Mayor of Washington D.C. Will Give Testimony at House Panel Regarding GW Encampment

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has agreed to testify in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which is holding a hearing Wednesday on why the city has not responded to requests by George Washington University (GW) to clear an anti-Israel tent encampment.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chair of the committee, told Newsmax on Monday that he recently talked to Bowser, a Democrat, but she had not indicated whether she would testify. He said he expected her to testify but if she didn’t, the committee would be compelled to subpoena her.

Officials from the Oversight Committee, which has legislative authority over the District of Columbia, and the mayor’s office confirmed to the Washington Examiner and other media outlets that Bowser and D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith will testify.

The tent encampment at the university is part of several protests regarding Israel’s war against Iranian-backed Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip that have rocked college campuses nationwide, leading to thousands of arrests.

GW President Ellen Granberg said in a statement Sunday the protest, now in its 13th day, “has grown into what can only be classified as an illegal and potentially dangerous occupation of GW property.” She said, “it is clear that this is no longer a GW student demonstration” and that it has been “co-opted by individuals who are largely unaffiliated with our community and do not have our community’s best interest in mind.”

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Smith said last week that D.C. police were not intervening because there had been “no violent behavior, no confrontations. We allow people the opportunity to have freedom of speech, and that’s what we’re seeing right now.”

But in her statement Sunday, Granberg said “as a university, we are not equipped to single-handedly manage an unprecedented situation such as this.”