The White House is considering invoking the Insurrection Act which would allow the deployment of military troops on American soil to quell domestic unrest amid legal challenges to these measures, JD Vance confirmed on Sunday.
Vance was asked on NBC News’ Meet the Press whether Donald Trump was seriously considering invoking the emergency power to deploy National Guard forces and even the U.S. military in a domestic context.
“The president is considering all his options,” he said, adding that “we are talking about this because crime has gotten out of control in our cities.”
Trump’s attempts to use federal National Guard forces in Democratic-led cities have been challenged in court, including in Chicago in recent days.
The vice president’s disturbing remarks came days after Trump referenced the Insurrection Act from the Oval Office, bluntly declaring, “If I had to sign it into law, I would.” Military forces are prohibited from exercising law enforcement functions on national territory.
But under the Insurrection Act, signed in 1807, the president can deploy them domestically in the event of insurrection or rebellion, violence that prevents federal laws from functioning.
This power was used during the civil rights movement of the 1960s during clashes over desegregation in the South, but since then it has very rarely been activated. The last time a president called on this aid was in 1992, when the governor of California requested military aid from George HW Bush in response to civil unrest in Los Angeles.
In Sunday’s interview with Meet the Press, Vance said Trump “hasn’t felt the need” to invoke the Insurrection Act until now. But he confirmed it was among the tactics being considered as the administration continues to be blocked by federal courts from deploying federalized National Guard forces to Democratic-led cities..
Federal courts blocked the White House from using troops in Oregon and Illinois. A federal judge on Thursday barred the deployment of federalized National Guard personnel to Chicago, warning the administration that she had “seen no credible evidence that there is a danger of rebellion in the state of Illinois.”
National Guard troops were sent to Illinois by the Trump administration from Texas and California, but under a temporary court order they cannot be deployed on the streets.
Vance told NBC News that options such as the Insurrection Act were being considered because “there are places in Chicago where people are afraid to take their children…for fear of gun violence, for fear of gang drive-by shootings.”
In a separate interview with ABC News’ This Week, Vance said Chicago had been given over to “anarchy and gangs” and had a murder rate “that rivals the worst places in the Third World.”
In fact, violent crime has fallen at an unprecedented rate in America’s largest cities, including Chicago, over the past two years. Chicago is not among the four major U.S. cities with the highest murder rates – all located in Republican-controlled states.
As Vance navigated Sunday’s policy debates, tensions between the Trump administration and the Democratic states it is targeting exploded on television screens. ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos repeatedly asked the vice president whether Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker had committed a crime that could result in him being prosecuted by the Justice Department, as have several other Trump “political enemies.”
Vance evaded the question until pressed: “He should face the consequences. I would leave to the courts whether he violated a crime, but he certainly violated his oath of office and that seems pretty criminal to me.”
Pritzker responded to the veiled threat by accusing Vance of unleashing a “tidal wave of lies.” The governor told This Week that he is not intimidated by the prospect of prosecution as was the case with former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who have both been indicted in recent days.
Pritzker said: “I’m not afraid. Do I think he could do it? He could do it. But like I said before, come and get me. I mean, you’re completely wrong, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, and I will defend the law and the Constitution.”
Raw emotions were on full display in television studios as the federal government shutdown entered its twelfth day. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News on Sunday that the crisis was orchestrated by Democratic leaders in Congress as a partisan move “so they can prove to their Marxist base that they are ready to fight Trump.”
He said that after eight attempts to reopen the government failed in the Senate, the shutdown was causing “real pain for real people — and Democrats don’t seem to care.”
On the same broadcast, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries denied that the Democratic position was partisan. “We sit down with anyone, anytime, anywhere, and go back to the White House to have a bipartisan discussion about reopening the government,” he said.
The Democrats’ goal, Jeffries added, was “to improve the quality of life for the American people and address the health care crisis that threatens tens of millions of people across the country.”
