The acting secretary for the Department of Homeland Security vowed not to pull federal law enforcement officials out of Portland amid continued violent attacks on federal facilities despite local leaders demanding they leave.
“We will not retreat,” Chad Wolf said in a press conference Tuesday afternoon. “We will continue to take appropriate action.”
Wolf lambasted Democrats’ claims that federal police pulled from their jobs at the border to help defend federal buildings in Portland were acting like the Gestapo or military troops by pulling suspects involved in criminal acts from the streets.
“They’re not military or civilian police officers. These police officers are not stormtroopers. They’re not the Gestapo,” said Wolf, referring to a remark from House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina. “The smear attacks leveled against our officers — disgusting.”
Over the past eight weeks, evening protests have turned into criminal attacks on federal agents and officers standing guard inside and outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse and other facilities. On Sunday and Monday nights, rioters who emerged in the early morning hours tore down a fence around the courthouse and attempted to throw commercial fireworks into the building, where some federal police were.
Wolf said the department has sent in dozens to hundreds of personnel to the city because Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler has not done anything to shut down the violence 52 days since it began after the death of Minneapolis resident George Floyd at the hands of the police. Wolf said he called Wheeler and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, last week to ask how the department can assist the city with the ongoing riots that take place in the early morning hours after peaceful protests normally conclude at midnight.
“Their response was, ‘No thanks, and please leave the city, and take all your law enforcement with you,'” Wolf told reporters. The DHS head has not spoken with Brown or Wheeler since an initial phone call that he said ended with a “definitive” answer that they did not want federal assets in the city.
Wolf said no other U.S. city has received extra DHS employees to defend federal landmarks or buildings because no other city’s police force has allowed it to happen in the way Portland has.
“What we know is if we left tomorrow they will burn that building down. They have stated that publicly. We have it on video,” said Wolf.