A looming election join me Steve Clemons in conversation with leading voices on the bottom line your weekly take on u. S. Politics and society on aljazeera. Why is donald trump sending federal troops to confront protesters in u. S. Cities the president says Violent Crime needs to be controlled opponents denounce what they call a political stunt does the deployment set a dangerous precedent for american democracy this is an odd story. Hello welcome d to the program im wrong donald trump often calls himself the lower note a president its one of the Campaign Themes in his bid for reelection less than full months from now is a q some city may as a failing to rein in weeks of protests against police brutality. Trump sent in federal agents to portland in oregon earlier this month he said the aim was to support local police and protect government buildings from increasingly violent unrest some protesters say they were arrested without cause and taken away in unmarked cause trumps also announced what he called a surge of federal offices to other cities such as chicago to combat Violent Crime that. Extreme politicians have joined this Police Crusade and relentlessly vilified our Law Enforcement heroes to. Look at it from any standpoint the effort to shut down policing in their own communities has led to a shocking explosion of shootings killings murders and heinous crimes of violence this bloodshed must stand this bloodshed will end leaders of several cities have written to the attorney general to denounce the deployments america poland as well as Donald Trumps democratic opponents accuse him of a political stunt to try and revive his election. The president has made it clear its going to happen in. The white Democratic Leaders that is the police force a police force campaign. That is not an acceptable solution and. Its very very important the you ship storm troopers under the guise of law and order is a tactic that is not. Appropriate to our country in any way only american what is happening in keeping with 3rd world countries in dictatorships you call somebody off the streets dont tell them who you are why youre doing it in syria its also unconstitutional. Lets introduce the panel all of them in the United States in washington d. C. John malcolm Vice President at the institute for Constitutional Government at the Heritage Foundation conservative think tank in new jersey as hes professor of law at Rutgers University and director of the center for security rights and rights and in maryland jason they cause a lecturer in African American studies at the university of Maryland College park a welcome to all id like to begin in washington d. C. With john welcome nancy pelosi use the word stormtroopers increasingly we keep hearing the word fascism being brought up in connection with Donald Trumps strategy it seems to be a talking point within the American Media and within american politics whats brought us to that position why such why the use of such an extreme word. Oh my god the politics in our country are incredibly divisive on both the right and the left and so and that does not surprise me that the democrats are trying to portray the president as an inveterate racist and a fascist theyve been using language like that practically since the day that he was inaugurated and if its designed to try to calm down a situation its completely counterproductive these are very very dangerous times that we are living in in this country with all of these writings going on and to see. That people are behaving as nazis is very imprudent in my opinion the horror of these what are your thoughts i mean all we witnessing a very dangerous moment in american politics particular when it comes to blood massive protests. Weve been experiencing a highly polarized political experience sense trump was elected president and what were seeing now is just an exasperated of that and one of trumps strategies is to continue to escalate that polarization rather than try to deescalate it in d. Polarized so his latest moves of sending are what he in fact does sent federal Law Enforcement agents portland and threatening to sand up to 75000 more federal Law Enforcement agents to multiple cities all of whom not coincidentally are governed by democratic mayors in states that are governed by democratic governors and so what hes doing is used hes playing hypermasculine game of trying to show that he is a law and order president and that he can send troops whenever he wants and that effectively these democratic mayors and governors do not know how to govern and hes portraying these protests as chaotic as anarchic anarchic as anti fascists when in fact there are effectively protests that are exercising 1st amendment rights and interesting we didnt have the same aggressive response when people were protesting against Wearing Masks when people were protesting against governors imposing requirements that stay at home orders for example because of the code in 1000 pandemic instead he portrayed those as exercising 1st amendment rights as upholding the constitution so that stark contrast is glaring and its no coincidence that those who are protesting against Wearing Masks and stay at home orders were primarily white constituents who are primarily republican constituents and many of his base whereas the protestors in support of black lives matter are primarily africanamerican minority white allies who are democratic so this is a highly politicized contacts and he is effectively playing president ial election politics but jason the calls. And maryland theres a bit more going on than whats the horace saying when it comes to the actual protesters when the 1st round