A former Trump White House aide warned president Donald Trump's crackdown on protesters would backfire.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as an aide during Trump's first presidency, appeared Friday morning on "CNN News Central" to discuss the deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and the forcible removal of Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) from a news conference with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
"Listen, the first words in that video that we see out of Sen. Padilla's mouth is, 'I am an American, a U.S. senator,' so he made that abundantly clear," Griffin said, "and still they used such a degree of force. I think it's incredibly chilling. This is a man who got 6 million votes, he represents nearly 40 million Californians, where these [immigration] raids, by the way, are taking place, and he has an oversight role in the Senate over immigration and the Department of Homeland Security, so I think it's a very chilling moment. Some Republican senators have criticized it, as well."
"I think it speaks to the fact that Donald Trump's been very clear, any form of protest he is going to respond to," Griffin added, "and we've obviously got this, this military parade celebrating the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army taking place tomorrow, and I think that there are genuine fears over if any sort of demonstrations and protests happen, what they're going to be met with."
However, Griffin said, meeting Americans protesting his presidency with force would be a political mistake.
"Donald Trump is misreading the room," she said. "If he thinks that Americans want to see a clash between armed National Guard and U.S. protesters who are assembling, that's just not something that Americans want to see. There's a way to do crowd control, there's a way to do anti-riot responses with police officers that is not bullying up people who are demonstrating their First Amendment right to protest. "
"There's going to be all eyes on tomorrow's events and really hopeful that it stays peaceful," Griffin added. "But he's certainly conveying that he will tolerate no protesting."
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