'Handful' of Republican senators call Trump’s latest power grab 'bad precedent'

President Donald Trump's deployment of National Guard to Democratic-run cities has started to ruffle the feathers of a handful of Republicans, Newsweek reports.

While Democratic governors Gavin Newsom (CA), Tina Kotek (OR), and JB Pritzker (IL) have loudly and forcefully condemned Trump's orders and threats to send troops into their states, the Trump administration has justified these deployments by saying they are necessary to deal with local crime and protect federal property. This, despite data showing a decrease in crime in many cities such as Chicago.

Now a group of Republican senators are speaking out against these troop deployments.

Senator Thom Tillis (NC-R), who is retiring at the end of his term, told The Hill he believes it sets a “bad precedent.”

“I worry about someday a Democrat president sending troops or National Guard from New York, California, Oregon, Washington state to North Carolina,” he said.

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said she agrees with concerns “about the use of our military for policing and more the politicization that we’re seeing within the military.”

Murkowski's frequent cohort Susan Collins (R-ME), up for reelection in a heavily Democratic state, says that while she believes Chicago has a “crime problem,” she is concerned with the way the president is using the National Guard."

"I do think the National Guard has an important role to play in natural disasters, in protecting federal personnel and federal sites. In those cases, you can justify nationalizing the Guard. Generally, this should be a police and law-enforcement action. It’s a complicated issue,” she told The Hill.

Like her colleague Collins, Murkowski is "very concerned."

“It’s one thing if governors ask and they say, ‘Hey, I need help.’ That’s the way we’ve handled it before,” she said. “I am concerned, I am very apprehensive."