GEOFF BENNETT: For more on the fallout following the raid of President Trump's former national security adviser and the week's other news, we turn tonight to Capehart and Ponnuru.

That's Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC and Ramesh Ponnuru, editor of "The National Review."

It's good to see you both.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Hey, Geoff.

GEOFF BENNETT: So, this busy news day started early this morning with the FBI search of the Maryland home and Washington office of John Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser.

We don't know exactly what the FBI is searching for or why, but we do know that John Bolton has been an outspoken critic of the president's.

He wrote that scathing book about his time in the White House.

Jonathan, how does all of this strike you?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: When I heard the news, I gasped.

I said, oh, my God, not because I'm some big John Bolton fan or John Bolton is a friend of mine, but the message it sends.

As you said, he has been an outspoken critic of President Trump, worked with President Trump in his first administration and has been criticizing the president as recently as last week or maybe even in some social media posts this week.

When you have someone who's been a critic of the president, and a president who ran on retribution -- and this isn't the first time he's sought retribution against John Bolton.

He stripped him of his national security clearance and his security detail the day after his -- Trump's inauguration, and Bolton is being targeted by Iran.

So what this says to me is, it is yet another move by the president to push past the guardrails, past the norms, past decency to exact revenge against people who he thinks are his enemies.

GEOFF BENNETT: How do you see this, Ramesh?

I mean, does this fit within the broader pattern of political retribution, or is this more about national security protocols, as the vice president, J.D.

Vance, said today?

RAMESH PONNURU, Senior Editor, "The National Review": Well, I'm certainly looking forward to seeing more information about the legal basis for this raid, and maybe something will come out which justifies it.

But, that said, there are a lot of things that we know that cause us to not give the benefit of the doubt to this administration.

Some of it is what Jonathan just went through, but also notice that Kash Patel, the head of the FBI, has longstanding personal grievances against John Bolton.

It's not just that Patel made this list of deep state operative enemies who were included in this list for no obvious reason, and Bolton was on that list.

It's also that Patel has said that he was in a long-running dispute where Bolton refused to hire him, slow-walked an order to hire him.

So there's a number of things going on here that I think should give us some real pause.

GEOFF BENNETT: And the other dynamic is the erosion between -- the erosion of the wall between the White House and the Department of Justice that was meant to insulate the Justice Department that has also given way to real questions about the propriety of all this.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Well, right.

Well, you say erosion.

That wall was obliterated the moment President Trump made Pam Bondi the attorney general of the United States, made Todd Blanche the deputy attorney general of the United States.

Todd Blanche was and kind of remains the president's personal attorney.

So those walls were obliterated.

And what happened, what - - this raid on John Bolton's home is just yet another example of how the DOJ appears to be doing -- is sort of the heavy for the executive.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's shift our focus to what's happening here on our own backyard, the federal takeover of Washington, D.C.

The defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said today - - or, rather, he ordered National Guard troops patrolling Washington, D.C., that they would be armed.

And this, of course, includes the National Guard, the federalized D.C. police.

This is certainly an escalation, because earlier the Pentagon and Army said that the troops would not carry weapons.

So, Ramesh, just reflect on this moment, the Pentagon deploying armed troops, federal law enforcement to a major American city where there is no clear threat, no real reason, no clear reason to warrant that kind of force.

RAMESH PONNURU: And potentially the first of many cities that are going to get this treatment.

Look, I think that crime rates and violence rates in Washington, D.C., have been unacceptably high for a long time, even though in recent years there's been some decline.

But whether this is the right response is a different question.

And quite apart from the question of presidential power and whether this is an abuse of his legitimate legal powers, there's also the question, the National Guard is not trained for police action.

The National Guard is stretched thin already.

There are questions about whether its members are going to be able to be paid on time, given the funding limits on the National Guard.

So that's another thing that we have to, I think, keep in mind, the strain this is putting on the people who are being forced to deploy.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, as Ramesh said, the president today floated the idea of exporting this approach to other cities.

Take a listen.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: The people in Chicago, Mr. Vice President, are screaming for us to come.

They're wearing red hats, just like this one.

But they're wearing red hats.

African American ladies, beautiful ladies, are saying, please, President Trump, come to Chicago, please.

I did great with the Black vote, as you know, and they want something to happen.

So I think Chicago will be our next, and then we will help with New York.

GEOFF BENNETT: Your face says it all.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Anyone who's surprised that the president says Chicago is going to be next hasn't been listening to him since he was president the first go-around.

