U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) suggested this week that U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-10) visit Portland after he denied any social unrest had broken out there.
Blackburn tweeted this Monday.
Retweet if you think Jerry Nadler should visit our police officers in Portland. #BacktheBlue pic.twitter.com/OF6RjmuwKd
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) July 28, 2020
“Retweet if you think Jerry Nadler should visit our police officers in Portland. #BacktheBlue,” Blackburn wrote.
A video of Nadler denying people were acting aggressive in Portland accompanied Blackburn’s tweet. The video transitioned back and forth between several clips of people rampaging throughout Portland and Nadler saying the idea of any violence there is “a myth that’s being spread only in Washington, D.C.”
The unidentified person who confronted Nadler told him that “there’s video everywhere online.”
“There’s fires and riots. People throwing fireworks at federal officers,” the man told the congressman as he fled the interview.
“DHS is there. Just look online.”
No one in Nadler’s office responded to The Tennessee Star’s request for comment Tuesday.
Nadler, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday accused Attorney General William Barr of bringing “the full force of the federal government brought to bear against citizens demonstrating for the advancement of their own civil rights.”
Nadler, referring to federal efforts to quell the violence in Portland, told this to Barr’s face at a committee meeting.
“There is no precedent for the Department of Justice actively seeking out conflict with American citizens, under such flimsy pretext, or for such petty purposes,” Nadler said.
The federal government, Nadler went on to say, was turning “violently on its own people.”
“First, under your leadership, the Department has endangered Americans and violated their constitutional rights by flooding federal law enforcement into the streets of American cities, against the wishes of the state and local leaders of those cities, to forcefully and unconstitutionally suppress dissent,” Nadler said.
“Second, at your direction, Department officials have downplayed the effects of systemic racism and abandoned the victims of police brutality; refused to hold abusive police departments accountable for their actions; and expressed open hostility to the Black Lives Matter movement.”
Nadler, on Friday, said U.S. President Donald Trump’s choice to send federal law enforcement officers “to brutally attack protestors is as reprehensible as it is anti-democratic.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
…and Marsha, all we want is for you to get something done instead of being McConnell’s lapdog.