- mike baker
This is Mike Baker, a correspondent for The New York Times based in the Northwest. It’s 2:00 a.m. right now. I’m in downtown Portland watching through some clouds of tear gas. There’s a group of protesters right now. [CLEARS THROAT] I can feel the tear gas. [COUGHS]
I am watching here through clouds of tear gas. A group of protesters moving down Main Street. They’ve got their umbrellas out to protect themselves. And just down the street is a line of federal officers. They’re firing — [SOUND OF TEAR GAS FIRING] firing tear gas down at the crowd. The officers are standing in a long line down the city block protecting the federal courthouse.
- michael barbaro
From the New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today: Inside the volatile situation in Portland, Oregon, and why federal forces are being deployed to American cities. It’s Thursday, July 23.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, you cover the Department of Homeland Security for The Times, the entire universe of federal law enforcement. So where does the story of what’s happening right now in Portland, where does it start?
- zolan kanno-youngs
So I think we have to go back to late May. In late May, as we know, there were protests sweeping throughout the country. Mass demonstrations. A majority of those protests involved people who were demonstrating peacefully. But you did also have instances of people damaging property, looting, as well as acts of violence. And in Oakland, you had a situation where an officer with the Federal Protective Service, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security, who was guarding a federal courthouse, was actually shot and killed. I should say that the person who shot and killed him was actually affiliated with a fringe anti-government movement and wasn’t affiliated with the protests. But that killing did prompt —
- archived recording
Good afternoon —
- zolan kanno-youngs
— a rare press conference.
- archived recording
The Department of Homeland Security’s highest priority is to ensure the safety and security of the American people and the Department’s workforce.
- zolan kanno-youngs
From the top senior officials from the Department of Homeland Security.
- archived recording
Any loss in the D.H.S. family impacts all of us, and I want the loved ones of these brave officers to know that you have the support of the department behind you.
- zolan kanno-youngs
They go out there, and of course, they honor the memory of this officer, but they also have a message.
- archived recording (kenneth t. cuccinelli ii)
There are currently threats by some to attack police stations and federal buildings. That violence not only won’t be tolerated, we are also committed to ensuring that it won’t succeed anywhere. Anywhere. And let me be clear —
- zolan kanno-youngs
They make it clear that they are going to take action against anybody that makes a threat or has any sort of action against federal property. The acting deputy secretary Kenneth Cuccinelli even says —
- archived recording (kenneth t. cuccinelli ii)
That is an act of domestic terrorism.
- zolan kanno-youngs
— that would be an act of domestic terrorism.
- archived recording (kenneth t. cuccinelli ii)
Thank you very much.
- michael barbaro
And Zolan, why is that phrase significant, domestic terrorism?
- zolan kanno-youngs
The reason why this is significant is you have to remember how this department was created in the wake of the September 11th attacks. This department was formed in the Bush administration to have a coordinated effort in the federal government to defend the United States against national security threats — directly at that time, foreign terrorism threats. This was a department that was going to protect the borders of the United States. And this signaled that the top officials in that department were turning their attention inward, domestically, to these protests that are sweeping major cities.
- michael barbaro
So what happens after this news conference, which, from what you’re describing, feels like more of a statement than a set of actions?
- zolan kanno-youngs
Right. I think at that point, it’s a message. The message is we’re not going to tolerate this, right? It’s clear. But then things start to move pretty fast.
Within two days on June 1, we start to see that the department is going to back up this rhetoric with the concrete action of federal resources. I remember early in the day, you know, I got a message from a source who sent me an alert that all Homeland Security investigation special agents around the Washington, D.C. area got, and it said, you have to be on standby for any potential unrest later today around the area of Lafayette Park.
- [music]
So that day, you know, later on, that’s where you saw the images of Secret Service, D.E.A., National Guard, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well. And of course, it was many of those same federal officials and agents who were stationed outside of Lafayette Park and would clear out protesters to make room for the president’s photo op.
- michael barbaro
So we’re now seeing the message delivered at that news conference put into action on the streets of Washington.
