President Donald Trump suggested Monday he could invoke the Insurrection Act if courts continue to block deployments of troops to cities nationwide, raising the prospect of using the centuries-old law to bypass unfavorable rulings.
“So far it hasn’t been necessary, but we have an Insurrection Act for a reason,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “If I had to enact it, I’d do that. If people were being killed, and courts were holding us up, or governors or mayors were holding us up, sure, I do that.”
“I mean, I want to make sure that people aren’t killed. We have to make sure that our cities are safe,” he concluded.
First, people are being killed. By ICE. There have been several. But that’s fine. The ICE agents are sensitive men who need to hide their identities and they get frightened so they have to shoot people. So far, none of them have been seriously hurt. Protesters and immigrants? They’re being rousted and beaten all over the place.
But how about that new rationale that he can invoke it if the courts are holding them up?
I guess we knew that was coming.