Andy McCarthy pushes back on 'terrible political demagoguery' on Trump and Portland
Portland has been hit by riots and protests in the wake of George Floyd's death
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy on Wednesday doubled down on an op-ed urging President Trump to enforce federal law.
“The Constitution says it,” the Fox News contributor told “Outnumbered Overtime.”
McCarthy said that Trump’s job under Article II of the Constitution is to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“That’s his main job. Basically, we miss this a lot because we now have a federal government that has so much more than the framers ever envisioned it would do. But the president’s job is two main things: one is to execute the laws and the other, closely related, is national security,” McCarthy said.
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McCarthy's comments came after he published an op-ed that laid out why "it is Trump's constitutional duty to enforce federal law and he should," defending the commander in chief's deployment of federal law enforcement in Portland.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}McCarthy wrote in the op-ed, "The Constitution says the president shall perform this obligation. We’re not talking about an option or something he may do or not do as he sees fit. It is a solemn duty. It is what being the chief executive is all about."
Portland has been hit by riots and protests for 55 days in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis. This month, in response to ongoing violence against federal property and monuments, DHS deployed federal law enforcement to the city.
McCarthy said that Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., is participating in “terrible political demagoguery” for pushing back on Trump’s deployment of federal forces to address the rioting in Portland.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}McCarthy reacted to Wyden’s tweet that said “My constituents don’t want the Trump administration’s best wishes. They want it to stop trampling over their constitutional rights.”
“When Democrats are in charge, when they run the administration, what we’re told is the government is the one thing we all do together, the government is a wonderful thing, the idea that you would sit by while people commit arson and vandalism against government facilities and that you would sit by idly while people used force against people who are federal agents would be intolerable,” McCarthy said.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}McCarthy added that since the Democrats want to run against Trump as a “Nazi dictator,” they are calling federal agents “troops and a militia.”
“They are federal law enforcement agents and they are always in our big cities.”