- zolan kanno-youngs
That’s right. And I mean, if you listen to the senior officials with the Department of Homeland Security, as well as other officials in the Trump administration, they would say, look, this federal presence was needed in Washington. Our agents in front of the White House were being threatened. And they would also say, well, look, after about a week, the unrest calmed down.
- michael barbaro
So from their perspective, as controversial as some of these actions were, and as intimidating and unusual as it felt on the ground, this was working.
- zolan kanno-youngs
That’s right. That’s right. It worked. Their deployment worked if you were to ask them.
- michael barbaro
So what happens next?
- zolan kanno-youngs
OK, so over the next few weeks, what really happened is we saw a shift.
- archived recording
A tense standoff with police as protesters tried to tear down a statue of former president Andrew Jackson.
- zolan kanno-youngs
Now we’re starting to see protesters and demonstrators honing in and focusing on statues and memorials.
- archived recording
We’re addressing white supremacy finally, and it’s just something that we grew up with. And it’s just been so normalized that the people on our money would have owned me.
- zolan kanno-youngs
Targeting those statues and memorials, sometimes pulling them down, sometimes defacing them. And you also saw a pretty prompt reaction by the federal government.
- archived recording (donald trump)
They’re bad people. They don’t love our country, and they’re not taking down our monuments.
- zolan kanno-youngs
So in late June —
- archived recording (donald trump)
I will have an executive order very shortly.
- zolan kanno-youngs
— the president then signs an executive order. The gist of it pretty much says that the attorney general as well as the acting Secretary of Homeland Security should direct their resources to defend statues and monuments and federal property. Just a couple days later, the Department of Homeland Security then formed a task force, what’s known as these rapid deployment teams. Those teams involve 2,000 officers and agents that are on standby — from air marshals with the T.S.A., to tactical agents with Customs and Border Protection, to special agents with I.C.E., ready on standby to be deployed throughout the U.S.
- michael barbaro
And how unusual is this kind of rapid deployment that you’re describing?
- zolan kanno-youngs
Well I mean, actually, the department, when it was formed — and many former officials with the department would say this as well — that flexibility to be able to move different officials around is an advantage, right? It was actually an intention as well to be able to have these different agencies support one another. But it’s the mission here, deploying them for monuments and statues, you know, the appearance of these teams in front of the National Mall and Gettysburg. That’s where many observers, as well as some of the architects of the department, raised an eyebrow at this.
- michael barbaro
Why?
- zolan kanno-youngs
This country is grappling with a couple different national emergencies right now. The Department of Homeland Security also has a huge stake in the response to the pandemic. We have an election coming up as well. The department is the agency tasked with cyber security. So it was a question over priorities.
But for the department, it really comes down to this. Are any of these people in these crowds committing the federal crime of defacing federal property? The acting secretary has said that he sees it as his job to deploy if there is any mere violation of that federal law, whether it be graffiti on a property or some of the more violent acts that we’ve seen in these demonstrations.
And it’s that rationale that the department used that weekend, the weekend of July 4, to start deploying these teams to different cities, but primarily to Portland.
- [music]
- michael barbaro
We’ll be right back.
Mike Baker, I just spoke with our colleague Zolan, who explained how this has all unfolded in Washington over the past few weeks. But you are actually on the ground in Portland. So help us understand what it has looked like there during that same period.
- mike baker
You know, it began with a similar sort of scene that we saw around the country.
- archived recording
We matter! We all matter! Black lives matter! [CHEERING]
- mike baker
The mass peaceful demonstrations.
- archived recording
[CHANTING] George Floyd! Say his name! George Floyd! Say his name!
- mike baker
Thousands of people on the streets. There are really powerful images here in Portland of crowds covering the entire Burnside Bridge over the Willamette River, you know, in honor of George Floyd. And at the same time, you got what we saw and a lot of cities.
- archived recording
Windows shattered, graffiti everywhere.
- mike baker
Smashing windows of businesses.
- archived recording 1
Well, there’s a variety store, the Nike community store, Starbucks got hit.
- archived recording 2
You’re looking at some pictures that show the fires that were set.
- mike baker
The first night of protests they broke into the Justice Center and lit fires. But what’s really been different here is the persistence of it. We’re now more than 50 consecutive days into the protests happening every night.
