Anger and division in this final stretch to november. They dont even know who george floyd is. Acting secretary chad wolf, senator amy klobuchar, and insight and analysis from our powerhouse round table. Good morning, and welcome to this week. Every four years americans come together to make a choice. We expect hardfought campaigns and we expect politicians telling us this is the most important election of our lifetimes, but with the conventions that just played out, we saw something different. Democrats told us if the other side wins, our democracy is over. Republicans said if the other side wins, america is over. Both suggesting an apocalypse if they dont prevail on november 3rd. In the visuals of this weeks Republican Convention, we saw the world as donald trump wants it to be. His name in fireworks over the washington skyline, the White House South Lawn transformed into a celebration of all things trump, and his supporters shoulder to shoulder as if the pandemic had never happened and isnt still killing about 1,000 americans a day. On the streets outside, protesters offered their own visual reminder of the number unmentioned on the south lawn. More than 180,000 americans killed by covid19. When it was over, some of those protests turned ugly. Trump supporters taunted and threatened on their way out, and last night, more violence in portland. Clashes between protesters and Trump Supporters, one person shot dead. Images republicans are sure to point to as a precursor to life after a biden victory, and at the Lincoln Memorial friday, marchers in the footsteps of dr. King called for action to address a subject barely mentioned at the Republican Convention, persistent racial injustice. After yet another black man was shot by a white police officer, jacob blake, shot in the back seven times. The president went almost a full week without commenting, but now says, quote, i dont like the sight of it. Joining me now, acting Homeland Security secretary chad wolf. Mr. Acting secretary, thank you for joining us. Can you give us an update on what exactly happened as you understand it in portland overnight . What happened with the shooting . Who was killed . Well, were still waiting obviously for that investigation to unfold. I do understand that there were a number of counterprotests and countergroups in portland overnight, and i think this points to a larger issue that we have seen in portland for the last three months, and that is local and state officials not allowing Law Enforcement to do their job and really to bring this violent activity night after night after night to a close. So as you see that continue to unfold over the course of three months, youll continue to see violent activity, and weve asked the governor. Weve asked the mayor to step in. They dont have the resources. The president has been very clear on this as you know. We will be happy to provide resources to bring this violence to an end, violence that, again, across the ideological spectrum, left or right. The violence needs to end. So i saw the president was up and tweeting about this before 6 00 a. M. Its clearly front and center on his mind. Is he planning on doing something . Is there consideration of sending in more Law Enforcement even in the defiance of local leaders . I believe all options continue to be on the table specifically as we talk about portland. What weve seen in wisconsin, minnesota and other places is those governors stepping up, calling in the national guard, the state national guard, and in wisconsin, were sending in the department of justice Law Enforcement officers as well. Talking about portland again, they continue to refuse any type of federal assistance to bring that violent activity going on for almost 90 days now. A little over 90 days now to a close. The citizens of portland want this. We need to bring some normalcy back to portland, and again, if the state and local officials wont do it, they need to ask for federal assistance from the government. Do you have a message for those Trump Supporters we saw parading into portland last night . Weve seen images of Trump Supporters seeming to fire paintballs at protesters, pepper spray. Whats your message to those groups . My message to any individual, to any group, if you are going to protest, First Amendment right, please do that peacefully. Once you cross the line to violence, that is whats concerning to the department of Homeland Security. Thats what im focused on, making sure that we bring any type of violence in these cities to a close. I want to turn to kenosha. The world saw those images of Kyle Rittenhouse holding an ar15 walking down the streets of kenosha after he had just allegedly shot and killed two people, shot and wounded another person. Its really nothing no reaction from police. He went right by police. Nobody attempted to apprehend him or anything, and that of course, was just days after what we saw with jacob blake getting shot in the back seven times as he tried to get into his car. Does that despair you, watching the very different treatment of somebody who is white and somebody who is black by Law Enforcement bother you . Again, the circumstances around that are being investigated. Im not going to get in front of that. What i will say is that if the governor had taken action early on after day one, day two of some of that violent activity occurring there, we probably a lot of this could have been avoided. Unfortunately, he acted a little too late. I believe on the third or fourth night of this violence, he has taken a right to action. He has asked for federal Law Enforcement assistance. My message to all these local officials, mayors, governors and the like, if you see this activity, take early action, bring law and order to your streets and we can address and really avoid some of this violent