President Trump took a dig at Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) on Thursday evening, mocking him for getting tear-gassed at protests in Oregon the previous night.
Wheeler, who has opposed the deployment of federal agents to protect federal property in Portland, spoke to demonstrators on Wednesday evening, saying “Black lives matter” and thanking the thousands who “have come out to oppose the Trump administration’s occupation of this city.”
Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that Wheeler looked “pretty pathetic” for attending a rally.
“He made a fool out of himself,” Trump said. “He wanted to be among the people, so he went into the crowd. And so they knocked the hell out of him, so that was the end of him.”
Video shared on social media showed Wheeler coughing and retrieving goggles as a haze of gas overwhelmed a crowd that was protesting behind a fence located in front of the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse.
When asked by The New York Times about being tear-gassed, Wheeler said, “I’m not going to lie — it stings; it’s hard to breathe.”
Wheeler’s participation in the demonstration was met with hostility among some protesters who chanted “Tear Gas Teddy,” while others chided him for not making a pledge to defund the city’s police force.
Black Lives Matter protests have dominated the downtown area of Portland since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25. The protests have escalated at times, resulting in damage to federal buildings.
That prompted acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to send government agents to the city to protect federal buildings. However, the presence of the federal officers has only led to heightened tensions, and the conduct of the agents has prompted backlash, including from some Republicans.