During an appearance on Fox News on Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows warned that the Trump administration is preparing to dispatch controversial military-style federal squads, already in Portland, into other cities, and named only locations with Democratic mayors.
Meadows said that Attorney General William Barr is “weighing in on that” with acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.
“You’ll see something rolled out this week, as we start to go in and make sure that the communities — whether it’s Chicago or Portland or Milwaukee or someplace across the heartland — we need to make sure their communities are safe,” he added.
All three cities named are run by Democrats.
President Donald Trump also indicated that federal squads would likely target cities run by the party that opposes him. He said on “Fox News Sunday” that “violence” was on the increase in “Democrat-run cities.”
“They are liberally run, they are stupidly run,” he added.
Meadows doubled down on a crackdown in the face of a wall of criticism after federal officers in military-style fatigues with no identification of their agency began roving downtown Portland, Oregon, in unmarked vans last week to snatch people off the streets.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum filed suit in U.S. District Court Friday calling for an injunction to stop the uninvited squads’ “kidnap and false arrest” of citizens in actions the suit said are clear violations of Americans’ First Amendment rights and constitutional protections against illegal search and seizure and loss of liberty.
The American Civil Liberties Union also sued DHS and the U.S. Marshals Service Friday, and U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation. The ACLU has characterized the federal action in Portland as a constitutional crisis.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blasted the squads Friday as “stormtroopers … kidnapping protesters.”
Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti.
These are not the actions of a democratic republic.@DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission.
Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 18, 2020
Watch Meadows interview below:
