Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was caught on camera insulting a Chicago police veteran.
On video from a city council meeting streamed to the Chicago Mayor’s Office Facebook page, Lightfoot can be heard saying “Oh, back again. This is that FOP clown” as the first-vice president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), Patrick Murray, approaches the microphone. The FOP is the union for Chicago police.
In the video footage, it is not shown who Lightfoot is talking to, but the Chicago Sun-Times said she turned towards her corporation counsel, Mark Flessner, when she made the remark.
It also is not clear who else at the event heard the comment live. It appears as if it was recorded on a microphone specifically used for the video stream and not audible from the venue.
The meeting is plagued with other sound problems, as constant echoes follow every word.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot caught on mic calling police union leader a ‘clown’
Not surprising. She uses private contractors, not CPD, for her own detail. She hates her cops. https://t.co/KHVFyQ5Pgy
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) July 25, 2019
In an awkward moment, Lightfoot found out about the live microphone after the nearly three-hour city council meeting was over and reporters were asking questions during the question and answer period.
“Mayor Lightfoot on your Facebook stream of the city council meeting today, when Patrick Murray stood to speak, there was a hot mic that caught you saying ‘This is this FOB clown,’” asked an off-camera reporter. “That wasn’t for public consumption, right? If you care to elaborate.”
Lightfoot stuttered as she started to answer.
“It was not appropriate for me to say that out loud,” Lightfoot answered, putting emphasis on “out loud.” It was the shortest answer to any of the questions she was asked at the meeting.
Lightfoot then asks “Any other questions?” and quickly calls on another reporter, and gives that reporter a long, detailed answer to her question on another topic.
Lightfoot then gets another question about the live microphone remark for her last question, from a different reporter. She appears slightly stunned.
“Would you apologize to the FOP for that remark that you made?” asked the reporter.
“I think I just did. I think I said I shouldn’t have said that out loud,” Lightfoot answers, this time clearly defiant, as she puts even more emphasis on the “out loud” part of her response.
JUST IN: Mayor Lori Lightfoot suffered a public embarrassment Wednesday when an off-handed remark about the second vice-president of the Fraternal Order of Police was picked up on a live-stream of a City Council meeting, @fspielman reports. https://t.co/2WlkN5Wn4k
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) July 24, 2019
And if that wasn’t clear enough, the same reporter tried to get Lightfoot to clarify.
“Are you sorry that you said it or are you sorry that it got picked up?” asked the reporter.
“I’m sorry that I said it out loud,” Lightfoot responded. “I think I’ve answered the question.”
The Chicago Fraternal Order of Police was not impressed, leaving a statement on its Facebook page about the mayor’s remark.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot called an FOP speaker “clown” as he got up to speak for public comment and it got picked up on her mic during City Council meeting. Asked later about it, Lightfoot says, “I’m sorry I said it out loud.”
— Gregory Pratt (@royalpratt) July 24, 2019
“Mayor Lightfoot’s contemptuous remark is a misguided and dangerous thing to say to a 30-year veteran police officer and FOP representative, particularly at a time when the city is facing such chronic violent crime. It is also telling that the Mayor would not even apologize. The red noses, however, belong on the members of the Chicago Police Board, her former agency, for their despicable decision to fire three police officers and a sergeant last week for no good reason whatsoever.”
Those firings were the reason Murray spoke at the meeting.
He was there to tell the city council he feels the firings were unfair and was there to advocate for them to get their jobs back.
