Portland ‘finally stepped up’ as riots die down, says DHS head

Riots in Portland died down Thursday night with the acting head of the Department of Homeland Security praising local law enforcement for finally “stepping up.”

Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, however, blamed Oregon officials for allowing the violent protests to continue for more than 60 straight days.

“What we saw overnight is almost little to no criminal activity. That really is how it should be,” Wolf said Friday on “Fox & Friends.”

“It reinforces with the principle if you work with federal state and local law enforcement, work together, we can protect our communities, we can secure our communities, we can secure federal properties and protect federal law enforcement officers.

“This is what we’ve been asking for for 60 days. I’m glad Oregon and Portland have finally stepped up to the challenge.”

The apparent end of protests in Portland came after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and the DHS reached a deal to begin withdrawing some 100 federal agents who were deployed to the city in early July.

Oregon officials have accused the feds of inciting the violence that’s marred the protests, including nightly clashes between protesters and the agents.

“Ufortunately, within those 60 days we’ve had over 240 DHS law enforcement officers injured because of the criminal and violent activity every night,” Wolf said.

Oregon state police cleared out two parks in front of the federal Mark O. Hatfield courthouse — the subject of nightly attacks and vandalism — without incident on Thursday morning.

“I’m glad they’re here; I’m glad they’re partnering with us,” he said. “We can hopefully bring this to a very peaceful conclusion very quickly.”