Karen Bass: Trump’s National Guard Is ‘Causing the Disruption’ in Cities

Friday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) said the National Guard that President Donald Trump is deploying to cities was “causing the disruption.”

Host Wolf Blitzer said, “The Louisiana governor, Jeff Landry, a Republican, just announced that hundreds of newly activated National Guard troops will head to New Orleans before New Year’s Eve. Do you think there is any role for the federal law enforcement officials in municipal policing, specifically when the state and federal government are trying to work together?”

Bass said, “Well, absolutely, there’s a role. There’s a role when it’s needed. The question is: do I believe that, in any of these cases, this was needed? Remember, in Los Angeles on January, on June 5, everything was just fine in our city. Disruption did not begin until there was intervention. I would suggest that the same thing was true in other cities. You have the National Guard coming into cities, causing the disruption. It’s not surprising to me that a Republican governor would back something like this. I doubt seriously that the Democratic mayor would do this. And then I think we need to look at what cities he’s going after. They’re all Democratic mayors. To me, this is political. It’s nothing more than that. I think the greatest danger is if the American public begins to say, ‘Yeah, okay, we have the military in our cities,’ something that hasn’t happened as we approach the 250-year anniversary of our country’s founding. This is really a time to reflect on what led to our government forming to begin with.”

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