of protests happened in poland the president did use the term well there were some fine people on the side of those people protesting and effectively they were fascists lets be honest lets use that word. But now its against black lives masses protest as and heavy handed tactics and as those tactics have been that in all the protests is this a war against black people and its certainly i think well a lot of what some are saying is correct we have to remember there portland is about 6 percent black its a very white city i think this is also a war kind of been a Richard Nixon kind of sense against people who dont like trump i think that includes many africanamericans not you know and as as a horror stated also white allies of those groups of course the president is doing something that isnt government overreach we have to understand that our Founding Fathers in the United States really want to go to not have a police in the 10th amendment it is implied that we do not want to police now the president does have the right to protect federal property using federal Law Enforcement but thats not whats happening important people or big rat. Being detained in america we dont have the tomtom a coup we dont have a federal police force for a reason and whats happening here is in serious overreach and i would say you know mike how do you that the Heritage Foundation that you know conservative isnt traditional conservatives who are very youre free of the overreach by federal government and what were seeing right now and theyre signing one of these problems very traditional conservatives should be stepping out right now in santa better or government has no business doing what theyre doing right now this is an overreach we have a local. The government was recruiting in this country it was something that our Founding Fathers in the constitution tomo couldnt face in the cause of saying that you know its overreach but constitutionally legally speaking the president is actually allowed to do this and then yeah look i dont agree with more of whats the heart said most of what jason said i agree with jason when he says that we do not want to have a police state and federal level reaches to be possible im not on the ground in portland but i did see to it that authorities have the right in fact a duty to protect the property and people who are on federal property and lets be clear whats going on cortland for all 55 days now there has been a seizure on federal courthouse and on monuments on federal property and the people who are trying to guard that courthouse and protect those monuments federal authorities are acting lawfully and are under attack and makes the point that well portland is overwhelmingly why. I dont contest that its not about attacking black people this is about protecting i think putting rampant violence and protecting federal property and at the moment the other thing that there that he says that i agree with this is part of the responsibility of state police and state authorities were state laws but earle out of federal laws out there including against firearms and violence and and drop bombs that are being urged to congo for instance at the moment local police are diverted to crowd control and federal authorities have all sorts of rights and duties to enforce those laws now are there things happening on the ground in port that are excessive possibly that is the department of justice Inspector General harlots has said that he is going to look in to that and obviously you know that would be a concern and its president s authority to send these people in to protect federal property absolutely has that right and to suggest that this is somehow racist in a work in black people i believe is absurd. A guest says its absurd to suggest its a war against black people he also says that actually its all perfectly legal. So this is a really complicated area of law because when youre dealing with domestic Law Enforcement there is a lot of overlap and coordination and cooperation between local state and federal officials and in fact when were dealing for example with the war on terror there was no challenge by even the republicans or the democrats that federal Law Enforcement should be out there surveilling mosques and surveilling Muslim Student association isnt working with the n. Y. P. D. In a mass arraignments program and this was the f. B. I. This was the h. S. This was n. Y. P. D. Also had it with l. A. P. D. And other Major Police Departments so when it comes to certain types of crimes like terrorism Drug TraffickingHuman Trafficking mail fraud tax fraud etc particularly when there is interstate transactions and that you cannot conduct those criminal acts without crossing state lines its very normal and traditional for federal Law Enforcement to be involved if not outright take the lead and oftentimes the political hook for are that is targeting minority communities because when they start targeting White Communities or Christian Communities then you start getting these 1st amendment and 4th amendment and 5th amendment claims that the violate the constitution is under threat and were seeing that with the contradiction with the white extremists or right wing fringe extremists where you dont have federal Law Enforcement surveilling their churches and surveilling their militia groups and their patriot groups not new at least at the level that they did with muslim arab and south asian groups so you cant disconnect race and demographics from how Law Enforcement resources are utilized and deployed now in this situation whats unusual is that these are uniquely state actions in other words protests are uniquely something that