Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight” that President Donald Trump was “reprehensible” for “trampling on our constitution.”
Johnson said, “It’s clear that this is not about safety for President Trump, because if it were, he would not have cut over $800 million from violence prevention programs like what we have in the city of Chicago, where we have CVI workers that are working to disrupt violence. If this were about safety, he would not have cut, you know, the ATF budget by nearly 30%. My police department has collaborated with the federal government to get illegal guns off the streets of Chicago. Just a couple of weeks ago, we took over 170 guns off the streets of Chicago. Many of them have switches or attachments that allow for guns to be turned into machine guns. These are severe high-power weapons. If the president was serious about safety, he would go into the red states where guns are being trafficked from, Mississippi, Indiana, that come into the city of Chicago and cause the type of violence that we saw just this past weekend.”
He added, “This president is trampling on our constitution. He’s behaving in a way that is undermining our democracy, and he’s trying to get us to submit our humanity to his will. That’s not what we’re going to do in the city of Chicago. We’re going to stand up for working people, make the necessary investments, hold the people accountable who are causing harm. But we need this president to actually show up with real investments. If he were serious, why did he cut 30% of the budget of ATF? 1465 Americans who have been serving in these capacities got cut from his budget. For what? To militarize ICE, his own private security entity, that causes harm and terror against communities. This president is reprehensible, his behavior at this moment, and that’s why we’re standing firm in the city of Chicago to protect people, to stand up for people, and then to invest in people.”
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