Capehart: “There’s No Going Back” Once Trump Invokes The Insurrection Act, He Can Suspend Elections
PBS NEWSHOUR: Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart and National Review editor Ramesh Ponnuru join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including Israel’s attack and Iran’s response has Washington and the rest of the world concerned about war between the two regional powers and the Trump administration’s response to protests against immigration raids.
AMNA NAWAZ, PBS NEWSHOUR: We will follow that as it continues to play out. I do want to ask you about, of course, what’s unfolding right back here on – in the United States, and we’re seeing the Trump administration response to those protests in Los Angeles, but other cities as well, against the immigration raids. We saw him send in federal troops to California, against Governor Gavin Newsom’s wishes. We know that he’s fighting in court to be able to keep them there, and that legal battle is unfolding. But he’s also threatening, Jonathan, to send troops to more cities. What does all of this tell you about how the president views the use of federal troops and the military and also this priority of mass deportations as part of his agenda? JONATHAN CAPEHART, WASHINGTON POST: OK, well, one, the priority of mass deportations was crystal clear during his campaign, so crystal clear that, during the convention, you may remember, in Milwaukee, they handed out signs to all the convention goers, “Mass Deportations.” So anyone who’s surprised by what’s happening should not be surprised. He told us he was going to do this. He’s doing it. My big – we are at a turning point, I think, this weekend with what we have seen in the run-up to tomorrow’s parade, with what’s happening in Los Angeles. More people’s hair should be on fire not just because of the National Guard troops in Los Angeles without the – working with or permission from the governor, which is by law what should have been done, but the calling up of Marines, U.S. military, on American streets. That is a line that, to me, anyway, is one that should never have been crossed. And the president putting out this order and putting out this order that isn’t specific to Los Angeles, isn’t specific to any city, it’s so broad, the language is so broad that it’s sort of like you could just tuck it into like a giant L.L. Bean tote bag, and you just pull out, where do I need to send troops? This should not be in the United States. And yet you have got Democrats screaming about it, you have got citizens screaming about it, but where are Republicans? I’m old enough to remember Republicans who would have seen that kind of action as being over the line. And yet we’re hearing nothing from them in this regard… And I think they’re creating the political conflict because – I interviewed Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison in the run-up to the anniversary, the fifth anniversary of the murder of George Floyd. And he brought up on his own the rumor that the president was going to pardon Derek Chauvin. And the attorney general said that the president might do that as a distraction to larger goals. And one of the larger goals that the attorney general mentioned that has always been in the back of my mind is to create the conditions that would allow the president to invoke the Insurrection Act. And once the president invokes the Insurrection Act, all sorts of powers are handed to the president, suspending elections and other things, that, once you open that box, and particularly you open that box with this president and the administration and the yes-people he has around him, there’s no going back. That is among the reasons why I am so concerned about what we’re about to see tomorrow.