Blumenthal Resurrects Effort to Limit Trump’s Power

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is restarting his effort to change the Insurrection Act, which deals with deploying the military inside the United States, after Donald Trump said he wanted to use troops to tamp down violence in cities if reelected.

Blumenthal, a senior member of the Homeland, Armed Services and Judiciary committees, told Politico he is looking for bipartisan support as he seeks to overhaul the law, which was enacted in 1792 and gives the president the power to call up the military and use it against Americans to put down violence or rebellion.

“Ideally, there would be interest on the Republican side because the potential for abuse really ought to concern all of us, regardless of who was president,” Blumenthal told the news outlet.

Trump’s win in the Iowa caucuses last week and Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary have added momentum to his drive for the GOP presidential nomination even as his comments have sparked a renewed urgency among lawmakers to revamp the legislation.

While in Iowa, Trump told an audience that he considered, but decided against, deploying the military to “crime dens” like New York City and Chicago.

“And one of the other things I’ll do — because you’re supposed to not be involved in that — you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in. The next time, I’m not waiting,” Trump said in November.

“One of the things I did was let them run it, and we’re going to show how bad a job they do. Well, we did that. We don’t have to wait any longer.”

This isn’t the first time Blumenthal has attempted to rework the law. In 2020, the Democrat lawmaker led the effort in the Senate to amend the Insurrection Act following the death of George Floyd, as a trio of progressive House Democrats introduced a companion bill that would have required congressional approval to deploy troops.

According to Politico, the House version of the bill was tacked onto the annual defense policy bill, but the legislation did not clear the GOP-controlled Senate.

Whether House Democrats will join with Blumenthal in clarifying the law this time around remains to be seen, but the measure would fare better in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats, than the Republican-led House.

Blumenthal said his new bill would more clearly define what constitutes insurrection, as well as the circumstances that would allow a president to deploy force. Local officials would also be granted standing in the courts, under the measure, to ultimately end the emergency after the act is invoked.

The Connecticut Democrat told Politico he would like to introduce the proposed changes as a stand-alone bill in the coming weeks and floated the idea of potentially adding it to the next Pentagon policy bill.

“President Trump has in fact talked about sending troops into cities where he regards the police as being inadequate — in effect, potentially declaring martial law, so I think there needs to be stronger oversight,” Blumenthal said.