Defense chief breaks with Trump, says military stopping protests only a ‘last resort’
Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s public disapproval of the use of military troops against protesters in the nation’s capital caught the White House by surprise, angered the president and frustrated top aides hoping to move on from Monday’s clash in Lafayette Square, according to two senior administration officials.
Esper at a Pentagon press conference said he opposed the use of the Insurrection Act — a centuries-old law which, if invoked by Trump, would allow armed infantry troops to police Washington streets.
Unless the president invokes those exceptional powers, federal troops are prohibited from conducting law enforcement on U.S. soil.
Esper’s remarks at the Pentagon followed days of military buildup, with hundreds of active duty military troops staged just outside the city, raising questions about how those forces would be used. In the latest move, the Pentagon announced overnight it had called up an infantry battalion from Fort Bragg, N.C., to provide additional active duty military options.
The defense secretary emphasized that the National Guard forces in the District of Columbia are not armed, and had no role in firing rubber bullets or tear gas at protesters earlier this week.
“I say this not only as Secretary of Defense but also as a former soldier and a former member of the National Guard. The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations,” Esper said. “We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”
His comments were in contrast with Trump’s remarks over a week when protests have raged across the country. The president has called violent rioters “thugs” and has said the military would achieve “total domination” over protesters gathered in the federal district.
In the immediate aftermath of Esper’s press conference, Trump’s aides questioned the purpose and timing of the defense secretary’s break from the president amid mounting public criticism of the event at Lafayette Square. One White House aide casting Esper’s comments as “short-sighted.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany at an afternoon press briefing pushed back, emphasizing that the president has the “sole authority” to invoke the act — and that he is willing to do so if the protests escalate.
“The president has the sole authority to invoke the Insurrection Act. It is definitely a tool within his power,” McEnany said. “If needed, he will use it.”
McEnany would not say whether the president still had confidence in Esper as defense secretary, but told reporters they would be “the first to know” if he did not.
“This president has gone and said the National Guard is the next step,” McEnany said. “That seemed to be working here in DC. We’ll see if it continues to work.”
Esper also emphasized his support for the Floyd family and the right of the protesters to assemble in the aftermath of his death. Floyd, a black man, died in Minneapolis police custody after a white police officer knelt on his neck.
“The killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman is a horrible crime,” Esper said. “The officers on the scene that day should be held accountable for his murder,” he said.
“Racism is real in America,” Esper said.
Truckloads of National Guard troops carrying protective “Military Police” shields arrived on Monday in front of the White House, where a large group of protesters had been peacefully assembling.
As Trump began televised remarks to the nation on the protests from the Rose Garden, the National Guard troops, assisting a number of law enforcement agencies, fired rubber bullets, shot pepper spray and brandished batons against protesters gathered along Lafayette Square, in audible reach of the president.
The crowd was dispersed so that Trump, flanked with top aides, including Esper and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, could safely walk across the park to St. John’s Church that had been scarred by a fire during a protest the night before.
Trump is now angered that he is being blamed for the use of force in the incident, according to current and former Trump administration officials. One official said that the president did not direct the clearing of the protesters.
Armored personnel carriers were stationed around downtown Washington on Tuesday night and helicopters circled the district for two nights.
On Monday night, a D.C. National Guard UH-72 Lakota medical helicopter hovered low and potentially dangerously over civilians in a show of force that has sparked an internal investigation both by the Pentagon and the D.C. National Guard.
Esper, a former member of the D.C. National Guard, would not comment on whether the use of the medical helicopter was appropriate. However he said he has asked the Secretary of the Army to determine “what happened and why and report back to me.”
In a separate investigation, the Commanding General of the D.C. National Guard, Maj. Gen. William J. Walker, has directed an internal review “ into the use of the medical evacuation helicopter as part of the Joint Task Force DC operation.”
The military and law enforcement response in the district on Monday night was coordinated through a command cell manned by the Department of Justice, the National Guard and the Department of Defense.
The District of Columbia does not have a governor, so unlike in states, the authority over National Guard assets in D.C. is normally delegated to the Secretary of the Army. But it is not clear whether those forces remained under the Army’s control Monday night, or whether they were placed under the control of federal law enforcement through the Department of Justice.
Regardless, the helicopter incident needs investigation, Esper said. “Those are some of the details we have to tease out, who directed it, what was request, was it the request of law enforcement?”
Esper said his initial understanding was that the helicopter had not been tasked to intimidate protesters. “I got a report back that they were asked by law enforcement to look at a checkpoint, a National Guard checkpoint, to see if there were protesters around.”
Esper added that the footage didn’t look like it was conducted in a safe manner, unless the helicopter had been directed to assist with a medical evacuation, which he said was not the case.
“I think when you are landing that low in a city, it looks unsafe to me, right? But I need to learn more about what’s going on.”
Updates with White House press secretary comments.
This story was originally published June 3, 2020 at 1:15 PM.
