Nick Schifrin:
Geoff, yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order that each state’s National Guard units would be — quote — “resourced, trained, organized, and available to assist federal, state, and local law enforcement in quelling civil disturbances.”
And the secretary of defense will create — quote — “standing National Guard quick reaction force that shall be resource, trained and available for rapid nationwide deployment.”
For perspective on this, we turn to retired Army Major General Randy Manner, the former acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau.
General Manner, thanks very much. Welcome to the “News Hour.”
What’s your reaction to the president’s order, both this quick reaction force, as well as the Guard’s priority?
Maj. Gen. Randy Manner (Ret.), U.S. National Guard: I think this is unneeded and also very dangerous. It’s setting a new precedent.
This is something where, when I was the acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau, we absolutely already put into place the ability of having quick reaction forces in every state, depending on the size, but also the state would depend on the size of these quick reaction forces.
They were at the time, of course, targeting the ability to respond to emergencies in the state such as floods, hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes, and so on to be able to save lives. The difference here is that it’s focused on — quote, unquote — “public order.” That’s very disturbing.
And also the idea of creating a unit whose primary mission is to deploy anywhere in the country to deal with potentially demonstrations or civil disorder, as the president sees fit out of the D.C. Guard, that is not in keeping with the mission of the National Guard as a strategic reserve for our military and for our nation.
