D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that President Donald Trump last week sought to deploy U.S. military forces for a “political stunt” against peaceful protesters in order to obtain a photo-op in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
“We saw in Washington, D.C., federal forces used in a political stunt to attack peaceful protests,” Bowser said during the interview. “We saw the American military moved around our country like toy soldiers to intimidate Americans.”
The Democratic mayor said the U.S. military should never be used in that way and that Americans “across the country should be scared about that.”
Bowser also talked about her decision to order the painting Friday of the “Black Lives Matter” on the street leading to the White House, calling it “a representation of an expression of our saying no, but also identifying and claiming a part of our city that had been taken over by federal forces to make it a place for healing, strategizing protest and redress, which is the greatest statement that we can make as Americans and Black Americans who want to be recognized for human beings and have our lives matter.”