What happens when a city actually decides to get serious about crime? Washington, D.C. just gave us the answer.

On this week’s Breaking Battlegrounds, Congressman Mike Simpson joined Chuck Warren and Sam Stone to discuss the stunning turnaround in the nation’s capital. Just weeks ago, Union Station and the surrounding streets were a symbol of urban decline — crime, chaos, and public disorder everywhere. Today, they’re clean, orderly, and safe.

Simpson explained how Congress stepped in with a slate of measures — including the DC Crimes Act, DC Policing Protection Act, Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act, and DC Judicial Nomination Reform Act — and backed them with boots on the ground. The result? Nearly a month without a single murder in D.C., something that would have been unthinkable just months earlier.

But this isn’t just about D.C. The congressman called out other major cities, like Chicago, where leaders still treat weekends with double-digit shootings as “good.” Simpson argued that public safety isn’t a partisan issue — it’s a basic expectation of government. Americans, he said, deserve to walk down the street without worrying about being mugged or caught in the crossfire.

This episode is a bold conversation about what’s possible when leaders prioritize security over politics — and why other cities should be paying close attention.

Transcript

**Sam Stone: **I want to move on to something else here, Congressman, because I had yesterday kind of a visceral reaction to a post I saw on X. It was someone who had just arrived at Union Station. I think it's Union Station in D.C. Pardon me if I get that wrong. But it was beautiful. It was clean. And they said, you know, I'm walking through here. It doesn't smell like urine and feces. Everything is orderly. There's nobody. You know, there's no chaos. It is a total scene change around D.C. with this.

These changes that you guys have been backing up in Congress with the DC Crimes Act, DC Policing Protection Act, Juvenile Sentencing Reform Act, DC Judicial Nomination Reform Act. How do Democrats not see this and get on board because I got to be honest I am just I am sick and tired of walking around our major cities and They smell like a sewer and they look like a trash heap

**Congressman Mike Simpson: **I agree with you entirely it is I don't know how they find themselves on the wrong side of this issue. American people want security. They want to be able to walk down the street not be worried about getting mugged or anything else and that kind of stuff. It is it's amazing to me and if you look at D.C. now compared to what it was a month ago before President Trump came in and took uh brought in the national guard to clean it up.

It's amazingly different people feel safer here if you talk… this town votes like ninety eight percent Democratic if you talk to most of the people here they're glad uh... what's happening because it's uh... it's uh... these people that were that were endangered uh... and we haven't had a murder in D.C. for I don't know like four weeks and that's that's that's stunning you know.

**Sam Stone: **You were lucky before to go four hours.

**Congressman Mike Simpson: **I know it. And so I have a hard time figuring out why the Mayor, the Illinois governor and the Mayor of are going, well, we only lost 11 people to murders this last weekend and 37 other shootings and stuff, and that was a good weekend, you know? No, that's not a good weekend. If I was them and I was mayor of Chicago, I would be calling the White House and saying, can you help us out?

And that'll be happening all around this country because that's what the American people deserve from their government and that's what we are to ought to be delivered.

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