Trump signs executive order expanding law enforcement crackdown

CNN

President Donald Trump signed an executive order that the administration says will create specialized National Guard units to “deal with public order issues.” Trump has been looking to take his crime crackdown national, and officials tell CNN the administration has been planning to deploy the National Guard to Chicago. #CNN #News  # news #breaking #24x7

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00:00The troops on the streets of D.C. have begun carrying weapons, even as President Trump is

00:04basically saying, mission accomplished, and signaling that his takeover of law enforcement

00:09in D.C. will soon spread to other cities. An executive order signed today directs the

00:14Pentagon to create specialized guard units in every state to deal with, quote, public order issues.

00:21We want to go from here to other places. I made the statement that next should be Chicago,

00:27because, as you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now, and they don't acknowledge it.

00:33This is one of the safest cities right now in the world, as crazy as that sounds,

00:37and it took seven days. It took really three days, but we're now in our 11th day.

00:43Right now, Illinois Governor Jamie Pritzker is expected to hold a news conference pushing back

00:47on Trump's claim that Chicago is in the midst of a crime emergency, and the city's mayor is

00:52already vowing to fight a potential deployment of troops.

00:54What he is proposing at this point would be the most flagrant

00:59violation of our Constitution in the 21st century. The city of Chicago does not need

01:07a military occupation. That's not what we need. In fact, we've been very clear about what we need.

01:14We need to invest in people to ensure that we can build safe and affordable communities.

01:18All right. My panel is here, along with CNN's Jeff Zeleny at the White House. So, Jeff,

01:24take us through the president's expanded federalization of America's cities.

01:29Well, Pamela, this is just one more example of the really use of executive authority the

01:35president has been exerting since he took office, but particularly over the last several weeks

01:39in terms of federal law enforcement. But it's the specialized units of the National Guard.

01:45The president signed an executive order today, one of many in the Oval Office,

01:49clearly wanting to keep the focus on law and order issues to order his defense secretary

01:55to create this specialized unit to be ready to go in cities across the country. But it's very vague

02:02in terms of what they would be used for. Of course, the National Guard is called up all the time to

02:06help out and assist, but it's done by the state's governors. It's not done by the president of the

02:10United States. So that is the big difference here. But there's also been a big blurring of the lines

02:15of the law enforcement activities and functions, as well as the National Guard functions. They have

02:21historically been very, very different. States' rights, of course, also a key point of the Republican

02:29orthodoxy, usually not mentioned at all today by this president or the White House. But the president

02:34is fixated on Chicago, as he said earlier in the Oval Office.

02:40As you all know, Chicago is a killing field right now. And they don't acknowledge it. And they say,

02:46we don't need him. Freedom, freedom. He's a dictator. He's a dictator. A lot of people are saying maybe

02:50we like a dictator. I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator.

02:55So, Pamela, this is all just one more of the latest example of the president's interest in

03:02expanding the military role to do law enforcement activities. Clearly, he wants law and order to be

03:08the centerpiece of his agenda. It's really one of the few things he's talked about in the month of

03:14August, at least on the domestic front, never mind foreign policy. But clearly, he was effectively

03:19saying how successful his federalized takeover of the streets in Washington has been. He's

03:25in crime is down. Of course, this has largely been an immigration enforcement exercise as well.

03:31But it's an entirely different matter if he would send troops into Chicago. And that's where you're

03:36going to see a potential confrontation with Democratic governors like Illinois' J.B. Pritzker.

03:41All right. Let's discuss with the panel. Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much. Joining us now in the arena

03:46is CNN Legal Analyst Elliot Williams, Senior Political Correspondent for The Wall Street

03:50Journal Molly Ball, CNN Political Commentator Sochi Anohosa, Senior Advisor to the Trump 2024

03:55Campaign Brian Lanza. And we are also joined by former Acting Vice Chair of the National Guard

04:01Bureau, retired Major General Randy Manor. Major General Randy Manor, stand by. We're going to

04:07get to you in just a second. I want to go to Elliot Williams first, though, because you heard

04:12Jeff ending there on the note of, look, Chicago is different from D.C., right, when you look at a

04:18federal takeover. What is the legality here? The president can recommend anything to a jurisdiction

04:24that he wants. He can recommend anything to a governor that he wants. He can ask, you know,

04:29a state legislature to act. And Congress can suspend funds or hold funds to a jurisdiction to get them to

04:36do something. But in terms of writing a law in Washington, D.C., getting Chicago to change its laws or getting

04:42the state of Illinois to change its laws, that simply defies the Constitution and the laws of

04:46federalism. So, again, it's a polite ask. It's a suggestion. It's an order of sorts. But they can't

04:52enforce it lawfully. Now, certainly, the president can work with the governor if he wishes to activate

04:57the National Guard there and thinks there's an emergency in the state and, frankly, ought to do that

05:01if there is an emergency. But, again, Washington can't dictate the laws of a jurisdiction.

