Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-TX, speaks as FAA Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, and DOT I.G. Calvin Scovel appear before a Senate Transportation subcommittee hearing on commercial airline safety, Wednesday, March 27, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

As Red State‘s Sarah Lee wrote yesterday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on the feds Sunday to “investigate & bring legal action against” Portland, OR Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) in the aftermath of this past weekend’s violent attack on independent journalist Andy Ngo.

Cruz alleges that “for political reasons, [Wheeler] ordered his police officers to let citizens be attacked by domestic terrorists” and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Seemingly oblivious to Cruz’s call for legal action against him, Wheeler logged on to the Twitter machine Monday afternoon to give himself credit for seemingly being on top of the situation, and pledging that “those who have committed violence” will be “held accountable.”

Later, once Wheeler got wind of Cruz’s demand for an investigation, the embattled Mayor attempted to one-up the Texas Senator by asserting that he did not order any officers to stand down:

Dear @TedCruz, At least get your facts straight. I ordered no such thing. Could you divert some of those investigation dollars to something that would actually benefit American cities? Infrastructure, affordable housing, mental health services come to mind. https://t.co/btI14p8fkJ — Mayor Ted Wheeler (@tedwheeler) July 2, 2019

As of this writing, Wheeler’s tweet has been severely ratioed, but that ratio is nothing compared to the blistering response he received from Sen. Cruz:

Ok, Mr. Mayor. You want talk “facts.” Great. Fact 1: a conservative journalist was violently assaulted by ANTIFA thugs on the streets of your city. Fact 2: you said “I support the Portland Police Bureau’s decision not to intervene.” Fact 3: you have a pattern of withdrawing…1/2 https://t.co/xkQiJ7sPyl — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 2, 2019

2/2…police protection to further your political agenda. When ANTIFA terrorists threatened ICE in Portland, you ORDERED police not to protect federal agents. Here’s a US Senate resolution (which I joined) condemning your partisan civil rights violations: https://t.co/KQAN94Ssn0 https://t.co/lCp7KDjPCs — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 2, 2019

Wheeler can deny he ordered a stand down all he wants, but Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner issued a statement in the aftermath of Saturday’s violence that would seem to back up Cruz’s version of events (bolded emphasis added):

It doesn’t matter if our citizens are democrats or republicans; no one should be attacked in the streets of our city. Good leadership means taking the reins and stepping forward to let people know when there is wrongdoing. The law is applicable no matter which side you’re on. Where are the voices condemning the lawlessness and violence? If this violence had been directed at Antifa, there would have been an immediate call for an independent, outside investigation. This is a perfect example of Portland politics at work and why our great City is now under fire in the national news. The Mayor, our Police Commissioner, is not allowed to use the rank and file officers of the Portland Police Bureau as a shield to deflect Portland’s negative press nationwide. As we have said before and will continue to say: Police officers work to uphold the Constitution, including the right to free speech. It’s our job to ensure that our community can peacefully protest without fear of violence but right now our hands are tied. It’s time for our Mayor to do two things: tell both ANTIFA and Proud Boys that our City will not accept violence in our City and remove the handcuffs from our officers and let them stop the violence through strong and swift enforcement action. Enough is enough.

Ngo, who was severely injured in the attack and hospitalized, said on CNN today that there have been “many other [similar] incidents that have happened since 2016 and the policing has remained the same, which is a policy of not engaging with militant protestors.”

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—Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter.–