As President Trump threatens more federal incursions into American cities in the name of fighting crime, a group of Democratic mayors huddled on a private strategy call on Wednesday to discuss their plans to fight back.
The call, hosted by the Democratic Mayors Association, represented a new effort from Democratic officials to wrest the narrative from Republicans on public safety, an issue that Mr. Trump has effectively used as a cudgel. It was also an attempt to coordinate on messaging as national Democrats have strained to mount sustained and unified opposition to the Trump administration.
During the call, the mayors in attendance discussed what they saw as an urgent need for Democrats to define themselves as strong stewards of public safety — before Republicans brand them first ahead of pivotal elections, according to a recording obtained by The New York Times.
Mayor Justin Bibb of Cleveland, who leads the association, peppered his remarks with expletives as he urged elected Democrats at all levels of government to seize what he called a “unique opportunity” to go on the offensive with “a serious-on-safety, serious-on-cost messaging strategy.”
“If we’re passive and hemming and hawing about democracy and all that stuff between now and 2026, we’re going to get our asses kicked. We have to start now,” he said.
Mr. Bibb said he planned to discuss the issue with Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, the incoming chair of the Democratic Governors Association, later Wednesday.
“If we’re on our heels talking about crime and not talking about how we’ve done the work to reduce crime based on a serious-on-safety approach,” he added, “we are going to lose.”
Mr. Trump, for his part, has plainly telegraphed his interest in propelling issues of crime to the center of next year’s midterm campaign. He has mounted federal crackdowns in Los Angeles and Washington over the objections of local authorities, and has mused about attempting the same in cities such as Baltimore, Chicago and New York.
“They are going to be trying to attack basically every single one of us and use every city, all of our communities, as political pawns,” said Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore, suggesting that Democrats could argue that it was the administration’s efforts that were undermining public safety.
Mr. Scott outlined several steps he felt mayors could take: be more visible and communicate what they’re doing to improve public safety, point out successes but acknowledge there is still work to do, prepare for potential legal action, involve police chiefs to stress-test crime statistics and line up messengers from the community.
Local Democrats, he said, could make the case that “if you want to see how to drive down crime, we don’t need talking points from congressional folks, senators, we don’t need the president, we don’t need anybody else.”
“We have the ideas because we’re the ones that have been doing it,” he added.
During the call, there was also a brief discussion of legal issues at play, though litigation options could depend on Mr. Trump’s own next moves.
The call drew a mix of mayors and staff members. Representatives from the mayors’ offices in Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington were on the call. Mayor Eric Adams’s office cited scheduling issues in explaining why New York City was not represented.
Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for Mr. Adams, said that Tiffany Raspberry, the city’s deputy mayor for intergovernmental affairs, instead spoke with Mr. Bibb directly on Wednesday, discussing the city’s falling crime rates. Mr. Adams has previously said he opposes a National Guard presence.
Mr. Adams has a unique relationship with Mr. Trump. Early this year, the Justice Department abandoned federal corruption charges against Mr. Adams after a sustained courtship by the mayor.
Despite the fact that crime has indeed fallen in many major cities, Democrats are navigating a difficult balancing act, trying to push back on the federal incursion into the nation’s capital without ceding ground to Mr. Trump on issues of public safety.
And their challenges are evident.
Mr. Trump has a commanding bully pulpit, polling shows that Americans tend to trust him on crime, and efforts at Democratic unity on a hot-button issue like public safety only go so far in a party that is home to both traditional tough-on-crime Democrats and democratic socialists who want to prioritize the social safety net.
In a sign of just how perilous this issue is for Democrats, an AP-NORC poll released on Wednesday and conducted after National Guard troops began to deploy in Washington found that about half the public approved of how Mr. Trump was handling crime issues.
His overall job approval rating has also ticked up compared with an AP-NORC poll taken in July.
The poll showed that 55 percent of the public thought it was acceptable for the U.S. military and National Guard to assist local police in major cities, though only a third supported a federal government takeover of major city police departments.
“The public’s perception is that if you send in the troops you’re strong, if you debate statistics, you’re weak,” said Mayor Alan Webber of Santa Fe, N.M., urging Democrats to avoid answering concerns about crime with data about falling rates.
The Biden administration, some Democrats now argue, fell into a similar trap, arguing about economic indicators when many Americans felt costs were far too high.
Mr. Webber said he hoped Democrats would be able to point to concrete plans for making residents feel safer.
“I don’t want to debate crime stats,” he said. “I want to say, ‘we hear you loud and clear. The way you feel is more important than what we tell you the stats say.’”
Mr. Bibb, too, stressed the importance of emphasizing the issues that felt most pressing in voters’ lives. Protecting democracy is important, he said, but “we’ve got to drill down to what’s actually impacting people every day.”
His comment reflected a broader debate the party has had for years, about how to balance discussion of what they see as Mr. Trump’s threats to democracy, with signaling that they are focused on improving voters’ daily lives.
“We need to be clear, concise and consistent in our messaging,” Mr. Bibb said as he opened the call. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.”
Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.
Katie Glueck is a Times national political reporter.
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