After joking with Colbert, Lightfoot tells LGBTQ donors in New York, ‘this is no time for defeatism’

NEW YORK — Mayor Lori Lightfoot debuted on the national stage on Monday, kicking off a Democratic National Committee LGBTQ fundraiser right after taping “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” telling the donors the Democratic 2020 presidential contenders have to put more on the table than just being anti-President Donald Trump.

Democrats, Lightfoot said, need to offer “an agenda that defends human rights, our planet and our economy. We’ve got to inspire and mobilize folks in 2020. This is no time for defeatism. It’s a time for courage. And we’ve got to stand for more than we are against Donald Trump.”

The 20^th annual LGBTQ event in a midtown event space capped off a day where Lightfoot was also prospecting for major foundation backing for Chicago projects in separate meetings with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. She also introduced herself to Wall Street bond raters at the Fitch agency.

Lightfoot also is doing some prospecting for her own political donors on this New York swing, coming as she is building out a permanent political organization and raising money for her war chest in the weeks following her May 20 inauguration.

‘I’m pretty funny’

The mayor was up for the challenge of acing Colbert when we talked earlier in the day about her New York swing, meeting at an Upper East Side coffee shop following her huddle with Bloomberg in the mansion on 78^th Street that is the headquarters for his philanthropic foundation.

When I asked about her prep for Colbert and if she had a comedy writer to help, Lightfoot seemed taken aback that I would even raise that possibility.

“I’m pretty funny on my own,” Lightfoot said.

I was in the audience for the taping but as a condition for letting me in, I had to agree not to reveal any direct content ahead of the Thursday evening telecast on CBS.

But I can tell you what I observed during the segment, which runs about six minutes.

The audience of about 420 in the Ed Sullivan Theater, where Colbert is taped, gave Lightfoot a standing ovation after Colbert introduced her. They laughed at his jokes — and hers.

Lynn Sweet/Sun-Times

Colbert, a Northwestern University graduate and Second City alum, relied on his knowledge from living in Chicago for years to help inform his questions and the conversation at times took a serious turn.

Lightfoot’s Manhattan trip was built around the invitation to DNC’s LGBQT gala featuring the mayor, other gay elected officials and presidential contenders, U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar. South Bend Mayor Peter Buttigieg cancelled, returning to Indiana after a man died in a shooting involving a city police officer.

The gala is pegged to Pride Month, created in the aftermath of the 1969 Stonewall uprising in Greenwich Village, considered a ground zero for what was known as the gay liberation movement.

In past years Pride Month was usually a celebration of advances made by the LGBTQ community but now, with the Trump administration intent on rolling back gains, it also throws a spotlight on how fragile progress is.

Remembering Stonewall

Lightfoot told me if she has a chance, she hopes to make a stop at the Stonewall Inn on this trip to pay her respects.

The mayor said in her DNC speech, “I’m proposing that we pledge to work together to defend our democracy, promote equality for all, and refashion the values that our movement forged so many years ago after Stonewall.

“Let’s stand together, stick together, and work together for justice of every description. Racial justice. Gender justice. Immigrant justice. Economic justice. Environmental justice.”

Her day started meeting with Dimon at his mid-town Manhattan office. Dimon was well known to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel but until Monday, a stranger to Lightfoot.

Chase during Emanuel’s tenure took on Chicago’s struggles to decrease poverty and gun violence. In 2017, Chase promised $40 million over three years to create more economic opportunities on the South and West sides. Last December, Chase committed another $10 million to help the areas.

City of Chicago CFO Jennie Huang Bennett was with Lightfoot at the Dimon meeting, as the cash starved city is hunting for $700 million to plug a funding gap.

Bloomberg’s philanthropic arm bankrolls programs to help bolster city halls around the globe; Lightfoot also was looking for some mayoral insights from Bloomberg.

“When you when you sit down with somebody who’s been a three-term mayor of the largest city in the United States, there’s a lot of opportunities to talk about a range of issues that we have in common,” whether it’s policing or dealing with the homeless, Lightfoot said.