Former Vice President Mike Pence has criticized former boss President Donald Trump for using force against anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters after pardoning Jan. 6 rioters.
“We simply cannot allow or stand by while people in the midst of protests assault law enforcement officers,” Pence told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday. “[That is] one of the reasons I thought the President was wrong to pardon people who assaulted police officers on January 6th.”
Pence added: “This is a moment when we need to make it very clear that anyone who would ever use violence, whether it be against law enforcement or political violence of any kind, must be condemned universally, and people need to be held to the strictest account of the law.”
Over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom, Trump deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles this week to quell protests over ICE raids in a city where up to 10 percent of the population is undocumented.
A federal judge in San Francisco briefly paused Trump’s use of troops on Thursday. But the decision was quickly overruled by an appeals court, which issued a one-page order allowing Trump to keep the troops in L.A. over the weekend. A court hearing to further consider the matter is scheduled for Tuesday.
Pence also levelled criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin on CNN.
“As Vladimir Putin continues his brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine using drones provided by Iran, I would say respectfully to the administration, we ought to be looking elsewhere than Vladimir Putin for advice on how to deal with the situation,” Pence said in reference to the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Israel attacked Iran on Thursday in what it called a “preemptive strike” on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear capabilities. Tehran responded on Friday, launching ballistic missiles into Israel.
United States officials confirmed to The Daily Beast that Washington was assisting Israel in targeting Iran but declined to reveal how far Trump is willing to go.
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