Gianno Caldwell slams Chicago mayor amid homicide spree: This is not a mayor who is for the people
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is an elitist who is leaving the residents unsafe, Fox News contributor Gianno Caldwell says after Chicago marks its deadliest day in 60 years.
Fox News political analyst and Chicago native Gianno Caldwell called out the Democratic mayor of his hometown for abandoning the city's African-American residents, after Chicago experienced its single most violent day in six decades, amid protests and riots in the wake of the death of George Floyd.
"This is not a mayor who is for the people. This is not a mayor, who the African-Americans, who mostly put her in office, this is not who they picked," said Caldwell on "Fox and Friends" on Wednesday, blasting Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
"She is an elitist and she's proven it — time and time again," he argued. "And she's leaving the city residents unsafe."
Criticism of Lightfoot was amplified on June 5, after a recording of a May 31 conference call to discuss violent and destructive riots in the city was released by WTTW-TV.
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In the audio, Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez tells Lightfoot, "Half our neighborhoods are already obliterated... we have to come up with a better plan because my fear is once they are done looting and rioting and whatever is going to happen tonight, God help us, what happens when they start going after residents?"
"I have got gang bangers with AK-47s walking around right now waiting to settle some scores ..." Lopez continued.
"I think you're 100 percent full of s---, is what I think," Lightfoot responded. "If you think we were not ready and we stood by and let the neighborhood go up, there is nothing intelligent that I can say to you..."
Caldwell said that Lightfoot, like her Democratic predecessors, is shirking responsibility.
"They were not ready and it is a complete lie that she is telling," he said, "From Mayor Rahm Emanuel to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the city officials there have completely and totally failed and every alderman has every right to be upset."
According to Caldwell, Lightfoot made the decision to deploy National Guardsmen to protect predominately white areas of Chicago, leaving black residents to fend for themselves.
"On May 31, the city 911 center received 65,000 calls to 911. That's 50,000 more than they typically get," he explained, "The mayor requested ... National Guard members and instead of pushing them throughout the city, she said no, we're going to protect the downtown communities and those businesses, which is typically where white people live."
"It's not wrong that we are protecting those areas, but she left disenfranchised people, the businesses that are minority-owned on the south and west sides, available for the looters and rioters."
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"Now we think about the liberals throughout the country are saying 'defund the police,' one of the stupidest mottos you can have at this particular point," Caldwell concluded. "Say that to the people of Chicago, say that to the poor black people that are living there. They do not want to see the police defunded. They want to see more police in their communities — community policing."
Caldwell is a product of Chicago, and as detailed in the Fox Nation documentary, "The New Battle for Chicago," he determined early on in his life that he would dedicate himself to helping the city's people.
"One day my grandfather and I were driving through this area in Chicago called Englewood. It's one of the worst-off communities in Chicago — gangs, violence, drugs," narrated Caldwell, who was rescued by his grandparents after his mother became addicted to drugs and incapable of caring for him and his siblings.
"He begins to tell me about the elected officials and the power they have to effect real change in people's lives," Caldwell continued in the Fox Nation show, "how they can create tougher penalties for those who sell and distribute drugs, how they can provide grant funding for those who want to be rehabilitated. And I said I wanted to be an elected official."
"At the age of 14, I began to volunteer and learn the political process and the legislators there, the lawmakers often talked about how they wanted to change things, but it began to seem more and more like all talk and no action."
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"That's when I began to question the policies of the Democratic Party, and that's when I began to seek out a better way to live life. That's when I became conservative," he said.
Caldwell also put faces and names to the grim crime statistics that come out of Chicago every year, interviewing dozens of city residents, including politicians, gang members and drug dealers.
To watch all of "The New Battle for Chicago," learn more about Caldwell's upbringing, his joyful reconciliation with his mother, and what he believes is the key to the city's rehabilitation, go to Fox Nation, and sign up today.
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