President Donald Trump’s historic decision to federalize California National Guard personnel to confront protesters in Los Angeles is little more than a stunt to distract public attention away from his deficit-busting domestic spending mega-bill and to “create a chill” in the nation’s immigrant communities, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey said Monday.
“Why are they doing it? They’re trying to make families afraid,” Markey, D-Mass., told an audience of business and community leaders in Boston.
“They’re trying to create a chill in all of these immigrant communities. That’s what it’s all about. And when Trump deploys the National Guard or federalizes it to go into [Los Angeles] in a situation that the police already had under control, it’s for a very simple reason.”
“He’s trying to distract America from what he’s really trying to do. And that just becomes the circus.” Markey told the meeting convened by The New England Council at the Boston Harbor Hotel. “There was never a threat … they had it under control. The governor didn’t ask for any additional help. No president for 60 years has sent in federal troops without a governor requesting it.”
Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC that he intended to sue the Republican White House over the deployment, describing it as “an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.”
The bill has broad implications for Massachusetts, Markey said.
Markey also sounded the alarm Monday about language in the bill that would phase out energy tax credits in a version of the bill approved by the U.S. House. If that language is allowed to stand, it would hurt Massachusetts’ offshore wind sector, Markey said.
“And if you kill the tax breaks for solar, for offshore wind as well, you have further made our region dependent on energy sources from other regions of the country, when we had a capacity to find our own pathway for the next generation,” he said.
Senate Republicans are looking to get a finished bill onto Trump’s desk by the July 4 holiday, and can only afford a handful of defections under the “reconciliation” they are using to pass the legislation.
“And at a time when our nation’s politics and our very identity are at a crossroads, it’s more important than ever that Democrats and Republicans come together for a business plan for our entire nation,” he said.