Former DHS Secretary Wolf: Members of Congress should demand apology from Rep. Cohen

close

Video

<a data-cke-saved-href="https://www.foxnews.com/shows/americas-newsroom" target="_blank" href="https://www.foxnews.com/shows/americas-newsroom">Democratic congressman suggests pro-Trump National Guardsmen could harm Biden</a>

<a data-cke-saved-href="https://www.foxnews.com/shows/americas-newsroom" target="_blank" href="https://www.foxnews.com/shows/americas-newsroom">Former acting Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf calls on Steve Cohen's colleagues to condemn his remarks about the National Guard and discusses the massive security display ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration.</a>

Former Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf called Tuesday for members of Congress to demand an apology from Democrat Steve Cohen, who suggested that National Guard members could pose a threat to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

Cohen, D-Tenn., ominously suggested Monday that Trump supporters within the National Guard charged with helping protect the event "might want to do something" to the president-elect.

STATES ACTIVATE NATIONAL GUARD, CLOSE CAPITOL BUILDINGS AHEAD OF BIDEN INAUGURATION AND POSSIBLE VIOLENCE

"The [National] Guard is 90 some-odd percent male, and only about 20 percent of white males voted for Biden," he said Monday on CNN. "You've got to figure that in the Guard, which is predominantly more conservative … they're probably not more than 25 percent of the people there protecting us that voted for Biden. The other 75 percent are in the large class of folks that might want to do something."

Wolf said on "America's Newsroom" that the comment was out of bounds and that troops being vetted before such an event is not anything "new."

CHAD WOLF: I think the vetting that is occurring with the National Guard and others is the same type of vetting that we see with most inaugurations. So the Secret Service, the FBI and others are going to vet any individuals that are going to have close proximity or to have access to some of these sensitive locations around D.C. So I don't know that it's anything different than what normally would occur. I guess what is different now is the number of National Guard here in the D.C. area. You mentioned about 20,000, a little over 20,000. So obviously that is different and that's unique to this inauguration than we've seen in others. But the fact that you would vet individuals that are, again, in sensitive areas of the inauguration is not anything that's new.

[...]

From my perspective, [Cohen's] comments are offensive, they're disgusting, and every member of Congress should be demanding that he apologize for those comments. Essentially, what he's saying is that whether you work for the National Guard, law enforcement, FBI or any other law enforcement agency, that if you voted for one candidate, you're unable to do your job and protect any individual that comes within your job duties.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

And so that's what he's calling into question, not only the loyalty, but just the professional responsibility that law enforcement in this case the National Guard, have. It's out of line. It's over bounds. And we saw that throughout the summer, where law enforcement was under attack day in and day out. And this is just another version of that, unfortunately. And again, I think most members of Congress should absolutely call on him to apologize for those comments.