D.C.’s mayor publicly denounced the pardons of Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendants Monday.
Mayor Muriel Bowser repeated what she said last week in a written statement — that the officers who responded to the riot are heroes — before addressing the pardons by President Donald Trump.
“We know the vast presidential power when it comes to pardons, and the president chose to exercise them in the most expansive way I think that he could,” she said. “He said he would for many months on the campaign trail, and he did it. I couldn't disagree with that act more. And I further am concerned about what it means to empower people to commit violence in our city again.”
It was one of the first times Bowser publicly criticized Trump since he was elected and she met with him at Mar-a-Lago.
We've got the news you need to know to start your day. Sign up for the First & 4Most morning newsletter — delivered to your inbox daily. Sign up here.
Bowser has walked a line between not wanting to pick a fight with Trump and protecting the District from actions the president has threatened, including taking control of the Metropolitan Police Department. The mayor acknowledged that some people didn’t like her written statement about the J6 pardons and said don’t expect her to get into a public back-and-forth with Trump
“I also don't want to confuse anybody that if I'm not rushing to a microphone every time the president acts as some indication that either I don't know about it or i don't care about it,” Bowser said. “But I do have to focus and be disciplined in how I run the city.”
That is as candid as the mayor has been about her position representing 700,000 people — the majority of whom did not vote for Trump — and working with the president, who has threatened to take control of the city away from the mayor.
