August 16, 2025

Saturday, August 16, 2025. Annette’s Roundup for Dem

Briefly, update from Texas.

Democracy won the first round in Texas.

Texas Governor Abbott starts Round 2.

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Wondering how we stop Trump from taking over our cities?

Rule #1. Don’t count on Republicans to stop Trump.

Read what congressman Jim Comer from Kentucky Chair of the House oversight committee, said about the GOP position on expanding Trump’s takeover of Washington to other cities. 👇

Rule #2. Go to the courts.

Where Things Stood in DC yesterday

Touch to watch. 👇

Federal takeover: The District of Columbia filed an emergency motion on Friday challenging the Trump administration’s attempt to take over the city’s police department, and a federal judge is hearing the matter. The lawsuit comes after the Trump administration moved to expand its control of the city’s police department by installing an “emergency commissioner” and revoking policies that limited officers’ cooperation with immigration enforcement.

The hearing in D.C. federal court is beginning. Judge Ana C. Reyes, a Biden appointee, is holding the emergency hearing on the city’s suit.

The suit argues that President Trump’s move to federalize the city’s Police Department was a “brazen usurpation of the district’s authority” that exceeded the president’s authority.

Judge Reyes is stepping away for a break, but makes clear that she’s inclined to block several aspects of the Trump administration’s order related to control over Washington’s police department. Instead of ruling right away, she encourages the two sides to confer right now to see if they can agree on some modifications that could hold for the next day or two, defusing the situation until the court can meet again to get deeper into substance.

“Short of me just saying ‘I’m enjoining the entire order,’ what would you suggest?” she asked the Justice Department before stepping out of the courtroom.

Lawyers from the two sides converged and left the room together, and what was meant to be a 15-minute break has now been going for 45 minutes, with the courtroom still empty.

Judge Reyes is now hearing from the D.C. attorney general’s office, but it’s already clear that she has deep doubts that the Trump administration has acted lawfully.

“It’s antithetical to the notion of home rule,” Mitchell Reich, a senior counsel with the D.C. office told her. “Local residents have local control.”

Judge Reyes replied: “I agree with you that they’re not allowed to take over the police force — and Mr. Roth, if I gave him truth serum, he’d probably agree.”

The City of Washington, D.C’s motion for a temporary restraining order includes a declaration by the Metropolitan Police chief, Pamela A. Smith, in which she said the department was unaware of the president’s plans to take control of the force “until he announced it at a press conference.”

She said that Attorney General Pam Bondi’s order installing a federal official as an “emergency police commissioner” also came without warning. “In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” Chief Smith wrote. (New York Times).

Rule #3. Go to the streets.

Rule #4. Elect the right officials.

Zohran Mamdani has been clear. “Resistance is the priority.”

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Hillary had nothing to worry about.

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See you on Tuesday. Moving home from Montauk on Sunday.

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