D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday that the city had reached a 30-year low in violent crime. Bowser said that crime was down not just from a post-pandemic peak in 2023, but from 2019 levels prior to the pandemic.

Bowser’s comments are a response to President Trump’s announcement of his takeover of D.C. police force. Bowser said that the steps were “unsettling” but not without precedent.

“My message to residents is this,” Bowser said. “We know that access to our democracy is tenuous. That is why you have heard me and many Washingtonians before me advocate for full statehood.”

Bowser says she had “one brief call” with the White House over the weekend about activating the National Guard, so she thought Trump’s announcement would be about calling up the National Guard, not about taking over the Metropolitan Police Department.

The Mayor fielded multiple questions Monday designed to get her to say something harsh about President Donald Trump. But the 3rd term mayor didn’t take the bait, for the most part — calmly laying out the city’s case that crime has been dropping steadily and Trump’s perceived state of emergency simply doesn’t match the numbers.

She repeatedly acknowledged that Trump has “broad authority” under the law and would be difficult to challenge.

The composure slipped a bit toward the end, when she dropped a reference to Trump’s “so-called emergency.”