Interior Secretary Doug Burgum spoke with podcast host Katie Miller, wife of President Donald Trump advisor Stephen Miller, about how vandalism of the National Mall’s Reflecting Pool goes back to early June.
Burgum, who clashed with CNN’s Dana Bash about the issue on Sunday, discussed the topic on “The Katie Miller Podcast,” released Tuesday.
“So, I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist, so I’m going to ask this question,” Miller began. “There’s a lot of cameras on the pool. There’s lot of National Guard. How did somebody cut it and us not know who cut it?”
“We had very few or no cameras at the beginning, because we have cameras all over our monuments,” Burgum replied. “The Reflecting Pool is part of the Lincoln Memorial, but there had never been vandalism on this helpless, harmless Reflecting Pool before.”
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“Until President Trump decided to beautify it,” Miller noted.
“Yeah, until he decided to beautify it,” Burgum agreed. “And then others decided it was a point of attack.”
However, he noted how the White House has cracked down on such activity.
“But we got mobile camera stations and towers in, that captured some of the secondary activity. But we did have some vandalism starting as early as June 9, which we didn’t advertise because we didn’t want to have copycats,” he revealed. “But we started putting up cameras. We’ve got better camera coverage today.”
Miller’s full interview with Burgum will be released at 6 p.m. ET.
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Amid criticism of Trump’s renovations around Washington, D.C., in the lead-up to America’s 250th celebration, vandals targeted the National Mall with multiple separate “8647” markings, a blood-written message on the Washington Monument and damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting federal officials to warn of a growing trend.
The pattern emerged after President Donald Trump ordered a restoration and repainting of the Reflecting Pool, which was met with protesters leaving multiple “razor-blade cuts” and removing fencing to then toss into the water.
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Fox News’ Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.
