On Saturday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) argued that President Donald Trump has the National Guard in D.C. so he can have a force occupying D.C. to keep power and “the President of the United States should be focused on how we get our economy working, how we stop the starvation and killing in Gaza, how we stand up to Putin and not just have land be taken from Ukraine.”
Co-host Jonathan Capehart asked, “Congressman, let’s switch gears to the National Guard troops that are here in Washington, D.C., also from about six or seven Republican states. So, there are almost 2,000 National Guard troops. We also now know that the secretary of defense signed an order to allow the National Guard to carry guns while they are here, and the President is threatening to replicate this in other cities like New York, Chicago, Oakland. Gee, what do they all have in common? Black mayors. So, is there anything that Democrats can do or Americans can do to push back against what the President is doing? Because he says that what he’s doing here in Washington is because crime is so out of control. But what he’s actually doing, I think, is obliterating the guardrails and the bounds so that he has, basically, an occupying force here in Washington to stay in power. Talk me off the grassy knoll if you think I’m wrong.”
Khanna responded, “Well, Jonathan, you’re absolutely right. So much for Republicans believing in local control. So much for them believing in federalism. It seems like the job that Donald Trump really wants or wanted was mayor. And if he wanted that, he can go run against Mamdani in New York for mayor. But the President of the United States should be focused on how we get our economy working, how we stop the starvation and killing in Gaza, how we stand up to Putin and not just have land be taken from Ukraine. And, instead, he’s not doing any of that. He’s failing, and he’s engaged in dangerous rhetoric and the criminalization of the streets. And, by the way, it’s hurting the economy. You talk to folks, because I’ve spent a lot of time in D.C., you talk to small businesses, they’re having less foot traffic because of the National Guard.”
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