Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) believes National Guard deployments to American cities and seeing troops in the streets “makes people less safe.”
Sherrill took part in a New Jersey gubernatorial debate against Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli Wednesday night, Fox News reported.
“Military members should not be on our streets,” Sherrill said. “It makes people less safe, it makes people feel less safe.”
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Sherrill was asked how she would handle the situation if President Donald Trump sent the National Guard into a city in New Jersey and if she could ever support it.
“Unless there is an insurrection or some sort of crisis where the National Guard could come in and the president invokes the insurrection Act, he’s moving these National Guard troops across the country illegally against the Insurrection Act, against posse comitatus,” she answered.
Sherrill continued, “military members should not be on our streets.”
“I can tell you this, because I’ve both worked at the U.S. Attorney’s office with law enforcement to keep people safe, and I’ve also worked in the military, and those are two very different jobs,” she said.
She said it was “unacceptable” that Trump said U.S. cities were going to be used as “training grounds for our military.”
“So, I have to say, when you look at this across the country, and when you look at the threats, and then you see the president saying, when he was with [Secretary of War Pete] Hegseth recently, that he’s going to use our U.S. cities as training grounds for our military, that is unacceptable. I will not stand for that as governor.”
Ciattarelli pounced on her track record regarding safety, stating, “The congresswoman has been anything but strong when it comes to public safety.”
“She voted to get rid of qualified immunity. This is the bedrock of protection for local law enforcement. She has said that she’s considered reappointing the current attorney general, who’s considered to be the most anti-police attorney general we’ve ever had,” he said.
“I’ve told the president, and the people of New Jersey, that he will never have to worry about New Jersey because as governor, we’ll have safe communities,” he said. “We will be a law-and-order state again, and there will be a consequence for unruly, unlawful behavior.”
