Press Releases

Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA) today issued the following statement after U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, a Fox News host recently appointed by President Trump to serve as the top federal prosecutor for Washington D.C., announced that she would not enforce gun laws which make carrying rifles or shotguns in the nation’s capital a felony:

“What better evidence could you ask for that Trump doesn’t care about preventing crime in D.C. than an outright refusal to enforce gun laws? This is exactly the behavior we should expect from a president who put criminals back on the street after January 6^th, including some who carried firearms there illegally.” said Beyer. “Trump and Jeanine Pirro are making it clear that the point of their unwanted and unjustified occupation of the nation’s capital has nothing whatsoever to do with public safety or crime prevention. Worse, they are putting Washingtonians at risk by signaling that carrying dangerous, illegal weapons here will be accepted by a government that pardons criminal activity carried out in Trump’s name. This is disgusting and unacceptable.”

Rep. Beyer represents a Northern Virginia district in the U.S. House that sits across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. He has been a vocal opponent of the Trump Administration’s occupation and police takeover in the nation’s capital, and announced yesterday that he and D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton will soon reintroduce their legislation to require all federal officers to wear body cameras.

Beyer was instrumental in the enactment of 2020 legislation that now requires all federal officers and members of the armed forces, including the National Guard, to visibly display identifying information for each individual as well as their agency or unit when responding to a civil disturbance or constitutionally protected protest action. Beyer is a cosponsor of bills with Rep. Dan Goldman and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, respectively, to ban ICE from wearing face masks during arrests and to require ICE to wear visible and distinct uniforms at all times of action.