Acting DHS Sec’y Wolf: Cities That Are Having Increased Violence Are Doing so ‘by Choice at This Point’

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf urged cities and states that need to do so to ask for help from the federal government and stated that “any city that is having increases in violence, is burning, is having the rioting and looting, it’s by choice at this point.”

Wolf said, “These cities and states need to ask for the federal help. The president’s been very clear. The Department of Homeland Security has been very clear, as well as the Department of Justice. We are there to help. They need to ask for it. We can come in, as we did here in D.C., about last month, where we restored that law and order back to the city, stopped churches from being burned. We do have the ability to do this. We just need to be invited and have those state and local authorities ask for the federal government’s help.”

He added, “I think any city that is having increases in violence, is burning, is having the rioting and looting, it’s by choice at this point. Those local elected officials are making a choice to keep their cities very unsafe and dangerous. The president’s been very clear, we’re here to support. We’re here to provide resources, and we’ll do that at their request.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett