Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday night the White House “has a lot to answer for” following a week of increased military presence and tension in the nation’s capital.
“I think I’ve been shocked all week about how the federal government behaved against American citizens,” Bowser told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on “AC360.”
President Donald Trump declared himself “your president of law and order” last week, and he vowed to return order to American streets using the military if widespread unrest wasn’t otherwise quelled. Demonstrations swelled nationwide in response to the late May police killing of George Floyd, a black man who died at the hands of a white officer in Minneapolis.
Roughly 5,000 National Guard troops had been called to patrol Washington as protesters flooded the streets to demonstrate against racial injustice and police brutality.
“We were shocked and outraged that they moved the United States Army to threaten Washington, DC, into submission, I was shocked to see unnamed and unidentified federal police in the nation’s capital, all while we’re talking about police and community trust,” she continued. “I think the White House has a lot to answer for.”
Her comments echoed the message she had for the President in a letter Friday, in which she said the additional law enforcement in the city was “inflaming” and “adding to the grievances” of people protesting.
“The protestors have been peaceful, and last night, the Metropolitan Police Department did not make a single arrest. Therefore, I am requesting that you withdraw all extraordinary law enforcement and military presence from Washington, DC,” the mayor wrote, adding that she had ended the state of emergency in DC related to the protests.
The President had responded by attacking the mayor in a post on Twitter, warning that if she didn’t treat the service members “well” he would bring in a “different group of men and women.” But by Sunday, Trump tweeted that he had ordered for the National Guard to start the process of withdrawing from Washington.
Trump and Bowser have a history of butting heads. They disagreed over a costly military parade that was planned in 2018 and then eventually canceled, and then again in 2019 over changes in Fourth of July celebrations. Trump remains intent on holding an Independence Day celebration in Washington this year, even as the mayor has said a parade in the nation’s capital had been scrapped.
On Friday, Bowser had the city paint “BLACK LIVES MATTER” in big yellow letters on two blocks of 16th Street NW, a central axis that leads southward straight to the White House.
Additionally, the mayor renamed the area in front of Lafayette Square, steps from the White House, “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
CNN’s Chandelis Duster, Nicky Robertson and Kelly Mena contributed to this report.
