19:14 BST 26 August
Trump calls for capital punishment in Washington DC murder cases
Trump’s cabinet meeting has been ongoing for two hours now, but so far we haven’t heard from the president on his firing of Fed governor Lisa Cook.
So far, he instead touches on a range of other issues, including crime. He responds to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker calling Trump a “wannabe dictator” for saying he plans to send National Guard troops to Chicago after deploying them in Washington DC.
“The line is that I’m a dictator, but I stop crime, so a lot of people say, you know, if that’s the case, I’d rather have a dictator,” he says. “But I’m not a dictator, I just got to stop crime… (Pritzker) should be calling me and saying, ‘Can you send the troops? It’s out of control.'”
Trump also expands on previous comments about potentially introducing the death penalty as a potential sentence in Washington DC, where the president is trying to crack down on crime and homelessnes.
“Anybody murdered… in the capital? Capital punishment. Capital. Capital punishment,” Trump says.
“If somebody kills somebody in the capital, Washington, DC, we’re going to be seeking the death penalty.”
Capital punishment was abolished in the District of Columbia in 1981, though it is still available for certain federal crimes. According to the DC-based Death Penalty Information Center, the last execution in Washington DC took place in 1957.
Image source, Reuters