ABC News anchor Kyra Phillips used part of a recent broadcast to share a personal story about being attacked in downtown Washington, D.C., linking her experience to President Donald Trump’s latest federal crackdown on crime and homelessness in the capital.
Speaking during an interview with federal prosecutor Jean Pirro, Phillips described walking just two blocks from ABC’s bureau when a “half-dressed” homeless man, who she said “wasn’t in his clear mind,” suddenly jumped her. “It was scary… I’m not going to lie, but I fought back,” she said. Phillips recalled not seeing any weapons and feeling she had “no other choice” in the moment.
Phillips added that the attack was not an isolated incident for those living or working near the network’s offices. “We can talk about the numbers going down, but crime is happening every single day because we’re all experiencing it firsthand,” she said, citing shootings and thefts in the immediate neighborhood over the last two years.
Her account came as Trump announced what he called “Liberation Day” for D.C., placing the city under federal command and sending the National Guard into the streets alongside FBI and DEA officers. The administration says the move is intended to “clean up homelessness” and combat what Trump described as “roving mobs of wild youth” and “drugged-out maniacs.”
On its first night, the federal operation yielded 37 arrests, including four narcotics charges, and the seizure of 11 illegal firearms, according to the White House.
The president’s framing contrasts sharply with official statistics. Crime in D.C. has been declining since 2023, when homicides reached their highest rate in two decades but remained well below levels seen in the 1990s. Metropolitan Police Department data shows violent crime fell 26 percent year-over-year in the first eight months of 2025, with robberies down 28 percent. The city’s homicide rate also dropped in 2024 and has continued to decline this year.
At a press conference, Trump claimed that murders in 2023 “reached the highest rate probably ever.” When challenged, the White House said the statement was based on FBI figures, though the D.C. government’s own data indicates otherwise.
The decision to federalize local policing has drawn mixed reactions at best. Trump’s supporters believe this is a decisive action to keep the general public safe, but the timing is notable. Earlier this year, the Justice Department stated that D.C.’s crime rate was on the decline, so why bring in the National Guard?
Opponents of the decision believe the president is using the D.C. crackdown as a distraction from the way his administration has handled the Epstein story. The bungling of this story on a massive scale continues to hang over the White House like an albatross.
For Phillips, however, the conversation remains grounded in lived experience. “We’re all seeing it,” she said. “We’re all feeling it.”
