Chaos in Portland as federal officers confront demonstrators outside federal buildings
Federal officers fire tear gas to push crowds back from vandalizing the federal courthouse; Dan Springer reports from Seattle.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf should leave his job after his department deployed lawless mobs to contain protests in Portland, Ore., retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore said.
“Police don’t do this. Watch this, what kind of b----t is this?!” Honore told MSNBC on Tuesday. He was responding to footage of federal agents assailing a man in the street. He added that Wolf needs "to be run out of Washington. He has no business in charge of Homeland Security."
His comments came amid a vigorous debate surrounding how authorities should deal with protests in the wake of George Floyd's death. Critics have alleged that DHS abused its power by using agents who utilized unmarked vehicles and failed to identify themselves.
“They are acting like an uncontrolled mob on the street with uniforms and badges that they don’t show,” Honore claimed.
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Wolf has repeatedly pushed back on the idea that protesters in Portland were "peaceful."
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan told Fox News on Saturday that agents were identifiable and that the tactics DHS employed were necessary to mitigate violence in the city.
"What's happening right now are absolute criminals. They are willfully organizing, planning and coordinating, and preparing themselves and bringing weapons to these areas with the intent to destroy federal property and harm federal agents and officers. That is criminal and that cannot be justified," he said.
But according to Honore, DHS was inappropriately using military uniforms given the context.
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“That uniform represents the cloth of our nation, for people who don’t draw overtime, who serve around the world at the direction of the national command authority, and it’s not to be used as an instrument of protest suppression ... that uniform is designed to blend into terrain, not to make you look like a warrior,” he said.
He speculated that "they’re wearing these uniforms as a function of intimidation, to look like warriors."
"Real soldiers just don’t walk up to people and start beating on them. Real police don’t do that. The police have the authority to detain you, and then somebody else will decide whether you get charged or whether you go to jail for whatever offense ... you might have violated," he added.