Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Sunday that her city doesn’t “need” the military following President Trump’s recent deployment of military troops to Los Angeles amid immigration protests.
“We don’t want them here. They don’t need to be here. Our local law enforcement have complete control of this situation,” Bass told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
Late Thursday, a federal appeals court panel temporarily lifted a judge’s order ruling Trump’s deployment of the National Guard illegal, allowing troops to continue helping with immigration raids in Los Angeles. The ruling dropped only hours following U.S District Judge Charles Breyer ordering Trump to return control of the troops to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) by Friday afternoon.
Both Bass and Newsom have pushed back against the use of the military in LA, and the Golden State governor has been in an intense clash with Trump over the situation in the U.S.’s second-largest city.
Newsom said in a podcast episode from Thursday that Trump did not discuss sending the National Guard to Los Angeles when the two recently spoke to each other before Trump’s announcement.
“He lied, he lied. On my mother and dad’s grave. I don’t mess around, when I say this, he lied. Stone cold liar,” Newsom said on The New York Times’s “The Daily.” Host Michael Barbaro had said the president “claimed you did” talk about the subject when the two spoke earlier Saturday.
Later that evening, Trump said he was sending the National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of Newsom and Bass.
The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.