Trump ‘looking at all options’ amid threats to invoke Insurrection Act, Vance says | Trump administration
J.D. Vance confirmed Sunday that the White House is talking about invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow the deployment of military troops on U.S. soil to quell unrest at home amid legal challenges over the moves.
Vance was asked on NBC News’ Meet the Press whether Donald Trump is seriously considering using his emergency authority to deploy national guard forces or even the U.S. military to domestic environments.
“The President is considering all options,” he said, adding that “we’re talking about this because crime is out of control in our cities.”
Trump’s attempts to use federal National Guard forces in Democratic-run cities have faced challenges in the courts in recent days, particularly in Chicago.
The vice president’s ominous remarks came days after Trump publicly said in the Oval Office, referring to the Insurrection Act: “If I had to sign it into law, I would do it.” Military forces are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties on their territory.
However, in accordance with the Insurrection Act signed in 1807, the president can deploy them domestically in cases of uprising or rebellion or violence that prevents the operation of federal laws.
This authority was used during the civil rights movement in the 1960s during conflicts over desegregation in the South, but has been activated very rarely since then. The last time a president made the call was in 1992, when the governor of California requested military assistance from George H. W. Bush in response to civil unrest in Los Angeles.
In a Meet the Press interview on Sunday, Vance said Trump had “not felt the need” to invoke the Insurrection Act up to this point. But the administration confirmed that it was among the tactics being considered as federal courts continue to block the deployment of federal National Guard forces to Democratic-run cities..
Federal courts blocked the White House from using troops in Oregon and Illinois. A federal judge on Thursday barred federal National Guard personnel from being stationed in Chicago and warned the administration that he had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of a riot in the state of Illinois.”
National Guard troops were sent to Illinois from both Texas and California by the Trump administration, but cannot be put on the streets under a temporary court order.
Vance told NBC News that options such as the Riot Act were being considered because “there are places in Chicago where people are afraid to take their children… fear of gun violence, fear of gang drive-by shootings.”
In a separate interview on ABC News’ This Week, Vance said Chicago had been given over to “lawlessness and gangs” and had a murder rate that “might rival the worst places in the third world.”
In fact, violent crime has been falling at unprecedented rates in America’s largest cities, including Chicago, over the past two years. Chicago is not among the top four major U.S. cities with the highest murder rates; these are all in Republican-controlled states.
As Vance made his rounds on Sunday’s political talk shows, tensions between the Trump administration and the Democratic states it targets exploded on television screens. George Stephanopoulos repeatedly asked the vice president on ABC News whether Illinois’ Democratic governor, J.B. Pritzker, had committed a crime that would lead to him being prosecuted by the Justice Department like many of Trump’s other “political enemies.”
Vance said, “He should face the consequences. Whether he violated a crime or not I would leave it up to the courts, but he certainly violated his oath of office, and that seems pretty criminal to me.”
Pritzker responded to the veiled threat by accusing Vance of coming out with a “tide of lies.” The governor told This Week that he is not afraid of the possibility of prosecution, as happened to former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James, both of whom were indicted in recent days.
Pritzker said: “I’m not afraid. Do I think he can do it? He can. But as I said before, come and get me. So, you are absolutely wrong, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, and I will stand behind the law and the constitution.”
Raw emotions were on wide display in television studios as the federal government shutdown entered its 12th day. Republican House speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News on Sunday that the crisis was planned as a partisan move by Democratic leaders in Congress “so they could prove to their Marxist base that they were willing to fight Trump.”
After eight attempts to reopen the government failed in Senate votes, he said the shutdown “caused real pain for real people, and Democrats don’t seem to care.”
On the same show, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries denied that Democrats’ position was partisan. “We will sit down with anyone who returns to the White House at any time, anywhere, to have a bipartisan discussion about reopening the government,” he said.
Jeffries added that Democrats’ goal is to “improve the quality of life of the American people and find solutions to the health crisis that threatens tens of millions of people across the country.”
