{"id":72148,"date":"2021-07-03T21:43:10","date_gmt":"2021-07-04T01:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=72148"},"modified":"2021-07-03T21:44:54","modified_gmt":"2021-07-04T01:44:54","slug":"mayor-lori-lightfoot-lies-more-in-one-press-conference-than-other-mays-do-in-a-whole-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=72148","title":{"rendered":"Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot Lies More in One Press Conference Than Other Mayors Do In A Whole Year (Video)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Chicago Mayor Blames Trump for Crime &#8216;Surge&#8217;; Calls Newsmax &#8216;Incendiary&#8217;<\/h1>\n<p><!--more-->By Eric Mack | NEWSMAX<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ls_embed_1625362994\" src=\"https:\/\/livestream.com\/accounts\/4611163\/events\/8689282\/videos\/222974012\/player?width=640&amp;height=360&amp;autoPlay=true&amp;mute=false\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h5>(City of Chicago)<\/h5>\n<p>After blaming former President Donald Trump for Chicago&#8217;s violence, and pleading for people to &#8220;acknowledge&#8221; a &#8220;surge of violence&#8221; in her city, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/newsmaxtv.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Newsmax<\/a>\u00a0the data is trending down, calling a question about a crime surge &#8220;insulting&#8221; and the questioner a &#8220;failed political candidate.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;It is incredibly gratifying to have a partner in the White House who understands the appropriate and unique role that the federal government has to play in public safety at the local level; for four years we were ignored, over and over again,&#8221; Lightfoot said about Chicago&#8217;s crime surge during\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/livestream.com\/accounts\/4611163\/events\/8689282\/videos\/222974012\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">her Friday evening briefing<\/a>, which came after meeting with the Chicago City Council that was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/newsfront\/chicago-lorilightfoot-crime\/2021\/07\/01\/id\/1027199\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">spurred by Newsmax questioning<\/a>\u00a0one week ago. &#8220;I started raising these issues from the moment I became mayor. We needed more help from our federal partners.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot, whose\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/politics\/trump-chicago-crime-twitter\/2017\/06\/30\/id\/799109\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">facts on Trump were false<\/a>, praised President Joe Biden and the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms for assisting on &#8220;crime gun&#8221; seizures in the city, noting a dangerous July 4 weekend to come.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is a very challenging weekend, historically, going back decades,&#8221; Lightfoot told reporters, suggesting the &#8220;six hours of questioning&#8221; in a City Council meeting was untimely and potentially taking away from crime fighting for the dangers of the weekend ahead.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every single day the men and women of our police department are under danger,&#8221; she added. &#8220;We&#8217;ve seen an unprecedented level of people shooting at the police, last year and still this year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, we&#8217;ve made progress this year. Not enough. No one can be satisfied until we see dramatic drops in homicides and in shootings.<\/p>\n<p>A week after a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/newsfront\/chicago-mayor-lorilightfoot-crime\/2021\/06\/27\/id\/1026604\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">heated exchange with Newsmax<\/a>\u00a0correspondent William Kelly, Lightfoot admitted to a &#8220;surge&#8221; of violence, just one answer before taking another round of questions from Kelly again this Friday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a flaw in the system,&#8221; Lightfoot said of electronic monitoring programs failing to keep violent criminals off the streets. &#8220;We need to work together to fix it, but we&#8217;ve got to acknowledge that there&#8217;s a problem, because it is \u2013 no question in my mind \u2013 driving some of the surge of violence that we&#8217;ve seen in the city.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But Kelly was next, and Lightfoot seemed to contradict her messaging on a &#8220;surge of violence&#8221; to suggest homicide and shooting &#8220;data&#8221; was trending in the other direction.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What I said to you last week, what the superintendent said today over and over again, and what the data tells us, is this: When you look at homicides and shootings from April, May and June, we are trending downward,&#8221; Lightfoot told Kelly. &#8220;Is anybody satisfied on where we are? No. But the data is the data, and it is absolutely trending down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every major city in the United States, since 2020, is seeing a surge in violence \u2013 New York, L.A., Atlanta, D.C., across the board \u2013 but what we&#8217;re seeing here in Chicago is a downward trend, both in homicides and in shootings,&#8221; she added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Again, are we satisfied? Because what you&#8217;re saying is, &#8216;Hey, wait, there was a shooting someplace in our neighborhood.