Mayor Ted Wheeler is also among the leading critics of President Trump’s decision to send in covert federal forces.
It was another night of protest in the city that’s going on for well over 50 nights following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis.
The crowd started out mostly peaceful, which has been a pattern that we’ve seen in the daylight hours where the crowd will come out demonstrating for racial justice against police brutality and against the infusion of federal resources that were sent into the city by President Trump.
As the sun went down during the evening hours, some of the protesting did turn violent. There was a member of the crowd that was launching projectiles and fireworks into a federal building, eliciting a response from federal agents inside. They came out, launched tear gas, and pushed protestors back.
In the crowd was the mayor of the City of Portland. He was part of a crowd that got tear gassed. He spoke to a reporter from the New York Times about what that was like.
“I’m not gonna lie, it stings,” Wheeler said. “It’s hard to breathe. I can tell you with 100 percent honesty I saw nothing that provoked this response.”
The mayor has been a vocal critic of the federal response in Portland and the infusion of federal resources.
CNN’s Josh Campbell caught up with Wheeler outside the courthouse and asked him whether the city had any responsibility. He pushed back on that, saying that the blame here lies squarely with the federal government. “This is clearly a waste of federal resources and it’s getting increasingly dangerous,” he said. “We did not ask the feds to be here, we do not want them here. They’re not helping the situation, they’re not appropriately trained and we’re demanding that they leave.”
One thing that we have noticed is apparently a more measured response by federal agents. In evenings past, we have seen them come out in a full show of force, a line of agents, pushing people back through the streets. That wasn’t seen Wednesday night. They have come out when provoked by the crowd by the fireworks and the fires to launch tear gas and some other dispersants. But we haven’t seen them take to the streets again, a more apparently measured response by federal agents. We’ll have to see whether that continues into the future.
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