Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) slammed President Trump’s response to the protests in Los Angeles as “hypocritical at best” compared to how he responded to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Booker about his thoughts on Trump deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to the Los Angeles area without a governor’s signoff amid protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Despite the National Guard’s deployment, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said there was no unmet need for law enforcement.
“Since years before I was born, law enforcement knows it’s good when there’s cooperation and coordination,” Booker said. “For the president to do this when it wasn’t requested, breaking with generations of tradition, is only going to incite the situation and make things worse.”
He compared Trump’s reaction to the L.A. protests to his response to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“We are now at a point where we have a president who sat back and did nothing as people stormed our Capitol, viciously beat police,” he continued. “And then when those people who viciously beat police and led to some of their deaths, therefore, cop killers, were convicted by juries, he then pardoned them all.
“So for him to be talking to anybody right now about responsive law enforcement to protect people is hypocritical at best.”
Booker made it clear that violence against police would not be accepted and noted the reasoning behind the protests.
“But remember, a lot of these peaceful protests are being generated because the president of the United States is sowing chaos and confusion by arresting people who are showing up for their immigration hearings, who are trying to abide by the law,” Booker said.
National Guard confirmed that troops arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday morning to aid in quelling the protests “with some already on the ground.”