&#8217; Yeah, there are shootings, but what we are seeing in the data is a year over year, month over month decline and that is progress, yes sir.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kelly noted Lightfoot&#8217;s selective use of data comparing 2020 during George Floyd rioting to 2021 and the fact Lightfoot this week denounced criticism of her handling of Chicago&#8217;s crime telling local news: &#8220;99.9 percent of the criticism&#8221; is because she is &#8220;a Black woman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you honestly believe that?&#8221; Kelly asked. &#8220;The City Council of Chicago is obviously made up of many Black women who criticize you.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Do you really believe the criticism of you is\u00a099.9% based on the fact you&#8217;re a Black woman?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot initially deflected back to denying social unrest last June can be called &#8220;race riots.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;So, you said about 15 things, most of which were wrong; let&#8217;s deconstruct some of that: We didn&#8217;t have race riots last summer,&#8221; she told Kelly, repeating a claim he asked &#8220;15 questions&#8221; in last week&#8217;s heated exchange.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No, you&#8217;re wrong. Sir, you&#8217;re wrong, and I know that you like to be controversial. You do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kelly interjected before Lightfoot\u00a0resurfaced some points of contention.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sir, are you going to let me answer or are you just going to keep talking like you did the last time,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We&#8217;re allowing you in here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I know your political aspirations. I know your political aspirations haven&#8217;t been fulfilled. You&#8217;re a failed political candidate over and over again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But what you don&#8217;t have the right to do is make up facts,&#8221; Lightfoot continued, despite her misrepresentation of &#8220;fact&#8221; on Trump not helping Chicago for July 4, 2017 weekend. &#8220;We did not have race riots in our city last year. That&#8217;s just wrong. And it&#8217;s incendiary.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Lightfoot proceeded to attack Newsmax, suggesting criticism of her was incendiary.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Now, I know that&#8217;s what Newsmax likes to do, but I&#8217;m not going to let you take liberty with the facts, not in front of me,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;You&#8217;re not going to get away with that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Kelly then asked she redirect her focus: &#8220;So you&#8217;re not going to answer my question?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I answered your question,&#8221; Lightfoot said. &#8220;Your question, frankly, was insulting. You said race riots, you conflated the fact there were members of color on the City Council and somehow I don&#8217;t have a right to say, as a Black woman, as a lesbian, I don&#8217;t \u2013 my belief that some of the criticism is based solely on the basis on my gender and my race \u2013 that&#8217;s my personal . . .&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But, she said, &#8220;99.9%&#8221; of the criticism, Kelly reminded her.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s my personal opinion, sir,&#8221; she shot back. &#8220;You don&#8217;t have a right to criticize my personal opinion. So, I think I&#8217;ve answered your question as best I can, and now we&#8217;re moving on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the press conference, Lightfoot did circle back to the wave of shootings and violence in her city, deflecting &#8220;accountability&#8221; from herself to others.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am concerned about shootings every single day,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I go to bed thinking about it. I wake up in the morning thinking about it and making sure we&#8217;re doing everything we can to keep our community safe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Fundamentally, here&#8217;s the issue: There&#8217;s too many guns and too little accountability. It&#8217;s up to all of us, not one person.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/politics\/lori-lightfoot-mayor-chicago-crime\/2021\/07\/03\/id\/1027350\/\">https:\/\/www.newsmax.com\/politics\/lori-lightfoot-mayor-chicago-crime\/2021\/07\/03\/id\/1027350\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago Mayor Blames Trump for Crime &#8216;Surge&#8217;; Calls Newsmax &#8216;Incendiary&#8217;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=72148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=72148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=72148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=72148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}