Cory Booker calls LA riots ‘peaceful’ as violence escalates, Trump deploys National Guard

"The reality is, we see peaceful protests launching in Los Angeles," Booker said. "A lot of these peaceful protests are being generated because the president of the United States is sowing chaos and confusion by arresting people who are showing up for their immigration hearings."

The streets of Los Angeles saw widespread violence as federal immigration authorities clashed with rioters attempting to block deportation operations. In Compton, demonstrators set a vehicle on fire and waved a Mexican flag while circling the blaze on motorcycles.

In another incident, protesters threw rocks through the windshield of a Border Patrol truck, injuring agents. Buildings across the city were spray-painted with anti-ICE graffiti, including phrases like "Kill ICE."

"Now they know that they cannot go to anywhere in this country where our people are, and try to kidnap our workers, our people – they cannot do that without an organized and fierce resistance," one rioter told Reuters.

Booker slammed Trump’s deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, calling it "hypocritical at best" compared to the president’s past pardons of January 6 rioters. He said Trump’s actions would only "incite" further unrest.

"If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!"

California Gov. Gavin Newsom responded on X, writing, "The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle."

While Booker condemned Trump’s crackdown, he also acknowledged that attacks on law enforcement were "unacceptable."