On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) said that he urges people to “obey the law” and “try to do everything they can to not be provoked.” But President Donald Trump is “trying to provoke us.”

While discussing people barging into a church in St. Paul over the weekend, Ellison stated, “This situation is 100% because of Operation Metro Surge. This escalation, unjustified, irrational, [un]constitutional is why this is happening. I urge all people to obey the law, to try to do everything they can to not be provoked. But the reality, he’s trying to provoke us.”

He continued, “And I wasn’t there. I don’t know what happened. I can only tell you that the President is causing all of this. If he de-escalated and actually got into a conversation with local officials here, we actually talked about how to enforce all laws, that would change things dramatically. But that’s not what we’re getting. We’re getting threats, we’re getting surges, we’re getting massive violations of people’s human rights. And, as a result of that, some people are expressing themselves in ways that are out of the normal. And so, I’ll leave it right there.”

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