民主党参议员周二在批评白宫派遣军队镇压抗议之间徘徊移居和海关执法洛杉矶政府称暴力导致其采取行动。
宾夕法尼亚州民主党参议员约翰·费特曼指责党内一些人没有谴责暴力行为。
“我坚决支持言论自由、和平示威和移民——但这不是我们想要的。这是无政府状态和真正的混乱，”费特曼周一在X上的一篇帖子中说。
“当我们拒绝谴责放火焚烧汽车、摧毁建筑物和袭击执法人员时，我的政党就失去了道德制高点，”费特曼继续说道。
但他在国会山的一些同事表示，他们可以支持抗议背后的情绪，但不会纵容暴力。
“我们可以同时做两件事。周二，当被问及费特曼的评论时，民主党参议员克里斯·墨菲(Chris Murphy)在国会大厦对记者说，“我们可以谴责失控的抗议活动，我们也可以承认唐纳德·特朗普没有兴趣对抗暴力抗议者。”。
“他赦免了每一个试图攻击我们的国会大厦和破坏我们的民主的暴力抗议者，”他说。“事实是，唐纳德·特朗普并不想创造和平。他不想平息局势。他在寻找战斗，”墨菲继续说道。
墨菲和其他民主党人重申，洛杉矶市和加利福尼亚州的地方和州政府官员表示，他们不需要联邦政府帮助追究参与暴力或破坏财产的抗议者的责任。
“[他们]都说，‘我们已经控制住了局面。’民主党参议员克里斯·库恩斯说:“不幸的是，没有必要动员为太平洋而不是洛杉矶街道训练的美国海军陆战队。”
“当然，重要的是，任何袭击警察或放火焚烧车辆或进行破坏的人，都必须被打断和逮捕。我支持和平抗议，”库恩斯说。
库恩斯和墨菲表示，特朗普的举动分散了华盛顿其他-也许更重要-问题的注意力，例如特朗普希望通过的“大而美丽的法案”为他的议程提供资金，民主党人正在游说反对。
“上周，你们每个人都在问我埃隆·马斯克和特朗普之间的斗争，马斯克是如何谴责‘庞大而美丽的法案’是债务和赤字的，以及一些紧张的共和党人是如何认识到剥夺1600万美国人的医疗保健是一个非常糟糕的主意，”库恩斯告诉记者。
“本周没有人问我这个问题。你只是问我关于洛杉矶的事。这是一个至关重要的问题……我并没有贬低这个问题的重要性，但它提醒我们，在参议院这里——摆在我们面前的是所谓的“庞大而美丽的法案，它将对数百万美国人产生后果，即增加饥饿和减少获得健康的机会，”库恩斯补充说。
墨菲说，特朗普试图“在其他地方制造头条新闻”。
共和党参议员支持总统出兵的决定。
兰德·保罗说，民主党人对抗议活动的反应“令人震惊”，这也是选民不同意他们的原因。
“我认为这是你看到全国各地民主党品牌消亡的另一个原因。你让一座城市着火了。有人举着外国国旗游行，有人举着墨西哥国旗在洛杉矶游行，反抗联邦法律，干涉联邦法律。保罗说:“州长和市长都是民主党人，他们说他们会干涉，不会支持联邦法律。
共和党参议员里克·斯科特指责民主党在移民问题上的立场造成了动荡。
“如果你看看洛杉矶正在发生的事情，这恰恰显示了拜登民主党人所做的事情，他们以自己的方式开放边境，允许数百万、数百万的人进入这里。这一切都是他们造成的，”斯科特说。
阿肯色州共和党参议员汤姆·科顿(Tom Cotton)因敦促特朗普在2020年的第一个任期内部署国民警卫队(National Guard)以阻止乔治·弗洛伊德(George Floyd)骚乱而引发争议，他周二在《华尔街日报》上发表了一篇专栏文章，呼吁“以压倒性的力量结束骚乱”，并指责民主党人让骚乱发生。
“有人感到惊讶吗?五年前，当黑人的命也是命骚乱洗劫我们的城市时，民主党人也袖手旁观，甚至庆祝，”他写道。“如果有什么不同的话，这些骚乱更糟糕。至少(黑人的命也是命的)暴徒没有挥舞外国国旗。”
Some Democrats condemn violence in LA protests and Trump's response to it
Democratic senators on Tuesday were walking a line between criticizing the White House for sending troops to put down protests againstImmigrationand Customs Enforcement inLos Angelesand the violence the administration says caused it to act.
Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania called out some in his party for not condemning the violence.
“I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos,” Fetterman said in a post on X on Monday.
“My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement,” Fetterman continued.
But some of his colleagues on Capitol Hill say they can support the sentiment behind the protests without condoning violence.
“We can do two things at one time. We can condemn protests that get out of control, and we can acknowledge that Donald Trump has no interest in standing up to violent protesters,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday when asked about Fetterman’s comment.
“He pardoned every single violent protester that tried to attack our Capitol and destroy our democracy," he said. "The fact of the matter is, Donald Trump is not looking to create peace. He's not looking to calm the situation. He's looking for a fight,” Murphy continued.
Murphy and other Democrats repeated that local and state government officials in the city of Los Angeles and the state of California have said they don’t need federal help with holding protesters that have engaged in violence or property destruction accountable.
“[They] all say, ‘We've got this under control.’ It is unfortunate -- not necessary to mobilize U.S. Marines who are trained for the Pacific, not for the streets of Los Angeles,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons said.
“It is, of course, important that anyone who attacks police officers or sets fire to vehicles or carries out vandalism, being interrupted and arrested. I support peaceful protest,” Coons said.
Coons and Murphy said Trump’s moves are a distraction from other -- perhaps more important -- matters in Washington, like the “big, beautiful bill” Trump wants to get passed to fund his agenda, which Democrats are lobbying against.
“Last week, every one of you was asking me about the fight between Elon Musk and Trump, and how Musk was denouncing the ‘big, beautiful bill’ as debt and deficit and how a few nervous Republicans were recognizing that taking health care away from 16 million Americans was a really bad idea,” Coons told reporters.
“No one's asking me about that this week. You're only asking me about Los Angeles. It is a critical issue … I'm not diminishing the significance of the issue, but it's a reminder that here in the Senate -- what is right in front of us is the so-called “big, beautiful bill, which will have consequences for millions of Americans in terms of increasing hunger and decreasing access to health,” Coons added.
Murphy said Trump is trying to “create headlines in other places.”
Republican senators stood behind the president’s decision to send in the troops.
Sen. Rand Paul said Democrats’ reaction to the protests is “appalling” and a reason why voters don’t agree with them.
“I think it's another reason why you're seeing the demise of the Democrat brand around the country. You got a city on fire. You got people marching with foreign flags, people marching with a Mexican flag in L.A., resisting federal law, interfering with federal law. You have the governor and the mayor, both Democrats, saying they will interfere and will not uphold federal law,” Paul said.
Republican Sen. Rick Scott blamed Democrats’ position on immigration for the unrest.
“If you look at what's going on in LA, it shows exactly what Biden Democrats did by opening their borders the way they did, and allowing people, millions and millions and millions of people, to come in here. They've caused all this,” Scott said.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, who stirred controversy in Trump’s first term in 2020 for urging him to deploy the National Guard to stop the George Floyd riots, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday calling for “an overwhelming show of force to end the riots" and blaming Democrats for letting them happen.
"Is anyone surprised? Democrats also stood idly by or even celebrated as the Black Lives Matter riots ransacked our cities five years ago,” he wrote. “If anything, these riots are worse. At least the [Black Lives Matter] rioters didn’t wave foreign flags."
