President Donald Trump has promised swift retribution for any violence against law enforcement by protesters in Los Angeles.
“IF THEY SPIT, WE WILL HIT, and I promise you they will be hit harder than they have ever been hit before,” he wrote on his social media platform after making a similar statement a day earlier to reporters. “Such disrespect will not be tolerated!”
It is an about-face for the president.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Peter Stager assaulted an officer with a flagpole during the riot on the U.S. Capitol. Another, Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, drove a stun gun into the neck of a Capitol Police officer and pleaded guilty to the crime. And a third, Julian Khater, pepper-sprayed Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick in the face. Sicknick later died.
Trump’s tolerance for violence against law enforcement during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot is facing renewed scrutiny in the wake of his remarks and actions in Los Angeles, where his administration is taking a hard line against protesters. He federalized thousands of National Guard members and sent 700 U.S. Marines to the country’s second-largest city — against the wishes of state and local officials — after protesters blocked immigration enforcement actions.
It’s a sea change from how Trump treated the Jan. 6 riot, when his supporters attacked the Capitol in an attempt to block Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
In an address Tuesday evening about events in his state, California Gov. Gavin Newsom addressed the disparity.
“By the way, Trump, he’s not opposed to lawlessness and violence, as long as it serves him. What more evidence do we need than Jan. 6?” Newsom said.
Harry Dunn, a former U.S. Capitol Police officer who was serving in the Capitol during the attack, told NBC News that he sees Trump’s actions then and now as hypocritical.
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“Donald Trump is OK with violence, as long as it’s done in his name. That’s the message that he’s sending right now,” Dunn said. “That’s why he pardoned the people on Jan. 6: They did it in his name … what about the officers on Jan. 6? Just put an asterisk by those officers and say, ‘Not them. They stopped Donald Trump from succeeding.’”
The White House says Trump is fulfilling his mandate. “President Trump was elected to secure the border, equip federal officials with the tools to execute this plan, and restore law and order. This also underscores the need to pass the OBBB, which would provide record funding and resources to those on the front lines in Los Angeles,” White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement, referring to Trump’s push for his “one big, beautiful bill,” the legislative vehicle for his agenda currently before Congress.
On Wednesday, NBC News also asked Attorney General Pam Bondi about how the Trump administration is handling California versus Jan. 6, 2021.
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“Well, this is very different,” she said. “These are people out there hurting people in California right now. This is ongoing. No longer. We’re going to protect them. We’re going to do everything we can to prosecute violent criminals in California. California is burning. These people are waving Mexican flags, yet they don’t want anyone to go back to Mexico. They’re burning American flags. This is the United States of America, and we’re going to protect Americans. We’re going to protect all citizens out there.”
During the riot at the Capitol, no National Guard help arrived for hours, despite pleas from those inside the building. Then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller testified before a House panel that Trump never gave a formal deployment order, and other testimony described then-Vice President Mike Pence taking the lead in attempting to get the National Guard out to help control the mob.
Meanwhile, rioters violently broke through barriers, smashed windows, brutalized officers and chanted threats to Pence. In all, at least 140 police officers were injured.
Trump later called it “a day of love” and has referred to the rioters as “hostages,” “warriors” and “victims.”
“What they’ve done to some people that are so innocent, you ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Trump told President Joe Biden at last year’s first presidential debate, referring to the rioters. “What you have done, how you’ve destroyed the lives of so many people.
Michael Fanone, a former D.C. police officer who was attacked by Rodriguez on Jan. 6, took issue with Trump’s posture in California. Fanone called the president “a hypocrite,” and “a liar.”
“Had those people storming the Capitol been illegal f--- immigrants or Black people or any other group that … his base found to be displeasing, then they would have said ‘open fire,’” Fanone said in an interview.
The Los Angeles clashes began Friday as federal immigration agents attempted to carry out arrests in the city. Some protesters tried to stop vehicles carrying detained immigrants and the confrontations soon turned violent, with officers using pepper spray and batons.
By Sunday, National Guard troops, outfitted with heavy military equipment, moved into downtown Los Angeles. Some demonstrators pelted law enforcement vehicles with rocks and debris and set numerous vehicles on fire. Dozens of people were arrested over the weekend, and the L.A. Police Department reported five officers suffering minor injuries and two others treated and released from the hospital in recent days.
By Monday, Trump had deployed the Marines into the state.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., both brought up comparisons to Jan. 6.
“We begged the President of the United States to send in the National Guard. He would not do it,” Pelosi said. “That day he didn’t do it. He forgave those people.”
Gomez spoke of the furor with which the events unfolded that day.
“There was 50,000 people outside,” Gomez said. “They were scaling the walls, scaling the walls. They were bashing in, breaking in, with members of Congress, members of Congress, trapped in the gallery, including myself, including a lot of the people here.”
Earlier this year, Trump issued more than 1,500 pardons or commutations for the Jan. 6 rioters on his first day in office.
Among the crimes Trump dissolved was that of Stager, a 44-year-old truck driver from Arkansas who was sentenced to four years in prison for the flagpole assault. According to prosecutors, Stager was caught on a Jan. 6 video saying, “Every single one of those Capitol law enforcement officers, death is the remedy, that is the only remedy they get.”
Dunn, the former U.S. Capitol police officer, noted that the same Republicans who are in lockstep with Trump at this moment in California are the same ones who have refused to display a plaque commemorating those who died and were injured on Jan. 6.
“What about the blue from Jan. 6th? They don’t even want to put the plaque up! Back the blue that way then,” Dunn added. “It’s hypocritical and they’re aware that it’s all about appeasing their base and appeasing the leader of their party, which is Donald Trump.”
