Portland Points to Random Use of Force by Fed Officers as It Fights Nat’l Guard Deployment

This is your TPM evening briefing.

Kate Riga

Emine Yücel

, and

Khaya Himmelman

Oct 30, 2025

PORTLAND, OREGON - OCTOBER 12: Federal agents clash with anti-I.C.E. protesters at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on October 12, 2025 in Portland, Oregon. An Instagram post from the WorldNakedBikeRidePortland account stated - “The emergency WNBR Portland is in response to the militarization of our peaceful city. Right now peaceful protesters are being brutalized as they do their best for our neighbors and cousins who are being kidnapped.” (Photo by Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images)

Startling to Watch

One figure has emerged repeatedly in the first two days of a trial over President Trump’s attempted deployment of the National Guard to Portland: The out-of-control, tear gas-happy federal officer.

On Thursday, Portland’s Caroline Turco showed the witness, Assistant Chief Craig Dobson of the Portland Police, a video showing federal officers deploying what appeared to be tear gas into a crowd of protesters.

She asked whether the “behavior of the crowd” “justified” the use of force.

“I did not see indicators that indicate we as [the Portland Police Bureau] would be able to deploy munitions into that crowd,” he replied.

Judge Karin Immergut jumped in to ask what happened afterwards.

“My officers had to leave, as well as state police,” Dobson said. “I watched them have to leave because they did not have gas masks with them.”

The colloquy was representative of the theme of Portland and Oregon’s witness testimony, which wrapped Thursday afternoon. Local police told of out-of-control federal officers who endangered protesters and law enforcement alike with their random and unpredictable use of force.

Portland Police Commander Franz Schoening on Wednesday described officers pelting the crowd with munitions during an October 18 protest — catalyzed by a different federal officer accidentally shooting tear gas onto the roof of the ICE facility. He said at another point that it was “startling” to watch the officers’ treatment of an older crowd, and that some formerly cordial relationships between local police and protest organizers broke down after the brutality.

The city and state’s case is clear: Local law enforcement can competently handle what have been fairly tame crowds, while an infusion of federal law enforcement has only inflamed the protests.

The National Guard has remained blocked from deploying to Portland under Immergut’s temporary restraining order.

The Trump Justice Department took over Thursday afternoon, shifting the questioning to witnesses in federal roles. They began with a Federal Protective Service director, attempting to establish that federal officers have been overwhelmed amid the protests. They plan to question additional witnesses including a former acting National Guard chief and ICE’s Seattle director.

— Kate Riga

Monitoring the Monitors

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced this week that California will be sending its own state observers to monitor federal observers at polling places across the state.

This comes after the Department of Justice announced last week that it would send election observers to polling places in both California and New Jersey as a way to, according to the DOJ, “protect the votes of eligible American citizens.” The announcement came in response to requests from the states’ Republican parties. While federal election observers are common, the DOJ announcement raised alarms among some election experts. Both California and New Jersey are holding closely watched elections with high stakes for President Trump and his allies.

“They’re not going to be allowed to interfere in ways that the law prohibits,” Bonta said during a press conference this week. “We cannot be naive. The Republican Party asked for the U.S. DOJ to come in.”

David Becker, a former DOJ lawyer and the executive director and founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research, downplayed concerns, however, during a press briefing on Thursday, saying that election monitors are “fairly ordinary so long as there is a reason to monitor that relates to federal laws that the DOJ enforces.”

He added that transparency for both the state and the federal government is a good thing, so long as all “observers and monitors that represent the state or the federal government, or a campaign, or candidate or political party, be authorized under the law and understand that their role is to be a fly on the wall.”

It is not yet clear who exactly the monitors will be.

— Khaya Himmelman

Senate Leadership May Be Starting Bipartisan Talks to End Shutdown

We’re 30 days into the government shutdown with minimal signs of movement from either side on where they stand. Democratic leadership continues to push for measures that would protect the expiring Obamacare subsidies among other health care related policies in exchange for their votes. Republican leadership say they will not negotiate until the government reopens.

Amid the stand-off, there have been reports of rank and file senators having private bipartisan conversations for the past month to see if the two sides can come together and find a way out of the shutdown.

On Thursday, Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, confirmed she spoke to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) about “wanting to lay the foundation for us to be able to do our appropriations work,” according to Politico.

Britt also met with Schumer on Tuesday and with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) ahead of the Thursday Schumer conversation to discuss appropriators’ interest in moving forward with a minibus with three funding bills alongside a new continuing resolution that would fund the government through mid-December.

The current GOP CR is set to expire in three weeks.

— Emine Yücel