Operation legend which launched earlier this month in kansas city and past agencies including the fbi, Marshall Service and dea with assisting state and local police. The announcement comes on a separate limit of federal Law Enforcement to Portland Oregon following almost two months of violent protests there. Democrats are calling it abuse of power and violation of the constitution. Michael served as the 81st attorney general of the United States. Welcome, good to see you after a while here. Lets talk about the law first. Many democrats are saying its a violation of the law for a president to send and federal enforcement officials into their cities against their will. The law on that is the opposite of what they say. Federal Law Enforcement officials enforce federal law, they are not only permitted to do that, the president is charged with doing that in the constitution. The one major obligation he has is to faithfully enforce. It is his obligation to do that. They can enforce federal law without a lead from any local state official. Paul usually when you think of police powers, they are preserved for states and localities what youre saying as long as they are going to be enforcing federal law, thats fine. They can enforce federal law thats appropriate. Absolutely. In portland, they firebombed a federal courthouse. Thats a violation of several federal statutes. They do it repeatedly, that is racketeering activity. Its one of the predicate offenses so i dont know what people are talking about and they say its not permissible for the federal government to enforce federal law and protect federal property. Paul are there any limits on what federal Law Enforcement can do . Lets say, obviously they can protect federal property but lets say you get somebody who they observe looting a private business. Can they act as Law Enforcement and that kind of a case, arrest somebody doing that . I think they are regarded as peace officers and could but thats not what they are there for. Also, understand the federal government has limited resourc resources. Just to give you an idea of the scale, the new York City Police department has about 38000 officers. The entire fbi has 12,000 or 13000 special agents worldwide. Marshall service has people and dea has people but again, we are talking about a small number compared to the large number of local officials that exist so its a matter of discretion, you have to be careful how you allocate those resources. Paul is also the issue a lot of these local Officials Say they dont want any kind of federal presence. They can handle it themselves. Apart from whether thats honest or not, the issue is you got the federal officers coming in with political leaders saying we dont want you. That creates real tension, does it not . Of course. Usually federal Law Enforcement officers cooperate with local Law Enforcement officers and act cooperatively and jointly and obviously thats a big force multiplier. Yes, it creates a political problem but again, thats a political judgment for political officials to make and clearly the president has made it. Paul he has made it. What you think though . Is it a wise judgment to make . Leave aside the electoral politics, im talking in terms of restoring law and order here and whether it would be effective in this kind of an instance. I think that depends on local conditions and i cant sit here and tell you i know what the local ones are. But i do know for the president , or any public official, to tolerate people committing crimes and say we dont want to do that, we dont want that to stop is something i dont think is tolerable under a system of law. Paul so you think there really is some obligation here on the part of the federal government, obviously the attorney general to make sure the lawlessness in these cities does not continue unchecked. Obviously you dont know the specific conditions but as a citizen and knowing your experience as the ag and knowing the constitution, do you think theres a real problem the president has to address . From what ive seen on news reports of whats going on in portland, and what we hear going on every week in chicago, there is a problem. Paul even in new york for example, the police were told to tread lightly or with the light footprint when they were dealing with writers. The unit that was enforcing gun laws has been disbanded. The effect of that is to tell people who were intent on lawlessness that they have free reign. Paul thank you. Appreciate that. When we come back, strike and violence in u. S. Cities, an issue in the november campaign. 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Paul President Trump continuing to drive his law and order message this week and draw contrast with mayors and governors as he moves to expand the presence of federal Law Enforcement in u. S. Cities backed by violence. Is it a smart political move . Lets bring in our panel. Dan henninger, mary ogrady and columnist in manhattan senior fellow, jason riley. Jason, what you make of this decision by the president to send in federal Law Enforcement to cities . Jason on the one hand, i think its another example of the president doing something his predecessors has done and being held to a different standard particularly in the media. We know for decades, there have been joint task force between the federal government and state and local officials to go after gangs or drug smuggling and the like. Again, as we heard from the judge, this is something thats usually done when both sides agree with each other on how to proceed and when you dont have agreement, i think you can run into all kinds of problems. I think the president certainly