 So towards the beginning of the Black Lives Matter protests, I'm sure that you all remember when Donald Trump invoked the insurrection act when he threatened to use the military to violently crush Black Lives Matter protests. Now that's something that is deeply unconstitutional and it's unprecedented because to subvert what the governors want to say, regardless if you like it or not, I'm going to send in the military, that is not something that we want to become a normal thing in the United States. It's not a precedent that you want to set. But nobody necessarily knew whether or not he was serious, whether or not he was just bluffing either way. It's still an escalation. It's the president of the United States threatening violence against his own people. Now regardless if you think that he was explicitly threatening violence or not, it was an implicit threat of violence, right? You don't bring in the military unless you are actually going to resort to violence. So it was disturbing and it's something that really shows how fascistic and authoritarian he is. But you know, a month or so passed and it seemed as if that threat was just, it was hollow. Except he wasn't bluffing. In a way he followed through on that very threat. He may not have used the military, but Donald Trump has in fact deployed federal agents now to at least two states and the District of Columbia. One of those states happens to be my own state, Portland, Oregon. So as test risky of Willamette Week reports, for days reporters and protesters have observed federal agents at Portland's nightly protests, but it remained unclear who had ordered them to Portland. A July 9th report by the Associated Press asserts that one of the federal agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, was deployed to Portland following President Donald Trump's June 26th executive order to protect monuments. Once we surged federal law enforcement officers to Portland, the agitators quickly got the message a DHS senior official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the AP. The report says Homeland Security officers were deployed to Seattle, Portland and Washington DC following Trump's executive order. Since at least July 2nd, federal agents have been present at Portland protests. Those agencies include DHS, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Federal Protective Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Federal agents have made at least 10 arrests at Portland protests, many over the July 4th weekend. During a press conference Wednesday, Portland Police Bureau Deputy Chief Chris Davis said the city has little control over federal agency's tactics when covering protests and that PPB does not coordinate with federal agents. The Department of Homeland Security typically focuses on foreign terrorist threats and securing the nation's borders, but it has identified property damage in Portland as a national security threat for at least three years. In 2017, Willamette Week obtained a memo DHS sent to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, which confirmed the feds were classifying property damage by left-wing protesters as domestic terrorism. Donald Trump is deploying federal agents, one, without the consent of the governor, and two, the reason why he's deploying these federal agents is because these protesters are being treated as domestic terrorists, quite literally. Because if you are vandalizing statues, well, that is in some way a threat to U.S. national security, so we're going to send in federal agents. And can you guess what's been happening? They're doing violence against peaceful protesters. In fact, one federal agent just the other day shot a protester in the head with a tear gas canister and he was obviously severely wounded. And it's so bad that I can't even play the video because there's so much blood, but if you want to see the video, it's on YouTube. It may be removed. You could probably find it elsewhere on Twitter or whatnot, but it's violent, right? So now they are there and they are acting as an occupying force in Portland. Now, once the cat was out of the bag, he had some really disgusting comments in response. His justification, I don't know how else to put it, it was deeply fascistic. Test risky continues during a Monday morning press conference. Trump justified the deployment of federal agents to Portland who have patrolled protests since at least July 2nd and claimed they had successfully tamped down chaos in the city. Quote, we've done a great job in Portland, Trump said. Portland was totally out of control and they went in. And I guess we have many people right now in jail. We very much quelled it. And if it starts again, we'll quell it again very easily. It's not hard to do if you know what you're doing. Trump's claim that federal officers have mitigated violence at Portland protests falls in the wake of a federal agent for the U.S. Marshal Service shooting a protester at close range in the face with a projectile. The protester suffered serious injuries and underwent facial reconstructive surgery. During his speech, Trump condemned rising gun violence in liberal cities, which he said was a result of defunding police departments. He vowed to quote, take over if such violence continues to rise. So that last sentence there should send chills on the back of your neck. He's going to take over if violence continues. He's talking about how, you know, oh, we, uh, we quelled the protests and just flippantly talking about how easy it was to quell these protests using federal agents. This is basically the federal government using an occupying force treating United States citizens as if they're domestic terrorists. Never