. For a city long plagued by crime, Schmitt sees this as a turning point.

Beyond crime statistics, he warned Republicans not to get distracted by cultural fights that dominate headlines but do little to improve daily life. In his view, the GOP should stay focused on core quality-of-life issues: crime, the cost of living, jobs, and border security.

At its heart, his message was clear. If Washington can see a week without murder through focused policing, then cities across America can too. The tools to restore safety already exist — what’s needed is the political will to use them.

Transcript

**Chuck Warren: **Senator Eric Schmidt of Missouri. He is the author of a new book, The Last Line of Defense, How to Beat the Left in Court. If you DM us on social media, the first five people, we will send you a free copy of that book. Okay, this is a two-part question. President Trump has got involved in DC crime. There has been... Seven straight days of zero homicides. I actually googled that on Google AI and I said and they said there's many reasons why this is happening.

No, no, no credit to Trump at all and Google AI but car jackings are down, robberies down, car thefts down overall, violent crime is down. What do you tell people who think that he is simply you know going above and beyond his power president United States and then after that, could you tell us a little bit about the historic FBI investment you were able to receive to combat violent crime in St. Louis?

**Senator Eric Schmitt: **Yeah, so President Trump has every authority to do what he's doing right now for a period of time in the District of Columbia. It's not a state. It's, you know, federal jurisdiction. And he said, look, we have a problem. It's a very dangerous place and we're going to try to solve it. I think what it's proving is that if you actually concentrate on law enforcement, it can matter. I don't think that this is not 2020 anymore. People are tired of this nonsense of being told that police are the problem.

I can tell you as a former prosecutor, there's no substitute for a law enforcement presence and prosecutions. Like you do two things. First of all, you get the bad people off the streets. They're causing a lot of problems. And it's really kind of a subset of criminals that are really the violent criminals. It's a smaller number than you would think. Like you know, some of these, like I would just talk about the Missouri list, some of these groups, they're gangs that do carjackings.

It's not, they're not like, you know, 10,000 people doing it. It's a, it's a relatively small number. Get those people off the street. It matters. And then also there's a deterrent there too, right? People understand that there are going to be consequences. So, so I think we're getting back to the basics on law enforcement. It's been very effective. You know, you mentioned it, there's been no, it's sad that that's like some huge achievement, but the truth is it is, there's not been a murder in a week.

Car jackings are down 83 % and robberies are down about 50%. So the proof is in the pudding. And this can be this can be done if you if you actually focused on it as relates to St Louis you always have our kind of home state priorities. St Louis has been played by most major cities with with violent crime you know cash fatale came in with their use confirmation process. He expressed an interest of getting FBI agents out in the field out of Washington out in the field I said, I got the place for you. So we've been working on this and it's the largest permanent investment of FBI personnel anywhere in the country per capita.

And I think that's a big win. These are not going to be paper pushers. This is a group of people who are going to be focused on violent crime. They're going to be working with state and local law enforcement to go do that. And I think that's the kind of commitment we need. And we can show that, if you have that kind of presence and you're focused on it, you can yield you know important results that matter to real people these are quality of life issues. And the Republicans we have to remain focused on quality of life issues but the Democrats argue about calling somebody latinx or whatever you want to talk about but let's focus on you know crime cost of living issues jobs the border things that people really care about in their lives.

Check out Senator Schmitt’s new book, The Last Line of Defense

Listen to the full episode of Breaking Battlegrounds anywhere you stream your podcasts!