Trump says he’d easily put down election night riots: ‘We have the power to do that’

In an interview with Fox News’ Judge Jeanine Pirro on Saturday, President Donald Trump said that if rioters dare to make a move on election night, his administration would “put them down very quickly.”

According to Politico, Trump said that election night rioting would fall under the Insurrection Act and would be quickly met with resistance.

“We’ll put them down very quickly if they do that,” Trump told Pirro. “We have the right to do that. We have the power to do that if we want.

“Look, it’s called insurrection,” the president continued, as Politico reported. “We just send in, and we do it very easy. I mean, it’s very easy. I’d rather not do that because there’s no reason for it, but if we had to, we’d do that and put it down within minutes.”

Calling in troops

Trump threatened to use the Insurrection Act to quell riots after the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, but has not yet done so after criticism from both sides of the political aisle.

According to NPR, the 1807 law allows the president to use the military within the country to calm civil unrest and disorder in extreme circumstances. It was last used in 1992 during rioting after Los Angeles police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King, a Black man.

Trump, for his part, has used federal law enforcement officers in several cities to protect federal buildings and deal with ongoing violence, and has sent National Guard troops as well when requested, as he noted in his talk with Pirro.

“On my side”

Trump also pointed Saturday to the failures of Democrats to tamp down on violence themselves during protests in their cities. According to the president, it’s turning police officers — and their supporters — away from Dems all the way to the top of the ticket.

“Law enforcement all over the country is on my side,” Trump said. “All of the problems are in Democrat-run cities. They’re badly run, the taxes are too much, they want to defund their police. [Joe] Biden is all in that.” Take a look:

Looking forward

When a number of political pundits and experts war-gamed reactions to various election results in August, they predicted that anything but a landslide win for Joe Biden could lead to more riots.

Indeed, it seems like any action the left views unfavorably is now being looked at as an excuse to wreak havoc — and as tens of millions of Americans remain unemployed during lingering coronavirus business closures, Dems have the numbers to continue to sow chaos. Thankfully, President Trump is promising that he won’t back down in his effort to keep American families safe.

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