mind the fact that Donald Trump doesn't treat, you know, gun violence in terms of like these, these types of mass shooting events. He doesn't treat them as domestic terrorists. He doesn't treat right wing groups like sovereign citizens as domestic terrorists. But if you, uh, vandalize the statue, then Donald Trump thinks that you're a domestic terrorist. Now, once word got out that Trump had federal goons occupying Portland while officials spoke out, including Governor Kate Brown, who denounced the presence of federal officers in Portland, calling them an occupying force. Senator Ron Wyden condemned it via Twitter saying the consequences of Donald Trump unilaterally dispatching federal law enforcement into U.S. cities played out in Portland with a peaceful protester shot in the head. Trump and Homeland Security must now answer why federal officers are acting like an occupying army. Now on top of that, in an interview with CNN, Senator Jeff Merkley also spoke out and denounced this, and he referred to them correctly so as an occupying army as well. Senator, something tragic happened over the weekend in Portland. Many people have seen the video on on social media of a protester outside of the federal courthouse, their 26 year old man being shot with something. It's been reported as impact munition shot in the head, his mother saying that he had a skull fracture and facial, facial fractures as well. You tweeted about this, I know you have a number of questions about what happened. Do you know who fired the round and what led to this? Well, the video shows a peaceful protester holding up a sign, a tear gas canister, some kind of canister landed his feet. He kicked it or moved it back away from him several feet and then seconds later he shot in the head. And it's just a horrific example of what should should not happen. We do not know the rules of engagement for these federal forces. We do not know how many there are or what groups they've come from. We don't know if they're properly identified. We don't know if they're coordinating closely with the with the mayor. It is just a real concern that this feels like an occupying force with no transparency. And this type of assault shooting a protester in the head who's holding up a sign absolutely makes the situation so much more tense and worse. So rather than helping, it's inflaming the situation. So we do not trust that these federal forces are trained, have protocols, are working in cooperation, are helping in any way. We don't have answers. Senator, I know that the U.S. Marshall Service put out a statement that they are investigating it. So I hope there are some answers for everyone and for his family and him soon. When I found out that it was confirmed that Trump did in fact deploy federal agents to my city, it was honestly it was shocking, right? It's like we're living in the twilight zone because Donald Trump, as much as he wants to be a fascistic dictator, we do have institutions in this country that have been around forever that do protect us from this. But if our government didn't have these types of long lasting strong institutions, these types of checks and balances, what little remain? I mean, I can't imagine what this country would look like. Trump would literally just be a dictator. So the fact that he's doing this and there's not that much outrage, it's honestly shocking. So I mean, he's not unilaterally deploying the military, but whatever federal agencies he can, he is directing them into certain states. Now, how he's choosing these states, I don't necessarily know. You know, you can kind of rationalize Seattle because conservatives were making a really big deal out of CHAS slash CHOP, that semi-autonomous region or whatever. But I mean, Portland, like many other cities, they've had protests here go on for six weeks. So I don't know how he's selecting which cities he's choosing here. But the fact that he is suggesting that if you vandalize a statue, you're basically a domestic terrorist and you pose a threat to, you know, national security, it is insane. And where are all the conservatives, the libertarians who cry about states' rights? I mean, he is literally violating states' rights. Shouldn't Kate Brown, the governor of Oregon, be the one to decide whether or not to call the federal government in because she's had these protests under control? They've largely been peaceful until police officers are the ones that escalate, right? But now we have federal authorities in our own states and cities at the behest of Donald Trump brutalizing peaceful protesters, shooting a protester, holding up a sign at point blank. Unacceptable. So this is an escalation. Donald Trump has declared war on his own people, on the United States citizens. That's what he's doing, right? He cares more about statues than he cares about the safety of these peaceful protesters. He cares more about vandalism than about the 135,000 Americans dead because of COVID-19. It's just this is a nightmare situation. And I don't know what to say about this. I mean, seeing this, it's just the United States has become unrecognizable. And it's not like we haven't always had problems, but we're basically allowing fascism out in the open by accepting this, by not sounding the alarm about what he's doing. And it's really unacceptable. And if we allow this to happen, can you imagine what he's going to do if he gets another four years? If he realizes that he can deploy federal agents to states and nobody really makes a people about it? Like, can you imagine what he's going to do? It's troubling. So he's got to go. And this should scare everyone. I mean, I don't know what else to say about that. This is absolutely disturbing.