8, 2024. the speaker pro tempore: refer to the committee on foreign affairs and ordered printed. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess subject to the call of the chair. to that's why we're leading the way in taking to 10-g. >> mediacom supports c-sp as a

public service. along with these other television providers. giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> earlier today, commerce secretary gina raimondo testified on president biden's 2025 budget request and other priorities for her department. watch the house appropriations subcommittee hearing tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at c-span.org. >> next, an update on washington, d.c.,'s response to pro-palestinian demonstrations amid the israel-hamas war in gaza. we hear from d.c. mayor, police chief, and executive assistant 33 people were arrested at george washington university as police cleared out a protest encampment. this is about 15 minutes.

>> good morning, everyone. i'm muirial bowser, the mayor of washington, d.c. we're in the johnny wilson building and our city hall. i'm joined by the chief of police who you'll hear from shortly. assistant chief of police, deputy mayor of public safety and the city administrator. i want to begin by thanking the metropolitan police department for their efforts over the past two weeks to keep students in the campus of g.w. safe. m.p.d. has maintained a presence at g.w. throughout these protests. and that presence has allowed for an informed and effective respofnts i also want to thank the broader d.c. community as tensions have escalated on campuses around the country. our community has been measured with our words and actions and we have demonstrated and upheld our values and constitutional

responsibilities. i want to be clear that our responses to demonstrations is always rooted in public safety and constitutional responsibility. the chief and her team are the experts in public safety and always have the final word on how our resources are deployed. m.p.d. is the best in the business at keeping people safe during the exercise of first amendment demonstrations. so with that, i'm going to turn it over to m.p.d. for a statement and to take your questions. chief smith. >> thank you, mayor bowser. good morning. i'm pamela smith, chief of police of the metropolitan police department. let me start by saying the district of columbia and metropolitan police department support individuals peacefully exercising their first amendment rights. but as the chief of police, i need to be and am always guided by public safety.

this space has been no different where i have been constantly reviewing information and intelligence to be able to make sound decisions about the george washington university protests based on policing and public safety. since the start of the encampment on g.p.'s campus, the metropolitan police department has been supporting g.w. in assessing and monitoring the first amendment activities. they began very peacefully. but over the past few days, we began to see an escalation in the volatility of the protests at g.w. this started last thursday. when a campus police officer was pushed by protesters at an -- and an item was grabbed out of the police officer's hand during the performance of her duties. on monday, m.p.d. learned of more indicators that the protesters were becoming more volatile and less stable. this included a simple assault reported to g.w. police, security probing of a g.w. building, indicates that are counterdemonstrators were covertly in the everyone

campment and information that protesters from other schools were traveling to g.w. in addition, items that could potentially be used for offensive and defensive weapons were being gathered. all of this led to my discussion and conclusion that we needed to change our posture. i briefed mayor bowser on monday and we began preparing for last night. our plan included giving warnings, multiple warnings, and clear direction to people inside the encampment to disperse the area. we allowed protesters ample tied to leave the area -- time to leave the area. in total there were six announcements before our officers took action, many complied and left the encampment area. those who did not comply were arrested. a total of 33 arrests were made this morning for charges including unlawful entry, which is often called trespassing in other jurisdictions, and an assault on a police officer. additional protesters arrived outside of our perimeter. these individuals engaged our officers at 20th street and

pennsylvania avenue. our officers did deploy pepper spray and some of the 33 arrests were made at that location. moving forward, m.p.d. will continue to be supportive of universities or other private entities who need assistance. before i close, i would like to thank the men and women of the metropolitan police department for their professionalism this morning and the service that they provided to the community over the past 13 days. i'll turn it over to mayor bowser now. >> any questions for the chief? reporter: you said you went through the specific instance -- [indiscernible] -- you decided monday -- >> based on what i just shared with you, after the intelligence, the information that was shared with us and the series of events that i just articulated, we made a decision

on monday after other things were also revealed to us that was happening inside of the encampment to move forward with clearing the encampment this morning. reporter: [indiscernible] mr. we did -- >> we did. yes, sir. good morning. reporter: i know it's early, but have you had time to determine how many of the 33 arrests are students? >> they're still being processed at this time so we do not know that. but what i will do as soon as we get that information, we'll share it publicly. yes, sir. reporter: [indiscernible] -- what happens next here? we talked to several protesters who said that they -- [indiscernible] -- what happens next? >> as you know, here in the district of columbia we allow individuals to exercise their first amendment activity. in this particular location where there's private property, we will not allow them to encamp in that space anymore.

as you know, i think you know that we're the best in the business when it comes to crowd management. and we will follow our protocols with respect to that. reporter: so no more protests on the campus of g.w.? >> i cannot dell you. that's the president -- tell you. that's the president's decision to determine if she'll allow protests in other areas of the campus. the area that we have now secured, there will be no protests in that area. reporter: you mentioned arrests. >> for this morning? there were multiple a.p.o. arrests. that is correct. inside the quad this morning there was one arrest for assault on a police officer. and then outside of the perimeter around 20th and pennsylvania avenue there were other arrests specifically due to assaults on a police officer. reporter: [indiscernible] -- >> no, there were 29 arrests. 29 were charged with unlawful

entry. reporter: three a. pmpt o.'s and 29 unlawful entries. >> something like that. reporter: [indiscernible] -- >> no serious injuries to any of our officers. we do not determine at this time that there were any serious injuries to anyone within the public. obviously we did deploy some pepper spray. but other than that, we don't have any additional information regarding injuries. reporter: citation arrests or -- >> that is correct. that is correct. reporter: even a.p.o. are citation arrests? >> they're still being processed. yes, ma'am. reporter: [indiscernible] -- the timing of the oversight hearing committee meeting, did it have anything to do with the clearing? [indiscernible] >> it did not. all of the decisions i've made it based on public safety. >> are you still speaking today -- [indiscernible] -- >> i had the opportunity to speak with chairman comer this

morning and he expressed his interest in making sure the city and the chief could focus on this ongoing operation. i expect that that hearing will be pulled down. yes? let me get to somebody who hasn't had a chance yet. reporter: associated press. can you walk through again the ground ball escalation involve -- gradual escalation and volatility? what were the elements of that? >> well, those were the elements. you want to go over them again? ok. >> good afternoon, good morning. i'm the executive assistant chief of the metropolitan police department. as the mayor and chief smith indicated, over the entire encampment period, we've been working very closely with the george washington university police department. and what we've seen is an escalation that really occurred as we moved into monday with several incidents that occurred being reported to us either through the university police department or from observations that we saw ourselves. some of those things include, as

the chief mentioned, the assault on the g.w. police officer where they took an item from the police officer and they also assaulted the officer. we also observed indicators within the encampment that would alert us to potentially they're gathering weapons, improvised weapons and things like that. additionally we had a reporting that individuals were probing buildings on campus with the potential to try to enter those locations and there was actually some individuals yesterday on tuesday that were located inside of a university facility that weren't supposed to be there. all these different things that came together, the indicates that are we have, taking the intelligence we have and also what we've learned from other universities, some of these indicators continue to raise the concern from the metropolitan police department and that's what really caused us to change our posture, to ensure that we can maintain the safety not only for the demonstrates that are are there in the encampment, the students at the university, but also the community as well. reporter: were they trying to

tierveg the university buildings, any weapons found? >> the george washington university, they're going through the encampment. they're working through the tents there to remove them as they are on private property. we do know there was at least two probing attempts where individuals were seen, in one instance casing around the university building, and a second instance as i indicated, there were two individuals that were unauthorized that were located inside of the university and that was informed to us by the george washington university police department. those are all very concerning and indicators, especially what we have observed that's occurred at other universities that necessitate us to take action. reporter: -- [indiscernible] -- suspend them all? >> they'll be charged with the appropriate charges. the unlawful entry clarnlg or assault on police officer charge. just like any other individual here in the district of columbia. if they're eligible for citation and release, they'll be released on that method. if not, they'll appear in front of court. all those decisions will be made by united states attorney's office as those charges are under their purview.

