During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last month, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) spoke about President Trump bypassing Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles to respond to anti-ICE protests.
00:00And Senator Cotton has appeared and is recognized for five minutes. Thank you.
00:06Before I get to matters of bipartisan concern on things like shipbuilding
00:10munitions, I'm compelled to respond to the unhinged partisan rants by Senator
00:15Kane and Senator Blumenthal about the riots in Los Angeles. I heard a lot of
00:21complaints about the use of the National Guard or the Marine Corps to defend
00:26federal property, not surprisingly a lot of attacks on Donald Trump. I don't think
00:32I heard condemnation of rioters and looters and arsonists and revolutionary
00:41anarchists that are burning down parts of Los Angeles. So let's put it in context.
00:50What's happening in Los Angeles? For four years under Joe Biden we had a
00:56slow-motion invasion of this country by millions of migrants to include
01:03murderers, rapists, gang members, and other depraved savages. It wasn't just
01:10tolerated by Democrats in the Senate, it was celebrated. The American people spoke
01:16very clearly last year. They elected Donald Trump and a Republican Congress to
01:22secure the border, to enforce our immigration laws, and to deport violent
01:27illegal aliens. That's exactly what our brave immigration authorities started doing
01:36on Friday. You have illegal aliens that were rounded up in Los Angeles that had
01:43committed heinous violent crimes. Are we simply supposed to overlook them because
01:51they're in a democratic city or a democratic state? You can sexually assault
01:57children as an illegal alien, but if you're standing outside a Home Depot as a
02:02day laborer, immigration authorities are not supposed to arrest you and remove you
02:06from the streets to protect innocent civilians? And then what happened? Again,
02:14anarchists, revolutionaries, left-wing street militias started attacking law enforcement
02:21with bricks and cement and frozen water bottles spitting in their faces, or much
02:27worse, setting cars on fire, looting buildings, setting buildings on fire. Under these conditions, of course we should always want the local police to be the first line of authority.
02:40And they usually can restore order. In Los Angeles, they could not. How do we know? The Los Angeles Police Department Chief told us that his forces were overwhelmed, even as he kept them on all after their shift.
02:59The next line of defense against such civil disorder is the National Guard. You would expect a responsible governor, when one of his city's police forces are overwhelmed, to call out the National Guard.
03:14The incompetent and ideological governor of California refused to do so. So President Trump had to act. He has clear legal authority to federalize the Guard when necessary to protect innocent life and property, and especially federal officers and federal property.
03:35That's exactly what he did. Just like, for instance, in my state in 1957, when the racist Democratic governor tried to use the National Guard to prevent the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School.
03:49And President Eisenhower said, I don't think so, and federalized the Guard to ensure the desegregation of Little Rock Central.
03:57And what did the governor of California do? Rather than recognize the error of his ways and cooperate and try to restore order in California, he began grandstanding, attacking the president, suing the federal government for using the National Guard to restore order, which again is one of its functions.
04:20Now, the third line of defense, as Senator Blumenthal referenced, is the Insurrection Act, the use of active duty troops to restore order.
04:31The president has taken a measured approach so far. He has said he doesn't think it's necessary to do so.
04:37But he will use that venerable law, which goes back nearly to the beginning of our republic, if called for, as it was, for instance, in the 1992 L.A. riots.
04:48Now, again, we all hope that these riots are stopped, that these outlaws and renegades are arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
04:59But the president has a constitutional responsibility to protect innocent lives, to defend federal officers, and to defend federal property,
05:10which is exactly what the Marines were sent to Los Angeles to do. Not to engage in crowd control, not to engage in civilian arrest, but to protect federal property.
05:23Now, my time has expired, so I won't get to address some of the important issues that you came here to speak about, gentlemen.
05:29But I do want to express my thanks to the California Guard and to the Marines that are currently trying to perform the simple responsibility of protecting federal officers,
05:41federal property, and help the local police restore order in Los Angeles.
05:46And I just dropped to roughly 10-12 years.
05:48I won't see that right now.
05:49So that's a really good thing.
05:50Now, we're going to ask for all that people.
05:51And, again, I'm going to ask foronnate for thes.
05:52So that's what I wanted to do to find.
05:53I can give you an opportunity here.
05:54I'm wondering if you have time to do this.
05:55We're going to ask for all that people are going to be listening to our bowls,
05:56and in your bowls.
05:58So that's what I want.
05:59So I can give you our time to ask for chillies.
06:00Sometimes we just come back in and ask for routers.
06:01I'm going to ask for a meeting.
06:03So that's why we need them to learn how to enter these these outlaws.
