Geraldo Rivera: ‘Portland, You Want the Feds Out? Step Up to the Plate’

Geraldo Rivera

(Getty Images/Roy Rochlin)

The federal government clearly has the right to protect federal property in places like Portland, Oregon – especially if the state and local authorities won’t, political commentator and Investigative Journalist Geraldo Rivera said Tuesday.

“If citizens of Portland Oregon want @realDonaldTrump to pull the Feds out, the local cops and officials should declare their readiness to protect federal property-like the courthouse-which they have been unable or unwilling to do,” Rivera tweeted, introducing a video highlighting the topics of his Tuesday radio program.

If Portland doesn’t want a federal law enforcement presence protecting federally-owned property there, then the city needs to “step up to the plate” and provide that protection, Rivera says in the video:

“Regarding a federal presence in Portland, Oregon and similar places or threats to bring feds to other places: well, the police powers are reserved to the states under the Constitution of the United States.

“That very same Constitution clearly allows the federal government to protect federally-owned property, shared U.S.-owned monuments – any federal property can be protected by the federal government if local cops refuse to do it, then the feds definitely have the right to do it.

“So, Portland, you want the feds out? Step up to the plate.”

In the video, Rivera also discusses his views on coronavirus safety measures and the pending expiration of emergency federal jobless payments.