‘Boozy brunch’: Outgoing DC Mayor Muriel Bowser gives hilarious answer about what she’s looking forward to after she leaves office

Bowser, the first woman to win three consecutive terms as mayor of D.C., announced she would not be seeking re-election.

Being the mayor of Washington, D.C. has its inherent stresses. Muriel Bowser is looking forward to leaving all of those behind.

In an interview with NBC4Washington, Bowser announced that she will not seek a fourth term as mayor of the nation’s capital. The mayor seemed at ease with her decision, while looking ahead to addressing some of the things she didn’t get to do during her tenure.

“I know one thing that I see a lot of people doing that I don’t do. … They go to these boozy brunches on Sunday for, like, four hours. I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna go to a boozy brunch,” Bowser said.

Having dedicated her life to public service, Bowser reflected on her late father, Joe Bowser, who died last year at the age of 88.

“My dad was in the first class of ANC commissioners elected. He served a bunch of years,” she said. “I don’t even know how many — over 20. He chaired his commission, he chaired his civic association. And as a child, I went to a lot of meetings with him and just really soaked it up,”

She added, “My father loved that I was mayor. And I just think that he would be very proud. He was proud. And a friend told me, somebody who worked for me on my first campaign and was knocking on doors one day … he said, ‘Who is your dad? I said, ‘What do you mean? He said, you know, ‘I’ve been knocking on doors and people know your dad.’ And I said, you know, so I told him what dad was, and he said, he left a good name for you out here. So, that’s what I live up to.”

Her tenure as mayor coincided with the administrations of both the Trump and Biden administrations, before Trump’s return to the White House in January. Often seen as “pragmatic,” Bowser chose to play down the middle when it came to Trump’s use of the National Guard in D.C., calling it a “federal emergency” regarding crime in the area. Still, she remained critical of the guard’s presence in the city and reiterated there was “no emergency” facing the 700,000 residents of D.C.

She also oversaw the creation of Black Lives Matter Plaza in 2020 following the death of George Floyd and global protests. The Black Lives Matter street mural, which spanned two city blocks, was removed in May as part of a city initiative, D.C.’s America250 project, in celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary.

Boswer acknowledged the significance of the BLM mural in a post on X.

“The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city through a painful period, but can’t afford to be distracted by meaningless congressional interference,” she wrote.