WEDNESDAY: DHS spokesperson "faceplants" again!

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 2025

Also, Washington's homicide rate: It's official:

"As Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, Tricia McLaughlin oversees the Department of Homeland Security’s public outreach."

In short, McLaughlin is the principal spokesperson for Secretary Noem. 

Early in the current reign, she gained a place in The Bungled Press Statement Hall of Fame with her claim that a Democratic member of Congress had "body-slammed" an ICE agent at a Newark detention facility.

Based on videotapes of the incident, it didn't look like anyone got body-slammed that day. But that's what the spokesperson said, and her dramatic claim created a lot of tribal excitement.

Actually, McLaughlin didn't gain her spot on Mount Rushmore for that statement alone. She went up on the mountain when she explained, a few days later, what she'd apparently meant:

“Body-slammed, body-rammed, punched, shoved, pushed—whatever you want to call it." 

Yes, that's what the spokesperson now said! That was her way of walking back her original thrilling assertion!

She had said "body-slammed," but it may have "shoved." It was all a matter of whatever you want to call it! 

(Meanwhile, did anyone really get shoved that day? We're not sure that anyone did!)

Everybody makes mistakes, as we've frequently noted. On Monday morning's Kudlow show, McLaughlin bungled again.

At Mediaite, Michale Luciano recorded what she said. Here's how his report started:

[McLaughlin] Faceplants on Crime Stats, Falsely Claims These Cities Are Seeing ‘Record’ Homicides

Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin managed to be drastically wrong during an appearance on Fox Business.

On Monday morning, President Donald Trump announced the deployment of 800 National Guard members to Washington, D.C., where he also deployed federal law enforcement officers and took control of the Metropolitan Police Department. The president said the moves are necessary to combat crime in the nation’s capital, and that this could serve as a model for federal action in other major cities.

McLaughlin appeared on Tuesday’s Kudlow, where the host asked about replicating the administration’s approach to D.C. in other cities.

What did she say that was "drastically wrong? Concerning  the possibility of President Trump eliminating crime in other big cities, this was the way McLaughlin responded to Kudlow's innocent question:

Well, of course, you look at Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, and New York. They’re also facing record numbers of homicides and violent crimes. 

I think it’s natural for us to look at. Could Washington D.C., if we really clean this up, if we can get rid of this plague of crime and violent activities that’s happening in our nation’s capital, could that be a blueprint and model in other communities around the country? 

It’s something I think President Trump won’t shy away from, but we’ll have to stay tuned.

That's what McLaughlin said. 

Are the cities she named actually "facing record numbers of homicides?" Luciano now called her claim spectacularly wrong, supplying this instant fact-check:

Regarding Los Angeles, in the first half of the year, the city experienced its lowest homicide total since the 1960s. Also, the rate of violent crime in general dropped in the city...

Boston, meanwhile, in 2024 logged its lowest homicide total since 1957 and saw a substantial drop in violent crime.

Chicago saw a 33% decline in homicides in the first half of this year compared to 2024. The Windy City is also experiencing a “historic” drop in other violent crime.

And in June, New York reported having “the lowest number of shootings and homicides in recorded history over the first five months of the year.”

McLaughlin's statement, which actually was drastically wrong, went unquestioned by Kudlow.

No, Virginia, those other cities aren't reporting record homicide rates. (Neither is Washington, D.C.) That said, this might provide an opportunity to see what the homicide rate is actually like in Washington as compared to some other cities.

In fact, D.C. does have a high homicide rate! According to one major data set, here are a few of the numbers:

Homicides per 100,000 residents, 2024:
Washington, D.C.: 27.3
Chicago: 21.7
Los Angeles: 7.1
New York City: 4.7
Boston: 3.7

Demographically, no two cities are exactly alike. But McLaughlin's claim about those last three cities was, in fact, spectacularly wrong. 

It's also true that Washington's homicide rate is quite high—four to eight times as high as the rates in those three well-known cities, each of which she herself chose to bring up.

Washington's homicide rate is high. So are a few of the error rates across the Fox News universe.

Also this: When a person dies, "what has gone is not nothing." Yevtushenko said that.