Trump Again Threatens to Invoke Insurrection Act - the Tuesday AM Quickie 10/7/25

Even mild-mannered Science Guy Bill Nye is out there protesting. You love to see it. - Corey

ON THE SHOW TODAY

10/7: Sam and Emma will be in tomorrow; the guest will be Avi Shlaim, emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, and among the most celebrated historians of modern Palestinian and Israeli history.

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Today you’ll read about the new MAGA-friendly regime at CBS News, NYC Mayor-Cop Eric Adams' latest foreign-funded junket, and the status of Greta Thunberg and other Global Sumud Flotilla activists arrested at sea by Israel.

THE BIG NEWS

The Clampdown: Trump Says He May Invoke Insurrection Act If Elected Democrats Resist Invasion

• Republicans Cheer Deployment of Untrained Troops to Police Democratic Cities, a Stain on National Guard's Reputation Former Undersecretary of the Navy Janin Davidson says Trump's false claim of insurrection have "crossed a clear red line in civil-military relations. It is the Insurrection Act he seems keen to invoke, which would give him dictatorial-like powers like we've never seen used before in this country – not even in the civil war. ... A Trump-led deployment of federalized Guard and active-duty troops to quell a fabricated insurrection inside American cities, should only be understood as war on the American people." via the Washington Post, Just Security, and the Associated Press.
• 'It Could Happen to Your State Next,' Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin Warns "You guys are framing this like the president wants to take over American cities with the military," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt whined when asked about the prospect of long-term deployments in US cities. "The president wants to help these local leaders who have been completely ineffective in securing their own cities." via Politico and HuffPost.
• 'Do Something, B-tch,' Border Patrol Officer Told Chicago Woman Before Shooting Her Five Times The victim, Marimar Martinez, a 30-year-old school worker, had allegedly been part of a convoy following the feds in their vehicles and streaming on Facebook Live after an immigration bust. via the Chicago Sun-Times, the New York Times, and the AP.
• National Guard Troops Could Start Patrolling Chicago Today After Federal Judge April Perry Declines Illinois Request to Block Deployment "'The Trump administration is following a playbook: cause chaos, create fear and confusion, make it seem like peaceful protesters are a mob by firing gas pellets and tear gas canisters at night,' [Illinois Gov. JB] Pritzker said at a separate press conference. 'Why? To create the pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act so that he can send military troops to our city.'" via the Sun-Times, the AP, and NBC News.
• 'That Judge Ought to Be Ashamed of Himself,' Trump Says of Woman Judge He Appointed Who Blocked Oregon Deployment Meanwhile in South Carolina, police say there's "no evidence" "at this time that the fire that destroyed the home of a Democratic state judge who recently ruled against Trump in an elections case was intentionally set. via the Los Angeles Times, HuffPost, and NBC News.
• Wild Republican Disinformation May Be Influencing Trump's Decision-Making on Domestic Deployments "Well, wait a minute; am I watching things on television that are different from what’s happening?" Trump says he asked himself late last month about the "war" in Portland, Oregon. "My people tell me different. They are literally attacking and there are fires all over the place. It looks like terrible." via the Guardian, Willamette University historian Seth Cotlar, and the Atlantic.
• Portland City Attorney Says Feds Are Abusing Anti-Trump Protesters While Giving Special Treatment to MAGA Influencers Right-wing videographers filmed protests at a Portland ICE lockup this weekend from the rooftop of the building "and from behind the throng of officers." via Willamette Week, the Oregonian, and Oregon Public Broadcasting.
• Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Calls for Reistance, Establishes 'ICE-Free Zones' on City Property and 'Unwilling' Businesses "The mayor signed the order on a wooden desk bearing the emblem of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Union Army veterans association." via the Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times, and Politico.

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