'We didn't advertise': Doug Burgum reveals Reflecting Pool vandalism began as early as June 9

WASHINGTON, DC: Interior Secretary Doug Burgum revealed that vandalism at the National Mall’s Reflecting Pool began as early as June 9, weeks before officials publicly detailed the broader pattern of damage.

Burgum said officials deliberately kept the early incidents quiet to avoid inspiring “copycats.” The disclosure adds a previously unreported timeline to the repeated vandalism around the National Mall.

Doug Burgum says early attacks stayed quiet

Burgum disclosed this during an appearance on ‘The Katie Miller Podcast,’ released Tuesday, July 7, after host Katie Miller questioned how someone could damage the pool without being identified despite security around the area.

“There’s a lot of cameras on the pool. There’s a lot of National Guard. How did somebody cut it, and we don't know who cut it?” Miller asked.

Burgum pushed back on the assumption that the Reflecting Pool had extensive surveillance from the start.

“We had very few or no cameras at the beginning, because we have cameras all over our monuments,” he replied.

“The Reflecting Pool is part of the Lincoln Memorial, but there had never been vandalism on this helpless, harmless Reflecting Pool before,” Burgum added.

Miller then pointed to President Donald Trump’s push to restore the site, saying, “Until President Trump decided to beautify it.”

“Yeah, until he decided to beautify it,” Burgum agreed. “And then others decided it was a point of attack.”

Interior Secretary reveals June 9 vandalism timeline

Burgum then disclosed that the vandalism stretched back further than officials had publicly emphasized, saying early incidents were not advertised because authorities feared encouraging similar attacks.

“But we got mobile camera stations and towers in that captured some of the secondary activity,” he said.

“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,” Burgum revealed.

The interior secretary said officials responded by expanding surveillance around the site as the incidents continued.

“But we started putting up cameras,” he said. “We’ve got better camera coverage today.”

The remarks sharpen the timeline around the damage after Burgum clashed with CNN’s Dana Bash over the issue Sunday.

National Mall vandalism forms wider pattern

The damage to the Reflecting Pool was part of multiple separate incidents around the National Mall amid criticism of Trump’s Washington renovations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary.

The reported pattern included “multiple 8647 markings, a message written in blood on the Washington Monument and damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting federal officials to warn of a growing trend,” Fox News reported.

The incidents emerged after Trump ordered restoration and repainting work at the Reflecting Pool, it stated.

It added that protesters later left multiple “razor-blade cuts,” removed fencing, and tossed it into the water.

Burgum said the early June incidents were kept from public attention while officials increased surveillance, telling Miller that authorities now have “better camera coverage today.”