MSNBC’s Ari Melber went to impressive lengths Tuesday night to try and downplay the riots that have plagued Los Angeles for the past few days. On his show, The Beat, he tried to make the impact these riots had seem as minimal as possible. “Let's tell you here in the news what we know,” Melber explained, providing a weak rundown of the facts:
They have occurred now across roughly four days, hundreds of people have gathered in different locations, on Monday night, there were about 100 arrests, there were some violent incidents. The situation required law enforcement, which traditionally patrols these areas.
Just about every part of this summary downplayed or understated an aspect of the situation in one way or another.
Melber put the number of protesters in the hundreds; in reality, while there were no specific statements on the number of people, it was widely accepted to have been in the thousands. Melber referred to “violent incidents,” a very gentle way of describing counts of attempted murder of police officers, looting, and resisting arrest. The law enforcement necessary for the situation far exceeded the officers who typically patrolled the area. Even without President Trump’s federalizing of the National Guard, officers were called in from across California to help manage the situation.
Holding to these inaccuracies, Melber insisted that these riots were an insignificant incident for the LAPD:
But these gatherings, to be clear, although there are some dramatic moments in footage, just by the scale, and we've covered this and we have our reporters on the ground there, these gatherings are not anywhere near Los Angeles’ largest security challenges, from championship celebrations to the city's Oscars or the Grammys, or, in the realm of politics, the much, much larger protests that ripped across that city and others in 2020 over BLM.
If you don’t remember the looting, rioting, and assault of police officers during the Oscars and the Grammys, that would probably be because they never happened. But according to Melber, these one-night celebrity events were more of a challenge to LAPD than these protests had been.
The only equivalent example, the BLM riots of 2020, which Melber brought up to “remind you neither LAPD or the city governor concluded federal backup was necessary,” actually served to disprove his point. In the one incident of similar caliber and greater extent that Los Angeles had seen in recent years, city officials decided that help from the National Guard was actually necessary. As with many other cities, the delayed request for federal assistance led to an increase in damages that may have been somewhat preventable.
At his press conference Wednesday, Trump and his officials reinforced this fact, expressing that the administration wasn’t going to allow for a repeat of 2020. But all the media was concerned with was reinforcing their extreme narrative of Trump being a tyrant.
Melber compared the situation to the earlier arrests of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and New Jersey Congresswoman LaMonica McIver, an example of Trump using his authority to supposedly punish his enemies, but even dropping the charges on Baraka, which liberals called for, was evidence of the president’s wrongdoing.
Melber did everything he could to distract and beat around the bush, but in the end, he couldn’t hide the reality of what was happening in Los Angeles.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read.
MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber
June 10, 2025
6:00 p.m. EST
ARI MELBER: Welcome to The Beat, everyone. We're monitoring live pictures from Los Angeles as we come on the air right now. People are continuing these protests after what has widely been reported as the Trump administration's escalation.
[ON SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump Escalates as Marines Arrive in L.A. Amid Clash Over WH Powers]
700 Marines now deployed by the administration arriving today. You can see some of the indications of this type of military presence on American streets. This is a rare effort to deploy U.S. troops inside the U.S. for what would seem like policing purposes, although the details are in debate, and that's what will really matter legally. The move could be illegal. It depends on what the Marines are ultimately tasked with doing and what they do.
[ON SCREEN HEADLINE: New Lawsuit Hits Trump Over “Unlawful” Use of National Guard]
California's governor pushing back, suing Trump for allegedly illegal use of federal forces, and today California is formally seeking an emergency restraining order to stop any further activity by the Marines you just saw there, who are just getting started, and the National Guard troops. We can tell you judges are usually hesitant, though, to intercede in these kind of conflicts in real time. Overall, the initial protests over these ICE raids have clearly morphed into something larger.
[ON SCREEN HEADLINE: Trump Backlash Expands as New Protests Rise Up]
The president, seeking this conflict, seeking a chance to use what are clearly extraordinary powers, unusual powers, rarely deployed federal powers while overruling the sitting governor of the state.
Democrats have been pushing back. They are taking him to court, as mentioned. But overall, in what is still an early period in the second term of this unusual Trump presidency, the nation is facing a wider reckoning over a president who confesses what are improper goals, recently arresting some opponents of the Democratic party because they disagree with him in a case that, again, a lot is going on, you're forgiven if it's hard to keep track, but that case, that arrest, very dramatic, of a Democratic mayor in his own city, dropped. The case fell apart. The lawyers tasked with defending the arrest admitted a type of wrongdoing in court.
That mayor is now suing the Trump administration, but that would appear to be an improper use of force by evidence of the fact that they didn't even stick with the case. But remember this week, as we see soldiers in the streets, the president is threatening the same type of arrest against the California governor, in this clash, Governor Newsom. He's basically said, “Bring it on,” but that is where we are.
(...)
6:04 p.m. EST
MELBER: This week's clash, which clearly is not an overnight event, is one of Trump's choosing. What started with deportation powers is now about limits, potentially, on Trump's power. The president does not have the legal power to police daily life in states and cities. That is what states do under federalism. That's why you have state officers, state representatives that you vote for, local police, not federal agents running through your home.
The president also doesn't have the legal power to silence or threaten dissent, although it is clear that he welcomes a clash on those terms. As for the actual protests, let's tell you here in the news what we know; they have occurred now across roughly four days, hundreds of people have gathered in different locations, on Monday night, there were about 100 arrests, there were some violent incidents.
The situation required law enforcement, which traditionally patrols these areas. But these gatherings, to be clear, although there are some dramatic moments in footage, just by the scale, and we've covered this and we have our reporters on the ground there, these gatherings are not anywhere near Los Angeles’ largest security challenges, from championship celebrations to the city's Oscars or the Grammys, or, in the realm of politics, the much, much larger protests that ripped across that city and others in 2020 over BLM.
And so we mentioned that to remind you, neither LAPD or the city governor concluded that federal backup was necessary. And yet, federal force is being crammed into that city, now including Marines. Donald Trump's intervention involves 4000 total National Guard troops because he's doubled the number now. The cost to taxpayers is over $130 million. And in the streets, in court, and in public, the opposition and many Democrats are pushing back.
(...)
