Chicago Mayor Says She Would 'Absolutely' Deny Interviews to White Reporters Again
Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is “unapologetic” about discriminating against white reporters, saying she “would absolutely” do it again.
To “celebrate” her two-year anniversary in office, Lightfoot announced in May that she would grant interviews only to “black and brown journalists.”
As @chicagosmayor reaches her two year midway point as mayor, her spokeswoman says Lightfoot is granting 1 on 1 interviews – only to Black or Brown journalists pic.twitter.com/PAUsacD9Gj
— Mary Ann Ahern (@MaryAnnAhernNBC) May 18, 2021
Her racist policy ignited a furious backlash. However, the embattled mayor said she doesn’t regret discriminating against white journalists and would cheerfully do it again.
“I would absolutely do it again,” Lightfoot told New York Times podcaster Kara Swisher on Monday.
“I’m unapologetic about it because it spurred a very important conversation, a conversation that needed to happen, that should have happened a long time ago.”
In doubling down on her segregation policy, Lightfoot suggested it was her duty to discriminate against white journalists.
“Here is the bottom line for me: To state the obvious, I’m a black woman mayor,” she said. “I’m the mayor of the third-largest city in the country. Obviously, I have a platform, and it’s important to me to advocate on things that I believe are important. Going back to why I ran — to disrupt the status quo.”
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Lightfoot said she instituted the anti-white ban because she was bothered by the “overwhelming whiteness and maleness of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps and yes, the City Hall press corps specifically.”
She was subsequently sued by government watchdog Judicial Watch, which filed a federal lawsuit on May 27 on behalf of the Daily Caller News Foundation and its reporter, Thomas Catenacci.
Catenacci, a white male, had emailed Lightfoot’s office in May, requesting an interview with the mayor. Her office ignored his initial request as well as his two follow-up emails.
In a statement Tuesday, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said Lightfoot must be held accountable for her anti-white discrimination, which violates Catenacci’s freedom of the press rights under the First Amendment and his right to equal protection under the 14th Amendment.
“Mayor Lightfoot discriminated against journalists based on their race,” Fitton said. “Judicial Watch has repeatedly requested that Lightfoot sign a consent decree agreeing not to use race-based criteria for interview requests for the remainder of her time in office.
“Not only did her lawyers ignore these requests, in a recent interview, an unrepentant Lightfoot told a New York Times writer, ‘I would absolutely do it again. I’m unapologetic about it because it spurred a very important conversation, a conversation that needed to happen, that should have happened a long time ago.’”
Catenacci said he had to sue the mayor because her tyrannical racism must not go unchecked.
“I cannot believe that Mayor Lightfoot told the New York Times reporter that she would absolutely discriminate against reporters again based on their race,” he said in the Judicial Watch news release. “If she isn’t stopped, what’s next?”
Even before this scandal, Lightfoot was widely criticized for allowing Chicago to devolve into a crime-infested killing field, where deadly gang violence is an accepted part of daily life in black and brown neighborhoods.
Tellingly, the mayor is a proponent of Black Lives Matter’s “defund the police” frenzy, which has ignited crime waves in liberal cities across the country.
Chicago shootings: 69 shot, 10 fatally, in weekend violence across city https://t.co/gTddYCq5zB
— Raymond E. Foster (@policeofficer) July 26, 2021
Last month, the mayor came under fire again after a damning internal email revealed her to be a petulant bully toward her subordinates.
In the shocking six-paragraph email, an enraged Lightfoot berated her staff about needing time to herself during the workday — which she called “office time.”
Shocking email from Lori Lightfoot—she copied Jack Nicholson’s deranged character from horror film “The Shining,”writing SAME sentence over&over. CREEPY & DISTURBING
Lightfoot should apply that crazy intensity&fervor to solving Chicago’s deadly violence!https://t.co/2cv6KEuwjA
— LionHearted (@LionInWinter44) June 17, 2021
The good news is that her mounting scandals have taken a toll on Lightfoot, who said she’s uncertain if she’ll seek re-election once her term ends in 2023.
“It’s not a gimme,” the mayor said on the Times podcast. “The toxicity of the debate. The physical and emotional tolls that it’s taking on all of us — those are serious issues.”
If Lightfoot doesn’t run again, she’ll join other embattled Democrats, including Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms, who chose not to seek re-election.
YTD in ATL violent crimes are up dramatically – And arrests are significantly down – by nearly half.
Murders: +60%
Shootings: +51%
Arrests Year to Date:
All arrests: -43%
Part I Crimes (most serious) : -41%
Quality of Life charges: -61%
see the stats here:https://t.co/HEixeHJhyg— Justin Gray (@JustinGrayWSB) May 3, 2021
Like Seattle and Atlanta, Chicago has been ravaged by terrifying crime waves amid police pullbacks fueled the left’s “defund the police” hysteria.
Let’s hope Lightfoot does the right thing and spares her city more of her incompetent “leadership.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
