Lori Lightfoot: If Trump Is Concerned About Violent Crimes, He Should Go After Gun Manufacturers, Gun Stores

HUNT: “Madam Mayor, thank you very much for being here. This, obviously, we‘ve been talking about the constitutionality of what‘s going on, Chicago being different than Washington, D.C.. I want to ask you about what the president says is a major problem for people who live in the city of Chicago. He has said to them, ‘Hey, you don‘t have to live like this.’ I know crime was a significant issue when you ran the city. What do you say to the president of the United States about this? What do you say to residents of Chicago who may be concerned about crime?”
LIGHTFOOT: “Listen, let‘s be clear, this is never about violent crime. It‘s not going to be about violent crime. I‘m sitting in a studio that is one block away from Trump Tower. They‘re charging $800 a night for a room. They couldn‘t be as bold and audacious to charge that kind of amount if this was a hellscape, if this was a killing field. So it‘s not about violent crime. This is about two things. It‘s about power, and it‘s about money. He wants to exercise his power. He wants to scare the heck out of immigrant communities, and he wants to use the pretext of the National Guard or the military coming into Chicago to boost up the ICE numbers. But one thing I want to be clear about. We got a ruling today in San Francisco from a federal judge that said the pretense of sending in the troops into L.A. was just that, and we had lawyers defending that administration that clearly put on perjured testimony about the farce in the factual basis for doing it. If he comes to Chicago, he‘s going to be in court and he‘s going to be sued by the state, he‘s going to be sued by the city. And I believe that there will be private interests that also sue him. This is not about violent crime, and I don‘t think we should pretend that this manufactured crisis and his attempt to provoke people in Chicago is legitimate exercise of power. It is not. Coming into Chicago with troops would violate the Posse Comitatus Act, and he would find the same result as he did in L.A. and in California. If he really cared about violent crime, go after the gun manufacturers who are just mass producing these weapons and have no liability or accountability. Go after the gun stores that know that they‘re selling to straw purchasers that flood into our city. Pass commonsense gun reform that we have been begging for, for decades. Those are the kinds of things that actually would make a meaningful difference in violent crime. He‘s not talking about any of those things. He will not do any of those things because this is not about violent crime. It‘s about something else.”