Portland progressive groups have banded together to demand that Portland’s mayor, Ted Wheeler — a frequent foil for President Donald Trump on the issue of riot control — resign over his lack of leadership.
Other Portland progressives staged a massive demonstration outside Wheeler’s Portland condominium for his birthday, dancing in the streets outside Wheeler’s residence and tossing flaming objects at the building.
Portland’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America — one of the most active chapters of the political group in the country — declared their opposition to Wheeler over the weekend, demanding that he cede power to someone more willing and able to exert control over ongoing unrest — unrest that has now stretched into nearly its 100th night.
A deadly shooting, which saw a “right-wing protester” taking part in a counter-demonstration to ongoing “anti-Fascist” protests in the city’s downtown, attacked and killed, inspired the decision to call for Wheeler’s resignation, the group said.
“I don’t think we can see what happened last night in a vacuum or as an isolated incident,” the group told Oregon Live. “People are going to be killed on both sides of this because of the environment Ted Wheeler has been making in the city.”
“[T’he Oregon chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Oregon Justice Resource Center, the Portland Democratic Socialists of America NextUp Action Fund, [and] Portland’s Resistance and Popular Mobilization PDX,” issued their own letter demanding Wheeler resign.
“What took place last night was inevitable given Mayor Wheeler’s repeated failure,” the letter said, per Oregon Live. “He has not protected or supported Portlanders. We do not have confidence in his ability to course-correct. He must resign.”
Wheeler has certainly struggled to control violence in his own city and has been on the receiving end of harsh criticism from now less than President Donald Trump, who tweeted Monday that Wheeler had lost control over his city. Wheeler fired back, echoing national Democrats and blaming the president for “rhetoric” that he says inspired the unrest to begin with.
“It’s you who have created the hate and the division. It’s you who have not found a way to say the names of Black people killed by police officers even as people in law enforcement have. And it’s you who claimed that White supremacists are good people,” Wheeler said. “Your campaign of fear is as anti-democratic as anything you’ve done to create hate and vitriol in our beautiful country.”
“Do you seriously wonder, Mr. President, why this is the first time in decades that America has seen this level of violence?” he added.
Trump fired back, “Portland will never recover with a fool for a mayor…he tried mixing with the agitators and anarchists and they mocked him. He would like to blame me and the federal government for going in, but he hasn’t seen anything yet.”
But while it might seem the president and Portland progressives are on the same side, the progressive groups are actually pressing for a more lenient approach to ongoing protests and want Wheeler replaced by a mayor who will defund Portland’s police department and cede to protesters’ demands, on the theory that such action will put an end to ongoing unrest.
The group appears to be supporting a write-in campaign for community activist Teressa Raiford who “is the founder of nonprofit Don’t Shoot PDX, which has sued the city and federal authorities in recent months over police tactics during demonstrations such as using tear gas on crowds,” according to Oregon Live.