By JILL COLVIN
NEW YORK (AP) — As National Guard troops deploy across her city as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to clamp down on crime, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is responding with relative restraint.
She’s called Trump’s takeover of the city’s police department and his decision to activate 800 members of the guard “ unsettling and unprecedented ” and gone as far as to cast his efforts as part of an “authoritarian push.”
But Bowser has so far avoided the kind of biting rhetoric and personal attacks typical of other high-profile Democratic leaders, despite the unprecedented incursion into her city.
“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 told reporters at a press conference responding to the efforts. She even suggested the surge in resources might benefit the city and noted that limited home rule allows the federal government “to intrude on our autonomy in many ways.”
“My tenor will be appropriate for what I think is important for the District,” said Bowser, who is in her third term as mayor. “And what’s important for the District is that we can take care of our citizens.”
