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Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, Donald Trump's order mobilizing U.S. troops to an American city sets a dangerous precedent for our civil liberties. As I have said, violence is not the way to achieve justice. Freedom of speech is fundamental, but it must be exercised peacefully and lawfully. And the vast majority--the overwhelming majority of protests have been peaceful, and they are exercising their American right, their privilege, to peacefully protest. That has been with our country since its founding.
But sending troops to an American city against the wishes of local officials is outrageous, unnecessary, and reeks of authoritarianism. That is what authoritarian countries do.
Using troops on U.S. soil should only ever be used as an absolute last resort. The last time it happened without State consent was 60 years ago to protect civil rights heroes.
What Donald Trump is doing, rather, is spoiling for a fight. He wants chaos. He would love any excuse to divert attention. And doing it this way is--he does it all the time. This is one of the most shameful, awful ways you can do it.
Our troops don't deserve to be exploited in this way, to be used as pawns in a nakedly political fight. It is a deep disservice to them and to all servicemembers and law enforcement who serve our country and protect our community.
And why is Donald Trump doing this? To divert attention. He knows that his ``Big Ugly Bill'' is highly unpopular with the American people. The more they learn about it, the more they hate it. He knows he has got big trouble with his fight with his erstwhile friend Musk. He knows that the tariffs are hurting the American people. So he seeks to divert attention. That is his MO. But what it does is create chaos. And the American people don't like chaos.
And so I urge the President to immediately reverse course at once, remove all of the troops and the marines, and let local law enforcement do their jobs to keep the peace, as the Governor of California and the mayor of Los Angeles said they are perfectly capable of doing.
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