'That's What Authoritarian Countries Do': Chuck Schumer Lights Into Trump For Sending Military To LA

Forbes Breaking News

During remarks on the Senate floor Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke about President Trump bypassing Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles.

Transcript

00:00Mr. President, Donald Trump's order mobilizing U.S. troops to an American city

00:09sets a dangerous precedent for our civil liberties.

00:13As I've said, violence is not the way to achieve justice.

00:18Freedom of speech is fundamental, but it must be exercised peacefully and lawfully.

00:23And the vast majority of protests, the overwhelming majority of protests, have been peaceful.

00:27And they're exercising their American right, their privilege, to peacefully protest.

00:33That's been with our country since its founding.

00:37But sending troops to an American city against the wishes of local officials

00:42is outrageous, unnecessary, and reeks of authoritarianism.

00:49That's what authoritarian countries do.

00:51U.S. troops, using troops on U.S. soil, should only ever be used as an absolute last resort.

01:00The last time it happened without state consent was 60 years ago, to protect civil rights heroes.

01:07What Donald Trump is doing, rather, is spoiling for a fight.

01:13He wants chaos.

01:14He'd love to excuse, to make any, he'd love any excuse to divert attention.

01:22And doing this, doing it this way is, he does it all the time.

01:25This is one of the most shameful, awful ways you can do it.

01:29Our troops don't deserve to be exploited in this way, to be used in pawns in a nakedly political fight.

01:37It's a deep disservice to them and to all service members and law enforcement,

01:42who serve our country and protect our community.

01:44And why is Donald Trump doing this?

01:46To divert attention.

01:47He knows that his big, ugly bill is highly unpopular with the American people.

01:52The more they learn about it, the more they hate it.

01:54He knows he's got big trouble in his fight with his erstwhile friend, Musk.

02:00He knows that the tariffs are hurting the American people.

02:03So he seeks to divert attention.

02:05That's his M.O.

02:07But what it does is create chaos.

02:11And the American people don't like chaos.

02:15And so I urge the president to immediately reverse course at once,

02:19remove all of the troops and the Marines,

02:21and let local law enforcement do their jobs to keep the peace

02:25as the governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles said

02:30they're perfectly capable of doing.

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