Christie Defends Trump Sending Federal Agents to Cities: He’s Stepping Up While Mayors Are ‘Too Politically Timid’ to Stop Violence
Chris Christie defended the Trump administration on ABC’s This Week over the president’s decision to send federal agents into cities like Portland in response to violent crime.
Christie told George Stephanopoulos that “Americans understand and understood the rightful peaceful protests that were going on throughout the country in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, and you see it happening peacefully all across the country” but added, “Most Americans, George, do not believe that the riots that are happening in Portland and Seattle and in other places across the country that are causing destruction and injury and in some cases death are acceptable.”
He said Trump is right to act here and “if the mayors of those towns are too politically timid to address people who are defacing and destroying their cities, then the president of the United States has to deal with it.”
“It’s his responsibility, as president, if the mayors are willing to walk away from their own responsibility, not to support peaceful protests, but to stop violent riots,” Christie added.
Former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed back a bit and remarked, “I don’t understand the Republicans. Somehow wearing a mask is an infringement on your personal liberties and freedoms, but sending in paramilitary troops uphold American values.”
Republican strategist Sara Fagen shot back, “I think calling them paramilitary is sort of insulting, Rahm. I mean, these are federal agents.”
“Well, I will show you the pictures, Sara,” Emanuel said.
“They’re federal agents protecting a courthouse that the rioters are trying to burn, in some cases, with federal officials inside,” Fagen said, ripping mayors in these cities for “abdicat[ing] their leadership.”
Democracy for America CEO Yvette Simpson said that “Portland looks like a war zone” and “authoritarian” right now, arguing, “And the idea that you’re trying to protect structures by destroying bodies of people who are protesting — you have moms on the front line. People are showing up with bruises.”
“This is not about public safety. This is about scaring people into believing that our country needs this kind of intervention. We do not,” she added.
Christie and Fagen both objected to Simpson’s remarks, and things got a bit heated as the panel argued over the presence of the federal agents.
Emanuel said the president is trying to “entice those elements, small elements, to become the face of legitimate protests,” and he said this should be a matter for local law enforcement.
Christie shot back that “if the local police would step up and do the job and control the destruction and the violence, then there would be no need for federal agents to come in.”
“There is no need for them to come in,” Simpson said.
You can watch above (the relevant discussion starts around the 5:40 mark), via ABC.
