House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is being "disgusting" when she calls federal law enforcement agents who have been sent to Portland to quell threats against federal property "stormtroopers," acting Customs and Border Patrol Commissioner Mark Morgan said Wednesday.
"Look, so far this year, the CBP, the CBP alone, we have lost 19 personnel in the line of duty," Morgan said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "For her to refer to those men and women as stormtroopers, it's absolutely disgusting. It goes right to the heart because I know the character and I know these men and women that are sacrificing so much. When their political leaders are using disparaging terms like that, it's just reckless and untrue."
Further, the Department of Homeland Security has the authority to send forces in to protect federal property under federal law, said Morgan, and he wishes people would read the statute.
"It doesn't tell the secretary if he wants to he can go protect the 1900 federal buildings, it says he must," said Morgan. "That's what's happening in Portland. We had credible information that these violent criminals were going to attack the federal building. That's why we surged additional resources ... I don't understand what the issue is. And the mayor is asking for federal agents to go home. Shouldn't he be asking for the criminals to go home?"
Meanwhile, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has said her city will work with existing federal agencies that it works with on a regular basis to help manage violent crime, but "we do not welcome unconstitutional arrests and detainment of our residents" such as she said has happened in Portland.
"I completely dismiss her reference as to what happened in Portland," Morgan said. "Those are misinformed, irresponsible, and reckless statements and just devoid of any fact or truth."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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