Oklahoma Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin was swiftly criticized after he revealed on Fox News that he breaks the law while driving in Washington, D.C., to avoid getting carjacked.
Mullins remarks came as President Donald Trump federalized D.C.'s police force and deployed about 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital this week, saying crime in D.C. is "out of control" despite falling crime rates.
Mullin told Fox News personality Brian Kilmeade that the crime rate in D.C. "would be three times higher than any other state" if you consider carjackings alone, claiming without any sense of his own hypocrisy that he breaks the law himself while driving to feel safe:
"And by the way, I'm not joking when I say this. I drive around in Washington, D.C., in my jeep and, yes, I do drive myself. And I don't buckle up. And the reason why I don't buckle up, and people can say whatever they want to, they can raise their eyebrows at me, again, is because of carjacking."
"I don't wanna be stuck in my vehicle when I need to exit in a hurry because I got a seat belt around me. And … I wear my seat belt all the time, but in Washington, D.C., I do not because it is so prevalent of carjacking. … And I don't want the same thing to happen to me what's happened to a lot of people that work on The Hill."
You can hear what he said in the video below.
D.C. requires drivers and their passengers to wear seat belts when in vehicles, and there is a $50 fine for those who don't abide by the law. This isn't to say that carjacking in the city isn't a problem—Metropolitan Police data shows the number of carjackings rose from 2020 to 2023 before beginning to fall in 2024—but Mullin didn't help his own argument at all.
People were quick to call him out.
Though Trump has said that D.C. is “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the world,” his claim is at odds with Justice Department data showing that the city’s crime rate hit a 30-year low last year.
MSNBC cited this data in its own reporting, noting that the overall violent crime rate across the U.S. is down 4.5% and down 26% in D.C.; that the homicide rate across the U.S. is down 14.9% and down 26% in D.C.; and that robbery rate across the U.S. is down 8.9% and down 28% in D.C.
Despite these facts, Trump insists D.C. is a more dangerous place than other major cities around the globe including Baghdad, Bogotá, Panama City, Mexico City, Lima, Brasilia, and San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.
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