On Wednesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) discussed National Guard deployments in cities and said that “the deployment of these troops has really caused significant concern across the nation, and when you add to that ICE and Border Patrol taking people off the streets, it has created a very tense and a very delicate situation across the United States.”
Co-host Joe Mathieu asked, “There was a big conversation about Posse Comitatus when President Trump first considered deploying federal law enforcement and troops to the streets of Washington, D.C. and other cities. I know the National Guard might be a bit different, but I’m wondering your thoughts on that, Congressman, and whether the Armed Services Committee will have a say on how long they are here, or other cities, for that matter?”
Garamendi answered, “Well, as you said, the Posse Comitatus law, which dates back to the late 1700s, that law basically says the military cannot — except under two very extraordinary circumstances — be deployed for civilian purposes. That is probably — that has certainly been much discussed with the deployment of the National Guard in cities across America, that they are there, really for civilian purposes, and that is contrary to the Posse Comitatus law. It may very well — I’ve not seen the judge’s decision on the December 11 pullback of the Guard, it may be that he was using that and looking at the two unique and special circumstances where the Posse Comitatus law would not apply. We’ll see, I don’t have that decision, but the bottom line of this is, the deployment of these troops has really caused significant concern across the nation, and when you add to that ICE and Border Patrol taking people off the streets, it has created a very tense and a very delicate situation across the United States.”
Earlier in the interview, Garamendi stated, “I think the White House was not the target, these guardsmen were the target. We don’t know why. There’s a lot of information that’s going to be needed before we draw any conclusions.”
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