Grassley defends Trump decision to send National Guard, Marines into Los Angeles in response to protests

WASHINGTON — President Trump is defending his decision to send another 2000 National Guard troops along with 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests over immigration raids.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley supports the president’s decision.   “The president’s number one responsibility is to protect the American people, and you can see what’s going on on TV. It’s not some peaceful demonstration. Particularly when it comes to the destruction of federal property, I think the president has the right to protect that, to protect the taxpayers from the rehabilitation that it’s going to cost from the damage that’s done.”

California governor Gavin Newsom has called the presence of troops on the streets of Los Angeles both “illegal and immoral”. Grassley says calling out the National Guard against the wishes of a governor in times of crisis is not unprecedented.  “I also remember from history. If the president hadn’t called out the National Guard — this is President Eisenhower — to get black people into the schools of Little Rock Arkansas, you’d still have segregation of the schools. So the president’s job is to enforce the law and the court orders and to protect property, and the president is doing that.”

California officials have filed a lawsuit against Trump seeking to roll back the deployment, saying the president trampled over the state’s sovereignty.