Good morning and welcome to a. M. Joy. Im tiffany cross. Now we all know that donald trump has a thing for dictators and each time he praised these leaders, men who he has called good friends, trump exposed and apparent autocratic envy that foreshadowed what we are seeing right now in portland, oregon where on friday thousands of protesters including the wall of moms and a wall of veterans standing in solidarity for black lives matter were met with federal agents who deployed tear gas to disperse the crowds. Federal officers wearing military style camouflage and helmets have been patrolling portland with batons and tear gas driving around an unmarked vehicles sweeping up and detaining protesters in a way that oregons own attorney general says resembles abductions. This is trumps secret police. Federal agents igniting chaos in a city led by a democratic mayor who was also tear gassed by u. S. Agents this week. According to trump, he simply is trying to quell unrest. In other words, he is clinging to the image of the law order president as his Approval Ratings continue to tank. Borrowing from the play books of the dictators he so admires. Well go into all of the cities. Well put in 50,000, 60,000 people that really know what theyre doing and theyre strong, theyre tough and we could solve these problems so fast. Joining me now is ann applebom. Author of twilight of democracy renee graham, thank you guys for joining me and im going to stard with you, ann. We are living in a world where secret police are detaining protesters without probable cause. So if you look out abomination you will note across the chasm a lot of us staring saying we tried to tell you. And you really touch on some interesting things in your peace in the atlantic and you say that Donald Trumps authoritarianism is a form of politics that reaches new heights and you compare what were seeing in this landscape to russia. Explain that to me. So thanks. I think the important thing to understand about what trump is doing is that these are not tactics designed to solve the problem. Why is he sending customs and border patrol, coast guard, tsa officers into American Cities . These are people who dont have training in riot control who arent used to dealing with political protests, and whose main goal seems to be to create more chaos. You know, of course this isnt full on dictatorship. He isnt arresting the mayor or conducting mass arrests or putting thousands of people in jail. But what he is doing is creating pictures that are designed to show other americans how tough he is. So the fact that these men are wearing men and women maybe, are wearing camouflage, that they look heavily armed, theyre wearing face masks, this is designed to show and kind of act out dominance. Look, were pushing back against the liberal america, the urban america, the chaotic america that youre all afraid of and this is how were going to win the argument. This way of using troops and using photographs of violence is something that we have seen in other authoritarian states, particularly in russia where putin in 2014 used pictures of violence to imply that the Democracy Movement in ukraine was really some kind of nazi fascist uprising and he was putting it down. This is a tack take weve seen used in other parts of the world. And weve seen the photographs and footage of this be used in campaign ads so that really add to your article. Phillip, one thing that concerns me about this is the experience that black and brown people have when we encounter police, so attorney general bill barr has said that in these new cities the Police Officers are going to be clearly side fiable, i dont know that that makes it better considering that when black better encounter police theyre three times more likely to be killed. In chicago theyre six times more likely to be killed. What do you make of this . Yeah, i mean, ann put it exactly right. These are not here these troops are not here to make anything better. Theyre set up in camouflage which by the way, theyre not blending into any urban environment with those uniforms. To make the folks who had been protesting who had been entirely peaceful up until this point, make them fear that there is going to be some kind of forceful, physical violent reaction to their peaceful expression of their First Amendment rights. And the thing i want folks to understand is this is over objections not only of the mayor, the u. S. Attorney, the attorney general, the governor but of local Law Enforcement as well. Local law enforce ht has been trying for the last seven, eight weeks to figure how they can gain the trust and this is not helping. I have to make it clear, in cities where you cant trust Law Enforcement but if theres something violent happening because youre worried about whats going to happen when they show up, thats a great place for people who want to engage in illegal behavior. Now youve got the federal Law Enforcement there. Who the heck is calling the cops in that situation and how does that make any city safer when nobody wants you there. You are there for a photo op you are not there for safety. You make a good point. Even the mayor has said this has exacerbated the violence there. Sarah, i have to tell you i honestly did think that this is something that President Trump is doing to feed his base, to give fox news, you know, footage that they need. You say that its not that simple, that this is not just about feeding red meat to his base. Expand on that for me. Yeah. I mean, thats obviously a perk. The element of this, but this is happening to real people in real time and the goal is simple. The goal taking away the right to protest. The goal is taking away free speech, freedom of assembly and broadly labeling anybody who critiques or proposes him as a terrorist. These protests are coming hand in hand with an executive order that has an extremely broad definition of terrorism in which theyre