section_path: Responses/National/Politicians
section_name: Politicians
paragraph_text: Politicians
  
  Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders denounced the Trump administration as moving the United States rapidly into the realm of authoritarianism. Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed criticized Trump's decision to send 700 Marines to Los Angeles as an attempt to "us the military as a political weapon". Delaware Senator Chris Coons also criticized the deployment of U.S. Marines, stating, "It is unfortunate... to mobilize U.S. Marines who are trained for the Pacific, not for the streets of Los Angeles." Both Coons and Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy accused the Trump administration of using the protests as a distraction from other matters, such as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
  
  New York Representative Dan Goldman, Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, and former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, the latter of whom was present during the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021, accused the Trump administration of hypocrisy, perceiving a disparity between Trump's responses to the Capitol attack and the Los Angeles protests. Goldman stated, "Donald Trump pardoned 1,500 cop-beaters and insurrectionists, defied court orders, and weaponized prosecutions against his political opponents, yet he now pretends to care about 'law and order' when Americans protest his efforts to deport non-violent, non-criminal immigrants without due process."
  
  Conversely, Democratic Senator John Fetterman accused the Democratic Party of not condemning violence within the protests, writing, "My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement." Kentucky Senator Rand Paul criticized the Democratic Party's response to the protests as "appalling", stating, "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." Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton called for "an overwhelming show of force to end the riots" in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. Both Cotton and Florida Senator Rick Scott blamed Democrats for the protests. Missouri senator Josh Hawley, without evidence, accused CHIRLA and Unión del Barrio of " aiding and abetting criminal conduct" by "bankrolling civil unrest."