has the right to do this but im not sure the smart thing to do politically. For starters, the protesters are more popular than President Trump is right now. I dont sympathize with the protesters but they do seem to have one over a lot of public sympathy here. Second, these are local jurisdictions we are talking about where the president doesnt have a lot of support to begin with so not sure theres a lot to be gained here politically. Paul dan, i agree with jason myself but there is an issue here. People who are private businesses in portland, people who are private citizens who could be damaged with these protests and they are not being protected by the police or the Public Officials there. What do you do other than, you let it burn . Daniel i do think we have to make some distinctions here, i feel bad about people in portland businesses being damaged like this but i am afraid some of these cities are, what i call cities beyond hopeless. In that category, i would put new york city, san francisco, portland and seattle, they are governed by progressive government elected by the majority of the people there and if they want to do in their own juices, that is the problem. I think the president , short of defending federal privacy in places like portland should stay away from those for cities. Having said that, i think you find much more to some sort of collaboration between federal officers and local officials in cities like chicago, kansas city, albuquerque, atlanta, detroit and cleveland. They are governed by liberals but nonetheless, i think they have a more serious attitude toward trying to get their crime under control. I think the president is entirely entitled to try to settle things down in cities like chicago that obviously need help. Paul the line drawn, whether or not he should be invited in . Is that the lines you draw . Daniel in effect, yes. If you have mayors like ted wheeler in portland or bill de blasio in new york saying he will file a lawsuit in federal court if the president times to help them, that is there problem. They can deal with their cities if they want to allow their cities to disintegrate. Eventually, they will have to settle it at elections but yes, i would draw the line there and say the president should try to do business with people more concerned about establishing civil order inside their cities. Paul mary, how do you think this is politically . Trump obviously thinks this is going to be helpful for him politically. What you think . Mary i found the development around chicago fascinating. William barr when he initially talked about going to chicago, albuquerque, he basically read his announcement, he was talking mostly about investigations and intelligence work which is so important to defeating cartel of violence in these cities. This is different than protesters and defending federal property in portland but when he said he was coming there, the mayor immediately reacted in a very sort of trump derangement syndrome. Youre not coming here. Phoned her and they talked about and now she says yes, they can come there. So that kind of leadership of trying to communicate with across the aisle to parties and powers that dont agree with him, thats a positive development. Paul jason, what you think of the politics of this . Jason i think trump is looking for an issue here, frankly. Theres speculation he wants to talk about these protests instead of talking more about the virus and the economy. I dont know if thats going to work. I think his biggest problem is with older voters and their concern is the virus. They are disproportionately affected so i dont know how much political mileage he will get out of shifting the focus to protesters. Paul when we come back, President Trumps resumes his Coronavirus Briefing is the end ministration respond to outbreak and progress. Treatment and vaccines. Treatment and vaccines. Is the president striking the if your gums bleed when you brush you may have gingivitis. And the clock could be ticking towards bad breath, receding gums and possibly tooth loss. Help turn back the clock on gingivitis with parodontax. Leave bleeding gums behind. Parodontax. Leave 49i found you behind. Good job. Now im gonna stay here and you go hide. Watch your favorites from anywhere in the house with the Xfinity Stream app. Free with your xfinity service. Now any room can be a tv room. Stream live tv, on demand shows and movies even your dvr recordings. Download the Xfinity Stream app today to stream the entertainment you love. Xfinity. The future of awesome. We worry so much about this disease and we know who the vulnerable are and we are going to indeed, shield them. The vaccines are coming and they are coming sooner than anyone thought possible. Some countries are doing well and some are doing less well. It will probably get worse before it gets better. Paul after a weeklong hiatus, the Coronavirus Briefings are back. President trump urging americans to wear masks and warning things could get worse before they get better but also emphasizing what weve learned about the virus and progress in made in treatment and vaccines. The president using thursdays briefing to announce hes canceling the jacksonville Republican Convention has florida struggles with a spike in covid19 cases. Dan, what you make of the resumption of the briefing . Daniel they are shorter, 20, 25 minutes and hes not taking debate from the reporters like he was before. Paul thats for sure. I think its pretty impressive. Lets face it, some of us have been saying for a long time if President Trump dialed back belligerent even 50 , he be on more solid ground. Hes done that so ill give him