- michael barbaro
Wow, 50 days nonstop.
- mike baker
Nonstop, every night.
- michael barbaro
And what have these nightly confrontations in Portland looked like?
- mike baker
You know, it’s all over the place. You know, in some of these confrontations, many of which you can see in videos online, you can see these standoffs between protesters and police, where some protesters will throw water bottles or fireworks.
- archived recording
[SOUNDS OF SHATTERING AND CLAMORING]
- mike baker
Videos of them breaking windows of buildings downtown or setting up barricades in the streets.
Police claim they’ve had bricks thrown at them, rocks thrown at them.
There’ve been videos surfacing online of people shooting guns in the air. One group set a fire in the headquarters of the police union, the local police union. And throughout much of this time, they made it really their nightly routine to gather downtown right next to the federal courthouse.
- archived recording
This is the Portland Police Bureau. This is a civil disturbance, and we have declared an unlawful assembly. Leave the area now, or you’ll be subject to use of force to include crowd control munitions. Leave now.
- mike baker
Police kept coming out, arresting a number of people and responding with so much tear gas that some of these protesters went to court, sued and won a judge’s order limiting how much this gas could get used.
- archived recording
— never seen or covered anything like this. The damage and just the impact of the statement being made is unprecedented. It’s crazy to see.
- mike baker
Just been a persistent issue that they haven’t really been able to resolve.
- michael barbaro
And who are the people who are involved in these nightly encounters, as best you can tell?
- mike baker
It’s a group with a wide range of backgrounds, ideologies, strategies, tactics that they’ve brought. You know, Portland has a history of anarchist groups. And you can see some of the anarchist symbols on the streets. You see a lot of people wearing all black clothing, which is pretty common for those who are part of the Antifa group. And then you have people who are part of the Black Lives Matter movement chanting the name of George Floyd and just — so you really have this huge mix.
- michael barbaro
Mike, in your time in Portland, I imagine you’re talking to people in the city about this ongoing problem. What are people you’ve talked to in Portland saying about the situation?
- mike baker
Yeah, you’ve got, I mean, it seems like a pretty broad consensus of people who sympathize with the overall message of the protesters — the need for police reform and the need for resolving racial injustices. At the same time, those same people are, you know, frustrated by what seems like a line of protest that won’t seem to end. Business people I talked to, who, you know, have had their windows boarded up and then shortened their hours for safety reasons. And one of them I talked to is considering, like, maybe it’s time to just get out of here because there doesn’t seem to be a resolution ahead.
- archived recording
We are physically and emotionally in pain. I have officers that are injured —
- mike baker
From police, you hear them saying essentially that they’re out of ideas.
- archived recording
We love our community. We want to serve our community and facilitate free speech.
- mike baker
Saying that they’re exhausted and in pain, and they’re trying to show that they’re part of the community, too. That they aren’t some sort of outside force that’s here.
- archived recording
We’re at a loss for other solutions right now, and I’m open to any community member who’s got ideas for other solutions. We all are.
- michael barbaro
So I have this sense at this point — correct me if I’m wrong — that the police don’t quite know how to resolve these nightly encounters. And these nightly encounters are still happening. And so, is there some sense of resignation that this is just kind of how it is going to be for a while?
- mike baker
Yeah, I mean, there is certainly no deadline that was going to be coming up. There’s a hope that things were on a better track, that the numbers that were coming out each night were starting to shrink a little bit, and that they might be on a pathway to finishing this. And that’s when a deployment of federal officers arrived in town.
- michael barbaro
So what happens when those federal officials start showing up and at the direction of the Department of Homeland Security?
- mike baker
Well, I mean, right away, you can see that they’re standing out. I mean, they’ve shown up here in camouflage fatigues and tactical gear. So just just visually it’s pretty clear that there’s an outside force that has now arrived. And they’ve come with a pretty aggressive posture.
- michael barbaro
And what are these aggressive tactics from the federal forces there looking like?
- archived recording
[BOOM SOUNDS]
- mike baker
Well, some of it, you know, in the streets, you can see a return to a large amount of tear gas, because these federal officers were not under the same mandates as local police.
