WASHINGTON — D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday that President Donald Trump’s takeover of the city’s police department is “unsettling and unprecedented,” even if it tracks with some of the president’s false attacks on the city’s crime rate.
“I can’t say that, given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” Bowser said at a press conference. “I can say to D.C. residents that we will continue to operate our government in a way that makes you proud ... We will work with the federal government to do the things that they should do for the city.”
Bowser’s event came hours after Trump, himself a convicted felon who this year pardoned hundreds of violent felons who assaulted police officers on his behalf on Jan. 6, 2021, announced he is deploying National Guard troops and taking control of the city’s police force to combat crime, which he falsely declared is “totally out of control.”
In fact, D.C.’s violent crime rate is at a 30-year low.
Remarkably, in her nearly 45-minute press event, Bowser didn’t once condemn Trump for seizing control of the police and infringing on her role as mayor. Instead, she said she’s simply following the law, specifically the Home Rule Act, which allows presidents to temporarily control D.C.’s police in emergency situations. Trump is falsely claiming the city’s crime rate is such an emergency.
