President Donald Trump on Thursday, suggesting again he may sidestep Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker, told Fox News Host Sean Hannity “we’re going to have to do something” about crime in Chicago.
Actions from the White House rarely follow any of Trump’s frequent statements about crime in Chicago.
And in a related move – and coming with a tragic number of children being killed - White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany wrapped up her briefing Thursday with a “plea for peace in our streets because far too many children have been lost.” She showed the pictures of youths - most from Chicago - who were victims of gun violence.
McEnany said, “And may we all hold in our prayer and keep close to our hearts the families.” She showed pictures of Natalia Wallace, who was 7; Mekhi James, who was 3; Vernado Jones Jr., who was 14; Sincere Gaston, who was 1; Lena Nunez, who was 10; and Amaria Jones, who was 13.
Trump has focused on Chicago’s problems with shootings for years. He once threatened to “send in the feds.”
In a June letter, he offered Lightfoot and Pritzker meetings with cabinet officials, but he wrapped that offer with insults to the leaders and asides about other issues. Lightfoot and Pritzker did not regard the letter as a serious offer to help the city grapple with its chronic crime problem.
“Unfortunately, you continue to put your own political interests ahead of the lives, safety, and fortunes of your own citizens,” Trump wrote. “The people of Chicago deserve better.”
After Hannity asked about crime in cities, Trump said, “Chicago, what’s going on in Chicago and we are looking at it very seriously because we’re going have to do something. ….the mayor or the Governor of Illinois should be asking but they don’t want to ask and you look every weekend and every week in Chicago, it’s just numbers that are not believable… Atlanta’s starting to have some problems. So we’re ready to act, and at some point we may have to act anyway we may have to do it sooner rather than later.”
Trump said the Chicago police are “terrific” but as in New York, he asserted, they are “just not being allowed to do their job.”
