‘Now Is the Time!’ Joe Scarborough Warns GOP to Stand by ‘Oath’ After Trump Floats US Cities as Military ‘Training Grounds’
Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough warned congressional Republicans that “now is the time” to stand by their oath “to protect and defend the Constitution” after President Donald Trump floated the idea of using U.S. cities as military “training grounds” in a speech to generals.
Trump used Tuesday’s address to argue that the military should be mobilized against perceived threats inside the United States, ranging from riots to unauthorized immigration.
“Last month, I signed an executive order to provide training for a quick reaction force that can help quell civil disturbances,” he said. “This is gonna be a big thing for the people in this room because it’s the enemy from within, and we have to handle it before it gets out of control.”
“This is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war too. It’s a war from within,” he said, adding how he told Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth that the military “should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds.”
Scarborough unloaded on the remarks at the beginning of Wednesday’s show on MSNBC as an “extraordinary breach” of norms and called on his former colleagues in the Republican Party to prioritize the oath taken when they entered office:
I’m actually still optimistic enough that even those that support Donald Trump had to understand that when you have a president talking about using the military to fight Americans and to use United States cities as training grounds. I mean, there’s nothing reassuring about that regardless of who you are.
And I know right now watching there are Republicans in the Senate, there are Republicans in the House who understand what an extraordinary breach that is,what he said was, and now is the time – because they held their right hand up and they took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States and the laws of this land – this would be a pretty good time for them to actually execute that oath. And say, ‘no, no, no, we don’t use the United States military to attack Americans. We don’t use the United States military to fight, quote, the enemy within.’
Especially when Donald Trump is now defining enemies as public interest groups that oppose his politics.
Under the Constitution’s 10th Amendment, policing powers are left to the states. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 further prohibits the military from engaging in civilian law enforcement unless “expressly authorized” by law.
Watch above via MSNBC.
