A letter from Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf presses Left-wing Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler to accept federal assistance to help stop the violence in his city that has gone on for months, or the Trump administration will have “no choice” but to act.
“I urge you to prioritize public safety and to request federal assistance to restore law and order in Portland,” Wolf wrote in the letter dated Aug. 31.
“We are standing by to support Portland. At the same time, President Trump has made it abundantly clear that there will come a point when state and local officials fail to protect its citizens from violence, the federal government will have no choice but to protect our American citizens,” the letter notes, as Fox News reported.
DHS noted further that as of July 31, local police had made 255 arrests tied to the continuous protests and declared a riot or unlawful assembly 23 times.
“Despite this, you have stood by passively, arguing that the nightly violence ‘will ultimately burn itself out.’ The evidence demonstrates otherwise,” Wolf continued in his letter.
Earlier this summer, in spite of Wheeler’s opposition, DHS dispatched teams of additional officers to Portland to protect a federal courthouse in the city that had come under siege night after night by rioters and, some argued, domestic terrorists who attempted to burn it down on a number of occasions.
Wolf’s letter comes a day after President Trump blasted Wheeler as a “fool” and strongly suggested that federal agents were going to be sent back to the city.
“He would like to blame me and the Federal Government for going in, but he hasn’t seen anything yet We have only been there with a small group to defend our U.S. Courthouse, because he couldn’t do it,” Trump noted in a tweet.
The letter also comes after Wheeler publicly rebuked the Trump administration’s latest offer of assistance.
“Dear President Trump: Yet again, you said you offered to aid Portland by sending in federal law enforcement to our city. On behalf of the City of Portland: No thanks,” he wrote.
Wolf also told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Monday that he was working with AG Barr to figure out a way to charge Antifa and BLM agitators who may be conspiring to incite riots and create other civil disorder.
“Why haven’t we seen the leaders of Antifa and BLM arrested and charged for conspiracy under, say, RICO, like the heads of the Mafia families were?” Carlson asked at one point in the interview.
After noting that DHS and the Justice Department are coordinating efforts, Wolf said that the administration is also investigating the heads of various Left-wing anarchist groups as well as those “paying for these individuals to move across the country.”
