Lightfoot to Trump: 'FU'
‘He’s a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, a xenophobe,’ says Gov. Pritzker
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot had harsh words — in code — for President Trump on Friday. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
President Trump got both barrels from the state’s leading politicians Friday after he tweeted on Minneapolis protesters: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Trump tweeted in response to violent protests against Minneapolis police killing George Floyd earlier in the week. The line was originally attributed to Miami Police Chief Walter Headley in the ‘60s and was later recited by segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace when he ran for president in 1968.
Although National Public Radio reported that Twitter hid the tweet, Trump later repeated, “Looting leads to shooting.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was having none of it when asked about it at a coronavirus news conference Friday. “I feel angry, I feel sickened and a range of other emotions all at once,” she said. Noting that Floyd was an African American, she added, “Being black in America should not be a death sentence. We should not fear for the lives of our young ones, and mothers shouldn’t fear when their young men and women go out into the world that they’re going to get that fateful call.”
Calling the tweet “profoundly dangerous” and accusing Trump of throwing “red meat” to his political base, Lightfoot said, “We see the game he’s playing because it’s so transparent and he’s not very good at it. He wants to show failures on the part of Democratic local leaders … his goal is to polarize, to destabilize local government, and to enflame racist urges. And we can absolutely not let him prevail. I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It’s two words. It begins with ‘F’ and it ends in ‘U.’”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker discussed Floyd’s death at Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing, saying that “being black in America cannot be a death sentence.” Asked about Trump’s ensuing tweet at Friday’s briefing in Chicago, he said, “From the very moment that I announced my decision to run for governor, three-plus years ago, I said that this president was a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, and I was right then and I’m right now. His tweets, his reaction, his failure to address the racism that exists in America is a stoking of the flames in sometimes subtle and sometimes not no subtle ways. It’s completely unacceptable. It’s reprehensible, in fact. And I’m outraged by what he does in response to these situations.”
“From the very moment that I announced my decision to run for governor, three-plus years ago, I said that this president was a racist, a misogynist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, and I was right then and I’m right now.”
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (Illinois.gov)
Sending condolences to “the family of George Floyd and also to every African American in this country,” he added on Trump, “I’m pretty blunt about this. He’s a racist. I’m not sure what else I need to say that’s more severe than that. Precisely everything that I have fought against in my entire life is represented by what he tweets and says and foments.”
Asked about Trump’s move Friday to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, Pritzker said, “It seems as if President Trump is withdrawing us from the rest of the world, and I think we saw what happens to a nation when you withdraw from the rest of the world, what happens in terms of chaos around the world when the United States is not leading, and unfortunately that’s where President Trump has taken us, to where the United States is not leading where it ought to.”
The double-barrel blast threatened to overshadow the state’s move to the third phase of the Restore Illinois plan to reopen the economy, a day after Lightfoot announced that Chicago would be following suit in many ways on Wednesday.
Illinois Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike announced Friday 1,622 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases statewide, bringing the state total to 117,455. New deaths dropped below 100 again to 86 for the day, taking the statewide toll to 5,270. Coronavirus hospitalizations dropped to 3,599, and those under intensive care dropped below 1,000.
Even as the state reopened many aspects of the economy and public life, Ezike and Pritzker maintained the need for the basic tactics that had thus far succeeded in slowing the pandemic: wearing a face covering in public, observing social distancing of 6 feet, and washing hands frequently. They also warned of scammers who might be trying to take advantage of the state’s contact-tracing program for confirmed COVID-19 cases, and the public’s unfamiliarity with it.
Telling the public to beware scammers “who unfortunately are on the prey and looking to take advantage of people,” Ezike warned not to give out private information like Social Security numbers, bank accounts, or credit-card numbers, and not to turn over money in any way to those claiming to be contact tracers.
Pritzker echoed that, saying, “No one will ask for that” infomation. “They will provide you with information. That’s all they’re intended to do.”
Pritzker signed a new Community Recovery Order, saying it “brings to an end Illinois’s stay-at-home executive order” and adding, “The success of the last phase is evidenced by the declining positivity rate” in tests, “the declining hospitalizations, the declining ICU bed use, and declining number of deaths.” He said, “The people of Illinois have taken this seriously, and that has made all the difference.”