NewsNation anchor Leland Vittert melted down Monday night and eventually cut short an interview with Mehdi Hasan when the Zeteo founder repeatedly mentioned the January 6 Capitol riots while discussing Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C.
“You cannot talk about this,” Vittert sneered before abruptly ending the conversation.
Days after a group of teenagers attacked a former DOGE staffer in an attempted late-night carjacking, Trump announced that he was deploying 800 National Guard soldiers and his administration was taking control of Washington’s police force to combat street crime, portraying the nation’s capital as a dystopian hellscape.
“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Trump bellowed while declaring a public safety emergency at a Monday press conference. “And we’re not going to let it happen anymore.”
Despite the president’s claims of out-of-control violence on the streets of D.C., local officials immediately pointed out that crime in the city has been rapidly declining over the past two years. After experiencing a surge in 2023, the violent crime rate fell 35 percent in 2024 and has continued to drop through 2025. In fact, last year represented a 30-year low in violent crime offenses for the city.
Critics have also been quick to point out that while Trump has vowed to stop the “thugs” from abusing cops in the city, saying he’s told law enforcement to do “whatever they want” when confronting criminals and dissenters, he also pardoned hundreds of his supporters who attacked police officers on January 6.
It was this contrast that Hasan wanted to explore during his appearance on NewsNation’s On Balance on Monday evening. However, the former Fox News host did not want to go down that road – and grew increasingly irate when Hasan kept pressing his point.
At the start of the interview, Hasan noted that it was just a few months ago that the president was bragging that crime and murders were down in Washington, adding that when the administration wants to “show the statistics in their favor, they did.” Vittert, meanwhile, claimed that the ex-MSNBC star was “making a mistake” by focusing on declining crime rates.
“We have a video from about a week ago where they beat up, this mob of 15-year-olds were carjacking somebody, beat somebody up, almost killed them,” the NewsNation anchor asserted. “What about their rights? I’m still trying to understand why, if you’re a law-abiding citizen, more police is a bad idea.”
Hasan, who recently went viral with his Jubilee debate against 20 far-right conservatives, pointed out that Trump wasn’t just looking to add more police officers but was instead mobilizing military troops on the streets of the nation’s capital. At the same time, he took issue with Vittert’s argument that crime rates shouldn’t factor into the president’s decision.
“When you say it doesn’t matter whether it’s up or down, it does. Some of us believe in truth and facts. When you’re saying, you know, crime should be stopped, of course crime should be stopped. But this is not the solution. Are you planning, or is Trump planning, to send the National Guard to every city?” Hasan declared, wondering if the president would deploy troops to a Republican-led city.
“This is not sustainable, Leland. You’re smarter than Donald Trump,” he added, prompting Vittert to call for the president to send the National Guard to St. Louis next.
After Hasan said that Americans “don’t like the military on our streets” because “we’re not a tin-pot dictatorship,” adding that you “can’t solve the crime problem by sending the National Guard,” Vittert responded by urging his guest to “put the National Guard aside” for the moment.
“No, I’m not. I’m not gonna put the National Guard aside because it’s quite important,” Hasan objected. “It’s at the core of this. This is about Trump wanting to do a power grab. This is about Trump’s obsession with the military.”
With Vittert looking to interrupt, Hasan mocked the idea that the National Guard deployment was “because Trump cares about crime” in Washington before invoking the attempted post-election insurrection at the Capitol.
“Because I remember Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, not giving a crap about crime in D.C.,” the progressive commentator added, causing Vittert to blow up.
“Oh, come on! Noun, verb, January 6. Mehdi, no! Mehdi, come on! Come on! Come on! Mehdi, Mehdi, Mehdi, I know you’ve said that 150 police officers got hurt,” the On Balance host fumed.
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At this point, the conversation began to fully break down as the two began to talk over each other, with Vittert grumbling that Hasan had brought it back to the Capitol riots while the Zeteo editor-in-chief stood firm that it was a crucial piece of context.
“I said to you, Donald Trump doesn’t care about crime in D.C. You said yes, he does. And I said I’m gonna give you evidence to prove he doesn’t. If he cared about crime in D. C., why did he pardon 600 people who assaulted police officers? You can’t come and make this emotional,” Hasan exclaimed, only for Vittert to cut him off and proclaim: “You cannot talk about this!”
Eventually, the NewsNation anchor complained that “this is absolutely silly” before Hasan once again maintained that Trump’s actions surrounding the January 6 attacks were fundamental to the conversation.
“The only person who died on January 6 was a Trump supporter, and you can’t talk about what’s happening on the streets right now,” Vittert groused, referencing slain Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt.
“Let me know when you want me to speak,” Hasan responded.
“No, you cannot talk about this without talking about January 6 or anything else. You won’t have an argument on the merits. Mehdi, thank you as always,” Vittert snapped back, ending the interview at that point.
Following the contentious back-and-forth with Vittert, Hasan took to social media to take Vittert to task for prematurely ending their conversation.
“So, in discussing crime in DC, the conservative host on NewsNation, Leland Vittert, lost it when I brought up January 6th and Trump's failure to prevent violent crimes that day, and his refusal to send in the National Guard that day,” he tweeted. “He cut me off and then ended the interview!”
The author of this article previously worked for Zeteo.