designating groups that are rising up against trump like black lives matter or simply fighting for their civil rights as terrorists. It has a retroactive component as well meaning that people who participated in prior arrests could be considered as terrorists. This is a classic authoritarian move. Russia and other, you know, authoritarian regimes have embraced these tactics all the time and they also have a history in the u. S. While i understand this view of authoritariani authoritarianism, the other thing to know is trump is not concerned with winning the election. He is trying to steal the election. They try to seem more engaged and more popular. They dont let their base die of coronavirus for example so those are all things to take into account as we move forward. Something that i think is interesting. Weve seen some uptick in violence. That cant be denied. I certainly understand people pointing that out, but some of this could be that the police are sitting on their hands, that theyre mad about some of the anti Police Rhetoric as they see it and some theres been some reporting that police in chicago for example have traded Text Messages encouraging officers to call out and not make as many arrests. Renee, i love what you wrote and you actually proposed the question, are they apolishing themselves . Talk about that. Is there an element that police are contributing to china to stoke violence, to kind of repair their image in the public eye . Well, you know, were watching these unidentified troops essentially invade American Cities. Where are the Nations Police commissioners . Where are the Police Chiefs . Are they okay with federal Law Enforcement invading the streets and attacking the citizens that they themselves were sworn otoprotect and serve . Their silence is telling. You would expect to see a line of Police Officer between these troops, you know of these federal agents and the people who are protesting. Youre not seeing that at all. You get the sense that they are acting in concert. You know, this is exactly what they want. They want this scene of anarchy in the streets so they can say oh, yes, look at the movement, you need us there. You need us to be that line between chaos and order. I think thats really why theyre doing nothing because i you know, if its out there i havent heard it but i have yet to hear a Single Police commissioner or chief say that they have a problem with what is going on in these cities or that they do not want these agents in their cities. Something i find interesting about this is initially when this happened in portland, these were department of Homeland Security employees so these were people who were used to fisking passengers at the airport. They werent necessarily crime fighters. Now bill barr is saying no, this go round, these are crime fighters and theyre going to be focused on solving crime. What does that even look like in this landscape phillip . Yeah, so ice agents they have a very narrow set of crimes that theyre trying to solve and its really the crime of being here without appropriate documentation. That doesnt translate to people who have engaged in violence in terms of on the street and it doesnt translate to crowd control at all. But one of the things thats mes terrifying to me about this along with the announcement is that weve seen attempts to move in this direction previously. This president has come out and tried to support Law Enforcement in a very perverse way of supporting the worst efforts and impulses of Law Enforcement and it hasnt translatsed into Law Enforcement supporting this president in the way he had hoped. He tried to use the military to go take a photo op in washington, d. C. And though that worked out for the photo op and the upside down bible it didnt work out in terms of the military saying thats the thing were going to continue to do. But dhs is different. It has a different chain of command. They have a different understanding of what their responsibility is. And though they swear an oath to the constitution, for most of them they feel as if they serve at the pleasure of the president. And so all of the things that weve been hearing in terms of this move toward authoritarianism, the silencing of protests, all of that is made doubly scary to me because under dhs thats the one place where this could happen and this isnt just the couple of folks with the tsa, this is 60,000 folks under chp or this is 14,000 folks under ice. There are a sizable number of folks in uniform who are used to doing vie lentd acts but not in ways that serve communities and they do believe for the most part they serve at the pleasure of the president. The thing that baffles me is this is the law order president who has pardoned roger stone, who has released michael flynn, his former National Security advisor from prison and somehow his base believes hes the law order president. And you also touched on this in your earlier piece in the atlantic which again i encourage everybody to read. I found it very fascinating on these parallels. How worried should we be . My biggest concern is this is a huge story happening right now and i think this can cast a dark shadow over a lot of other cities. Well have mayors coming up in the next segment but this could go to atlanta or cities in kentucky and there are people who are elected officials who are in a position to say yes, we invite this kind of federal oversight. So wagnnever mind the hypocrisya party that claims to support government. What does the future hold for this country, this young democracy that has never been tested like this. You draw on your points in your piece. How worried should we be. So were not a young democracy. We have a lot of experience and we have had episeeds like this in our own history and it will be worth reflecting on how federal troops have been used in the past in order to draw some lessons from it. But i think main point is the one