House GOP presses D.C. mayor to explain lack of action against 'unlawful' protest encampment at GWU

House Republican committee chairs are pressing Muriel Bowser, mayor of Washington, D.C., for answers on the lack of police against against the "unlawful" protest encampment at George Washington University.

In a letter to Bowser and Pamela A. Smith, chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., cited reports of the D.C. police declining requests from university officials for help "removing the radical, antisemitic, and unlawful protestors who have encamped on the university’s campus and surrounding District of Columbia public land for several days."

Comer and Foxx said it is "deeply disturbing that while GWU has attempted to take concrete measures to protect the safety of its Jewish student body from persecution and harassment, it is hindered by the MPD’s refusal to provide assistance clearing out the encampment, over fears of public criticism."

The lawmakers asked Bowser why Bowser's office and the MPD "refused GWU’s calls for assistance in clearing out the encampment of unlawful protesters on and adjacent to the campus."

They also asked: "What conditions must be met before MPD will act to assist GWU in clearing out the encampment of unlawful protesters?" and "How is MPD’s refusal to assist GWU in clearing out the unlawful and antisemitic protest encampment in keeping with MPD’s own mission statement?"