But then there were also tactics you could see coming out in different videos.
In the first one, you have this protester standing across the street from the federal courthouse. He’s got a boombox over his head, and he’s just cursing at the officers across the street.
- archived recording
[EXPLETIVE] you!
- mike baker
All of a sudden, you see him drop to the ground.
He’s apparently been shot with some sort of less lethal munition and really just created a bloody scene right there on the street.
Blood all over the sidewalk, and his family says he had to go to the hospital for more than a week. In these other videos, you have these protesters —
- archived recording 1
What are you doing?
- archived recording 2
I haven’t done anything wrong.
- archived recording 3
What is going on? Who are you?
- mike baker
— on the streets of Portland, and federal officers again in camouflage and tactical gear approaching them, grabbing them, and then pulling them back to unmarked vans —
- archived recording (interposing voices)
Don’t hurt him. No, don’t hurt him. He’s hurt!
- mike baker
— filled with officers in tactical gear.
- archived recording 1
This is an unmarked car. Who is this? Who are you? Where are you taking her?
- archived recording 2
You follow us, you will get shot. You understand me?
- archived recording 3
What is happening?
- michael barbaro
And what is the response to these videos?
- mike baker
I mean, you’ve got outrage from not just the protesters, but from the same city officials that have been the target of the protesters all along.
- archived recording
The tactics that the Trump administration are using on the streets of Portland are abhorrent. People are being literally scooped off the street into unmarked vans, rental cars, apparently.
- mike baker
The mayor has been villain number one for a lot of these protesters, as someone who has failed to reform the police department in the ways they want. And yet here you have him —
- archived recording (ted wheeler)
It’s not helping the situation at all. They’re not wanted here. We haven’t asked them here. In fact, we want them to leave.
- mike baker
— ask the federal officers to leave his city. He doesn’t want them here. He doesn’t want them on the streets.
- archived recording (ted wheeler)
And what they’re doing is they are sharply escalating the situation. Their presence here is actually leading to more violence and more vandalism.
- archived recording
[SOUNDS OF CRASHING AND CLAMORING]
- mike baker
And you have the cycle here of tear gas, things being thrown back and forth.
Standoffs where protesters are holding umbrellas and shields made out of pool noodles and plywood. And the officers standing on the other side in their full tactical gear and helmets and gas masks. And a scene of two sides and not much a pathway to a resolution in the space between.
- michael barbaro
So as of now, it feels like the very thing the federal government is in Portland to try to tamp down is actually escalating in response.
- mike baker
I mean, it’s been a significant escalation.
I mean, now we’re seeing thousands of people out there. You have people out there coming out for the first time.
- mike baker
So what was the — what was your motivation for coming out?
- protestor
I have five grandkids and three daughters, and I don’t want to be at the end of my life and say that I didn’t do anything to make them have a better future.
- mike baker
I caught up with this grandmother from Eugene, Oregon, who was there and had come up to Portland for the first time and told her family that she planned to stay on the outskirts to be safe. And then while she was there, she was motivated to keep moving up. And I caught up with her again, and she was right at the front of the federal courthouse.
She’s a little uneasy watching this unfold.
- protestor
I do feel a little bit unsafe. I don’t know what’s going to happen.
- mike baker
Doesn’t necessarily agree with the tactics she’s watching, but she’s staying there. She feels the need that this is a moment to stand up, to do something and she needs to be there.
- michael barbaro
Zolan, Mike Baker said that the federal presence in Portland has basically made things worse, not better. And it has really created a kind of violent feedback loop between the protesters and these federal officers. And I wonder what you think about that.
- zolan kanno-youngs
Well, I mean, whether you listen to the demonstrators, the local officials there, or the senior officials with the Department of Homeland Security, it’s clear everyone agrees that the federal presence thus far has not succeeded in terms of bringing an end to the violence that we’re seeing, the unrest that we’re seeing at this time. So by that measure, the goal has not been accomplished. But there is also a question here. For the Trump administration, is that solely their measure of success? Is this solely about bringing an end to this unrest? You know, optics do matter, and the optics of having agents in camouflage gear and tactical teams in a city led by Democrats, that does send a message.