that you eluded to. Everyone watching these scenes should remember that these forces, these troops who have been brought from the border, remember thats a very important point, theyve been taught to fight foreigners, aliens. Theyve been brought from the border into the cities where theyre also being told that the people there pushing back against are aliens. They are not there to create peace or to solve the problem or to negotiate an outcome or to find a solution. You know, or to bring people together inside the city, to bring together mayors and attorneys general and in order to solve the problems that the protesters are talking about. Theyre there in order to create more chaos. And i do hope that our cities find ways to respond legally, you know, morally and politically to this attempt to make the situation worse. Relative to other countries we are absolutely a young democracy but thank you all for joining us. This conversation continues. We have a lot more to talk about. Next up well talk with two mayors on the front lines of trumps law order crusade. Keep it right here. Well be right back. Crusade. Keep it right here well be right back. Reinventing. Its what Small Businesses do. With comcast business, your Small Business can work faster, with powerful internet from the nations largest gigspeed network. Work safer, with all your connected devices automatically protected by securityedge. And work anywhere, with comcast business at home, our new businessgrade Internet Solution for remote workers. Whatever your business needs, comcast business has the solutions to help you not just bounce back, but bounce forward. Call or go online to find out more. Time is now running out. Industry leaders say expanding voting by mail for november could require making commitments in the next few weeks. Congress must act now to fund the voting and states need to do whatever it takes to make it happen because people should not have to choose between their health and participating in democracy. This is a different kind of operation, obviously, than the tactical teams we use to defend against riots and mob violence. Were going to continue to confront mob violence. But the operations were discussing today are very different. They are classic Crime Fighting and just to give you an idea of whats possible, the fbi went in very strong into kansas city and within two weeks weve had 200 arrests. Okay. So attorney general bill barr insists the deployment of federal Law Enforcement to cities like chicago, kansas city, missouri and albuquerque, new mexico, is about fighting crime and not a repeat of whats happening in portland. But it doesnt help that hes already making false claims about this operation. Barr said there were 200 arrests in kansas city within two weeks. But as the Washington Post points out, he was off by 199. Thats right. There was only one arrest. The Justice Department had to clarify that barr was referring to arrests made since december and that his figures included federal and local arrests. Joining me now are the mayors of two cities where federal agents have been sent. Quin lucas, mayor of kansas city, missouri and tim keller, mayor of albuquerque, new mexico. Thank you for joining us. This is insanity and im curious about your thoughts as this federal support is headed to your cities. Im going to start with you, mayor lucas. Do you understand what operation legend is and how your city will be impacted by these federal Law Enforcement officers showing up . I should note i saw a tweet from you earlier where you appeared to welcome the support, but cautioned that youre concerned about overreach. Yeah, we work with the federal government regularly honor mall Crime Fighting activities. What we dont want and dont need is something that even if lets say general barr had been accurate we dont actually want 200 arrests in two weeks for things that are wholly unrelated to the Violent Crime mission. This operation is being described as a way to solve murders in kansas city, to try to support victims families and i do have a concern that it will expand beyond that core mission, particularly given the fact that this seems to be something the president has politicized in attacking cities. We look at portland and other places and so we do have concerns. Yes, i think we walk a fine line, myself, mayor keller, and saying we want to solve Violent Crimes and homicides, but we dont just want a trojan horse for hundreds of troops on our streets attacking demonstrators, protests and any other type of mission crew. There actually has been violence in kansas city. Youve had over 100 murders just this year. Is there coalition or a connection to the fact that some of this violence is happening at a time where we have a Global Pandemic where, you know, people may be laid off and dont have money or income . Is there is relation or has your city always been playing by this level of violence . Weve been plagued by this level of violence for a while. I thought it was actually reckless that the president in his press conference on wednesday cited black lives Matter Movement protests, he cited an anti Police Sentiment for the increase in gun violence in our city. Weve had year over year unfortunately an increase in gun violence. Weve had an increase thats significant this year but i would argue it relates to any number of things including the illegal trafficking of fire arms into our city which we have con sis teptdly asked for support on. Gun distribution. Theres nobodys using your grandpas berhegun in these off. We could use real help. Not in breaking up protests or doing a city wide warrant check. Mayor keller let me turn to you. The fact that both of you are democratic mayors, does this sometimes feel like an election ploy . Jacksonville, florida has a lot of crime. I havent heard the president sending troops there. The difference is that city is led by a republican mayor. What do you