Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has no taste for San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s honeyed approach to discouraging President Donald Trump from sending in National Guard troops to occupy the city.

The New York Times recently reported that when confronted with the possibility of being occupied, Mayor Lurie “stayed calm. He worked the phones. He ‘power mapped.’”

Using his connection to prominent business leaders, the Times reports Lurie lobbied “a host of billionaires” to “deliver the message, in the most diplomatic way possible, that San Francisco was not the apocalyptic landscape that the president sees on Fox News.”

While Lurie’s supporters say he used “quiet leadership and his ability to work the levers behind the scenes,” Raoul told MSNBC anchors that he feels no such compulsion.

“Excuse my French, but kissing the a-- of the president should not be the prerequisite of whether or not our cities are militarized,” Raoul told “The Weekend” host Jackie Alemany. “The prerequisites are set out by Congress and it shouldn't be whether or not a particular mayor or particular governor falls out of favor with the president. That's a dangerous prerequisite to set as to when our national guard is federalized.”

“If I don't like you this week, I get to send the military into your city? That makes no sense,” Raoul added. “That's not what the founders had in mind. And that's not what Congress has laid out.”

Raoul went on to slam White House advisor Stephen Miller’s claim that local government officials who direct police officers to arrest lawbreaking ICE officers are themselves engaging in “criminal activity.”

“We have state laws … and ICE does not have a license to commit battery against our citizens,” Raoul said. “They have a certain level of immunity, but it's not unlimited. And this threat coming from Stephen Miller — who is not the greatest legal authority — is a bit is a bit hollow.”

“Even by the representation of ICE officials, our local law enforcement has kept the peace,” Raoul said. “They’ve worked to keep the peace outside ICE facilities and in other places, and we've demonstrated that our sovereignty should be respected.”

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