DHS chief Chad Wolf rejects Gov. Kate Brown's call for federal law enforcement to leave Portland
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf joins Tucker Carlson with insight on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
Acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Chad Wolf fired back at Oregon Gov. Kate Brown's "absolutely ridiculous" comments after she said at a press conference Wednesday that the federal officers enlisted to quell the ongoing violence in her state are acting as “secret police abducting people.”
"Let me just comment on the governor’s statement there. I think it is absolutely ridiculous," Wolf told "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
"It is an uneducated statement, and she really needs to understand what the Department of Homeland Security’s mission there is in Portland. We are there to protect the federal courthouse and other federal properties in Portland. We need to do that," he said.
OREGON GOV. COMPARES FEDERAL OFFICERS TO 'SECRET POLICE ABDUCTING PEOPLE'
But, Wolf said, federal officers will only be effective if local law enforcement agrees to join their efforts.
"We need local law enforcement to be a partner with us. We see this in every other city across the country. When federal property is targeted, we have local law enforcement partnering with federal law enforcement to address that, to investigate, and to arrest individuals," he said.
"That type of assistance is not there in Portland," Wolf went on. "We have no assistance from the local leadership there either from the mayor or the governor. So what does that mean? That means that the federal agencies and the law enforcement officers from the department are left on their own night after night from midnight until 5:00 a.m."
Wolf said he is fed up and unwilling to continue endangering the lives of federal officers after 53 straight days of violence.
"We are not taking it any longer. We are surging forces in there and making arrests, we are holding people accountable if they are committing federal crimes," he said. "We will continue to do that, but at the same time I beg and plead with the local law enforcement to partner with us and that leadership."
Wolf said Brown's comments, which came after she characterized the federal presence in the city as "political theater," indicate to him that "she is taking this to be very political and doesn’t really understand how the system works."
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