is coordinated controlled in managed by local police whether its theyre trying to protect the protesters or theyre trying to protect the counter protesters or their property through which protest. After this is historically and traditionally been a local police jurisdictional issue and so for him to send these federal Law Enforcement agencies that this number were talking he said 60075000 clearly shows that this is much more than about protecting a courthouse a federal courthouse or protecting federal property which yes legally that is permissible but hes really playing politics here and he is trying to show that democrats are weak on crime hes trying to tell his base that these protesters are and are kids and hes trying to connect the very extreme fringes of the left that are anarchists with the much more broader and i think now mainstream protesters that are in support of black lives matter that are many different races and so this is this is a political ploy and hes using federal law protecting federal property as a pretext for our infringing 1st amendment protected activities jason the cols there is another issue here as well and thats one of systemic racism within the Police Force Many studies have been done that have showing the americans mistrust the police by large particularly in large in a city environment so the fact that youve now got all of these troops effectively going into inner city areas going into production in black areas is concerning to you as it. Absolutely and so i think that theres also a distinction and while were while weve been talking about portland what is being proposed for chicago is completely different and there is absolutely no federal property thats even being talked about its just man talk about growing into the south side of chicago which is overwhelmingly black and you know basically wreaking havoc and pulling people off thats what i think is being proposed and when we look at the president of the United States you know and you know someone talked about. Earlier about the you know about him. Being racist and people saying he was racist from the day it was inoperative thats because he had a 50 year history prior to that going back to the early seventys where people have said he was racist or he has said things that were clearly races so i think that you know he has. A record of racial insensitivity at least and outright racism here and that racism at best and so i think what were seeing and whats being proposed for chicago and brother africanamerican communities around the country is going to many ways. Kind of awake as theres wrangling who is that head of an extremist website said that trump does to his base to the the far right races its a wink saying look im with you you know i will vote you know im willing to do whatever naveen necessary to keep people in line and not enough respect their Constitutional Rights so i think that this is very troubling in terms of whats going on in portland as a testing ground for what will happen in black communities now as far as the mistrust for police that goes far beyond trucks and we cant blame trump for systemic racism. Theres the cagr the system there unfortunately will probably be here after hes gone and it certainly was here before it was there and the mistrust for police is up to local Police Departments to actually fix and federal governments to oversee we havent seen. So as a side do you want to bring in john malcolm here as well to respond to some of your points you make very good points joe malcolm the president as rice says but systemic racism is a bigger problem the is outdated trump and will outlive trump well look the president is the person who bought across the finish line 1st step back which was a major piece of bipartisan criminal justice legislation that primarily benefited people of color some of the statements. Made i think are absurd look there is a federal antiriot act and hes absolutely correct that Peaceful Protesters not only should be permitted to engage in peaceful protest they should be protected but lets be clear that the people who are breaking the glass and throwing the equipment amala top cocktails at the federal courthouse are not Peaceful Protesters and if those federal authorities left they would burn that building down and they would not stop now lets talk a little bit about about chicago so on you know on wednesday 10 people were shot and 3 people were killed and chicago on tuesday 23 people were shot and 4 people were killed and as jason said these are happening in communities of color there are federal anti gang and federal firearms laws and better will authorities have every right in fact the duty. Black people by going into those communities and enforcing those laws that is exactly what they did by the way in kansas city at the request of the kansas governor and it helped bring the Violent Crime rates down quickly and dramatically the democratic mayor should welcome that assistance instead of fighting that assistance in terms of the charge that the president is a racist you know look people are going to believe what theyre going to believe and the same thing i suppose with respect arguments about whether the police were soldiers ok lets we have so that the onus here we having a bigger conversation not just in america globally now as well about whether the president is racist or not we are having that conversation we have another conversation under barack obama we didnt have the conversation under bush we are having it on the trump theres smoke the bus. Well i dont know what it is smoke or not there was certainly hatred for this president that the Unemployment Rate for africanamerica