‘Let’s go to Union Station’: GOP strategist fires back after ex-Clinton spox downplays mugging

Republican strategist Doug Heye snapped back at former Hillary Clinton spokesperson Karen Finney on Tuesday after she asked how long ago he was mugged in Washington, D.C.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that he would deploy the National Guard to the nation’s capital. Democratic lawmakers and legacy media pundits have pushed back against Trump’s plan. While on CNN’s “The Lead With Jake Tapper,” Finney said Washington’s crime rate has dropped. Heye jumped in to relate his personal experience.

“The kids that mugged me five blocks from here two years ago did the same thing half an hour earlier, a mile away. And the cops said, ‘Good luck. We’re never going to catch them.’ One way — ” Heye said before Finney interrupted.

“How many years ago?” Finney asked.

Heye said, again, the attack against him occurred two years ago.

“Crime rates are going down, just saying,” Finney said.

“Great. Let’s go to Union Station, three blocks from here, and I can talk about the girl brawl that I saw two weeks ago. I can talk about the public masturbation that I saw. That was fun. I can talk about all kinds of public urination and all kinds of things that we see — ” Heye snapped back.

“So it’s cutting the budget for D.C., the way to make that better?” Finney asked.

“I think the best thing that this president can do, aside from declaring emergencies, which he does on everything, is if we want to fix this problem, yes, increase policing, but also appoint judges,” Heye said. “So when we do catch those kids who mugged me and somebody else on Capitol Hill, that they have a trial and they go to jail. We have a real judicial shortage here. That’s one of the things that Trump can do and can do it now.”

Trump, during his announcement, said he is invoking Section 40 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act and placing the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department under federal control to combat crime.

WATCH:

A slew of high-profile cases in recent months have brought Washington’s crime rate into the media spotlight. Trump on Wednesday floated bringing in the National Guard.

On Aug. 5, Trump took to Truth Social to call out Washington’s crime problem, highlighting how former DOGE staff member Edward Coristine, also known online as “Big Balls,” was “beaten mercilessly” by “local thugs.” In his post, Trump included a photo of Coristine, who was seen sitting on the floor covered in blood.

According to a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department report obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, Coristine was attacked after intervening in an attempted unarmed carjacking near Dupont Circle. An estimated 10 suspects fled the scene, with two 15-year-old juveniles later caught and arrested.

Democrats and legacy media pundits have used police data to show the city’s crime dropped 35% in 2024. Their reliance on that data excludes crimes such as felonies and aggravated assaults.

Coristine’s attack follows the fatal shooting of Republican intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym on June 30 and also two Israeli Embassy staff members who were gunned down in May near the Capital Jewish Museum.

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