President Donald Trump attacked Tom Ridge, the former Secretary of Homeland Security, after Ridge criticized the deployment of federal agents in Portland, Oregon.
“Recently watched failed RINO Tom Ridge, former head of Homeland Security, trying to justify his sudden love of the Radical Left Mayor of Portland, who last night was booed & shouted out of existence by the agitators & anarchists,” the president wrote in a tweet. “Love watching pathetic Never Trumpers squirm!”
Recently watched failed RINO Tom Ridge, former head of Homeland Security, trying to justify his sudden love of the Radical Left Mayor of Portland, who last night was booed & shouted out of existence by the agitators & anarchists. Love watching pathetic Never Trumpers squirm!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 23, 2020
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Ridge, the nation’s first head of Homeland Security, remarked yesterday in an interview with Sirius XM radio that Homeland Security “was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president’s personal militia.”
Ridge said he would “welcome the opportunity to work with any federal agency to reduce crime or lawlessness in the cities” if he were governor, adding that “it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities.”
“And I wish the president would take a more collaborative approach toward fighting this lawlessness than the unilateral approach he’s taken,” he concluded.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler accused the federal government of “occupation” after he was teargassed last night.
“This is not a de-escalation strategy. This is flat-out urban warfare,” Wheeler said. “And it’s being wrought on the people of this country by the president of the United States and it’s got to stop.”
Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.
