Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell sharply countered President Donald Trump’s claims that the city needed National Guard support, emphasizing Wednesday that protests were “nowhere near” that level.
McDonnell’s remarks come after Trump cited the police chief as validating the White House’s decision to send in troops to address largely peaceful protests over immigration raids.
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“If we weren’t there, if we didn’t bring in the National Guard and the Marines, you would probably have a city that was burning to the ground,” Trump baselessly stated while attending a performance of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center Wednesday evening. “You would have had a big problem there, if we weren’t — in fact, the police chief said so much if you look at what his statements were. He said we’re very lucky to have had them.”
When asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if Trump had correctly described his position, McDonnell disputed the president’s statement.
“No, we were not in a position to request the National Guard,” he said. “We’re nowhere near a level where we would be reaching out to the governor for National Guard at this stage. And my hope is that things are going in the right direction now and that we wouldn’t have had to have done that, or we won’t either.”
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California’s state and local leaders have vocally opposed Trump’s decision to deploy 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to protests that began this past weekend, emphasizing that they’re not needed and will only sow chaos.
Trump has bypassed state leaders, however, and made the rare move of sending in members of the military without the approval of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
McDonnell told CNN that the role of these troops is “still not clear” to the LAPD, describing them as a “support entity to protect federal employees and facilities.”
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In the last week, both National Guard troops and Marines have been authorized to temporarily detain civilians, a move that has murky legal footing since they’re largely barred from engaging in law enforcement activity unless the president invokes the Insurrection Act.
