Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) on Saturday pushed back on President Trump’s claim that the city’s police force didn’t assist the Secret Service during protests the previous night at the White House.
“My police department will always protect DC and all who are in it whether I agree with them (such as those exercising their First Amendment Right) or those I don’t (namely, @realdonaldtrump)…,” Bowser tweeted.
“While he hides behind his fence afraid/alone, I stand w/ people peacefully exercising their First Amendment Right after the murder of #GeorgeFloyd & hundreds of years of institutional racism.”
Trump on Saturday applauded the Secret Service for keeping demonstrators at bay during a protest over the police-involved death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
But he claimed, “On the bad side, the D.C. Mayor @MurielBowser, who is always looking for money & help, wouldn’t let the D.C. Police get involved”
Multiple law enforcement organizations were present on Friday night as officers pushed back on protesters in Lafayette Park, including Secret Service, U.S. Park Police and D.C. police, according to The Washington Post.
The president also claimed without evidence that protesters in D.C. were “professionally organized” but said that anyone who had managed to jump the fence would have been “greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons.”
Bowser said there were no dogs or ominous weapons.
“There is just a scared man. Afraid/alone,” she wrote, referring to Trump, who said he watched the entire protest.
The mayor called on the city of D.C. to “exercise great restrain even while this President continues to try to divide us,” encouraging voters to head to the polls in November.
She concluded her response by quoting the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence.”
The White House temporarily went on lockdown Friday evening as protesters gathered in Lafayette Park just outside of the complex throughout the night.
At several points, some protesters pushed over fences and barricades, prompting a forcible Secret Service response.
Other cities, including Brooklyn and Atlanta, hosted similar demonstrations on Friday.
Minneapolis has seen days of violence and looting following Floyd’s death.
Video surfaced on Monday showing an unarmed Floyd, 46, pinned to the ground by a Minneapolis police officer who as pressing a knee into his neck.
Floyd could be heard saying, “I can’t breathe” before his body went limp. He was declared dead 90 minutes after his arrest.
The officer who pinned the man to the ground, Derek Chauvin, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday.