House Armed Services Chairman Smith says Trump using 'personal military' in Portland, 'not the intent of DHS'
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, D-Wash. told Fox News using federal agents in Portland is making matters worse
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., went after President Trump for his actions in Portland, Oregon likening his deployment of federal law enforcement agents there to the president's own "personal military" to quell protests. He told Fox News in an interview that this was not the intent when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created after 9/11.
"The one concern that I do have is and this is a concern shared by Secretary of Defense, he has expressed it, DHS folks who showed up in Portland, and are apparently being distributed to some other cities as well were wearing camouflage battle fatigues, to the untrained eye as they were walking down the streets of Portland, they looked like U.S. soldiers, I think that is very deceptive, Smith said.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf told reporters at a news conference this week that he was seeing inaccurate reports in the media that these federal agents were U.S. military and reiterated that they are not.
"Let me repeat, the officers are not military, let’s not confuse that," Wolf said.
According to the Department of Justice, there are currently 114 federal law enforcement officers from the FPS, ICE, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the U.S. Marshals Service protecting federal facilities in downtown Portland. Earlier this week, President Trump announced that the Department of Justice would be taking similar actions in the cities of Chicago and Alburquerque, drawing on existing resources in those cities to cool tensions and protect federal property, where in some cases authorites claim violence has broken out during protests.
But Smith doesn't think unilateral measures like this are helpful without the cooperation of state and local leaders and said it could make matters worse.
PORTLAND OFFICIALS WANT FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO REMOVE COURTHOUSE FENCING
“You’ve got this image of federal forces coming in, that’s not going to calm people down, that’s not going to make people think they’re living in a just society that they don’t have to protest anymore, it’s going to make people think once again that government is trying to silence them unfairly, it ramps up the tensions," Smith said.
Democratic leaders have ramped up the rhetoric when referring to these federal agents. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi referred to them as stormtroopers and House Majority Whip Rep. Jim Clyburn compared them to Nazi Germany's Gestapo police force.
Smith shrugged off the heightened rhetoric saying, "I pick my own words, I’m not gonna get into what I disagree with or whatever one of hundreds of people have said, I want to get to the right policy."
It's a policy that even some former heads of the Department of Homeland Security are condemning. Tom Ridge and Michael Chertofff, both of whom served under Republican president George W. Bush, when the cabinet agency was in its early days, blasted the move to send federal agents into American cities. Ridge likened it to the President's own "personal militia."
Smith agreed.
"The president then turned to Bill Barr and the Justice Department to use DHS as his own personal military and that was not the intent of the creation of DHS...if the President misuses the Department of Homeland Security in this way, the pressure from the public [will] cause it to be disbanded and once again put us back where we were pre-9/11."
PORTLAND MAYOR TEAR-GASSED BY FEDERAL AGENTS
The Department of Justice inspector general announced in a statement this week that he would be reviewing actions taken by federal law enforcement agencies in Portland in the last two months along with the clearing of Lafayette Square in front of the White House, in which Trump walked to a nearby church and posed for photographs holding a Bible after law enforcement agents in riot gear used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear peaceful protesters.
"The review will include examining the training and instruction that was provided to the DOJ law enforcement personnel; compliance with applicable identification requirements, rules of engagement, and legal authorities; and adherence to DOJ policies regarding the use of less-lethal munitions, chemical agents, and other uses of force," Inspector General Michael Horowitz said in his statement.
Smith has confidence in the investigation, but fears it could be interfered with.
"I don’t have confidence that this president is going to allow that fair investigation to happen...he has fired inspector generals all across [the] government.”
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