activity that were seeing. But again, Kyle Rittenhouse is there with an ar15 walking down the streets. He has just allegedly shot three people, and the police dont even give him a second look. Do you understand how people react to that . Especially after what had just happened with jacob blake . Absolutely. Again, im not on the streets there, jon. I cant tell you what was going on that evening, that night with police with this individual. That investigation is unfolding. Im going to let that play out before i comment specifically on it, but again, i think what this shows, what this demonstrates is that local officials or governors need to take action early on to address these issues and weve seen that in a couple of different cities and states, is they see violent protests occurring. You take early action, you can address this, and this is what most reasonable americans want. When they turn on their tvs, they dont want to see this violence night after night after night. They want to see their local officials, elected officials taking action. So the president just a short while ago liked a tweet that said, quote, Kyle Rittenhouse is a good example of why i decided to vote for trump. Is the president suggesting that this 17yearold white man who allegedly shot three people is somehow somebody to be celebrated . Jonathan, i havent talked to the president about that. I have not seen that tweet. Ill let the president and the white house comment on that. What im focused on is that were providing the state and local officials the resources to make good decisions. If they dont have the resources to protect their local communities, they reach out to the department of justice, the federal government will provide them help and support. We saw the president at the convention clearly making law and order the centerpiece of his reelection campaign. I want to play something that he said at his last convention four years ago in his acceptance speech there. The attacks on our police and the terrorism of our cities threaten our very way of life. Beginning on january 20th of 2017, safety will be restored. I mean, first of all its striking how its almost exactly the same message at this convention, but did he fail to keep that promise . He said safety would be restored on january 20th of 2017. Absolutely not. What were seeing across cities and across states sorry. Local Law Enforcement, first line of defense. State Law Enforcement, and if both of those fail, then obviously the federal government can step in. We need that request from those state governors. Many of them have requested that, and again, when we go back to portland, we see exactly how not to protect your communities. Its a case study on the wrong way to do this. 90 days of continued violence in that city. It can be stopped very quickly. You need to have some conviction, and you need to bring in Law Enforcement to do their job. After the president s supporters were confronted by protesters thursday night outside the white house, the president in several tweets and statements has suggested that he was going to let me read one of the tweets. He says to mayor bowser, d. C. Mayor bowser should arrest these agitators and thugs. Clean up d. C. Or the federal government will do it for you. Enough. What does he mean the federal government will do it for you . What does he have in mind in d. C. . I think whats absolutely concerning is that individuals leaving an event at the white house cannot simply leave, go to their vehicles or wherever they might be going, that theyre accosted time and time again. So i think their concern there is making sure, again, Law Enforcement do their job, that you can protest peacefully all day long, all night long if you choose to. Once you cross that line of violent activity, Law Enforcement needs to step in. We saw that in early june in d. C. Where federal Law Enforcement came in, and we had a number of rioting and looting occurring and we brought in local Law Enforcement to address that quickly. Thats a case study on how to do this correctly in other cities. I want to turn to your role in the convention. You obviously took part in that naturalization ceremony that was played in a video at the convention. Did you know when you were there for that naturalization ceremony at the white house with the president that it was going to be played that night at the convention . Again, naturalization ceremonies are what the department does. We do hundreds, if not, thousands of them every year. I participated in several of them not only with the president , but with the Vice President. So its absolutely a legitimate role for the department to do. Again, we do them across the nation. I had i did one in denver the day after on wednesday to of this past week, and there was an official event at the white house. It was uploaded to a public youtube channel. Any person, organization or Political Party can pull down that video and do with it as they wish, so again but sir but sir, respectfully, that was not my question. My question was, did you know when you took part in that ceremony it was going to be used that night at the Republican Convention . No. What i knew is again, participating in a naturalization ceremony, we had a number of uscis employees there as they do every naturalization ceremony making sure that ceremony goes off without a hitch. They were giving that oath of allegiance to those individuals there, and again, well continue to do that because thats our mission at the department. Finally, the story that broke over the weekend. The dni, the director of National Intelligence is saying no more inperson briefings to congress including briefings on the critical question of foreign interference in our election. Isnt this a time when there should be more information shared, not less . What is going on