The Militarization of American Cities Under Trump with Mary McCord

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

MS NOW, Chris Hayes

News, Versant Media, Versant, Ms Now, Nbcnews, Why Is This Happening?, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Chris Hayes, Politics, Government, Society & Culture, Msnbc, Withpod

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mary McCord, Executive Director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, joins WITHpod to discuss the legal and ethical implications of this alarming trend – and what it means for democracy.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If you talk to former generals or even frankly current military, if they're willing to talk about this,
0:12.5	is that our armed forces, they are trained to go into combat against a foreign enemy and use lethal force. Their rules of engagement are completely
0:24.0	different than the rules of engagement of domestic law enforcement who are not supposed to be
0:29.6	shooting to kill except for in extraordinary and limited circumstances and certainly not at
0:34.4	protesters who are engaged in peaceful protest.
0:38.0	And so it's not just that it's, you know, fundamentally against the grain of what our whole
0:44.0	system has built into constitution and statute for the last 250 years.
0:49.5	It's also just not safe.
0:55.4	Hello and welcome. Why is this happening with me, your host, Chris Hayes.
1:04.6	As I speak to you on this Wednesday, October 8th, we have federal, well, Texas National Guard who are deploying to the outskirts of the city of Chicago in violation of what the governor of Illinois wants after a threat to federalize Illinois National Guard troops.
1:24.0	We have an attempt by the Department of Defense to send federalized California National
1:31.9	Guard troops to Oregon in contravention of the wishes of the governor there. That's currently
1:36.7	being blocked under a court order. We've seen the National Guard troops of California
1:41.2	federalized against the governor's wishes, which a judge found
1:46.0	unlawful. We've seen Marines deployed as well to California. We've got NBC News reporting at this hour.
1:53.7	There are discussions about invoking the Insurrection Act inside the White House that would presumably
1:58.5	lead to more aggressive use of the military.
2:02.5	And fundamentally, I think what we're all seeing here is a very clear and explicit plan to use
2:08.5	the U.S. military trained to defend the country against foreign enemies as a tool of the state
2:14.3	to be unleashed upon its own citizens. Donald Trump said as much in a gathering before 800 of the state to be unleashed upon its own citizens.
2:21.9	Donald Trump said as much in a gathering before 800 of the top military commanders.
2:25.5	He said we have to fight the war within, that there's a war within, that we have enemies inside, that we have to train.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from MS NOW, Chris Hayes, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of MS NOW, Chris Hayes and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.