The leftwing mayor of Washington DC told the feds on Tuesday that her city was not requesting additional law enforcement and that they were prepared for Wednesday’s events:
THE BLAZE – In a letter to Pentagon and Justice Department officials just one day before riotous Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Democratic Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser discouraged additional help from federal law enforcement — only later to slam federal agents for not doing more to quell the riots.
“The District of Columbia Government has not requested personnel from any other federal law enforcement agencies,” Bowser wrote to acting U.S. Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, and Secretary of the Army Ryan D. McCarthy on Tuesday.
She insisted that the Metropolitan Police Department was “prepared” to handle the demonstrations in cooperation with its federal partners, specifically the U.S. Park Police, U.S. Capitol Police and U.S. Secret Service.
“To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway,” she continued.
She reasoned in the letter that the presence of “unidentified” federal agents “caused confusion” during demonstrations last year and could become a “national security threat” by leaving MPD with no way to decipher between armed groups.
Below is her tweet:
To be clear, the District of Columbia is not requesting other federal law enforcement personnel and discourages any additional deployment without immediate notification to, and consultation with, MPD if such plans are underway. pic.twitter.com/FhnNe1dWeJ
— Mayor Muriel Bowser (@MayorBowser) January 5, 2021
But then after the riots that overwhelmed Capitol police, Bowser criticized the federal police response and made it about race:
Yet on Thursday, while speaking to reporters in the aftermath of the riots, Bowser bashed federal law enforcement for their supposed lackluster response. She accused federal personnel of responding more forcefully to Black Lives Matter protests in the city last summer than they did to Wednesday’s violence.
“We must also understand why the federal law enforcement response was much stronger [during the Black Lives Matter protests], Bowser said, according to CBS News.
During the conference, she also criticized Capitol Police — the specific agency charged with protecting the U.S. Congress — for failing to prevent hundreds of protesters from tearing down security barricades and ultimately pushing into the Capitol building. The pandemonium ended up resulting in shots being fired and one rioter being killed.
“Obviously it was a failure or you would not have had police lines breached and people entering the building by breaking windows,” she said.
While it’s true that Bowser is a typical Democrat hack and hypocrite, I will note that she probably thought she was prepared because no one ever expected this riot to happen. She hates Trump, but clearly never thought a riot would break out at the Capitol, because Trump gatherings don’t typically devolve like this. But it is so disingenuous for her to turn around and dump on the federal response when she clearly didn’t want them helping.