Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Says Trump Wants Civil War After Sending National Guard To D.C.

5 months ago

In a press conference on Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson gave a scathing response to Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to D.C. and gave a call to resist.

Transcript

00:00Good morning, Mayor.

00:01Good morning.

00:02Please tell me you're going to change the subject.

00:04Okay.

00:05Well, I was going to, but maybe I don't want to.

00:08You're good.

00:09Go for it.

00:09Whatever you want.

00:10Sarah, what was that monologue about?

00:14Could we discuss what was happening yesterday?

00:17The president has powers to take over the Metro Police Force in D.C.

00:23Does not have that power here, but could, under the Insurrection Act, send in the National

00:28Guard into the city of Chicago.

00:30The president was, well, he called you an incompetent man yesterday.

00:36He said the same thing about the governor.

00:38Talk about your feelings on what the president had to say about crime rates in D.C., in Chicago,

00:48how that doesn't necessarily jive with the numbers that we're getting from the police

00:52forces from both cities, and your thoughts on the president using the Insurrection Act

00:58as a catalyst to bring in the National Guard into the streets of Chicago.

01:05Well, it's clear that the president of the United States of America is very much interested

01:12in insurrections.

01:14He led one.

01:15And I remember a time in which we had presidents who declared war on poverty.

01:25This president has declared war on poor people.

01:27And he's doing it by way of taking away Medicaid, taking away SNAP, you know, I mean, literally

01:40taking away food.

01:41And, you know, he has gone after the Department of Public Education, defunding critical resources

01:48to our cities.

01:51And he is literally plundering our cities as we speak.

01:55And I am quite disturbed, frankly, by the unhealthy style of governance where he has shredded

02:14our Constitution.

02:15And, you know, if the president was sincere, he would not be declaring war on poor people

02:23and going after homeless people.

02:26That's a much different posture than what we're taking in the city of Chicago, right?

02:32I mean, we've expanded our shelter beds by 126 percent, put $40 million into our shelter

02:39system to improve them.

02:40We're on pace to build 10,000, you know, affordable units by the time my first term ends.

02:46And we're making critical investments to drive violence down on the city of Chicago.

02:51Homicides are down 30 percent.

02:53Shootings and shooting victims down almost 40 percent.

02:56So it's evident that the work is working.

03:00And so as disturbing as it is, you know, we can't not lose sight on what we are facing.

03:10And President Trump shifting the highest concentration of wealth into the hands of the ultra-rich.

03:20It's why here in Chicago we're moving to challenge the ultra-rich to pay their fair share in taxes, right?

03:31You have a tax burden of working people in the city of Chicago about 19, 19 and a half, almost 20 percent.

03:38Where for the rich, it's about 11, 11 and a half percent.

03:43For the ultra-rich, they almost pay no taxes, right?

03:47And so my focus is going to always be to protect people of this city and to build the safest, most affordable big city in America.

03:58And though we take these threats seriously, we will not bow down or succumb to his tyrant rage.

04:08Have you had conversations with public safety, with the superintendent, on the possibility of that happening?

04:22Well, he doesn't have the illegal authority to do it, right?

04:24So let me just be very clear.

04:26He does not have the legal authority to do it.

04:28Right.

04:29I'm not talking about the police force.

04:30I'm talking about the Insurrection Act and National Guard.

04:32I'm saying he does not have – I know what you're talking about.

04:34He does not have the legal authority to do it.

04:36In fact, troops do not have policing power.

04:40They're not even trained to do that.

04:42So understand what this president is provoking.

04:45He is provoking on sending federal troops, the National Guard, into cities to plunder them,

04:54though those entities do not have policing power.

04:58So they can't even do the very thing that he claims that he wants them to do.

05:03You talk about incompetence.

05:05Look, I taught seventh grade.

05:08In Chicago, seventh graders have to pass the Constitution.

05:11I taught it.

05:14This president could use a seventh grade class right now to understand the basics of the Constitution.

05:22And so it's incumbent upon all of us as we literally watch this man shred the Constitution in front of us,

05:31taking not only a tyrannical approach, an authoritarianism approach towards governance,

05:38is doing it with no resistance from his own party.

05:45And I'm grateful that there are Democrats around the country and even reasonable Republicans

05:51who recognize that he is a threat to our democracy.

05:56You all have heard me speak of this before.

05:58I've said this for the last couple of years.

06:00The extreme right in this country wants a rematch of the Civil War.

06:07His own mentor, President Andrew Jackson, is how he is modeling his behavior.

06:12The trail of tears.

06:14Snatching people off of their land.

06:18A war on poor people.

06:21He is one of the biggest threats to humanity that we've seen in an entire generation.

06:26And as mayor of the city of Chicago,

06:29and as someone who understands the premise of our Constitution,

06:34we are justified in our resistance to his authoritarianism.

06:44And as mayor of the city of Chicago,

06:45the city of Chicago,

06:46we are being unified by our city of Chicago.

06:48And the city of Chicago is a great place to be here.

06:49So that's the only way you are in this country of territory.

06:56And the city of Chicago,

06:57you have to be able to let the city of Chicago.

06:59There are no ganhar a place to be in this country.

07:01If you're working here,

07:02no matter what's going on,

07:04there are no reason why it's going to be in the country of Chicago.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson Says Trump Wants Civil War After Sending National Guard To D.C.

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