Illinois Lt. Gov.: Trump ‘Wants to Manufacture a Crisis’ in Chicago

BOLDUAN: “Joining us right now to talk about this is the Lieutenant gGovernor of Illinois, Juliana Stratton. She‘s also running for the U.S. Senate seat that Dick Durbin will be vacating. Lieutenant Governor, thank you so much for being here. I want to read, just because the president is speaking out about this on social media just this morning, here‘s what he said to get you to respond. ‘At least 54 people were shot in Chicago over the weekend. Eight people were killed. The last two weekends were similar. Chicago is the worst and most dangerous city in the world, by far,’ the president writes this morning. ‘Pritzker needs help badly. He just doesn‘t know it yet. I will solve the crime problem fast, just like I did in D.C.. Chicago will be safe again, and soon.’ But John did point out, so did Alayna Treene, Chicago is not in the top 20 of cities when it comes to FBI crime stats on violent crime, and not in the top 10 when you talk about overall crime rates. So, facts and data are critical. But if, Lieutenant Governor, the president is saying that this morning, what do you think is going to happen?”
STRATTON: “Well, first of all, let me just say that Donald Trump is not focused on public safety. Look, anytime that there‘s crime anywhere in our state or around the country, we want to continue to see progress being made, and we are making progress here in Illinois and in the city of Chicago. But this is not about public safety, and this is not about making our residents safer. What Donald Trump wants to happen is he wants to manufacture a crisis. He‘s going to — as we just talked about, there‘s going to be a surge of ICE enforcement efforts. He knows that people will see those efforts and then want to speak out. People, good, decent people will be heartbroken to see their neighbors being snatched off the streets and stuffed into unmarked cars. He wants to flame — you know, inflame tensions. And he wants to make sure that he can cause some sort of crisis, that he can say that he‘s coming to the rescue. And what we know is that we are going to follow the law here in Illinois. We are going to do everything we can to protect our residents, and we‘re not going to allow this president who wants to manufacture a crisis, who wants to, quite frankly, make the military presence on American soil something that people normalize. We are going to speak out. We are going to be prepared to do everything we can to protect the residents of our state.”