The New York Times reports:

When Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee, dispatched his National Guard troops to Washington to support President Trump’s crackdown on crime, Democrats and other critics wondered why he didn’t keep them within state lines.

Memphis, after all, has long been one of the most dangerous cities in the country, with a murder rate about twice as high as the nation’s capital, according to F.B.I. statistics. Nashville has a higher rate of violent crime than Washington as well.

The same questions could be asked of other Republican governors like Greg Abbott in Texas, Mike DeWine in Ohio and Mike Kehoe in Missouri, since cities under their purview all have higher rates of violent crime than the nation’s capital. Yet no Republican governor has asked for federal intervention.

The image of red-state governors mustering uniformed troops for duty in blue-state cities has left many Americans with the foreboding sense of a nation dangerously divided, perhaps even drifting toward open conflict. Mr. Trump denied statistical reality last week when he was asked whether he might send federal forces into high-crime cities in Republican-led states. “Sure,” he said, “but there aren’t that many.”

There are that many: Kansas City, St. Louis and Springfield, Mo.; Birmingham, Ala.; Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo, Ohio; Tulsa, Okla.; Memphis and Nashville; Houston; Little Rock, Ark.; Salt Lake City; and Shreveport La., all have crime rates comparable to Washington’s, according to F.B.I. statistics.

But the reality of Mr. Trump’s deployments in Washington has also not matched the stark “invasion” rhetoric of some Democrats, who have raised the specter of an uninvited occupying force in their cities. Indeed, Republican governors who have so far declined to ask the president for an intervention in their cities might be tempted to rethink that stance.

The supplementary forces in Washington, provided by and funded by Mr. Trump, have had a noticeable impact, at least in the short term. Washington’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, has softened her tone on the deployment, crediting it for “more accountability” and a reduction in some crimes, particularly carjackings.

Even in Chicago, which Mr. Trump has said may be next in his crime agenda, the signals lately have been mixed. Brandon Johnson, the city’s progressive Democratic mayor, has stood resolutely against his streets being “occupied by federal troops,” but his police chief, Larry Snelling, has struck a softer tone. If the National Guard were to flood his city, Mr. Snelling told reporters last week, he hoped that with better communication, local and federal forces could “find some type of balance” and avoid “an adversarial environment.”

Red-state governors sending their National Guard troops to blue-state cities is just another example of the political divide in the country that has become the standard. It is also another example of Republicans going out of the way to curry favor with Mr. Trump.

Republican governors did not want to answer why they were willing to send their National Guard troops to Washington while not inviting the same attention to their cities.

In Texas, Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Mr. Abbott, declined to comment on whether the governor had made any specific requests of Mr. Trump to help fight crime in San Antonio or Houston. The question, he said, should be directed to the Department of Homeland Security.

Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Governor DeWine, said under Ohio law, mayors would have to request any assistance from the state, and “no current mayoral requests for National Guard assistance” have come in.

Aides to Governor Lee of Tennessee did not respond to the question.

Adam Gelb, the president and chief executive of the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan research organization, stated what he said was obvious — Mr. Trump is not basing his interventions on crime rates. [Continue reading…]

During a press conference on Thursday, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) spoke about murder rates in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) state and St. Louis, Missouri, which is represented by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO):