Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli on Monday criticized Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for what he called “uninformed” claims about the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) response to the riots in Portland.
“I am disappointed in this uninformed tweet by a Senator who I respect. The truisms mixed with errors are rife,” Cuccinelli tweeted at the beginning of a thread.
Reacting to reports that federal agents had been sweeping demonstrators off the streets in Portland, Paul said that “local law enforcement can and should be handling these situations in our cities but there is no place for federal troops or unidentified federal agents rounding people up at will.”
DHS has come under intense criticism for its approach to the protests and riots in the liberal city, which have gone on for more than 50 days and seen some law enforcement agents attacked and injured, as well as courts and other federal buildings damaged and vandalized.
But much of the criticism from Democrats and others has focused on the police response, which they say has been heavy-handed. In particular, they point to instances of protesters being grabbed off the streets by what have been described as unidentified federal agents -- although DHS has repeatedly denied this latter claim.
Cuccinelli said that Paul’s tweet “overlooks the fact that local law enforcement in Portland is not ‘handling these situations’ and that ‘these situations’ include attacks on federal law enforcement OFFICERS (not troops) and federal facilities.”
He also challenged the claim that the officers were unidentified, saying that they were identified as police and as DHS officers. However, videos shared on social media by Portland activists show federal agents refusing to identify themselves.
Cuccinelli went on to call the claim that agents are “rounding people up at will” an “incredibly offensive assertion” and offered details about an instance of a suspect who was detained.
“They identified themselves 3 blocks away to the subject, at which point he fled on foot and the officers pursued him until he stopped running at the federal courthouse. The officers talked to this particular individual because they thought he matched the description of a person who had assaulted a law enforcement officer about an hour before,” he said.
He went on to say that DHS “officers and agents are preserving liberty (and life and property) in Portland. I would have been happy to explain that to Sen. @RandPaul if he had asked.”
Cuccinelli’s tweets mark another instance of the DHS response to the criticism it faced over its response to the Portland riots. On Tuesday, Acting Secretary Chad Wolf pushed back against the criticism the agency was facing, and said that it would not “retreat” from Portland.
“If you are a violent rioter looking to inflict damage on federal property or law enforcement officers, you need to find another line of work,” Wolf said at a press conference. “We will not retreat, we will continue to protect our facilities and our law enforcement officers.”
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