In response to President Trump’s statement that he was considering using the Insurrection Act – a decision I support – Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) blathered:
The president's statements today essentially amount to threats of declaring war on Minnesota. And in a time when we should be trying to keep people safe and finding a path forward, he continues to throw gasoline on the fire in ways that are really dangerous.
What the Senator said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in her rambling, incoherent response was she even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought based on the historical facts on the consistent use of the Insurrection Act throughout American history. Sadly, everyone listening to her screed is now dumber.
May God have mercy on her soul.
Don’t believe me? Well, consider this piece of historical evidence compiled by the Brennan Center, a hard-left think tank in D.C. In over 230 years, the Insurrection Act has been invoked in response to 30 separate crises. I have already detailed President George Washington’s use of it. According to Sen. Smith, President Washington was “declaring war” on Pennsylvania. The last time this Act was used was by President George H. W. Bush, “against” California; another obvious “declaration of war” by a president noted for his authoritarian and dangerous mindset (sarc).
Let’s look at some of the 30 incidents listed in the Brennan Center piece:
- John Adams: “President John Adams deployed federal troops and militia forces to suppress a rebellion in eastern Pennsylvania that had been sparked by a new federal tax on real property.”
- Thomas Jefferson: “President Thomas Jefferson invoked the Insurrection Act in an ultimately futile effort to stop pervasive violations of the Embargo Act of 1807 in the area around Lake Champlain in Vermont, where many residents' livelihoods depended on trade with Canada.”
- Rutherford Hayes: “Lincoln County War. At the request of the governor of the New Mexico Territory, President Hayes invoked the Insurrection Act and authorized troops who were already stationed in New Mexico to intervene in the Lincoln County War, a violent conflict between two rival factions in New Mexico, both of which included outlaws, business owners, and local authorities.”
- Chester Arthur: “In response to an uptick in both cattle theft by gangs of outlaws and raids carried out by the Chiricahua Apache in the Arizona Territory, President Chester A. Arthur issued a proclamation under the Insurrection Act, under which federal troops already in the territory helped to suppress both groups.”
- Grover Cleveland: “In response to the Seattle Riot of 1886, President Cleveland again deployed troops to Seattle to protect Chinese immigrants from violent white mobs attempting to expel them from the city.”
- Franklin Roosevelt: “President Franklin Roosevelt invoked the Insurrection Act and deployed troops to Detroit, Michigan, where long-simmering racial tensions exacerbated by wartime shortages had boiled over into widespread rioting.”
- John Kennedy: “The governor of Alabama had deployed the Alabama National Guard to stop African-American students from attending all-white public schools across many cities in Alabama. President Kennedy invoked the Insurrection Act, federalized the Alabama Guard, and ordered it stand down.”
- Ronald Reagan: “On November 23, 1987, following the federal government's announcement that it would deport 2,500 Cuban detainees, approximately 1,400 of these detainees who were being held in the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta, Georgia took over the prison and held a number of hostages. President Ronald Reagan invoked the Insurrection Act, but did not deploy troops. Instead, the riot response was managed by federal law enforcement officers, with the advice of a handful of U.S. Army special forces soldiers.”
- George H. W. Bush: “Large-scale civil unrest erupted in Los Angeles after four white Los Angeles police officers were acquitted in their trial for beating Black motorist Rodney King. At the request of the governor of California, President Bush invoked the Insurrection Act and deployed federal troops, although the unrest had already been mostly quelled by state-controlled National Guard troops before they arrived.”
RELATED: Time for the President to Invoke the Insurrection Act
When Presidents Unleash the Insurrection Act - and Why It Matters
Note some other important things we can learn from these selected incidents. The Founding Fathers – George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson – all used the Insurrection Act. The modern Democrat “Gods” – Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy – both employed the Insurrection Act. Recent Republican Presidents – Ronald Reagan and George Bush I – both applied the Insurrection Act. None of these presidents is normally portrayed by the MSM as some sort of rebel who wanted to declare war to stir up trouble and incite violence (at least they aren’t portrayed that way today).
Rutherford Hayes also invoked the Insurrection Act to suppress cattle rustling and other assorted mayhem that occurred out west and involved a certain well-known American outlaw, nicknamed Billy the Kid. You may want to check out this fanciful-but-entertaining historical movie about it to see some background on that “war.”
Also, note that in every incident listed above, the insurrection that occurred and was suppressed was much less organized and dangerous than what is now occurring in Minnesota:
What’s unfolding in Minneapolis right now isn’t “protest.” It’s low-level insurgency infrastructure, built by people who’ve clearly studied the playbook. Signal groups at 1,000-member cap per zone. Dedicated roles: mobile chasers, plate checkers logging vehicle data into shared databases, 24/7 dispatch nodes vectoring assets, SALUTE-style reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, Equipment) on suspected federal vehicles. Daily chat rotations and timed deletions to frustrate forensic recovery. Vetting processes for new joiners. Mutual aid from sympathetic locals (teachers providing cover, possible PD tip-offs on license plate lookups). Home-base coordination points. Rapid escalation from observation to physical obstruction—or worse…I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society. That should keep every thinking American awake at night.
And also see the RedState reporting on the Minnesota insurrection.
To sum up, there really isn’t anything abnormal or warlike or dangerous about President Trump using the Insurrection Act to end a well-organized insurrection in Minnesota against federal law enforcement regarding illegal aliens. And Sen. Smith (and others) claiming otherwise doesn’t make this falsehood true.
All we have here is a Mrs. Smith who went to Washington and became a partisan hack, rather than a statesman.