Attorney General Jeff Sessions says in the last two years, the nation has seen a 20 percent jump in murders.
Sessions called it a surge before settling in to talk about the troubling statistics in Baltimore.
"Over the last two years in this city, this city has experienced violence like we haven’t seen in a quarter of a century,” the Attorney General said, “The violent crime rate is up by one third, rape is up by 22 percent, murder is up by half...50 percent."
Using Baltimore as his backdrop, Sessions went on to say the Department of Justice under his leadership has secured more than one thousand convictions of gang members while targeting the El Salvador gang MS-13, what the attorney general called the most violent gang in the country.
Flanked by the new Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, the pair talked about tougher immigration policy, building the border wall and prosecuting immigration cases.
All are factors that do not generally drive the violent crime rate in Baltimore.
"I don't know that the city itself has a high MS-13 murder rate,” Sessions admitted, “So you're probably right about inside the city itself but this region, northern Virginia, Islip, NY, Houston, Los Angeles are the centerpieces of the most MS-13 violence, the most violent gang in America, I'm sure, without a doubt."
What does affect Baltimore without a doubt is the ongoing murder investigation of slain homicide detective Sean Suiter.
Commissioner Kevin Davis formally asked the FBI more than a week ago to take the lead on the investigation but has yet to hear back.
RELATED: Baltimore Police ask FBI to take over Detective Suiter's murder investigation
When asked about that today, the FBI director's boss Jeff Sessions said the bureau might be able to accommodate the BPD's request.
"We will be, we are always willing to cooperate as well as we can. I am sure the FBI will be considering that request and will probably be able to act on it," Sessions said.
Commissioner Kevin Davis made that request of the FBI director back on the first of this month.
While the BPD investigation remains ongoing, he has yet to receive a response from the bureau.
