The Spin: Pritzker feeling ‘challenged’ over COVID-19 response | Fired top cop Johnson now on city’s do-not-hire list | Michelle Obama’s podcast to address ‘tough year,’ relationships
In Rockford today, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said his confidence level in leading the state through the pandemic was high after case numbers started dipping in May, but acknowledged he now feels “challenged” because of nationwide spikes in the virus and an uptick in Illinois, the Tribune’s Rick Pearson reports.
In addition to getting the ax over a drinking and driving episode last year, ex-Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson also is on the city’s “ineligible for rehire” list kept by the human resources department.
That’s according to a new city watchdog report on the incident released this morning, which paints an embarrassing picture of an “impaired” top cop who broke several traffic laws behind the wheel of his city-owned vehicle as his own officers followed him home only to mislead the public and the mayor about what happened in the days that followed.
My colleagues John Byrne and Dan Hinkel remind readers that city Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s summary report offered new details about what happened that October night, but notes that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration has declined to release the more detailed report of the incident.
To say the report doesn’t help the Police Department is an understatement: It comes at a time when Johnson’s replacement, David Brown, is working to restore police-community trust amid a spike in violent crime locally and as law enforcement across the nation faces intense criticism over a series of excessive-force cases.
And former first lady and beloved Chicagoan Michelle Obama will launch a podcast on relationships on July 29, Spotify announced this morning.
Welcome to The Spin.
From the Tribune’s Byrne and Hinkel: After drinking “several large servings of rum” with a subordinate at a downtown restaurant last fall, then-Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson sat in his city vehicle for two hours parked illegally at a South Side intersection before police officers arrived and let him drive himself home, the city watchdog reported Thursday.” Read the full story here. And read the report, which details how Johnson violated several traffic laws en route to his home that night, here.
In the days that would follow, according to the report, Johnson misled the public and mayor, telling reporters at a news conference and, separately, the mayor that he had pulled over after falling ill, the apparent result of a mix-up with his medication. While he told the mayor he had had a few drinks over dinner with friends, he made no mention of it at the news conference.
Johnson also told the media that he had ordered an internal investigation of the incident, to ensure police responded by the book, which also was not true, according to Ferguson’s report.
In fact, Johnson had been out drinking with a subordinate — his driver who also was part of his security team — then drove her to Chicago police headquarters on the South Side to drop her off at her car and then he drove off. A short distance away, he apparently stopped the car on the street and nodded off for several hours, prompting a passerby to call 911.
For now we’ll have to wait on Ferguson’s report about whether police officers, along with a supervisor who was summoned to the scene, followed the letter of the law in responding to the 911 call.
It’s a messy end to a quiet but steady career that Johnson said was influenced by his father’s do-the-right-thing attitude.
And he won’t be back to work for the city — according to the inspector general, his recommendation to the mayor to add Johnson to the city’s “ineligible for rehire list” is a done deal.
Politics, connections played into hiring at Cook County agency in charge of handling property tax appeals, county watchdog: The Tribune’s Alice Yin has the details here.
For Pritzker, needle has moved from feeling confident in COVID-19 response to ‘challenged'
As he warned parents today to prepare for a fall school semester unlike “any other,” Gov. Pritzker also reflected on his own change in attitude as the pandemic wares on, the Tribune’s Rick Pearson reports. Read the details, including some of the planning to reopen the school year and concerns raised by the major teachers’ unions, here.
Pearson writes: “Pritzker ... said his confidence level in leading the state through the pandemic was high after case numbers started dipping in May, but acknowledged he now feels ‘challenged’ due to nationwide spikes and an uptick in Illinois.”
“As we came down the other side of that peak, my confidence level raised,” he said. “Now that we have a massive uptick in cases all across the country, my confidence level is challenged.
“And then I look at the state of Illinois, and although we’ve had a mild uptick, it’s one that I watch every day because anybody that knows anything about epidemics knows that when you have a mild uptick, there’s an indicator you’re heading in the wrong direction and it may multiply. So we want to make sure we get a handle on that,” he said.
Cook County Board passes measure aimed at spending CARES Act funding on suburbs long in need: The Tribune’s Alice Yin has the story here.
Pritzker examining process of removing Stephen Douglas statue on South Side
Days after three Illinois lawmakers penned a letter to Gov. Pritzker asking for the removal of a towering statue honoring the late Illinois Sen. Stephen Douglas, the governor’s spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh today tells The Spin “the administration is looking into the process for removing the statue and will work with the appropriate state agencies to do so.”
Douglas, who made a losing bid for president against Abraham Lincoln, was once heralded for building up the state’s Democratic Party, but his defense of slavery in the run-up to the Civil War has triggered a review of the many tributes to him in the state.
