Mayor Muriel Bowser refuted President Donald Trump’s accusation that she declined to allow D.C. police officers to respond to intense protests outside the White House on Friday night over the death of George Floyd.

“No one needed to ask to get our police involved because they were already involved,” Bowser said.

D.C. police estimated that more than a thousand people protested in D.C. last night, first gathering at 14th and U streets in the early evening before marching to the White House, which briefly went on lockdown, and elsewhere downtown.

There were clashes between law enforcement and protesters near Lafayette Park until the early morning hours. The Secret Service said Saturday that it made six arrests and multiple officers were injured.

In a series of tweets on Saturday morning, Trump called Bowser out personally and claimed that she wouldn’t let the Metropolitan Police Department respond to the demonstration.

The Secret Service and U.S. Park Police have jurisdiction over the areas in front of the White House, but they are in regular communication with D.C. police. D.C. Police Chief Peter Newsham told reporters that was the case last night, too.

“All of the decisions that are made in an instance like this are made in a unified command. A collective decision was made on how to proceed,” Newsham said. “That’s the way we handled it last night and early this morning. That’s the way that we will handle it tonight and for any ongoing demonstrations that we have in our city.”

Newsham noted that MPD worked in tandem with the Secret Service and Park Police throughout the evening. The Secret Service confirmed in a statement that MPD and Park Police were on the scene.

There were also large-scale protests across the country, including major demonstrations in Minneapolis, Richmond, Oakland, and Atlanta, among others. Trump appeared to be calling on his own supporters to gather, writing “Tonight, I understand, is MAGA NIGHT AT THE WHITE HOUSE???”

The president also praised the Secret Service and claimed that protesters would have been met by “ominous weapons” and “vicious dogs” if they had breached the White House fence.

Bowser, not normally known for fiery rhetoric, didn’t hold back in calling the president’s comments “no subtle reminder to African Americans of segregationists who let dogs out on women, children, and innocent people in the South,” while lacing into the president.

“These comments are an attack on humanity and they are an attack on black America, and they make my city less safe,” Bowser said at a press conference on Saturday afternoon. “What used to be dog whistles, we now hear from a bullhorn.”

Bowser echoed her tweets from earlier in the morning, in which she called Trump “scared” and “alone” and said she stands with people protesting institutional racism.

“Our nation is grieving the murder of George Floyd and every black person who has been killed by an unjust and unfair system. We are grieving hundreds of years of institutional racism, systems that require black Americans to prove our humanity, just for it to be disregarded,” she said. “We need leaders who recognize this pain and in times of great turmoil and despair, can provide us a sense of calm and a sense of hope. Instead what we’ve got in the last two days from the White House is the glorification of violence against American citizens.”

Newsham added that he showed his commanding officers the video involving George Floyd, calling it “sickening.” When asked if Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck, should be charged with second or first degree murder, Newsham answered, “my sense from watching that video is that is nothing less than murder.”

Bowser said the city is prepared for another protest today at the Justice Department, and said that the Park Police has requested assistance from the National Guard “if there is crowd control needed.”