Vice President says the President is 'looking at all his options' on the Insurrection Act.

The Vice President of the United States went on Meet the Press on Sunday morning. The host, Kristen Welker, asked him a clean, plain, on-the-record question: is the administration seriously considering invoking the Insurrection Act?

The Insurrection Act of 1807 is the law that allows the President to use the active-duty United States military, including the Army, on American soil, against American civilians, to “suppress insurrection.” It was last invoked in 1992, by the Governor of California, with the President’s coordination, after the Los Angeles riots. That invocation was at the Governor’s request.

The Governor, in this story, is not requesting it.

The Vice President’s answer: “The President’s looking at all of his options. Right now, he hasn’t felt he needed to.”

Hon. Read that one twice. Right now, he hasn’t felt he needed to.

That is the entire sentence. The Vice President of the United States, on national television, on a Sunday morning, was asked whether the administration is considering using the active-duty military on American cities, and the answer was not yet but stay tuned. He did not say of course not. He did not say there is no scenario. He did not say that would be unconstitutional in the present circumstances.

He said all his options.

I have been a waitress for thirty years. I have a feel for when a man is keeping a card in his pocket. The Vice President kept the card in his pocket on Sunday morning, in the lit hot studio, with the host pressing him plainly, and he kept it there because the President is, in fact, looking at it.

The day before the show, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that the federalized National Guard could not be deployed to Illinois. The President had spent Wednesday calling for the Governor’s imprisonment. Now the Vice President was on the Sunday show floating the next escalation, in the conditional voice, because they had run out of the previous one in court.

You ever notice how the people who tell you they have lots of options always seem to be the ones who already used up the popular ones.

That ought to concern you.