The Spin: Lightfoot on Trump, ‘I think we understand each other’ | Scene of Chicago mass shooting becomes political stage | Feds subpoena AT&T as part of probe into Speaker Madigan, lobbying
In a week when tensions flared again between the Republican boss in the White House and Democratic boss at Chicago City Hall, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Gov. J.B. Pritzker stood with President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, Under Secretary of Energy Paul Dabbar at the University of Chicago. There, science leaders announced the DOE’s plan for “a new quantum internet infrastructure.”
It was all science and no politics. But earlier, Lightfoot was on MSNBC and offered a bit more about her phone call with Trump — one most everyone no doubt wishes we could have listened in on.
The scene of a mass shooting on the South Side just days ago became a political backdrop today.
A group of Republican candidates in this November’s election, running for everything from U.S. Senate to seats in the Illinois General Assembly gathered to decry the violence. This afternoon, activists with the Black Community Collaborative were holding a rally at the site to demand African American elected leaders use their political muscle to “end the neglect of Black communities.” They pointed out in a statement that the mass shooting in the Gresham neighborhood “is but the latest example of rampant violence in predominantly Black communities.”
Federal authorities on Friday announced that Commonwealth Edison had cut a deal in a federal bribery case alleging the utility giant improperly gave jobs and contracts to those close to powerful Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. Today, my Tribune colleagues report that AT&T was hit with a federal subpoena that same day in a widening criminal probe encircling Madigan’s political operation. Madigan also serves as the state’s Democratic Party chair.
And Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth is campaigning virtually today in Michigan for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. A reminder that Duckworth, of Hoffman Estates, is herself a candidate to be Biden’s running mate.
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During an interview this morning on MSNBC, the mayor shared a bit more about her takeaway from the brief phone conversation she had with Trump last night.
“I think we understand each other, and I’ve drawn a very, very sharp line,” Lightfoot said during the interview. “We are not going to agree to or accept anything like what’s happening on the streets of Portland, Oregon,” where Department of Homeland of Security agents have been accused of hitting the streets in fatigues and no ID and rounding up protesters. “We’re not going to have unnamed federal agents patrolling our streets, pretending to be the police, sweeping people off and denying them of their constitutional rights. That is not going to happen in Chicago.”
Lightfoot’s take: “What I understand is these are going to be additional FBI, DEA and ATF agents who are going to be augmenting existing investigations around violent crime, managed — and this is a critical difference — managed by the U.S. attorney here in Chicago who I know and trust,” the mayor said.
Reminder: Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said plainly during a White House news conference with Trump — hours before the presidential chat with the mayor — that “the DHS mission in Portland is to protect federal property and our law enforcement officers. In Chicago, the mission is to protect the public from violent crime on the streets.”
The president’s call to the mayor came on the same day he spoke at separate news conferences and painted Chicago as a shooting gallery, called the city a “disaster” and said it was “out of control.” Informed at one point by a reporter that Lightfoot had called his announcement a stunt to distract from a failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he once again blamed “far-left” mayors, including Lightfoot, for failing to put a lid on spiking crime in their cities.
Black Lives Matter, others file lawsuit against U.S. government over move to bring feds to Chicago: Read the Tribune story here.
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Widening criminal probe encircles embattled House Speaker Madigan’s political operation
My Tribune colleagues write: “Telephone giant AT&T has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors amid a widening criminal probe encircling House Speaker Michael Madigan’s political operation, a source with knowledge of the investigation told the Chicago Tribune.”
“Records show that AT&T has used several of the same former Madigan staffers and ex-Democratic state representatives as Commonwealth Edison, which was accused in federal charges unveiled last Friday of orchestrating a ‘yearslong bribery scheme’ involving jobs, contracts and payments to Madigan allies in exchange for favorable action in the state Capitol,” Jason Meisner, Hal Dardick, Jamie Munks and Ray Long write. Read their full story here.
Madigan previously has denied being a target of the investigation. A spokeswoman said last Friday that Madigan “has never made a legislative decision with improper motives” and had engaged in no wrongdoing.
Connections: “Among those who have lobbied for both ComEd and AT&T are Tom Cullen, who served as Madigan’s political director and was considered part of the speaker’s ‘inner circle'; former Madigan legal counsel Heather Wier Vaught; and onetime Madigan staffers Liz Brown-Reeves and D’Javan Conway, state lobbying records show.
The Tribune story notes: “Also on both companies’ lobbying teams: former Democratic state Reps. Kevin McCarthy and James Brosnahan, both of whom represented areas close to Madigan’s Southwest Side base. Meanwhile, AT&T Illinois President Eileen Mitchell was a top Madigan staff member during the 1990s before joining AT&T in 2003 as a vice president of external affairs. She also worked briefly as chief of staff to then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel.”
