Fresh off a few hours inside a holding cell with 40 of his closest friends, Mayor Vince Gray took to the airwaves this morning, highlighted by an appearance on CNN. (The cable news behemoth hasn’t yet uploaded an embeddable video of the exchange, but if they get around to it, we’ll update.)

“We were a bargaining chip,” Gray said, after the anchor made a brief note about Washington’s lack of voting rights and the Congress’ control over its budget. Gray called the District a “pawn in a political game.”

“It seems the District of Columbia was thrown under the bus,” Gray said. “All we want is to be able to spend our own money.”

“Congress should butt out of the District of Columbia’s business,” the Mayor added.

Gray made several other media appearances this morning, including a radio spot on WTOP, to discuss yesterday’s protests and arrests and to try and milk the most out of the story.