WASHINGTON — As President Trump escalates his takeover of Washington, D.C., he is now threatening to expand this authoritarian blueprint nationwide. Yesterday, the Not Above the Law coalition held a press call with Congressman Jamie Raskin to underscore the dangers of Trump’s authoritarian power grab in Washington and his threats to weaponize law enforcement and the military across the country. The call was featured in a Fox News story that highlighted speakers’ urgent warnings about these unprecedented actions.
“Trump is escalating an authoritarian-style takeover of our city,” said Coalition Co-Chair Lisa Gilbert during the press call – warning that Trump’s actions create a dangerous blueprint that could spread to cities across America if Congress fails to act.
Read more from Fox News below:
Fox News: ‘Era Of Obscene Lawlessness’: Dems Look To Head Off Trump’s Federalization Push From Expanding Beyond DC
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday to end his federal takeover of Washington, D.C., joining members of a coalition of lawyers and other grassroots organizers to reject his declaration of a crime-based “national emergency” in the nation’s capital, as well as Trump’s more recent suggestions that he will deploy National Guard troops to other Democrat-run cities in the U.S. […]
Raskin’s remarks were shared Tuesday during a press call with the Not Above Law coalition, a group of 150 organizations including grassroots organizers, nonprofits, advocacy groups, legal scholars and others with the stated goal of protecting democracy and “defending the rule of law.”
Speakers on Tuesday took aim at Trump’s federalization push and efforts to expand it beyond D.C. They also cited the new ruling from a federal judge in California, who ruled shortly before remarks kicked off, that Trump’s decision in June to deploy U.S. Marines and National Guard troops to California violated federal law.
Trump “is escalating an authoritarian-style takeover of our city,” Lisa Gilbert, the co-chair of Not Above the Law Coalition, said Tuesday of the president’s actions in D.C. Last month, Trump declared a national crime emergency and activated the D.C. Home Rule Act to temporarily take control of the city’s police force.
The president has since threatened to deploy the guard to other cities, including Chicago, despite opposition from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). […]
In introducing H.J.R. 115, lawmakers are saying, “One, there’s no emergency.” Raskin said.
“Second, even if there had been an emergency, there’s no power that the president has within the statute to take over the police department. There’s only the power to direct the mayor to make the requisite number of police available for a particular federal purpose,” he said.
“Congress gave the District of Columbia expansive Home Rule powers in 1973, and Congress should stand up for what this prior Congress did,” Raskin added. “And that means we should rescind this fraudulent emergency and make sure that the mayor has the power to run the police department.”
Raskin’s remarks came shortly after a federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday that Trump’s decision to deploy thousands of National Guard troops and several hundred U.S. Marines in Los Angeles in June violated the Posse Comitatus Act, or the 19th century law that prohibits the use of soldiers from engaging in domestic law enforcement activity. […]
Norm Eisen, a lawyer and former White House ethics czar during the Obama administration, also joined the call on Tuesday to take aim at what he described as the “hostile occupation” of D.C.
He cited Breyer’s ruling as evidence that Trump’s threats to expand the federalization push to other Democrat-led cities, including Chicago, are illegal.