Politics
The D.C. mayor race’s ‘delicate dance’
The D.C. mayor’s race is crowded. Seven Democratic candidates are dueling to succeed Muriel Bowser — a job that will mean sharing custody of the District with Donald Trump, and threading a needle between defending home rule without running afoul of the president’s popular initiatives touting safety and beautification.
The shift in management is certain to spark a flurry of new fates for the capital, spanning public parks, national monuments and the Metropolitan Police Department.
Janeese Lewis George, one of two frontrunners in the race alongside Kenyan McDuffie, said restorations like the Meridian Hill Park fountain represent “the type of investment we want to see the federal government making in our city.”
“My only issue is if this is one-time funding and not consistent funding,” Lewis George said in an interview, adding that the National Park Service, which aids beautification, has been notoriously underfunded, and many NPS employees were fired in the administration’s DOGE days. She wants to find a sustainable way to keep the projects rolling with help from the Interior Department.
Rini Sampath is a federal contractor who’s never run for public office, and the first-ever South Asian to qualify for the D.C. mayoral ballot. She’s skeptical of Trump’s efforts to make D.C. beautiful again.
“Trump is not necessarily the safest actor in all of this,” Sampath said. “He does so much of this haphazardly,” she added, pointing to other projects like the proposed 250-foot triumphal arch.
“There’s no such thing as free lunch with a relationship with the president of the United States,” Sampath said. “While you want to immediately go toward praising his accomplishments, I just don’t think it comes for free. I think there’s always some kind of a caveat.”
The fountain at Meridian Hill Park, known to locals as Malcolm X Park, shut off in 2019, just four years into Bowser’s tenure.
Vincent “VO” Orange, who’s spent nearly 15 years in D.C. politics, said “it felt like a gut punch” when the fountain was turned off. Orange, the former president of D.C.’s Chamber of Commerce and at-large council member, acknowledged the effort requires maintenance and funding to keep projects alive. But he’s “all in” for future endeavors.
Police reform has also roiled the race — particularly in light of Trump’s push to crack down on crime. There’s general consensus an MPD shakeup is coming.
Interim Chief Jeffery Carroll is likely on the way out no matter who wins the race. In a forum this month, zero of the six participating candidates raised their hand when asked if they would keep Carroll in the post.
Three of the candidates told Blue Light News they’d remove Carroll, one was on the fence, and the other two said their lack of a raised hand was equivalent to declining comment.
Gary Goodweather, a business executive who’s never run for public office and is third in polling, is one of the candidates in the removal camp. Why? “Primarily, controversy,” Goodweather said. “Drama.”
Carroll is part of an ongoing lawsuit filed by several Black female MPD officers who claim he and other high-ranking officers contributed to a “toxic work environment” with continuous systemic disparate treatment and discriminatory actions toward them, according to the suit. The events occurred when Carroll was MPD assistant chief. MPD declined to comment.
The MPD put 13 officers on administrative leave earlier this month following an internal investigation into how the department records crime stats — a concern that rose all the way to Congress and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro’s office. There are also questions about the MPD’s cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
McDuffie, a former at-large councilmember, said in a statement he’d “appoint a chief who restores accountability and transparency.” Ernest Johnson, CEO of the Frank Reeves Center nonprofit, said he wouldn’t announce his position publicly.
But not everyone agrees. Hope Solomon, a small business owner who’s never run for public office, is the only candidate who plainly told Blue Light News they wouldn’t fire Carroll, who she said faces “a difficult task.”
“It’s a balancing act with the federal law enforcement and then pressure from Congress about policing in D.C.,” Solomon said, adding she aims to boost officer recruitment and address staffing shortages that have stretched the department.
That mirrors the task that whoever wins the June 16 primary will likely face come November — with two more years of the Trump presidency to go.
“It’s a delicate dance that we are playing with the federal government,” she added.
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DALLAS — Andrew Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s point person on the 2026 World Cup, said allowing Iran’s national team to enter the U.S. a day before its matches is an example of the administration being nice.
“We want them to be able to compete,” Giuliani said in an interview Sunday in Dallas. “Even just coming in the day before the match, I think is another example of the goodwill gesture to the team.” He said 31 Iranian players and the team’s coaches have received visas and that the arrangements “should not affect the integrity of the team.”
The comments come after Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, told Blue Light News that Iran’s presence in the U.S. for the World Cup should be read as a positive gesture from his country, as Tehran and Washington inch toward an agreement on ending the war that began in late February.
