President Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard and hundreds of Marines to quell a Los Angeles protest against mass deportation has triggered a firestorm of controversy — but in the Senate, Republicans are right on board with him, said Joe Perticone in an analysis for The Bulwark.
"We surveyed a number of Senate Republicans about the idea of sending the army into LA and ... you may wanna sit down ... they're thrilled with it," Sam Stein wrote on X, prefacing the article.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said, “I think he needs to restore order. I’m mainly concerned about public safety and the president has clearly got authority in his federal capacity to deal with the National Guard. So, plenty of precedent.”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who also went on Fox News to tell Democrats to "pop a Zoloft" over the affair, agreed, saying, “These weren’t just protests — these were riots. And it was clear that the governor and the mayor — the mayor’s idea of containment was to give them a hug and a cup of hot cocoa. And the president did what he had to do.”
He added of the plan to send in the Marines, “I don’t think they’ll do it unless it’s legal. But if it’s necessary to contain the riots, yeah. We need to send whatever we have to end [the riots].”
Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) appeared not to actually understand the situation, Perticone wrote.
“I was encouraged to hear that the mayor stated that the city and the federal government are now working collaboratively, and I think that’s the way it should be,” he said, seemingly unaware Mayor Karen Bass had condemned the response as a "chaotic escalation."
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has said Trump's claims about contacting and coordinating with him are false, has launched a lawsuit against the Trump administration alleging his deployment of the National Guard was unlawful.
