Trump: ‘I Don’t Think We’ll Have to’ Send Military to Cities
Brett Samuels, The Hill, June 3, 2020
President Trump on Wednesday said he doesn’t think it will be necessary to send military forces to U.S. cities to quell protests. {snip}
“It depends. I don’t think we’ll have to. We have very strong powers to do it. The National Guard is customary, and we have a very powerful National Guard,” Trump told Sean Spicer, his former press secretary, in an interview on Newsmax.
“As far as going beyond that? Sure, if it was necessary,” Trump added. “We have antifa. We have anarchists. We have terrorists, looters. We have a lot of bad people in those groups.”
Trump’s comments, which were recorded earlier Wednesday, came on the same day Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he opposes invoking the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that would allow the president to deploy active-duty troops around the country to respond to the protests.