I interviewed Mayor Bowser on my MSNBC show the weekend before he announced that National Guard troops are going in, and she said what she needed from the White House, what she would love from the president, 500 more police officers, one.

Two, what she would love from the president is help getting back the $1.1 billion in city funding that was snatched away from the District in the continuing resolution that avoided a government shutdown.

That -- if you -- if the president is serious about fighting crime in the District, he would be a partner, a real partner, to Mayor Bowser in the two things that she wanted.

Now, there are National Guard troops here from West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee.

According to a story in "Newsweek" last week, the top 30 cities of 100,000-plus with the most crimes of the population, Memphis, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; Toledo, Ohio are one, two, and three.

Why aren't the National Guard troops, the 150 from Ohio, the 160 from Tennessee, why aren't they spread out all over the streets of Memphis, Cleveland, Toledo, Akron, Dayton, Nashville?

If these governors, Republican governors, are serious about fighting crime, maybe they should look in their own backyard, and maybe the president should be working with the mayor and give her the 500 police officers she's been demanding.

GEOFF BENNETT: How do you see it?

RAMESH PONNURU: You know, I think that the politics of this issue are something that, frankly, the Democrats are going to have to handle very carefully, because the one thing you don't want, not that Jonathan's done it, but I have heard many of the critics of the president do this, is try to minimize the crime problems in these various places.

And that is an absolute dead end for Democrats and for any other opponents of Trump.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, the president's takeover of D.C. certainly underscores the outsized role he continues to play in shaping the political landscape.

And it appears that no one is more aware of that in the current moment than California Governor Gavin Newsom, who is trying to beat Trump at his own game, at least online.

He's mimicking his style.

He's echoing his rants.

He's trolling him on social media.

Is it going to work?

JONATHAN CAPEHART: I think it's going to -- it is working, I think, simply because this is not new for Governor Newsom.

Governor Newsom has been the one Democratic governor who has gone on FOX News and has gone toe-to-toe with FOX world, has gone toe-to-toe with Governor DeSantis in Florida.

He has shown he is not afraid to do battle with these folks.

And I saw a press conference he did where a couple -- some reporter asked him, well, why are you doing this?

Is this unseemly something like that?

And he's -- why are you mimicking the president?

And his answer was basically, you should be -- I'm just copying him.

If you have a problem with what I'm doing, perhaps you should change your focus and talk to him about why he's doing the things that he's doing.

I applaud Governor Newsom for what he's doing, not just because he is taking the fight directly to the president, but he is giving voice to a big frustration among Democrats, that why aren't Democrats fighting back against this president?

And you have got a governor who's actually doing it.

RAMESH PONNURU: You know, you asked whether this is working.

And the question begs a further question or raises a further question, which is, what's it designed to do?

And I think what it's designed to do is help Newsom get the Democratic nomination, or at least position himself so that he's in a good -- he's in contention for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.

And that, I think, is by giving voice to these Democrats who say the party's not taking on Trump.

Do swing voters, the people who are actually going to sign the general election in 2028, are they going to pay attention to this kind of thing?

Are they going to be impressed by it, the people who Democrats have been losing for years because they don't think that they care about their concerns or responsive to their interests?

Are they going to be impressed by it?

I don't think so.

But that's not the group of people that Newsom needs right now, who Newsom needs to crowd out other potential Democratic candidates for 2028.

GEOFF BENNETT: What about Jonathan's point that, in many ways, Newsom's approach is holding up a mirror to MAGA world?

RAMESH PONNURU: You know, I think that's correct.

I mean, I think that we have gotten used to a style of communication from this president that is subliterate and that is frequently crude.

Of course, Trump isn't going to be on the ballot.

At least, he's not supposed to be on the ballot in 2028.

Look, I think that Newsom is making his point and having his fun.

I do think he's going to need to move on to something else before too long.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Not everything is about politics and not everything is about 2028.

We still have to get to 2026.

And we can focus on Gavin Newsom and his social media posts and mimicking the president, but we should also pay attention to the other thing he's been doing this week.

And that is making the moves to counter what happened in Texas in the congressional redistricting that was -- that is going on at the behest of the president of the United States, who is trying to steal the 2026 midterm elections.

So, as much as I would love to play 2028 prognostication, I'm more concerned about whether we are actually going to have a 2026 midterm election.

RAMESH PONNURU: We will.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: From your lips.

GEOFF BENNETT: Jonathan Capehart, Ramesh Ponnuru, our thanks to you both.

JONATHAN CAPEHART: Thanks, Geoff.