As Red State‘s Sarah Lee wrote yesterday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on the feds Sunday to “investigate & bring legal action against” Portland, OR Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) in the aftermath of this past weekend’s violent attack on independent journalist Andy Ngo.
Cruz alleges that “for political reasons, [Wheeler] ordered his police officers to let citizens be attacked by domestic terrorists” and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Seemingly oblivious to Cruz’s call for legal action against him, Wheeler logged on to the Twitter machine Monday afternoon to give himself credit for seemingly being on top of the situation, and pledging that “those who have committed violence” will be “held accountable.”
Later, once Wheeler got wind of Cruz’s demand for an investigation, the embattled Mayor attempted to one-up the Texas Senator by asserting that he did not order any officers to stand down:
Dear @TedCruz,
At least get your facts straight. I ordered no such thing.
Could you divert some of those investigation dollars to something that would actually benefit American cities? Infrastructure, affordable housing, mental health services come to mind. https://t.co/btI14p8fkJ
— Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) July 2, 2019
As of this writing, Wheeler’s tweet has been severely ratioed, but that ratio is nothing compared to the blistering response he received from Sen. Cruz:
Ok, Mr. Mayor. You want talk “facts.” Great. Fact 1: a conservative journalist was violently assaulted by ANTIFA thugs on the streets of your city. Fact 2: you said “I support the Portland Police Bureau’s decision not to intervene.” Fact 3: you have a pattern of withdrawing…1/2 https://t.co/xkQiJ7sPyl
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 2, 2019
2/2…police protection to further your political agenda. When ANTIFA terrorists threatened ICE in Portland, you ORDERED police not to protect federal agents. Here’s a US Senate resolution (which I joined) condemning your partisan civil rights violations: https://t.co/KQAN94Ssn0 https://t.co/lCp7KDjPCs
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 2, 2019
Wheeler can deny he ordered a stand down all he wants, but Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner issued a statement in the aftermath of Saturday’s violence that would seem to back up Cruz’s version of events (bolded emphasis added):