Barr denies Trump demanded troops
Attorney General William Barr on Sunday denied that President Trump wanted 10,000 active duty troops sent onto American streets to quell unrest.
Barr, in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” pushed back on reports that the president initially made the demand before backing down after resistance by Barr and other administration officials.
Barr said that in a meeting on Monday, Trump didn’t order or suggest the deployment of troops. Ultimately, members of the 82nd Airborne Division were put on standby to enter Washington, D.C., but weren’t deployed. Barr said he and other officials only wanted to use the troops if conditions in Washington got worse.
The 82nd Airborne is an infantry division that specializes in parachute assault operations, typically in crisis situations, and is deployable anywhere in the world on short notice.
“I think our position was common, which was that they should only be deployed if — as a last resort, and that we didn’t think we would need them. Every — I think everyone was on the same page,” Barr said.
CBS and other news organizations reported that Trump demanded Monday that 10,000 troops be put on the streets immediately as violent protests or looting flared in the capital and several other cities.
The CBS report, citing an unnamed senior administration official, said Barr, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley objected to the move in the meeting, which the report described as “heated.”
Barr said the reports were false. CBS anchor Margaret Brennan said the network stood behind its reporting.
Barr also defended the use of force by police to disperse protesters in Lafayette Square near the White House, immediately before Trump briefly visited St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photo-op that was quickly turned into a campaign video.