Sen. Wyden: Trump’s plan to send federal troops to other cities is to drum up his base support

Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon joins Yahoo News Editor in Chief Daniel Klaidman and Chief Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff to discuss the ongoing confrontations between federal agents and protesters in Portland and weighs in on President Trump’s plans to send federal troops to other cities, including Chicago and New York.

Video Transcript

MICHAEL ISIKOFF: A lot of attention on Portland, Oregon right now and the confrontation between federal agents and the protesters. What is your best information as we sit here right now about what the situation is on the streets of Portland?

SEN. RON WYDEN: What we know, and it was confirmed by Donald Trump yesterday-- in fact, I was just walking into an interview and three minutes before I went on the air he basically said, look, I have focused on Portland, but now I'm going to go after Chicago and Detroit and Baltimore and New York.

And I think it's real clear what he's up to, guys. And that is, he's sending these paramilitary squads in to us cities, he's trying to make it out like everybody in the city is either an anarchist or is sympathetic to the anarchist.

And he's really trying to crank up a kind of us against them kind of focus. And he thinks it'll be popular with right wing media and his base.