00:02Attorney General, the president used the word insurrection, insurrectionist repeatedly.
00:07What is his bar for invoking the Insurrection Act, and can you describe some of the conversations around that particular topic that have been underway?
00:15Well, sure. Right now, it's keeping California safe.
00:18If Gavin Newsom isn't going to keep California safe, we are.
00:21You know, they imposed a curfew last night.
00:23I think that helped a bit, but today, we wanted them to declare.
00:28They didn't declare an economic disaster out there with all of the businesses.
00:31Had they done that, Kelly Loeffler and the Small Business Association could have come in and helped, given federal aid to all of these businesses in California.
00:41We've been seeing on the news all of these drugstores getting robbed, getting looted.
00:46The Apple store just got raided.
00:48I mean, we're all watching this live on the news.
00:51And this isn't just looting to me.
00:53You think people just run in, take something, leave, and nothing happens.
00:56We're using the Hobbs Act.
00:57We are charging robbery to protect Californians under this.
01:01If you loot a store, we are going to charge you with robbery under the Hobbs Act, and you're looking at maximum 20 years in prison.
01:08But we're going to prosecute you for that.
01:11You know, identifying people now, it's a different world.
01:14The guy with the cinder blocks.
01:16We were able to identify him.
01:17Great FBI work, DEA, ATF, all working together with ICE, with Homeland Security.
01:23Great partnership out there.
01:24And our National Guard, to wrap back to your question, our National Guard, our Marines, they have come in to protect our buildings, to protect, the Marines have come in to protect the National Guard.
01:35It is total chaos out there.
01:37We're all watching it on the news.
01:39And, you know, they're throwing bricks.
01:40We had a law enforcement officer injured.
01:43They're throwing bricks at cars.
01:45And this is very orchestrated.
01:47They're not just cinder bricks.
01:48They had hammers in place.
01:50They're breaking them up.
01:51We've all seen on the news where the sidewalks, they're coming in with these huge sledgehammers, breaking up the sidewalks and taking these huge pieces of concrete, throwing them off a bridge, throwing them at people.
02:03It's truly a miracle that no one has been seriously injured or killed yet.
02:09But we're going to do everything within our legal authority to protect our law enforcement officers and all the people in California right now.
02:18You know, you guys, this is serious out there.
02:20We want to protect people.
02:21We want to protect law enforcement and all the hardworking people there who are trying to go to work every day.
02:28Their businesses are shuttered.
02:29They can't do anything because of this, and it has to stop.
02:33Can I open the legal authority part of that?
02:36Let's ask that again.
02:37What is the threshold for invoking the insurrection act?
02:40Beyond California, are you seeing examples in other cities where the president might have to consider what?
02:46Well, first, in other cities, well, we've seen it in New York.
02:49But what happened in New York was very different.
02:52NYPD came in right away.
02:54NYPD came in and shut it down.
02:56We all believe in peaceful protests.
02:58You saw New York.
02:59There were peaceful protests happening in New York.
03:01Much different situation.
03:03So law enforcement, they need to have their hands untied where they can do their jobs.
03:08Right now in California, what we're doing is working by bringing in the National Guard, by bringing in the Marines right now to back them up, to protect our federal buildings, to protect the highways, to protect the citizens.
03:22So right now in California, we're at a good point.
03:25We're not scared to go further.
03:27We're not frightened to do something else if we need to.
03:30Right now we're trying to.
03:31Is it more guys with hammers banging up sidewalks?
03:33Is it something else?
03:34Like, what's the threshold?
03:35Well, right now, we're hoping it's going to get under control.
03:39We hope the curfew will work.
03:40And we're going to continue to do everything we can to keep California safe if the government of California is not going to help them.
03:48One more question.
03:49One more question.
03:50The administration has talked a lot about defending law enforcement over the last week.
03:53Yeah.
03:53So that these protests are going on.
03:54But you've been criticized for having a double standard with the president, bargaining all these people who attacked police officers on January 6th on his first day in office.
04:01How do you answer that criticism?
04:02Well, this is very different.
04:04These are people out there hurting people in California right now.
04:08This is ongoing.
04:09No longer.
04:10We're going to protect them.
04:11We're going to do everything we can to prosecute violent criminals in California.
04:17California is burning.
04:18These people are waving Mexican flags, yet they don't want anyone to go back to Mexico.
04:22They're burning American flags.
04:24This is the United States of America, and we're going to protect Americans.
04:27We're going to protect all citizens out there.
