Senate votes to overturn DC criminal code changes – JP

“But even more importantly, D.C. citizens should be accorded the same right to pick their elected representatives and have those representatives determine the criminal laws, the same way as every other state in the union,” Warren said.

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland called the resolution “an attack on the democratic rights of the people of the District of Columbia.”

“Its residents, its citizens, are fully capable of deciding their own law, and deciding their own future. The Congress should not be overriding the will of the people of D.C.,” Van Hollen said on the Senate floor.

Republican reaction

Republicans saw advantage in the division among Democrats. “Led by the president, the Democrats are in full retreat on the D.C. criminal law issue,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters on Tuesday.

House Republican Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., told reporters on Wednesday morning that Democrats are “scrambling,” and that Democrats who voted against the resolution in the House “now have to explain to their constituents how they are in the most radical, pro-criminal members of their party.”