Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Denver Mayor Mike Johnston (D) could be removed from office if he attempts to block President-elect Donald Trump’s plan for deportations.
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: OK. Messengers matter, though, but you have raised concerns in your role on Homeland Security about the implementation of some of the promises Donald Trump made on the campaign trail. His mass deportation vow is very popular. Our CBS polling shows 57% of voters like the idea, but how it is implemented matters a lot to voters. The vast majority prefer that federal law enforcement or immigration agencies carry them out. Just 40% say the US military should be involved. The stated Trump plan is to use the military, military assets, deputize the National Guard and have them act as immigration agents. Do you believe that is lawful?
PAUL: You know, I’m 100% supportive of going after the 15,000 murderers, the 13,000 sexual assault perpetrators, rapists, all these people. Let’s send them on their way to prison or back home to another prison. So I would say All-points bulletin, all in but you don’t do it with the Army because it’s illegal. We’ve, we’ve had a distrust of putting the army into our streets, because the police have a difficult job but the police understand the Fourth Amendment. They have to go to Judges. They have to get warrants. It has to be specific. And so I’m for removing these people, but I would do it through the normal process of domestic policing. Now, I would say that the mayor of Denver, if he’s going to resist federal law, which there’s a longstanding history of the supremacy of federal law, he’s going to resist that it will go all the way to the Supreme Court. And I would suspect that he would be removed from office. I don’t know whether or not there’d be a criminal prosecution for someone resisting federal law, but he will lose. And people need to realize that what he is- what he is offering, is a form of insurrection, where the states resist the federal government. Most people objected to that and rejected that long ago. So I think the mayor of Denver is on the wrong side of history, and really, I think will face legal ramifications if he doesn’t obey the federal law.
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