A deep red state governor slammed Texas for sending National Guard troops to Chicago, saying "Oklahomans would lose their mind" if Illinois were to do the same to his state.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, chair of the National Governors Association, said the move is overstepping state rights in a New York Times interview on Thursday. His comments "marked the first time a Republican governor has questioned the interstate deployment of National Guard troops over a governor’s objections."
“We believe in the federalist system — that’s states’ rights,” he told The Times, “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker has urged other Democratic and Republican governors to oppose the deployment of guard troops.
Stitt said he supports President Donald Trump's move to protect ICE agents and restore "law and order" to cities. But he also indicates he worries that these decisions to bring guard troops could carry a precedent — or be carried out in the future by a president from another party.
In his interview with The Times, Stitt said, "Trump should have moved to federalize the troops in Illinois first."
“I was surprised that [Texas Republican Gov. Greg] Abbott sent troops from Texas to Illinois,” Stitt said. “Abbott and I sued the Biden administration when the shoe was on the other foot and the Biden administration was trying to force us to vaccinate all of our soldiers and force masks across the country.”
He said he hasn't spoken with Abbott about the deployment; however, they would both be at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas football game this weekend.
“As a federalist believer, one governor against another governor, I don’t think that’s the right way to approach this," he said.
Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom have threatened to leave the 100-year-old bipartisan National Governors Association if the organization does not speak up against the Texas guard deployment in the Windy City.
The association has not commented yet, and Stitt said that it's not his role to come out against the Trump administration and the Texas governor's decision.
“The N.G.A. is an educational organization under I.R.S. code,” Stitt said. “And so we’re not going to be weighing into the politics. That’s not our lane.”