When President Donald Trump threatened to send troops against the Black Lives Matter movement five years ago, some members of his own party offered criticized criticism.
Senator John Thune, Rs.d., who then served as the majority of Whip, said he opposed the use of the army.
“I prefer that these things are treated by the state and the local authorities,” he said. “You want to de-escalate instead of escalating.”
In the past week, however, Thune was one of the many Republican leaders who endorsed Trump’s call to send us Marines to Los Angeles in the midst of the anti-SCHESTEN protests as deportation operations expanded. The almost unanimous chorus is a sign of how thoroughly Trump has consolidated his grip on the Republicans and how fierce the base of the party turned against protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.
Although the party was divided five years ago, some Republicans then rejected the ignition groups of Trump to military force.
“When it starts to plunder, the shooting starts,” Trump tweeted on May 29, 2020. Days later, while the federal police-gassed protesters outside the White House, Trump said in a Rose Garden address That governors ‘must dominate the streets’ with the National Guard – or he would “use the US Army and quickly solve the problem for them.”
The tear-Gassing episode-where Trump was accused of the use of violence so that he could organize a photo-on in the area with convictions of various Republicans in the Senate, including then-Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., And Senator Tim Scott, RS.C.
“If your question is:” Do you have to use tear gas to erase a path so that the president can get a photo? ” The answer is no, “said Scott shortly thereafter. (A probe of the interior later Trump tidy from the use of tear gas to set up his photo.)
The caution was far from unanimous among the Republicans: there were always supporters of Trump’s military speech, including Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
“The army has been called a number of times to defend the nation. The natural route is to use the National Guard. That is appropriate. If necessary, the army must be used and there is a long tradition of it,” Cruz said in June 2020.
Now, five months after his second term, Trump has a much strong grasp on the Republican Party, and the criticism of his heavy speech was more difficult to find.
Thune, now the Senate majority leader, gave unambiguous support for Trump’s decision to send troops.
“Ultimately it is about preventing chaos and the preservation of legislation and order,” Thune said Wednesday.
Other Republicans have used Trump’s decision to explain that they were always right about the deployment of troops on demonstrators.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-ank., Who wrote a controversial New York Times in 2020 in which Trump was called to “send in the troops”, this week wrote a follow-up in the Wall Street Journal entitled “Send in the troops for real. “
Against Trump’s almost unprecedented decision to take over the National Guard of California and then send Marines, only a handful of prominent republicans have reserved.
One of them was Susan Collins, R-Maine. Sometimes seen as a center, but rarely broke with her match, Collins said that she opposed the Marines against protests – but it was great to send the national guard.
“I would make a distinction between the use of the National Guard and the use of the Marines,” she said Earlier this week. “Active-Duty troops may generally not be involved in domestic law enforcement operations.”
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