It was sent as tensions continue to flare in Portland, Oregon, where federal forces have been clashing with protesters. President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters in the White House on Monday, defended the use of agents there and said he would send more law enforcement to other cities to combat violence.
“The President and his administration continually attack local leadership and amplify false and divisive rhetoric purely for campaign fodder.”
At Tuesday's coronavirus briefing, Kenney said it's all a distraction.
“If the Trump administration wanted to help cities, they would have gotten off their rear ends back in March and April and helped us with PPE and with testing and with contact tracing,” he said. “This is a game (the president) is playing to divert attention away from the many crises that are facing this nation, and we’ll oppose it with everything we have.”
Kenney and the others say the use of federal forces in Portland has actually made things worse and led to more violence, with protesters getting seriously hurt and being arrested by agents who can’t be identified.
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The Trump administration maintains they’re protecting police and federal property.
One prominent Pennsylvania Republican has been critical of Trump's deployment. Former Gov. Tom Ridge, the nation’s first homeland security secretary, said to Michael Smerconish in an interview on SiriusXM that the department was created to protect the country from global terrorism. "It was not established to be the president’s personal militia."
He said if he were governor now, he would want to work with the federal government to reduce crime, but "It would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities."