The first Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, a former Governor of Pennsylvania, said in a radio interview that it would “be a cold day in hell” before he would’ve let uninvited federal agents on the streets of a Pennsylvania city, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports.
Speaking on the Michael Smerconish Show on SiriusXM radio, Ridge said, “The department was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president’s personal militia.”
Twice elected to be Pennsylvania’s Governor, Ridge is a decorated Vietnam veteran who cut short his second term when he was selected by George W. Bush to start the Department of Homeland Security in 2006.
“Had I been governor, even now, I would welcome the opportunity to work with any federal agency to reduce crime or lawlessness in the cities,” Ridge said. “But I would tell you, it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities. … And I wish the president would take a more collaborative approach toward fighting this lawlessness than the unilateral approach that he’s taken.”