WASHINGTON — Alaska’s U.S. Senators differ over President Trump’s decision to mobilize Marines in response to protests — some of them violent — in Los Angeles.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the U.S. military should not be deployed against Americans.
“Our laws say exactly that: Our military are to be used to protect us from foreign threats, but not within our own country,” she said at the Capitol Tuesday.
California officials have asked a judge to restrict the troops to just guarding federal properties and prohibit them from exercising police powers.
Even if that’s all the Marines are doing, the appearance is still not good, Murkowski said. She also deplored the outbreak of violence among the protesters.
“It needs to be condemned at every level,” she said. “But there are ways that the government responds, and most notably, by the state, initially. So I have great concerns with what we've seen unfold in L.A.”
Murkowski is one of the few Republican senators willing to publicly criticize some of Trump’s actions, so she and Sen. Dan Sullivan split on a wide range of issues.
Sullivan, when asked in a Senate hallway, declined to take a question about the deployment of Marines to Los Angeles.
“Sorry,” he said, as he ducked into an elevator.
Sullivan’s office, though, issued a statement noting that the protesters have destroyed property and attacked law enforcement officers, including agents trying to enforce immigration laws.
“The senator believes it is appropriate and lawful to deploy the National Guard, and the Marines to protect federal law enforcement officers and federal property,” Sullivan’s statement reads.
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich’s office did not immediately respond to an emailed question on the subject.
