Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., indicated on Monday that she did not plan to openly challenge President Donald Trump’s decision to take control of the city’s police force under the guise of a “crime emergency,” telling reporters that she and other city officials planned to “follow the law” in complying with the White House’s orders.
Bowser opened her press conference by calling Trump’s move “unsettling and unprecedented” but declined to criticize the president directly.
“While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can’t say that, given some of the rhetoric of the past, that we’re totally surprised,” Bowser said, adding that Trump had not called her to discuss his takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department before Monday’s press conference.