“We feel it is incredibly offensive that in a neighborhood that is predominantly Black that there is a state sanctioned ninety-six-foot tall granite structure affixed with a nine-foot bronze statue of Douglas,” State Rep. Kam Buckner, whose 26th District includes the South Side community of Bronzeville, Rep. Lamont J. Robinson, 5th, and Rep. Curtis J. Tarver II, 25th, write. “There is an edifice dedicated to allowing a bigot even in his grave to look down upon the Black community. This is indefensible.”
The lawmakers’ request comes amid a national reckoning over the nation’s history of racial injustices, reignited after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd in May. Across the South, activists are demanding the removal of statues honoring the Confederacy, saying it’s morally indefensible to honor those who fought to preserve slavery.
Known as Douglas Tomb State Memorial Park, the edifice and statue soar over Douglas’ burial site on 35th Street, just east of Cottage Grove Avenue; Douglas owned land on the South Side. Lawmakers stressed they want the statue removed, but not to disturb the tomb or remains there.
They also want the state and the city of Chicago to remove it as a destination on the “Enjoy Illinois” and “Choose Chicago” tourist websites.
In an emailed statement, the mayor’s office said: “The City of Chicago is carefully evaluating its current policies around monuments, public art conservation, and new commissions.”
Earlier this month, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan called for a portrait of Douglas in the Capitol’s House chamber to be removed, and the University of Chicago removed two displays honoring Douglas on the South Side campus, noting that he “profited from his wife’s ownership of a Mississippi plantation where Black people were enslaved.”
“The Michelle Obama Podcast,” which will focus on conversations about relationships — from siblings to friends, partners and parents — launches July 29 on Spotify, according to an announcement this morning from the streaming service.
“It’s been a tough year and I hope this podcast can help us explore what we’re going through and spark new conversations with our loved ones,” Michelle Obama, who was raised in Chicago, wrote on Twitter.
A look at the guests: Expect her own family to make an appearance including mother Marian Robinson, who left her lifelong home in Chicago to live with the first family during President Barack Obama’s two terms in office, and brother Craig Robinson, according to Spotify. Other notables expected on the show: close friend and Chicagoan Valerie Jarrett, who served as a senior adviser in the Obama White House, along with talk-show host Conan O’Brien, journalist Michele Norris and Dr. Sharon Malone, whose spouse is Eric Holder, who was attorney general under Obama.
OK, but what about the other family members — the former president and their two daughters? Stay tuned.
The new podcast is part of an ongoing collaboration between Spotify and Higher Ground, a production company founded by the former president and first lady. Read the rest of The Associated Press piece about it here.
“Willie Wilson, who lost twice in bids to become Chicago’s mayor and who also failed in a long-shot bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, is kicking off his third-party bid to challenge U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin with a series of ads on cable TV,” the Tribune’s Rick Pearson writes.
In Springfield yesterday, when members of the Democratic State Central Committee met, Durbin credited Wilson, a wealthy businessman, with trying to help impoverished members of the Black community but also warned that he was a Republican who backed President Donald Trump, Pearson notes. Wilson also was an ally of former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Pearson writes: “Durbin also warned that if Wilson receives 5% of the vote, under state law his third party would automatically become an ‘established’ political organization in future elections, with vastly lower signature requirements granting easier ballot access.” That’s not out of the question, given his showing in recent mayoral races. More details here.
Former Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran is the Republican nominee in the race.
Duckworth on late night talk show: ‘I don’t support tearing down George Washington’s statue’: Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth continues to make the national media rounds as her name is bandied about as a finalist to be presumed Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate.
During an appearance last night on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Duckworth, once again, responded to Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s recent on-air commentary challenging her and other Democratic leaders’ patriotism. The criticism stemmed from a question Duckworth fielded during a CNN interview about whether she supports removing monuments honoring U.S. historical figures, particularly those who were slaveholders like George Washington.
The Iraq War vet and Purple Heart recipient who lost both legs after her helicopter was shot down near Baghdad, said there should be a national dialogue about it and criticized President Trump for appearing at Mount Rushmore over the Fourth of July weekend.
“Of course I don’t support tearing down George Washington’s statue. No more would I support that than I would having the Purple Heart ripped from my chest,” Duckworth told Meyers, noting that the medal’s origins has ties to the nation’s first president.
Watch Tucker Carlson’s comments here. And tune in to Duckworth’s response here
Thanks for reading The Spin, the Tribune’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to have it delivered to your inbox weekday afternoons. Have a tip? Email host Lisa Donovan at ldonovan@chicagotribune.com.
Twitter @byldonovan
———
©2020 the Chicago Tribune
Visit the Chicago Tribune at www.chicagotribune.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