[talking simultaneously] reporter: [indiscernible] -- wee hours of the morning to go in. why not go in on monday when the decision was made? >> i'm not going to get into specific tactics of how we respond. however, as we indicated, we do have to take all the information that we have, take that and evaluate that. we have to make sure we have the appropriate resources, plans in place and coordination before we respond and take action for the safety of everyone involved. if you don't have the appropriate resources and plans in place, that's not a good situation, that's not some situation we want to put the students or police officers in. reporter: can you talk about counterdemonstrators moving in? that means you saw people that were not necessarily on the pro-palestinian side, also moving into the encampment and potentially getting ready to -- [indiscernible] -- volatility there? >> we received information that individuals that had been in other universities had potentially come to george washington university. there were some postings out there with that. additionally, we had

counterprotesters, some that came through and were known to be counterprotesters that were assaulted. that assault was relayed to us on monday morning. additionally, there were messages that were left inside of the encampment that alerted us that there was covert counterdemonstrators that had been within that area as well. reporter: it's not uncommon for college students in d.c. to support other college students in protests. did you have any indication that these students that were coming from other campuses were outside -- [indiscernible] -- >> we did. there were indications that students -- individuals that were at columbia university were coming to george washington and may have already been there. >> can you give me a number on how many officers responded this morning and also, moving forward, -- [indiscernible] -- pepper spray as well? >> we don't have numbers that we get into.

we try to mitigate risk the best way we can. as far as deploying pepper spray, that was done in response to the assaults on the police officers that occurred. so it was not done to disperse any groups. it was the individuals who were assaulting an officer, it was done to stop that assault and make the arrest related to that. reporter: [indiscernible] >> yes. the information i have at this time were three individuals, three uses of pepper spray that were there. reporter: when you say they were assaulting police officers, they were trying to push through that barricade that they had? >> yes. initially they were trying to break through the barricade to get to other individuals that had been arrested and then eventually there were some punches that were thrown at the officers as they were trying to break through there, as officers were trying to stop that. they tried to assault to get to the folks that had earlier been arrested. reporter: these were outsiders that came in and -- [indiscernible] --

>> the individuals are still being processed so one of the things we'll look at is once we have the full information and confirm their identity, we'll coordinate with the university to determine if they are students or not students. we'll have information as the chief has indicated, we'll release that once we have that. reporter: how do the d.c. police try to maintain a presence out there and -- [indiscernible] -- >> at this point we're maintaining a presence as the university still has to get equipment in there to remove all of the tentness and things that are there. the university has plans of what they're going to do in that yard area. we're going to continue to support them until those operations are there. again, even after that we'll continue to periodically check in. obviously we have a lot of other things that we have to do across the city but we do support our universities and we'll continue to be in communication with the chief and the g.w. university police department. reporter: [indiscernible] -- >> weapon of been in conversations with not only g.w. university but the universities within the national capital region. not only the metropolitan police department but the other law

enforcement agencies, so obviously it's one of the things that we are continuing to evaluate as we move closer to that time frame. >> i have a question for mayor bowser. reporter: you have spoken at all today to the president at g.w.? >> i haven't. no. we're always speaking to, we've been in constant contact with g.w. throughout this process. reporter: you said earlier that you respect the oversight -- you expect the oversight committee to be postponeed? >> i expect it to be pulled down. congressman comer indicated that he thought our energy today should be on our ongoing operations. i agreed. yes? reporter: -- [indiscernible] --

protesters on support of the israel side are getting more support than protests that are -- [indiscernible] -- what are your sentiments around that and how do you go as far as protecting free speech -- >> so m.p.d.'s response to first amendment demonstrations is apolitical. it is without regard to one side or the other. and it's focused on public safety. any other questions? all right. thank you, everybody. [captioning performed byhe national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] >> the house will be back at about 3:30 p.m. eastern time. to debate the third bill on the schedule today. that measure would add a citizenship question to the u.s. census in 2030. you're watching c-span. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government. we're funded by these television

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