05:06And we should be hearing from the governor, Pritzker, very soon. Major General Manor, I want to bring you in

05:10for context here. The president signed this executive order to establish these specialized

05:15National Guard units to address crime in cities and reestablish public order, as he said. Can you

05:22explain how that might work, how these units differ from what we see in the D.C. streets right now?

05:28It's really important that all your viewers understand that this is a law enforcement operation

05:32in the president's eyes. It is not a military operation. Our young men and women in uniform are not

05:37trained in law enforcement activities. They receive, at most, a couple of hours of training,

05:42not the four to six months that police officers receive. These specialized units, this is extremely

05:48disconcerting. Again, for the average American, they might know about infantry units, armor units,

05:53transportation units, signal units. And now they're going to create, what, occupation forces

05:59that are going to be trained to go in and to occupy a city? This is so un-American. It just makes me

06:05sick. This is not something that is what America is about. This is about creating literally military

06:11units to monitor our people. And this is actually very disparaging. I'm actually in shock the

06:17president is directing the Secretary of Defense to do this. That's a really strong words from you.

06:22What is your reaction to the arming of the National Guard troops in D.C.?

06:26Every time that we deployed the military, when I was the acting vice chief, down to and including

06:33when I was just a battalion commander in the Virginia Army National Guard, then later as member

06:38of the D.C. National Guard, we always looked at what was the mission and what were the risks that we

06:43were going to be involved with. Obviously in combat operations, but equally as important when we were

06:48doing disaster recovery, when we were doing, helping to save people for flooding or forest fires,

06:55we'd look at what was the mission and then what was the risk to our guardsmen and to the people that

07:00we were helping. The idea of arming our soldiers and airmen is absolutely absurd. There is no risk

07:07that justifies this. This just furthers the, it amplifies the voice that this is for, not because

07:12there's a risk against the guardsmen, but because they, the president wants to see uniformed, armed

07:17people on the streets. The same thing with the use of heavily armored vehicles on the streets of

07:21Washington. They're not designed to operate in environments like that. They're operated,

07:26they are built and should be used in combat operations or in the United States, perhaps

07:31moving through floodwaters to be able to save Americans. They should not be used as photo ops

07:36in front of the Capitol or in Union Station. All right. Stay right there because I want to bring

07:42Brian Lanza to get a reaction to what we just heard. I mean, you heard the major generals say

07:46the specialized units in the National Guard are un-American. There's no justification for having

07:51the National Guard troops. They're armed on the streets that they're really photo op opportunities,

07:57photo ops, I should say. What do you say to that? Listen, I think the president has made it abundantly

08:01clear that extra manpower is to arrest criminals. It's to arrest illegal aliens to get them in the

08:07process of being deported. I mean, he has stated what the mission is of what he wants this National Guard

08:11to be. He wants the National Guard to arrest criminals, which everybody supports. And he

08:16certainly wants them to focus on the illegal aliens that he's trying to round up and deport.

08:21You know, it's easy to see how he can do that in Washington, D.C. I suspect the courts are going

08:26to have stronger opinions when he goes to Chicago. So are they, but I guess the question is, are they

08:30there to conduct immigration enforcement or to conduct local criminal enforcement? Because those are two

08:35totally different. I think you're seeing them do both, right? I mean, they're there in the support

08:39role. So then that raises the question, why would they need to be armed? It's very important for

08:45them to understand that National Guard men in this capacity do not have the ability to arrest anyone

08:50whatsoever. I've got to emphasize that. So this idea that the National Guard is going to arrest anybody

08:55is absolutely a falsehood and is illegal. Remember, I, like most Americans, fully support community-based

09:01efforts to fight crime. And the president needs to reinstate the funds that he pulled back from

09:07the local communities for engagement and for hiring additional law enforcement officers. The idea of

09:12using our American military against our own people is absurd, and it is not the way that I joined the

09:18military or anyone else does to make this happen. The Secretary of Defense said the men love this

09:23mission. I'm going to tell you right now, they do not like it. They do not like doing things that

09:27they are not trained for, and they do not like the idea of just standing around so much.

09:31They like defending our country, and they like saving American lives. And none of those apply in this

09:36situation. Molly, how do you see it? Do you think this could backfire on President Trump?

09:41Absolutely. Look, the audience for this is not the people who live in these cities, right?

09:46Most Americans don't live in cities. Most Americans live in suburban or exurban areas.

09:51And so I think what Trump is doing here, he realizes that the politics of law and order

09:58are a winning hand for him in a general sense. People do feel that crime is out of control.

10:04People actually feel, most people believe crime is getting worse, even though that's not actually

10:08the case according to the statistics that we have. And so the idea that, you know, these mayors in

10:14cities in red and blue states alike have failed to contain the crime problem and that therefore

10:20the president has to take action and step in, I think that in isolation could be a winning message.

10:25I think the concerns that have been stated here about the way the administration is going about

10:30this without partnering with the jurisdictions in question, without necessarily following the law

10:35in a lot of cases. And as Jeff said, seeming to use this more as a pretext to do immigration

10:40operations than to actually pacify the streets of these places.

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