SUN TIMES//Lynn Sweet
Mayor Lori Lightfoot said her 12-year-old daughter was “beside herself with joy” when she heard the news about Joe Biden putting Kamala Harris on the Democratic presidential ticket.
Harris, the junior senator from California, is the daughter of immigrants, a woman of color whose mother is from India and her father is from Jamaica.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Lightfoot, asked about a President Donald Trump comment about quelling violence, said he “doesn’t understand the first thing about local policing, about building authentic relationships with members of the community.”
Lightfoot appeared on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show” on Tuesday night and then hit the cable network again for an early-morning spot.
On Trump’s latest on Chicago and Lightfoot’s response
On Tuesday, Trump brought up at a news conference “the violence, looting, and rioting taking place in the Democrat-controlled cities of New York, Portland, Chicago, and Seattle.”
On Chicago, he said, “the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois have 25,000 police officers, sheriffs, and Guardsmen available to quell any violence. They can do it very quickly, very easily if allowed to do their jobs — again, if allowed to do their jobs.
Our police, our law enforcement is incredible, but they have to be allowed to do their jobs. The Democrats or the radical-left Democrats — or both, because they’re becoming one and the same, if you look at election results — the Democrats are being taken over
by the radical left.”
Lightfoot, asked about this on “Morning Joe” said, “those are the words that somebody who doesn’t understand the first thing about local policing, doesn’t understand the first thing about building authentic relationships with members of the community.
“Case in point is look at the disastrous efforts of the federal government under this administration in Portland — it didn’t help. It hurt, exacerbated problems. I’m not letting that happen in my city.
“Yes, of course we have our challenges, but the thing that the federal government is uniquely qualified to do is things like pass common sense gun reform. Make sure that everybody has background checks. Stop … the availability [of] assault weapons. People that
are on a no-fly list shouldn’t be able to get weapons. The list goes on and on, the things that can really help cities to stop putting guns in the hands of criminals. This president has shown an absolute abject unwillingness to even discuss, let alone move
on.”
On Biden picking Harris to be his running mate
Lightfoot told Rachel Maddow, “Look, we know that Donald Trump is hostile to women. He’s a misogynist. ... He doesn’t regard us as being worthy. He’s attacked women all summer long.”
Referring to other female Black mayors, Lightfoot said, “every single time he does, he underestimates how tough we are, how resilient we are and how we are ready and able to lead.”
“He’s gonna make the same mistake against Kamala Harris, and he is going to be pushed back on his heels.
“This is not a woman to be trifled with. She is tough, she is is fearless, and more importantly, she is going to bring into the conversation of this campaign, lots of people who are going to be looking to her as a leader.
“They are going to be seeing themselves in her and going to be proud that she is on the stage on a national level, and he is underestimating the unifying factor that she’s going to bring to this election. They always underestimate us to their peril. And they’re
going to do the same thing with Kamala.”