A day after President Donald Trump told top-ranking generals and admirals that the U.S. is fighting a “war from within,” Speaker Mike Johnson said the president’s comments show his ability to “take crime seriously,” whereas House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the remarks were “disturbing.”
The two politicians spoke on “Good Morning America” on Wednesday about the president’s statements along with the government shutdown, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.
While Johnson said he had not heard Trump’s remarks on Tuesday — as he was “a little busy” — he said the president “takes crime seriously.” Johnson also said Trump’s comments about violence in American cities were “cherry-picked out of a long speech.”
Trump said Tuesday that the military’s job is not only to protect the United States from threats abroad, but also what he repeatedly referred to as a domestic enemy in American cities.
“It’s a war from within,” the president said to the room of high-ranking military generals who flew from across the globe to Quantico, Virginia. “We’re under invasion from within,” Trump said.
Trump talked about his efforts to increase the use of the U.S. military in American cities. Trump claimed Democratic-run cities, such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco, are in “bad shape,” and that he threatened to “straighten them out, one by one.”
“I told Pete [Hegseth] we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard,” he said.
Jeffries said the president’s comment was a “disturbing statement.”
“A single American should never be viewed as an ‘enemy from within’ or as target practice for the American military,” Jeffries said.
“We have the finest military in the world and they should be used to keep us safe from external enemies,” Jeffries added.
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