Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, clashed with President Donald Trump during his first term over his use of the National Guard and federal law enforcement to quell a spate of Black Lives Matter protests in the city.
Five years later and facing another surge of federal officers in the streets, Bowser has largely refrained from criticizing the president, even as he continues to claim that the city — where crime is at near-historic lows — is “one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.”
When asked about the situation during a Sunday interview on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Bowser pushed back on Trump’s portrayal of crime in the nation’s capital, but added that the president was within his rights to ramp up the number of federal officers or even deploy the D.C. National Guard, which is the only unit under the direct control of the president and not a state or territory.