Political contributions: AT&T and its employees have donated more than a quarter of a million dollars in recent years to three separate campaign funds the speaker controls, my colleagues note.
FBI interviews Southwest Side state Rep. Theresa Mah about clout players, Chinatown parking lot as they investigate Madigan, the Chicago Sun-Times’ Mark Brown reports. “As best as I can tell, Mah has done nothing wrong and isn’t in any trouble. Her own lawyer was later assured as much” Brown writes. But the questions agents asked her connects some dots in his reporting. “Last year, my colleague Tim Novak and I reported on how the parking lot had been a topic of conversation in a 2014 meeting between Madigan, former 25th Ward Ald. Danny Solis and two Chinatown businessmen that was secretly recorded by the FBI.” Read the rest of his piece here.
GOP candidates gather on block where 15 people were shot in Chicago: A small, mostly white group of suburban Republican candidates looking to unseat various Democratic lawmakers this fall — in a variety of state and federal elected offices — called a news conference at the scene of Monday’s mass shooting in Chicago’s Gresham neighborhood, a storied African American community.
Mark Curran, the former Lake County sheriff who’s challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, called the shooters “evil,” and went on say that crime and politics have been interwoven for decades. Saying mobster Al Capone once “owned the elected officials in Chicago,” Curran suggested that “today it’s the Black Gangster Disciples …” before rattling off the names of a few other street gangs. He then accused Durbin of “standing on the floor of the U.S. Senate” and saying “he doesn’t want President Trump to send in any help with regards to the streets of Chicago.” You can watch the news conference, where several candidates said expanding the police force was among the solutions to tamping down crime, here.
In a letter to the president dated Tuesday, Durbin and fellow Illinois Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth stated in part: “You have indicated you may send additional federal agents to the city Chicago to conduct policing activities that traditionally are handled by local law enforcement. We strongly urge you to refrain from taking this action, which is opposed by Governor Pritzker, Mayor Lightfoot and other local leaders.”
In the hours and days that followed, however, everyone from Durbin and Duckworth to Lightfoot and Pritzker have softened their tone after getting some assurances that agents being sent to Chicago would be beefing up local FBI, ATF and DEA operations, among others and not conducting some, as the mayor called it, “Portland-style” law enforcement.
Durbin and Duckworth both issued a joint statement last night stating: “After needless threats from the president, we’re relieved the Trump administration says they plan to work with local officials and authorities in Chicago rather than undermine local law enforcement and endanger our civil rights, as their agents have done in Portland. We will continue closely monitoring the administration’s efforts to ensure they follow through with this commitment.”
Duckworth on the virtual campaign trail for Biden in Michigan: A crucial swing state won by Trump in 2016, Duckworth is hosting a roundtable today with labor leaders to discuss Biden’s economic recovery plan.
Chicago banks, stores ask for spare change as COVID-19 triggers national coin shortage
From the Tribune’s Abdel Jimenez: “In June, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers the flow of coins through the economy ‘kind of stopped’ as states enacted stay-at-home orders. Coin deposits from banks to the Fed have declined significantly. Also, production has slowed at the U.S. Mint as it implemented coronavirus safety measures to protect workers and inventory orders from banks picked up.”
Now in the U.S. and locally “(c)onvenience stores, grocers and national retailers like Walgreens and Walmart are asking customers to pay with a debit or credit card or with the exact amount due as they grapple with a national shortage of coins. Some businesses are offering free drinks or buyback programs to entice people to bring in their spare change” Jimenez writes. Read the full story here.
Coronavirus cases continue to inch up in Illinois: As COVID-19 cases rise in neighboring states, Illinois today announced 1,624 new known cases of the coronavirus, the highest number of new infections in nearly two months, my Tribune colleagues report. There were 20 additional deaths.
That brings the number of known cases in the state to 166,925 and the statewide death toll to 7,367 since the start of the pandemic.
Worries about COVID-19 spreading through the vents send Chicago building owners in search of cleaner air: The Tribune’s Ryan Ori has the details here.
Virus resurgence sends jobless claims up for first time since March: Read the AP story and catch up on COVID-19 updates here
President Trump announced a short time ago that he has canceled segments of the Republican National Convention scheduled for Florida next month, citing a “flare-up” of the coronavirus. Convention events will still be held in North Carolina, the Associated Press is reporting.
“To have a big convention is not the right time,” Trump said of Jacksonville during a White House briefing on the COVID-19 outbreak.
Trump moved parts of the GOP convention to Florida last month amid a dispute with North Carolina’s Democratic leaders over holding an event indoors with maskless supporters. But those plans were steadily scaled back as virus cases spiked in Florida and much of the country over the last month.
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