Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, a Republican and the chairman of the National Governors Association, on Thursday criticized the deployment of Texas National Guard troops to Illinois as a violation of his beliefs in federalism and “states’ rights.”
His comments, in an interview with The New York Times, marked the first time a Republican governor has questioned the interstate deployment of National Guard troops over a governor’s objections. Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and other Democratic elected officials have been strongly critical of the move and have implored Republican governors to join the opposition.
Mr. Stitt on Thursday said, “We believe in the federalist system — that’s states’ rights,” adding, “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”
Mr. Stitt stressed that he supported President Trump’s efforts to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and ensure “law and order” in cities like Chicago and Portland, Ore. But he worried about the precedent that was being set by the guard deployment and how it could be used by a president from another party.
Instead, Mr. Stitt said, Mr. Trump should have moved to federalize the troops in Illinois first.
Mr. Stitt pointed to his opposition during the pandemic to federal mandates around vaccinations and directions on masking under then-President Joseph R. Biden Jr., an opposition shared by Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a fellow Republican.
“I was surprised that Governor Abbott sent troops from Texas to Illinois,” Mr. Stitt said. “Abbott and I sued the Biden administration when the shoe was on the other foot and the Biden administration was trying to force us to vaccinate all of our soldiers and force masks across the country.”
He added: “As a federalist believer, one governor against another governor, I don’t think that’s the right way to approach this.”
Mr. Stitt said that he had not discussed the issue with Mr. Abbott but that the two governors would be together this weekend in Austin, Texas, for a heated football rivalry game between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas.
“I’m sure it’ll come up,” he said, adding that he and Mr. Abbott enjoyed a good relationship. “I would send troops to the southern border on his request, anytime he wanted them, and I know he would do the same for me.”
Mr. Stitt is currently the chairman of the National Governors Association, a century-old bipartisan organization of state leaders whose aim is to find solutions above the usual partisan fray. He said his comments reflected his own views as the governor of Oklahoma and were not meant as a statement from the association.
Mr. Pritzker, as well as Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, have threatened to leave the association if it did not come out against the Texas deployment. So far, the association has been silent on the issue. Mr. Stitt said weighing in on such matters was not part of its role.
“The N.G.A. is an educational organization under I.R.S. code,” he said. “And so we’re not going to be weighing into the politics. That’s not our lane.”
But Mr. Stitt said that he hoped more Americans would accept that “elections have consequences.” That applies both for Democrats who dislike Mr. Trump and for Republicans who oppose elected state leaders such as Mr. Pritzker and Mr. Newsom.
“They’re doing what they think is right for their state or their country,” he said. “Let’s give the other side the benefit of the doubt.”
He continued, “I would tell the other side, let’s give President Trump the benefit of the doubt; don’t just always attack him for trying to protect these cities.”
Asked if he thought other Republican governors might also speak up against the deployment on federalism grounds, he said he thought more would. “Maybe you just haven’t asked the right ones,” he said.
J. David Goodman is the Houston bureau chief for The Times, reporting on Texas and Oklahoma.
The post Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Criticizes National Guard Deployment in Chicago appeared first on New York Times.
