Even as Democrats lambast President Trump for sending in officers to protect the federal buildings in Portland, Republicans are increasingly asking: Where are Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Mayor Ted Wheeler?
As the city braced Wednesday for a 56th straight night of protest chaos, Oregon Senate Minority Leader Fred Giron cheered the recent arrival of federal law enforcement and said that if the governor objected so strongly to their presence, she should have handled the rioters herself.
“We have a governor that hasn’t lifted one finger to try to contain any of this, and today is its 56th day,” said Mr. Giron on Fox News.
He added that he was thankful for the federal officers. “We should be able to fix this problem ourselves, but we have a governor that sides with the rioters,” said Mr. Giron. “Hence the need for federal protection.”
Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said Tuesday that he tried and failed to work with the governor and mayor, asking them a week and a half ago to tell him what they needed to stop the attacks on the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse and other buildings. He said he was told “no, thanks.”
“I asked the mayor, I asked the governor, how long do you intend to have this continue? Is it 82 nights, is it 92 nights? Again, no response,” said Mr. Wolf.
The Democrat Brown backed up his statement, saying in a Tuesday interview with MSNBC that when he called, “I told them to go home, that their forces are not needed here, they are not wanted here, and they’re making a challenging situation worse.”
She said Oregon’s approach to the protest conflict was to “solve problems by sitting down.”
“We solve problems by deescalating a situation and engaging in dialogue,” said Ms. Brown. “I know that’s what the mayor’s doing, I know that folks throughout the city are having those conversations about how we can bring the violence to an end.”
Mr. Wolf said he would remove the Homeland Security law-enforcement teams guarding the courthouse, once the late-night attacks on the buildings by crowds of window-breaking, vandalizing, fire-starting agitators cease.
“We stand ready. I’m ready to pull my officers out of there if the violence stops,” said Mr. Wolf.
Portland has become the nation’s protest hotspot as hundreds, sometimes thousands, of demonstrators descend each night on the Justice Center area, a scene that typically starts as a peaceful protest and descends into anarchy after about 11 p.m., according to federal officials.
Oregon Democrats have insisted that the agitators represent a small minority of the protesters and even sought to downplay the turmoil, despite nightly videos showing masked rioters, some apparently affiliated with Antifa, seeking to break into the courthouse by tearing down the plywood covering.
“We’re not instigating. We’re responding. They’re instigating,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Wednesday on Fox News. “They’re castigating our law enforcement. They are instigating these crimes.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Oregon Democrat, who represents Portland, had a different take, announcing in a House floor speech on Tuesday, “Portland, Oregon, is not out of control.”
“To be sure, there are some people who have strong feelings and there are some that have done things that are inappropriate and unlawful,” said Mr. Blumenauer. “But that is the challenge of our local officials and our state officials to manage it, not having somebody unwelcome, uninvited and unprepared coming in and take this difficult situation and make it worse.”
Mayor: Feds ‘reenergized Portlanders’
To those on the outside, however, it may look as if the state and local officials are asleep at the wheel, although Mr. Wheeler insisted that his “de-escalation strategies” were working until Homeland Security officers arrived.
For example, the city banned the Portland Police Bureau last month from using tear gas unless “life safety” was threatened, while federal agents have used tear gas, as well as flash bangs and pepper balls, to disperse the crowds attacking the federal building.
“It’s well documented that before they got here, the energy was really going out of the late night protests, we were seeing smaller crowds, we were seeing less vandalism, we were seeing much less violence, and all of us expected that it was going to go away,” said Mr. Wheeler, who also serves as the police commissioner.
Instead, he said, “these guys came in like a bulldozer, and what it did was, it reenergized Portlanders, it brought people back into the streets,” while Mr. Wolf said that the federal officers were needed to prevent the agitators from burning down the courthouse, given that local police have stood by while the building is attacked.
“Attacking federal police officers, law-enforcement officers, which they have done 52 nights in a row, is a federal crime,” said Mr. Wolf. “And so the department, because we don’t have that local support, that local law-enforcement support, we are having to go out and proactively arrest individuals, and we need to do that, because we need to hold them accountable.”
While Democrats have accused the Trump administration of sending in “storm troopers” and the “Gestapo,” conservative commentators argued that Portland’s liberal leaders “haven’t been doing the job.”
“They haven’t been getting the job done,” said Guy Benson, conservative radio host and Townhall political editor. “This is now almost two months of violent upheaval every single night in that city. They’re derelict, and their crocodile tears about the feds seems like an attempt to deflect blame and deflect attention away from their own failures.”
James Buchal, chairman of the Multnomah County Republican Party, said in an email that the party supported the president’s actions, “which were necessitated by the failure of local authorities to maintain law and order, in violation of state law.”
He also accused Democrats of harboring a political agenda, saying their “entire strategy appears calculated if not intended to exacerbate the violence,” while Ms. Brown accused the Trump administration of playing politics.
“Unfortunately, President Trump and his administration are more interested in distracting from their failure to lead and ensuring that cities and situations like this escalate,” said Ms. Brown. “This is about political points, it’s about political theater.”
Portland has been a hotbed of Antifa and left-wing protest activity for years, and elected leaders have long taken a hands-off approach to the unrest, which includes a 28-day occupation of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility.
“If radicals feel emboldened, that’s because Portland has long allowed political violence to occur with impunity,” said the Wall Street Journal in a Tuesday staff editorial. “In recent years dueling marches by Antifa and far-right activists have descended into brawling, and too often police have done little to stop it.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican, introduced legislation Wednesday to hold state and local officials liable for property damage, bodily injury and deaths occurring while they “abdicate” their duties to bring rioters and occupiers under control.
He cited the response by Portland and Seattle elected leaders to recent protest unrest. In Seattle, Black Lives Matter protesters took over a six-block area of the downtown for three weeks, during which two people were shot and killed within the “autonomous zone.”
“Democrat city officials have allowed this violent mob rule, and they need to be held accountable for the lives lost and the millions of dollars in damages that have been incurred by lawless autonomous zone anarchists,” said Mr. Cruz in a statement. “We need leaders to stand with the men and women in law enforcement and defend America.”
