Joe Biden unleashed on President Trump for sending federal agents to Portland as the city deals with civil unrest almost two months after George Floyd’s death.
“We have a president who is determined to sow chaos and division. To make matters worse instead of better,” Biden wrote in a statement.
The presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee and two-term vice president added: “Now Homeland Security agents — without a clearly defined mandate or authority — are ranging far from federal property, stripped of badges and insignia and identifying markings, to detain people. They are brutally attacking peaceful [protesters], including a U.S. Navy veteran.”
The Trump administration deployed Customs and Border Protection agents in camouflage uniforms to Portland last week as the city grapples with 54 straight days of demonstrations against racial injustice. The protests have focused around a federal district courthouse, with the federal agents dispatched to protect it.
But demonstrators have complained that some unidentifiable agents have fired gas at them while others have taken them away in unmarked cars. A video also went viral last weekend of a confrontation between a Navy veteran and a few agents. The veteran, Chris David, had his hand broken in the altercation.
On Monday, Trump said he was inclined to respond similarly to unrest in other Democratic-run cities, such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, and Oakland.
His move has generally angered local officials, including Oregon’s attorney general, who sued the administration over its decision. Yet it’s been welcomed by a handful of police unions, which have decried a lack of support.
However, Biden on Tuesday dug in. The 36-year Delaware senator evoked the outrage he felt watching the melee between law enforcement and protesters outside the White House last month.
“Of course the U.S. government has the right and duty to protect federal property. The Obama-Biden administration protected federal property across the country without resorting to these egregious tactics — and without trying to stoke the fires of division in this country,” he said. “We need a president who will bring us together instead of tear us apart, calm instead of inflame, and enforce the law faithfully rather than put his political interests first.”
Trump’s campaign quickly shot back. Spokesman Tim Murtaugh described Biden’s “peaceful [protesters]” as “left-wing anarchists,” charging Biden with “siding with the criminals.”
“These ‘peaceful [protesters]’ are using lasers to target officers’ eyes, shooting ball bearings with slingshots, using pellet guns and air rifles, launching fireworks at the officers, and barricading police inside a federal courthouse. One officer had his hand impaled on a board with nails driven through it,” he said.
Biden’s behavior was “unconscionable,” according to Murtaugh.
“Biden has clearly lost his moral bearings and failed the leadership test. He once again has proven he is too weak to stand up [to] the extremists running his party and can’t bring himself to take the side of law enforcement officers under siege,” he said.
