Elizabeth Goitein

One of the things that concerns me the most is the way in which this administration is using the apparatus of the federal government to go after perceived political enemies.

I'm thinking about, you know, canceling grants to states and to institutions, bringing prosecutions against those who the president perceives have wronged him based on flimsy charges, deploying the military.

in cities and states that are led by people who, again, the president perceives as his political enemies.

That kind of deploying the federal government against political enemies is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes, and it has major implications for basic First Amendment rights and for the functioning of our democracy.

Another thing that I'm quite worried about is the militarization of U.S.

cities.

In the last nine presidencies, not including the first Trump presidency, presidents deployed the military to quell civil unrest or to enforce the law twice.

President Trump has either deployed the military, attempted to deploy the military or requested deployment seven times in his first year in office.

He is violating

a longstanding legal principle against using the military as a domestic police force.

And that principle is a critical safeguard for democracy and individual liberties.

So those are some of the things that I'm most concerned about.

Well, you both have pretty long lists.

Well, if President Trump were to deploy troops in Minneapolis, for example, if he were to invoke the Insurrection Act, that would be a clear abuse of power.

The Insurrection Act is designed for extraordinary circumstances where mass violence has absolutely overwhelmed state and local law enforcement.

I'll give you an example.

The last time that a president invoked the Insurrection Act was in 1992.

When riots in Los Angeles after a jury acquitted a police officer who had beaten Rodney King killed 63 people and caused more than a billion dollars worth of damage.

There's nothing like that that's happening right now.

In Minneapolis, there is chaos, I would say, in the city, but it's chaos of the federal government's own making.