The Iranian team is traveling to the U.S. today from Tijuana, Mexico, where it moved its pre-tournament training camp from Tucson, Arizona, in light of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Giuliani described the move as the “best solution for all parties involved,” noting that Tijuana remains a short flight from host cities including Los Angeles and Seattle, where Iran will play its group stage matches.
“That was a discussion from the top of [the] U.S. government, and with FIFA as well,” Giuliani said.The possibility of a politically charged matchup remains on the horizon: If the U.S. and Iran both place second in their respective groups, they will play each other on July 3 in the round of 32 in Dallas.
While defending Trump’s recent military actions against Iran, Giuliani also framed the tournament as a potential opportunity for sports diplomacy.
“This is a great moment, I think, for freedom-loving Iranians [and] freedom-loving Iranian Americans to be able to celebrate their soccer team coming to the United States and enjoy that, and look for the freedoms that can exist in Iran, right?” Giuliani said. “This can be one of those moments when you talk about sports diplomacy.”
EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey — During the World Cup, FIFA officials, law enforcement agencies and transit planners across New York and New Jersey will be keeping an eye on things from a constellation of command centers and control rooms.
The sites — spread from Miami to Trenton, New Jersey to Brooklyn — will house a small army of public officials ready to respond to whatever pops up during eight matches being played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
The number of distinct command or operations centers that will be in use is almost comical: The New Jersey State Police, the New York Police Department, multiple transit and transportation agencies in New York and New Jersey, Amtrak and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey all have their own spot on the map to work out of. Some these are permanent control rooms where officials are used to working in front of huge screens to monitor video and data feeds. Others are temporary or specific to the tournament: There’s an operations center near the entrance to MetLife Stadium that the host committee and others are using and FIFA has an operations center in Miami.
But each has a distinct function and some will be staffed by officials from other agencies to help with coordination. During the World Cup, a command center in Trenton is the big dog.
“At the end of the day, though, they all report in to the larger command center, which is the ACC, the area command center, which looks at the overall region, the impacts to the region for any events, the asset allocation at different sites,” said Lt. Col. David Sierotowicz, the deputy superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and World Cup incident commander.
Before the first match here on Saturday, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill paid a visit to officials at an operations center on an elevated platform in the MetLife parking lot. After Brazil and Morocco battled to a draw and the sun had set, one of her top transit advisers could still be seen looking out over winnowing crowds boarding buses and trains to go home.
And for at least part of the summer there will be yet another command center: Over July 4 weekend, when President Donald Trump is expected in town for a massive parade of warships and a military airshow, there will be a popup command center run by the federal government at Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan.
DALLAS — The Trump administration has elevated dozens of more complex World Cup visa decisions to senior leadership as officials try to balance FIFA commitments with national security concerns.
In an interview Sunday, White House World Cup task force Executive Director Andrew Giuliani said many high-profile or complicated visa cases have ultimately reached his desk for a final determination.
“Dozens, I would say dozens,” Giuliani said when asked how many edge cases had required senior-level review. He also suggested that some applicants who might otherwise face difficulties entering the country have received additional consideration because of U.S. commitments tied to hosting the World Cup.
“That’s part of the contract the U.S. government signed with FIFA,” Giuliani said.
In light of President Donald Trump’s tough border policies, these details provide a glimpse into the administration’s process of reviewing visas ahead of the largest World Cup tournament in history — a task that’s involved the State Department, Department of Homeland Security and the White House World Cup task force to keep the process moving.
Giuliani defended the decision to deny entry to Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan, saying it was made by Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
While declining to discuss specific intelligence, he said Artan had been communicating with “bad actors” shortly before he was scheduled to travel to the U.S.
Giuliani had conversations with FIFA about Artan’s case because the Somali is one of the organization’s referees.
“We talked about it, obviously, right? I mean, it’s one of their referees,” Giuliani said.
“There are some things we can’t talk about,” Giuliani said. “We want all those players and coaches to come to the United States of America, and officials and referees, as long as they’re not communicating and coordinating with bad actors.”
Giuliani emphasized that the overwhelming majority of players, coaches, referees and officials have received visas without issue.
Still, Giuliani said the administration’s red line remains national security. Referencing broader concerns about individuals linked to terrorist organizations, he said the World Cup would not serve as a justification for admitting people deemed security risks.
“The first thing that is so key to this tournament being successful is the national security of the country,” Giuliani said. “We’re not going to let the World Cup be the excuse.”
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