here . Absolutely, and i think what the dni specifically said is he was concerned about leaks, classified information. Obviously the director of National Intelligence deals with classified information, providing that information to congress. He has seen i have seen and others have seen that information leaked time and time again, so what he indicated is hell provide that information in those briefings in a finished intelligence product and continue to provide the information they need to do their jobs. On the other side and what the department is focused on is making sure we address any cyberthreats regarding election infrastructure. A lot of the information that the department deals with is unclassified. Well continue to have inperson briefings with congress and staff, and we have two of them set up this week to continue to highlight the work that the department is doing to make sure that we secure that election infrastructure. You have a responsibility for protecting the integrity of this election. Are you seeing evidence, more evidence, new evidence of russian interference . Yeah. What weve, again, seen and the dni put out an assessment this month, not only information about russia, but also china and iran. So these are three nation states that we have been well aware of, have been tracking them for the last four years, putting out a number of disinformation campaigns to sow discourse won the u. S. , not only in 2016, but the 2018 elections. This is nothing new that were looking at. The department is on top of this, working with our interagency partners, the Intelligence Community and the like. Acting secretary of Homeland Security chad wolf, thank you very much for joining us this morning. Great, thank you. Lets turn now to the minnesota senator democrat amy klobuchar. Thank you for joining us, senator klobuchar. Thanks, jonathan. I want to start right where we left off there, the dni saying they are no longer going to brief in person, congress, particularly on this issue of Election Security. They say its about leaks. Your reaction . Its a complete outrage. You heard what the acting secretary just said. He said that Foreign Countries are continuing to try to break into our election. They are trying to influence our elections with disinformation, and this is not where you cut off congress from getting information. Thats what happened in 2016. There wasnt enough information out there. Now we know. Weve learned a lesson, and i think the house is going to have to subpoena the director of intelligence in order to get information which is crazy. We are just a few months out of a major election, and i have already experienced this white house blocking my bipartisan Election Security bill which would have helped us years ago to beef up our efforts. So in the words of speaker pelosi, when it comes to this white house, all roads lead to putin. That is exactly whats going on here, and we have to demand the information to protect our election. I want to turn to what the president said friday when he went to New Hampshire and held a rally after the convention, and he had he talked about the treatment of his supporters as they left the white house on thursday night. Take a listen. These incredible people from all over the country, all over the world that were there last night, they walked out to a bunch of thugs, and that wasnt remember this. That wasnt friendly protesters. So what was your reaction as you saw that . Theres no question that Trump Supporters were intimidated and approached as they left the white house in a rather menacing way. My first reaction is, and i have long condemned looting, violence, threats. Thats not peaceful protest, and i dont care whos engaging in it. You condemn it, and of course, joe biden has clearly condemned it, but lets step back. This isnt just happening in one place. Its happening all over the country. It is happening under Donald Trumps watch. What is going on . We have innocent people like george floyd shot by police. We have what happened in kenosha, and then we have a president that literally stands on the peoples lawn in violation of the hatch act, stands on the lawn with a bunch of pageantry and a bunch of fancy clothes with arias playing from the balcony and says, do you want to be safe . We are not safe in Donald Trumps america. Not only have we seen an increase in hate crimes, not only have we seen increases in crime, but we have seen 3,600 people die durg. Now over 180,000 people that 9 died from this coronavirus, seniors like my dad visiting them bind glass windows as he stands alone with coronavirus in a room. Ill never forget that moment, and he survived that, but so many other peoes parents and grandparents did not. So no, we are not more safe, and i think joe biden has a very strong case to make about the changes he will make to make this country more safer. We have not sehi paul soglin is the former mayor democratic mayor of madison, wisconsin. D voters, quote, are very distraught both with the arnagei officers murdering africanamericans and for th safety of their communities. Thats wt you just hit on. In short, what does biden what does a Biden Harris Administration do to address the violence that we are seeing in American Cities . the first is to make very clear that we condemn violence. We condemn looting and that has i that repeatedly, but the second is solution the solutions are not to divide people. Theyre to bring them together. In minnesota, yes, we had a horrific murder of george floydh that case iseikwxaop we are mending our communities. We are doing all we can to rebuild, but the third piece of this is police reform, and you can be against looting and for police reform. You can be in favor of things like banning chokeholds and having body cams which we didnt have in kenosha. You can be in favor of ma