Episode 168: On the Brink with the Insurrection Act

The National Security Law Podcast

Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck

Courses, Politics, News, Education, Government

4.8 • 646 Ratings

🗓️ 2 June 2020

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tonight we bring you a special episode, recorded jointly with Ben Wittes as an episode of the Lawfare Podcast. Ben, Bobby, and Steve explore the threatened invocation of the Insurrection Act by President Trump, the president's existing use of the DC National Guard, the president's assertion that he will designate Antifa as a "domestic terrorist organization," and the use of tear gas and rubber bullets to clear protesters out of Lafayette Square Park in order to facilitate a presidential photo op.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello from both the nation's capital and the capital of Texas, and welcome to a special
0:04.7	joint episode of the National Security Law Podcast and the Lawfare podcast. It's Monday night,
0:10.9	June 1st, 2020, and all hell's breaking loose. The president is threatening to designate
0:18.7	Antifa as a terrorist organization.
0:22.1	He, this evening, appears to have ordered a tear gas attack on peaceful protesters near the
0:30.3	White House in order to stage a photo op in front of a local church.
0:36.6	And he has called out troops in Washington, D.C.
0:42.4	And threatened to, though not quite, invoked the Insurrection Act.
0:48.2	So we've got a lot to talk about.
0:50.2	I'm Benjamin Wittes.
0:52.0	I'm Bobby Chesney.
0:53.7	I'm Steve Vladek. And that sound you hear is my face banging into my table over and over and over again.
1:00.6	As are all faces connecting with all tables around the country this evening.
1:06.9	So, Steve, let's start with what the president said this evening and work backwards from there.
1:14.3	What did he announce? What did he do and what did he not do?
1:18.4	So I think it's actually really important to start with the fact that he actually did very little, that there was a whole lot of sound and fury, including this very aggressive
1:28.7	clearing out of Lafayette Square, apparently, so he could have a photo op in front of St.
1:33.3	John's Church, and that he basically said that he is telling governors that they really have to get
1:39.6	serious with all of this violence and disorder that is, you know, going on in response to obviously
1:46.5	the huge upheavals of the past week, this, you know, completely unjustified killing in Minneapolis.
1:52.2	And that if they don't, he says, right?
1:55.2	If they don't, I will call out the military.
	...

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