(WASHINGTON) — A day after President Donald Trump told top-ranking generals and admirals that the U.S. is fighting a “war from within,” Speaker Mike Johnson said the president’s comments show his ability to “take crime seriously,” whereas House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the remarks were “disturbing.”
The two politicians spoke on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday about the president’s statements along with the government shutdown, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.
While Johnson said he had not heard Trump’s remarks on Tuesday — as he was “a little busy” — he said the president “takes crime seriously.” Johnson also said Trump’s comments about violence in American cities were “cherry-picked out of a long speech.”
Trump said Tuesday that the military’s job is not only to protect the United States from threats abroad, but also what he repeatedly referred to as a domestic enemy in American cities.
“It’s a war from within,” the president said to the room of high-ranking military generals who flew from across the globe to Quantico, Virginia. “We’re under invasion from within,” Trump said.
Trump talked about his efforts to increase the use of the U.S. military in American cities. Trump claimed Democratic-run cities, such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco, are in “bad shape,” and that he threatened to “straighten them out, one by one.”
“I told Pete [Hegseth] we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard,” he said.
When asked if using military troops in American cities was appropriate, Johnson said, “I don’t serve on the Pentagon, I run the House of Representatives.”
Johnson then said that Trump has “cleaned up the crime problem” in Washington, D.C., after he mobilized the D.C. National Guard in August.
Jeffries said the president’s comment was a “deeply disturbing statement,” saying that we need “presidential leadership that brings people together instead of tearing us apart.”
“A single American should never be viewed as an ‘enemy from within’ or as target practice for the American military,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries told “GMA” that the Americans have “rejected the deployment and occupation of American cities and towns and counties with American military troops.”
“We have the finest military in the world and they should be used to keep us safe from external enemies,” Jeffries added.
Trump’s comments come after he ordered federal troops to Portland, Oregon, because of what he alleged were threats from domestic terrorists. The city’s mayor and the state’s governor both emphasized that they did not request the troops and objected to Trump’s action.
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