MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Civic leaders are stepping aside just a few months after President Trump flooded the city with federal agents and seized temporary control of its police force. From member station WAMU, Alex Koma reports on the backlash city officials faced.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) Bowser, Bowser, you're a traitor.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Bowser, Bowser, you're a traitor.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: (Chanting) This term is your last as mayor.
ALEX KOMA, BYLINE: This recent protest in downtown D.C. against Mayor Muriel Bowser shows the criticism she's faced ever since President Trump sent in hundreds of federal agents and National Guard troops this summer. Bowser was no fan of Trump's crime crackdown, but she mostly worked to appease the administration instead of antagonize it. She says this approach was needed to fend off attacks on Washington, D.C.'s limited autonomy.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MURIEL BOWSER: We faced unprecedented action by a president. We laid out a way to get out of it, and we got out of.
KOMA: She succeeded in protecting the city's self-governance, but many are frustrated she hasn't pushed back more forcefully on Trump's actions, particularly his immigration crackdown. Other local politicians, from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, have modeled a more confrontational approach. Zach Teutsch is a progressive activist in the city. He says Bowser's muted response to the president's actions in D.C. has been alarming, especially because local police have been spotted assisting ICE and other federal agencies.
ZACH TEUTSCH: She had the choice to stand up for the people of D.C. and to help us all protect our neighbors from unjust search and seizure. And instead, she chose to be an accomplice in oppression and to make it easier to grab our neighbors off the street.
KOMA: And much of this anger has also been directed at the city's police chief, Pamela Smith. She's repeatedly denied that local police directly coordinate with ICE but has allowed more communication with immigration officials when her officers encounter undocumented people. That policy is counterproductive, says Vanessa Batters-Thompson. She's the head of the D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.
VANESSA BATTERS-THOMPSON: We are in a moment where our efforts to be a community-oriented police force has taken a major step back.
KOMA: With this pressure amping up, both the mayor and the chief now say they're moving on. Bowser won't seek reelection next year, while Smith will resign at the end of this month for personal reasons. Both leaders deny Trump's actions played any role in their decisions. Bowser, for instance, says she's ready to move on after three terms in office.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BOWSER: The fourth term is kind of gratuitous to me. We set out a big agenda. We delivered on it. And the ability to keep winning, it gets harder and harder.
KOMA: Meanwhile, Police Chief Smith is being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department for allegedly trying to make the city's crime stats look more rosy than they really are. Smith denies doing so. Pam Keith is an attorney who's repeatedly sued the D.C. Police Department. She had her disagreements with Bowser and Smith, but she sees a racial component in the resignations. Both are Black women, and she says Trump's attacks on Black leaders across the country have been hard to ignore.
PAM KEITH: There was a movement afoot. I just knew that it was a matter of time.
KOMA: These Black leaders tried to appease Trump, but Keith says they still couldn't avoid his wrath. Their departure set the stage for a citywide debate over whether to continue Bowser's conciliatory approach or fight back against Trump more forcefully. The only candidate in next year's mayor's race so far is vocally embracing the latter approach, D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George. Like Mamdani in New York, she's a democratic socialist.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JANEESE LEWIS GEORGE: We have to stand up and defend our residents - and all of our residents - in the District of Columbia.
KOMA: That means next year's June primaries will be an early test of just how confrontational Democrats in D.C. are ready to be with the president as the midterms draw closer.
For NPR News, I'm Alex Koma in Washington, D.C. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
