Ken Cuccinelli on ongoing violence in Portland: Oregon has the resources to stop the problem
Acting DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli joins Leland Vittert with insight on 'America's News HQ.'
The "pathetic failure of local and state officials" was on full display Saturday in Portland Ore., as the city faced another weekend of violent protests between opposing groups and escalating attacks on law enforcement, acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said Sunday.
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"What concerns me this weekend is you now have opposing groups intentionally showing up in the same places at the same time and clearly the intent is to mix it up," he said.
Unrest continued for the 86th night in Portland, with police declaring a riot just after midnight near the Penumbra Kelly Building, which houses public safety offices, according to reports. Rioters were seen hurling rocks, bottles and other objects at police officers, Portland’s KGW-TV reported.
President Trump urged leaders in Oregon to request federal assistance to quell the violence on Saturday, after city Mayor Ted Wheelers and governor Kate Brown — both Democrats, criticized his decision to deploy troops to the city to protect federal property in July.
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Asked whether Trump intends to send federal officers back into the city, Cuccinelli said "This president hasn’t taken any actions off the table."
"The tragedy here is this is all controllable if the governor would simply continue to back up, she’s pulled out her state police, the local police and bring in her own National Guard," he said.
"She has over 7,800 national guardsmen who she refuses to activate to contend with the situation in Portland. Oregon has the resources to solve this problem and yet they refuse to do it."
Cucinelli said rioters "crossed the residential line" over the weekend, a direct result of what he called a " pathetic failure of local and state officials.
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"When you have local authorities that won’t — and that’s the word here, won’t solve this problem and some encourage rioters and criminals...the president hasn’t taken any options off the table," he said.
"I don’t think we are going to ever broadcast how we would deal with that, but this is a pathetic failure of local and state officials. "
Fox News' Talia Kaplan contributed to this report.