credit for. I think theyve done pretty impressive performances. Hes conveying useful information and yes, in the q a, hes not taking the debate. Hes simply answering questions, turning to the next questioner. Theres an old saying, a day late and a dollar short and the question here is whether made this turn to light. Hes down in the polls but the coronavirus is not a past event like a hurricane, this is a work in progress. The virus will have a lot to do with Donald Trumps fortunes. It may recede through the rest of the summer, down to the south and west, whether there is a resurgence in the fall will be a big issue for the president but i think if he stays on this course, hes going to deliver to the a lot of the public what they want to see from their president which was leadership and intelligence about handling the virus. It does mean the federal government will have to consciously, specifically address some of these outbreaks as they occur. They do have to keep showing they are on top of their game. Paul mary, what you think of the president s new seriousness, if you will . He wasnt really talking about it at all for many weeks. Coinciding with the breakouts in the south and west. Mary finally. [laughter] the jacksonville event is super cautious. There are 113 deaths and thats out of like 960 thousand, the population. I think you survey the change and rate of change in terms of people getting infected and also people going to hospitals was enough he decided to take a cautious stance toward it. I think that is smart, a little bit more caution in places where that havent yet experienced what we experienced in new york in the spring. Paul jason, you mentioned the virus in the last block, do you think the breakout here in the southwest is the most important factor behind the president decline in the polls . Jason i do. A lot of ways, youre talking about trump country, places he did well. These are red states, i do think it played a role. It was very tough for him after the cancel, i think he wanted a big crowd, he likes and feeds off the energy. Those are tough calls for him to make but it wasnt keeping with the change in tone weve seen in the reboot of the Coronavirus Briefing. I agree with dan and mary, hes done a better job. Pretty much, hes a little more disciplined on these things. I think that will help him. The problem, there were too long and too many of them. If he could cut back on both, hell be fine. People do want to hear from the president about the pandemic. Paul we dont have a lot of time but i think on the good news this week, progress on the vaccines, potential vaccines has been moving ahead. What you think of the governments decision to spend billions of dollars in advance of these, succeeding through phase three trials . They are lining up manufacturing already, is that a wise use of federal money . It is, they should be doing that with other treatments like remdesivir and i think it is finally a smart thing for the federal government to be doing. No question. Paul thank you. Joe biden stepped up on President Trump as the race for President Trump as the race for the white house is tough. When you think of a bank, you think of people in a place. But when you have the chase mobile app, your bank can be virtually any place. So, when you get a check. You can deposit it from here. And you can see your transactions and check your balance from here. You can save for an emergency from here. Or pay bills from here. So when someone asks you, wheres your bank . You can tell them heres my bank. Or heres my bank. Or, heres my bank. Because if you download and use the chase mobile app, your bank is virtually any place. Visit chase. Com mobile. He simply doesnt understand. He cant deal with our economic crisis without solving the Public Health crisis. All this bluster about his expertise on the economy, unable to explain how it will actually help working families hit the hardest. Hes quit on you and hes quit on this country. Paul joe biden criticizing President Trumps response to the coronavirus and accusing him of putting on the country. Stepping up his assault on the president this week, going so far as to call him a racist and virtual town hall. The attacks come as brandnew fox polls show hes leading in the battleground state of michigan, minnesota and pennsylvania. Lets bring in carl who served as a Senior Advisor to president george w. Bush. Before we get to the polls, which you make of joe biden calling the president of the United States a racist . I cant recall any president ial candidate using that language against another. Trump was rough but he didnt use that against his opponent. Not only did he call him a racist, he called him the first racist president in the history of american history. Thats a pretty strong depiction of the current president. To me, a lot of what biden is doing is somewhat mystified because it strikes me the greatest strength is not that hes capable of the same level of schoolyard talks the president is capable of hurling his opponents, it strikes me if he had a unifying message that went beyond and said if i were president , i would unify this country, bring us together, in order to meet the challenges of our times. Thats a much better tone than hes worse than i am, hes really bad, hes racist, hes incompetent, he cant provide leadership, etc. That is what hes doing. Paul why do you think he is doing that . I agree with you. Hes been running for a long time now by saying on the alternative trump. I am the not trump. Im going to bring the country together and get, here he is engaging in what essentially is titfortat. Karl think hes become the notion that hes got to