WATCH: CNN Reporter Struggles to Admit Trump’s DC Cleanup Is Working

A sullen CNN correspondent was forced to admit that a staple of Washington, D.C. tourism sites is looking cleaner than it has in decades following a federal takeover of city services.

President Donald Trump directed a plethora of federal bureaucracies to assist in restoring law and order to D.C. streets that in recent weeks have seen the murder of a congressional intern and the assault of a former leader at the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency. Over 800 members of the National Guard have been brought in to assist, and their presence appears to be paying dividends, CNN’s Gabe Cohen told his colleagues on Thursday.

Standing outside Union Station, Cohen told “CNN News Central” guest co-host Jessica Dean that the number of vagrants “hanging around” has gone down since Trump’s initiative was unveiled Monday.

“This is one of the areas of focus that we have heard a lot of concerns about, crime around Union Station, people who are loitering outside,” Cohen told Dean. “I will tell you, as somebody who walks this route all the time, it does seem like there are fewer people just sort of hanging around, but we don’t know exactly what that is.”

National Guard troops have had a pacifying effect on parts of the city previously besieged by violence. Journalists have privately admitted to fearing for their safety even as they cite skewed statistics from the Metropolitan Police suggesting violent crime is waning from its high several years ago.

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On Wednesday, a former U.S. Justice Department official threw a sandwich at a Customs and Border Patrol officer, earning himself an arrest and felony charge.

“These National Guard troops, they are not here to make arrests. They do have zip ties on their back, but they are really here just for presence and to assist MPD any way they can,” Cohen said. “I will tell you, sources have told me as recently as this morning that Metropolitan Police, that the district itself and the police chief are still the ones ultimately calling the shots when it comes to safety in the district. They have essentially been communicating with those federal partners, but ultimately they are the ones sort of drawing up the game plan and getting assistance from their federal partners.”

“But if you ask the White House, they say it’s Attorney General Pam Bondi and the head of the DEA, Terry Cole, who are the ones who are ultimately in charge here,” Cohen continued, the Daily Caller reported. “We’ll see how that dynamic plays out, but again, outside Union Station, this is what folks who live or visit D.C. can expect to see: A lot of federal law enforcement presence.”