Transcript: Trump’s Threats to Unleash Troops Just Took a Darker Turn

McQuade: Well, if you look at the section that President Trump invokes as the authority, it is a federal statute that gives the president the authority to call in the National Guard when there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government. But it specifically says that when the president does so, the order for these purposes shall be issued through the governors of the states. Now, according to Governor Newsom’s lawsuit, that’s not what happened. Instead, the directive went directly to the military leader. So it’s a process issue—but when it comes to the law, process is everything, especially the idea that you are going to federalize the National Guard, put them in place, and not follow the proper process. It’s such an aggressive use of law enforcement that the idea that you would circumvent the governor’s office strikes me as an abuse of power.

Sargent: And Barbara, there’s some question about whether there’s actually a rebellion taking place on the ground in Los Angeles. It sure doesn’t look like what you would normally associate with a rebellion.

McQuade: Yeah, this is an area where the president gets an awful lot of discretion to decide whether he believes it’s necessary to send in military troops to quell a rebellion. But just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. Restraint is often a very appropriate use of discretion in these situations. And I think one also has to ask whether sending in troops is going to calm passions in the area or whether it’s going to inflame passions. So yeah, the law talks about rebellions, domestic unrest, things that one would imagine would equate with violence, a situation that has spun out of control for the police to handle. Instead, what we have is something like 500 protesters, maybe some throwing of rocks. And when the governor and the mayor have specifically said, Please don’t come, we think it will only make matters worse, the overriding of their judgment does suggest that maybe there’s something more afoot than a necessity and a president trying to solve a problem as opposed to trying to create a problem.