Homeland Security head visits Portland, calls demonstrators ‘violent mob’ and defends federal officers

The interim head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was in Portland meeting with federal law enforcement officials on Thursday, the same day he issued a blistering public statement calling out “local political leaders” for their refusal “to restore order to protect their city.”

The message from Acting Secretary Chad Wolf condemned “the rampant long-lasting violence” in Portland.

Wolf’s nearly 1,700-word statement refers to Portland’s demonstrators as both “violent anarchists” and a “violent mob.”

He said they have destroyed property, including at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, and attacked “the brave law enforcement officers protecting it.”

He blamed “local and state leaders” for failing to address “violent criminals in their communities” and said their inadequate response has “only emboldened the violent mob as it escalates violence day after day.”

“This siege can end if state and local officials decide to take appropriate action instead of refusing to enforce the law,” he said. He said his agency “will not abdicate its solemn duty to protect federal facilities and those within them.”

Wolf went on to detail damage to federal property in Portland, ranging from graffiti to other acts of vandalism.

[Federal officers in unmarked minivans detain Portland protesters]

Wolf’s statement comes six days after a deputy U.S. Marshal fired an impact munition at a 26-year-old man, seriously injuring him, and four days after President Donald Trump said “Portland was totally out of control” until federal law enforcement responded and “very much quelled it.”

Mayor Ted Wheeler said he’s aware of Wolf’s visit and wishes the Trump official hadn’t come to town.

“We haven’t been invited to meet with them and if we were, we would decline,” Wheeler said.

Earlier this week, Wheeler took to Twitter to recap a conversation he had with Wolf. He said Wolf offered to help.

“I told the Acting Secretary that my biggest immediate concern is the violence federal officers brought to our streets in recent days, and the life-threatening tactics his agents use,” Wheeler wrote Tuesday on Twitter. “We do not need or want their help.”

“The best thing they can do is stay inside their building, or leave Portland altogether. Our goal is to end these violent demonstrations quickly and safely. And in the meantime, I asked him to clean up the graffiti on local federal facilities.”

Gov. Kate Brown on Thursday issued a statement calling the remarks “political theater from President Trump.” She accused Trump of seeking a confrontation in Oregon to win points in states like Ohio or Iowa.

Brown said she told Wolf that the federal government should remove “all federal officers from our streets.”

“His response showed me he is on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes,” she said. “He is putting both Oregonians and local law enforcement officers in harm’s way.”

Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese said he was part of a “statewide law enforcement delegation” invited to meet with Wolf to discuss the recent responses to Portland demonstrations. But Reese said he declined the invite after Wolf’s statement Thursday morning.

The sheriff said while he values his agency’s federal law enforcement partnerships, “the actions by out-of-state federal agents last weekend failed to display good decision making and sound tactical judgment.”

“The use of force did not appear proportional to the actions of the demonstrators,” Reese said in a statement. “I look forward to the thorough investigation into the matter by the U.S. D.O.J. Inspector General. These actions caused a significant setback in our local efforts to end the nightly violence around the Justice Center and in Portland.”

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, on Thursday decried violence and added that “the real issue here is Donald Trump’s unilateral decision to send federal law enforcement into Portland. Unfortunately, these outsiders proved themselves to be escalators of violence when they shot a peaceful protester in the head just last weekend.”

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, also a Democrat, tweeted “#GoHomeChad.”

Ben Gaskins, an associate professor of political science at Lewis & Clark College, said the rhetorical attack on Portland appears to be part of Trump’s larger political strategy to pit “law and order” and the “peace-loving Americans that he stands for” against “lawless cities and radical anarchists.”

He said the strategy has been used before by Republicans, who have called out Chicago for gun violence, or corruption or violence in other big American cities.

In the case of Portland, Gaskins said, Trump seems to be “taking it to a new level” and using the violence that has marked the city’s demonstrations to set “the political scene” as the election approaches in November.

He said Trump is stoking an antagonistic relationship with Oregon’s leaders and in doing so is likely to fire up the very factions he called out in his statement.

“From his own words and this statement, he’s not trying to convince Portland residents that he’s got their back,” Gaskins said. “He’s really, I think, speaking to his political base and trying to make inroads with voters that have soured on his policies but are still perhaps concerned about rioting and violence in cities and might see this with some trepidation.”