Nancy Pelosi says Trump deployed 'stormtroopers' to quell Portland protesters, slammed for 'despicable' analogy
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday, July 17, lashed out at the Donald Trump administration accusing it of deploying “stormtroopers” in Portland recently to tame civil protesters and restore normalcy. Relations between Oregon state authorities and those at the federal level have soured over the deployment of unidentified forces that have arrived in unmarked vehiclesto counter the protesters.
President Trump deployed the federal officials who attacked the demonstrators with tear gas and other less-lethal means. Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf called the protesters, who have been demonstrating since the brutal death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25, a “violent mob”. He also said the city of Portland has been under siege for 47 consecutive days. Last week saw a violent escalation between the protesters and federal agents and a number of top leaders of the blue state, including Governor Kate Brown, have objected to the move. Statues of late presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were also toppled in Portland in June.
The president himself applauded the federal agents’ work this week, calling it “great”. At a press conference on Monday, July 13, he 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.” While the Trump administration’s act of deploying the federal agents to deal with the protesters in Portland with a strong hand earned a backlash from several quarters, Pelosi’s comparing the federal forces with the Nazi stormtroopers has not gone down well with many either.
In a tweet, the 80-year-old California Congresswoman, who is a vehement critic of President Trump, said: “Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti. These are not the actions of a democratic republic. @DHSgov’s actions in Portland undermine its mission. Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.”
The second part of her tweet said: “First Amendment speech should never be met with one-sided violence from federal agents acting as Trump’s secret police, especially when unidentified. This is disgraceful behavior we would expect from a banana republic — not the government of the United States.”
The Nazi stormtroopers or Brownshirts (German ‘Sturmtruppen’ or ‘Braunhemden’) formed a paramilitary unit who followed violent intimidation ploys to help Adolf Hitler rise to power.
Pelosi's Nazi stormtrooper analogy boomerangs
Bob Maness, a retired colonel in the United States Air Force turned politician, slammed Pelosi on the social media platform. He even called the veteran politician, the third most powerful in the administration, “despicable” for her analogy and said she owed an apology to all Americans. Media analyst and author Mark Dice took a dig at the powerful Democrat saying she just declared a “War on America” with her statement.
Conservative activist and political commentator Mindy Robinson tweeted targeting Pelosi: “Oh that’s right, vigilantism is only “OK” when your side does it.”
San Francisco Republican Party chairman John Dennis, who is also known to be a Pelosi critic, tagged her to tweet: “.@SpeakerPelosi is openly siding with an organized gang of Marxist thugs. She’s protecting them. She’s with THEM.”
Intel analyst Jack Posobiec criticized Pelosi tweeting: “Nancy Pelosi just compared American police officers to Nazi stormtroopers. Absolutely disgusting rhetoric. She owes the thin blue line an apology immediately.”
