Muriel Bowser’s office says she is heading to the luxe vacation destination for a day to pick up her daughter
As President Donald Trump and his administration pursue a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C., the city’s mayor is skipping town for a bit.
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office confirmed reports on Thursday that she left D.C. for Martha’s Vineyard. “The mayor has a family commitment and had to pick up her daughter. She will return to the District tomorrow,” her office said in a statement to ABC News.
Bowser’s trip comes amid Trump’s attempt to wrest control of D.C. from the local officials duly elected by its already disenfranchised population. The city this week has been swarmed with federal law enforcement conducting a performative shock-and-awe operation on the orders of the president, who on Monday signed an executive order declaring a “crime emergency” despite violent crime being at at its lowest point in decades. The order also authorized a 30-day federal takeover of the city’s police, and the deployment of hundreds of National Guard to the nation’s capital.
The same day that Bowser left the city, reports indicated that federal forces were planning a city-wide sweep of homeless encampments on Thursday evening, and would arrest unhoused individuals who could not be placed in D.C.’s already overcrowded shelters.
Bowser has remained largely cooperative with the administration throughout their takeover of the city’s law enforcement, seemingly authorizing a cooperation agreement between Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Metropolitan Police Department.
“Right now, having a surge of officers enhances our MPD forces on a temporary basis. We’re going to stay focused on hiring more MPD or, when this temporary surge is over, figuring out more permanent partnerships to tap into when we need a surge of officers,” Bowser told Politico on Wednesday of the influx of federal forces.
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During a press conference on Monday, Bowser said that her “tenor will be appropriate for what I think is important for the district and what’s important for the district is that we can take care of our citizens.”
But taking care of her citizens living through a federal crackdown by a power-hungry president is clearly playing second fiddle to a trip to Martha’s Vineyard.
