Politico senior editor Michael Schaffer seems quite irked over Washington, D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser not publicly lambasting President Donald Trump after he ordered the federal takeover of the district's police department to combat the city's crime problem.
Schaffer oddly suggests something is wrong with Bowser for not acting more confrontational. You can get a hint of that attitude from the title of his Wednesday article, "Donald Trump Took Over DC’s Police. Why Is the City’s Mayor So Zen?"
Cooperation, in the mind of Schaffer, appears to be something that should be replaced by confrontation. Never mind that the goal should be to make the capital city safer for people. This was his opening sentence: "Muriel Bowser has given Donald Trump everything a blue-city mayor could possibly give a MAGA president. And he kicked her in the teeth anyway."
By the third paragraph of the story we get (because it is Politico) the obligatory Trump slam: "Trump repeatedly maligned her city as a crime-infested hell hole, despite statistics to the contrary."
If crime statistics are to the contrary then why would a DC police commander be suspended for cooking the books on those very stats? Even the police union claims the stats were falsified to make it appear as if there were a steep drop in violent crime since last year.
Playing ball on the optics is still her default move. At a hastily-arranged meeting with the city council shortly after Trump’s announcement, the mayor was asked what councilmembers should say about it. According to a participant, she initially advised them to say nothing.
It was unlikely advice for local elected officials. Trump’s action had already drawn apocalyptic criticism from a slew of national Democrats. It would seem strange for city councilmembers to stay mum. Members balked, and the mayor herself wound up holding a press conference where she made clear that she was unhappy about the “unsettling and unprecedented” takeover, reiterating that violent crime is at a 30-year low. But she avoided histrionics, speaking in measured tones and vowing to work with the feds. She didn’t threaten legal action, acknowledging that her city’s unique constitutional status means citizens don’t have the same rights as other Americans.
But wait, the pressure on Bowser to get nastier did get to her:
In a live online constituent meeting Tuesday night, away from national media, she was more forceful in pushing back against falsehoods about Washington, declaring that “we are not 700,000 scumbags and punks” but rather “proud Americans who call D.C. home.” She said she hoped for a Democratic Congress to put a brake on an “authoritarian push.”
But a defense of her city’s image is different from the sort of performative resistance that a lot of blue politicians might opt for. In the same meeting, she referred to the federal officials who just usurped her authority as “partners.”
It sounds like Bowser is avoiding political grandstanding which "a lot of blue politicians might opt for," yet Schaffer seems to treat that as if it were a bad, or at least odd, thing. This was the view he was channeling:
“She’s tried to appease Trump, believing that she is in a different position from any governor or mayor in the country,” said Elissa Silverman, a former councilmember who regularly crossed swords with Bowser in office. “The appeasement approach hasn’t worked. It just hasn’t. There needs to be a change of tone with Trump."
Journalists are going to be hard on Democrats who aren't as vicious as they are.