- archived recording
The radical left-wing mob’s agenda, take over our cities —
- zolan kanno-youngs
And just a couple days ago, the president’s re-election campaign actually issued a campaign ad.
- archived recording
And Joe Biden stands with them.
- zolan kanno-youngs
With images that look a lot like that area around the federal courthouse in Portland, displaying images of unrest and individual acts of violence.
- archived recording
Violent crime exploding, innocent children fatally shot. Who will be there to answer the call when your children aren’t safe?
- zolan kanno-youngs
And at the very end of that ad, they actually lay it out in pretty direct terms — text that reads, “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
- archived recording (donald trump)
I’m Donald J. Trump, and I approve this message.
- zolan kanno-youngs
You’re actually seeing the White House kind of double down here.
- archived recording (donald trump)
I can tell you in Portland, they’ve done a fantastic job. They’ve been —
- zolan kanno-youngs
And say, well, look, they’re doing a great job in Portland. In fact —
- archived recording (donald trump)
We’re not going to let New York and Chicago and Philadelphia, Detroit, and Baltimore and all of these — Oakland is a mess. We’re not going to let this happen in our country. All run by liberal Democrats.
- zolan kanno-youngs
Some of these other cities led by Democrats could use the same kind of deployment.
- archived recording (donald trump)
This is worse than Afghanistan by far. This is worse than anything anyone’s ever seen, all run by the same liberal Democrats. And you know what, if Biden got in, that would be true for the country. The whole country would go to hell. And we’re not going to let it go to hell.
- [music]
- michael barbaro
So Zolan, where does this leave us at this point?
- zolan kanno-youngs
So it leaves us in this precarious position. We know that on the ground in Portland, the presence of federal agents and those officers has increased tension. But to the president, he’d like to see a similar presence in other cities.
- michael barbaro
Zolan, thank you very much.
- zolan kanno-youngs
Thanks for having me here. [MUSIC PLAYING]
- michael barbaro
On Wednesday, President Trump announced that he would immediately dispatch federal law enforcement officers to Chicago.
- archived recording (donald trump)
The F.B.I., A.T.F., D.E.A., U.S. Marshal Service and Homeland Security will together be sending hundreds of skilled law enforcement officers to Chicago to help drive down violent crime.
- michael barbaro
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she would not tolerate the kind of federal deployment that has played out in Portland.
- archived recording (lori lightfoot)
What we saw the president and the attorney general do in Portland is a travesty, and we are not having it in Chicago.
- michael barbaro
We’ll be right back.
Here’s what else you need to know today.
- archived recording (mike dewine)
It’s essential that we wear masks statewide in Ohio to contain the spread of this virus. So therefore, tomorrow at 6 o’clock, tomorrow night, our mask order for people who are out in public will be extended throughout the state of Ohio.
- michael barbaro
As the daily death toll from the coronavirus again surpasses 1,000 Americans a day, governors in three more states issued orders requiring masks: Ohio, Indiana and Minnesota.
- archived recording
The wearing of the mask, plus the social distancing makes a huge, huge difference.
- michael barbaro
The orders came a day after President Trump, who has long resisted wearing masks, and at times even disparaged them, made his most forceful call yet for wearing them. And —
- archived recording (joe biden)
No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this, no Democratic president. We’ve have racists, and they’ve existed, and they’ve tried to get elected president. He’s the first one that has.
- michael barbaro
During a campaign event on Wednesday, the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, called President Trump the first racist to be elected president.
- archived recording (joe biden)
The way he deals with people based on the color of their skin, their national origin, where they’re from is absolutely sickening.
- michael barbaro
In response, historians noted that previous presidents owned enslaved people and were openly racist. And during a news conference, Trump rejected Biden’s characterization.
- archived recording
Would you like to respond to Joe Biden who today described you — you might have heard that — as the first racist to be elected president? Those are his — that was his words.
- archived recording (donald trump)
I’ve done things that nobody else — and I’ve said this, and I say it openly, and not a lot of people dispute it. I’ve done more for Black Americans than anybody with the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln. Nobody has even been close.
- [music]
- michael barbaro
That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you tomorrow.