00:00Now, turning our attention to the protests in L.A. against the ICE raids, we know that President Trump has sent the Marines to Los Angeles in addition to deploying the National Guard.
00:12I want to start by asking, Senator, what is your reaction to this development?
00:17You know, I'm saddened by this. You know, I worked at the Pentagon. I was a civilian embedded with the military in Afghanistan.
00:25I worked alongside Marines and other service members to be able to protect our country.
00:32I believe so deeply that our military is a sacred trust.
00:38And it is supposed to be the beacon that Americans feel safe around, that they feel that the military is there to protect them.
00:46And for Trump to move forward and deploy 700 Marines to L.A. against the orders and the wishes of the governor and local law enforcement for something that we should have been trying to see if there are other means to be able to contain,
01:05especially using, you know, law enforcement within local law enforcement to take this kind of measure.
01:12It's only going to escalate things. And in particular, it's going to send signals that the military is being used for partisan political purposes, that it's being used for a show.
01:22And like, you know, you're you're we're thinking about this on the same week that Trump is putting forward a forty five million dollar military parade on his birthday in Washington, D.C.
01:34So, of course, is being seen as politicization as well as theatrics when it comes to our military, when that's happening on one side of the country and on the other side of the country is deploying 700 Marines for something that should be done by local law enforcement.
01:50So I just I'm appalled by this. I find it to be a deep overreach of power and abuse of power and something that's only going to further escalate the problems that are out there as people getting riled up and angry that our military is being abused in this way.
02:08And of course, there have been ICE issues in New Jersey. If mass protests were to come to New Jersey, what could you do? How would you react?
02:16Yeah. You know, when we saw some of the challenges that we face in New Jersey a couple of weeks back with the arrest of the mayor of Newark and and some of the aftermath that I did again, you know, again, in that sort of hope for the best plan for the worst.
02:34I did, you know, try to think through what would happen if this got out of control, if there was an escalation by the Trump administration, because Stephen Miller at the time was talking about what happened in Newark as a rebellion, as an invasion.
02:47He's using the same languages that they're using when it comes to L.A.
02:51These are this is the language of them trying to set the stage to be able to suspend habeas corpus if they choose to move down that angle.
02:59So, you know, what I'm seeing in L.A., you know, I think what's important for the American people to understand is that the order that Trump gave activating the National Guard, the military, it doesn't have a geographic containment there.
03:12It is anywhere in the country. His order is that he can deploy anywhere in the country, not just L.A.
03:17And so, you know, we have to be very careful at this moment.
03:21What I would say is, look, you know, let's make sure we're shining a light on what's happening, that we're getting as much detail about what is happening to civilians on the ground, trying to make sure we have the right, appropriate level of legal representation there for those that need it, that we can have access for journalists to be able to go and be able to tell their story about what they're seeing,
03:44as well as, you know, making sure that that the public there is safe, that they try not to escalate this because that would only give in to Trump.
03:55Trump wants people to get riled up. He wants them to get unruly so that he can, you know, further justify what he's trying to do when he's the one that's inflaming the situation to other levels.
04:09And, you know, that's something that needs to be exposed.
