SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins is hitting back at a claim from President Donald Trump that local leaders want him to deploy the National Guard to the city. The president made the comment last week in a White House news conference, claiming “government officials” had asked for intervention in SF.
Trump doubled down on the claim over the weekend, telling Fox News, “I think they want us in San Francisco.“
On Monday, Jenkins refuted Trump’s claims.
“Let me be clear — no local or elected San Francisco leaders want the National Guard deployed to San Francisco at the direction of the Trump Administration,” Jenkins said in a statement. “The Mayor and I are aligned and have public safety as our top priority in San Francisco.”
Jenkins went on to say that “the deployment of National Guard would be counterproductive to the success that we have been seeing in crime reduction,” and that “the National Guard would have no authority to make arrests or investigate crime.”
Jenkins’ statement came on the heels of a similar one from San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie.
“I am deeply grateful to the members of our military for their service to our country, but the National Guard does not have the authority to arrest drug dealers — and sending them to San Francisco will do nothing to get fentanyl off the streets of make the city safer,” Lurie said.
With crime levels in San Francisco at near historic lows, city and state leaders have been unanimous in arguing that there is no need for Trump to deploy the guard to SF.
“Fact check: Nobody wants you here,” tweeted California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former SF mayor. “You will ruin one of America’s greatest cities.”
“We don’t want you here,” tweeted State Sen. Scott Wiener, another SF Democrat. “We don’t want your invading army of ski mask secret police.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta addressed the possibility of Trump deploying the guard to SF, saying “there is no lawful basis to deploy the National Guard to San Francisco. Period full stop. So what will we do?”
“We will see him in court,” Bonta added.
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