Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot blamed the media for her failures after recently losing her re-election race.
On Thursday, Lightfoot joined leftist Al Sharpton for a panel discussion at his National Action Network (NAN) convention in Manhattan.
Sharpton blamed the “disrespect black women face” for Lightfoot being ousted by Chicago voters.
At one point, Sharpton came down on the side of law and order by saying he is on board with New York Mayor Eric Adams’ attempted crackdown on crime.
“Anybody that tells you they’re progressive but don’t care about dealing with violent crimes are not,” Sharpton said.
“Progressive for who? We gotta stop using progressive as a noun and use it as an adjective.
“You’re labeled progressive but your action is regressive.
“I’m woke? You must think I’m asleep.”
Sharpton then praised Lightfoot and claimed her failure as mayor is “an example of the disrespect that black women have to face.
“The only thing I’m mad at you about is you stole the Democratic convention from Eric and I.”
Lightfoot said:
“Those of you who are from outside of Chicago are like, ‘Wait, I thought Chicago was the murder capital of the world. I thought Chicago was the most violent place that you can’t walk down the street.’
“But the truth is – and this is one of the biggest challenges – we have to break through what the media wants to portray black-led cities as and tell the truth about what’s actually happening in our streets.”
According to City and State:
Adams served as moderator, so didn’t do much talking himself, but some of others’ words could have come out of Adams’ mouth.
Lightfoot complained that the press blamed her alone for the violence in her city.
“There is a different level of expectation in the public safety realm, for Black mayors,” added former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.
“We are supposed to make everyone safe, and nothing bad is ever supposed to happen.”
Adams audibly laughed at that, and earlier, Sharpton talked about how New York City’s first Black mayor, David Dinkins, lost reelection after Rudy Giuliani “scared the city” about crime.
“I don’t know about you, but we’re NOT going to let them play that game on Eric Adams in New York,” Sharpton said.
