Is Chicago Next?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Big news in the national realm is that Donald Trump
continues to talk about sending National Guard troops to Chicago,
as his playing to clean up crime in Washington has
been a seemingly arousing success. So is the National Guard
heading to Chicago soon? Well, joining us is someone in Chicago.
His name is Jeff Minasso. He's a reporter with Fox
News Radio. Jeff, thanks so much for joining.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Us, play buddy, going to be with you as always.
They are coming. We just don't know when. That from
President Trump from the White House yesterday and beyond saying
that it is going to happen, that Chicago will be
cleaned up and then crime will be cracked down on
the same thing that's happened at DC, where arrests are up,
crime is down, holmeless, encampments are cleared out, streets are clean.

(00:43):
Union Station is now crime free in Sparkling, which it's
hard to believe. But even the mayor there in DC
is praising the efforts so much so that she's demanding
that Congress, now that they're back to work, you get
put put together some sort of package to make this

(01:05):
a permanent thing in d C. Because she said it's working.
But you've got Brandon Johnson here in the city of
Chicago and the governor Jamie Pritzker digging in and vowing
to fight.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, so I noticed this is quite a change in
tune from a few weeks ago when this all got
started in d C. And you know, the mayor was like, oh,
I think this is a bit of an overreaction, and
I mean she's come out and said on multiple occasions
carjackings are down like eighty seven percent, you know, statistics
like that. It's like, okay, so you obviously know that
this is working. How can someone like Brendan Johnson or JB.

(01:44):
Pritzker sit there and just ignore what facts there are
here and just ask the federal government for a little
bit of help after the Labor Day weekend that we
saw in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, it's gonna probably have to come from public pressure.
I mean, you know, they're touting numbers that the crime
is down in the city, and if you look at
the numbers, it'll say it will show you that the
murders are down forty nine percent, robberies are down ten percent,
but those numbers are still up from pre pandemic levels.
Remember the pandemic. Every every major city crime skyrocketed do

(02:22):
crazy numbers well, so that forty nine percent, murders down,
robberies down ten percent. That's down from the highest of
the highs during the pandemic. But those numbers are still
up from the pre pandemic. But today burglaries remained up
to at eight percent, felony theft ups forty six percent,
of miss demeanor theft up sixty percent, motor vehicle theft
up almost eighty percent. The White House, in a statement,

(02:47):
says that Governor Pritzker is too blinded by Trump derangement
syndrome to take to take action in the best interests
of his constituents and to end the bloodshed. That the
Trump administration and their message to Chicagoans and residents and
Democrat run cities nationwide is simple, that you don't have
to live like this, and so we'll see what happens.

(03:09):
I can tell you on the ground here in downtown Chicago,
nothing necessarily visible, but we do know that personnel from
DHS are already staging at Great Lakes Naval Base that's
just north of Chicago, where Secretary Christy nom has promised
enhanced immigration enforcements in Chicago. The Governor did say that

(03:33):
the Texas National Guard has also been staging here in Illinois,
though our contact in Texas the governor's office is it's
not true, but we will find out. I mean, the city,
the state. They blame the problem on guns. They say
the crime problem will not go away unless guns are

(03:54):
unless Red states stop bringing guns into Illinois. But there
was a local report that showed that Illinois is actually
the largest single source of guns that have been recovered
in this state. So we're we're waiting, We're waiting, We're
watching to see what happens.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Jeff Basso's joining us from Fox News Radio. Okay, So, like,
I just do you think does Brandon Johnson and Jamie
Prisker not think we have access to this information? I mean,
are they just trying to gaslight us to thinking that
there's no solution Donald Trump could offer that would fix
any possible problems, even though we're seeing it happening in Washington, DC.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
You know, it goes back to this this recent I
forget who it was I heard this, but there's some
only done that if you take Trump's name out of it,
most people are for it in terms of crime fighting.
But if you considered Trump's name into it. Then then
people who identify as Democrat there they're just against it.

(05:00):
And so but look, you get down on the street
level and you start talking to people who live on
the South and West side here in Chicago, or even
business owners or former business owners. Michigan Avenue is kind
of a ghost town now. Businesses have fled too many
smash and grabs, too many crime issues, and you know,
they want their city back, they want Chicago back, and

(05:23):
they want to be able to raise their kids in
safe neighborhoods that, let's be honest, are not safe, particularly
in certain areas. Fifty eight shot over the Labor Day weekend,
eight killed least twenty four hours. Seven people were shot,
and you know, but the truth is emory, is that
that's just that's just another just typical weekend here in

(05:46):
the city of Chicago, and people have kind of gotten
numb to it. But you know, you know, politics really
is at play here, whether it's Jamie Pritzker or the
mayor Frendon Johnson in their efforts, but even even you know,
you're you're random person on the street, it was just
infensed by you know, national politics and perhaps perhaps certain

(06:11):
individuals i e. President Trump, they would just rather, it appears,
they would rather just forego safety in an effort to
prevent giving Donald Trump a win. But it's hard because
you know, you've got those optics in d C that
you know, shows that the city is getting better, the

(06:32):
city is getting safer, and you know that's coming from
a Democrat mayor who's actually going to bat for for
President Trump and these policies and and so at the
end of the day, it's going to have to be
probably people who knows if we're going to see a
federal surch and troops here. I mean, the laws, the
laws different here as it pertains to that compared with

(06:55):
d C, where there's that home rule that you know,
who knows what's going to happen. Maybe this is just
a kind of a I don't want to say a stunt,
but a move that's going to be a little eye
opening to people who thought or who believed that their
city and state leaders really wanted to keep them safe.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Yeah, I'm looking at the you know, like some of
the differences in Donald Trump trying to deploy troops of
the National Guard into a place like Chicago, and how
different that is than just you know, kind of being
able to do it on his own, you know, ideas
in Washington, d C. So what would the timeline realistically be.
Like you mentioned, they're kind of setting up a headquarters,

(07:36):
if you will, they're already. I don't think anybody in
the right mind would say that this is a bad
way for the National Guard to at least have something
to do, if it means that it's cleaning things up.
But certainly the politics are at play here, and there
are other cities that Trump has kind of mentioned, like Baltimore,
that he would be interested in doing something like this
in So what would be some of those hurdles that

(07:57):
he would have to get over before we'd actually see
something like this in action in a place like Chicago.

Speaker 2 (08:04):
I think if you're if you see troops here immediately,
they'll probably get shut down or at least ordered by
some sort of judge in this state that says it's
it's you know, it's not it's it's unconstitutional for him
to do that. So I think the legal avenue will
will be implemented or they're probably ready to go with it.

(08:25):
I think that you know, you saw the mayor over
the weekend ramping up support from from unions and and
and other other groups that that that you know may
perhaps be ready to march and cause chaos in this city.
I mean, it's all hands on deck. We know that
the governor is going to be meeting with a group

(08:46):
this uh this afternoon, a community violence intervention leaders as
they hold emergency response training to prepare for federal deployments
to do what they do. How is it all to
lay out? Who knows? Who knows how this is how
this is going to work. But you've got you've got
both sides of it working hard to make sure something happens.

(09:09):
And and you know we'll we'll all witness it as
as as the days go by, but you know, history
will be the judge of whether it's right or wrong.
I can tell you the Chicago Tribune and their editorial
board this morning out with uh uh essentially an editorial
with with with it starts. It starts like these words.

(09:31):
It says, we've said from the start that the nothing
to see here, murder rate is down, crime is under control.
We know best document from local politicians is an absolute loser.
And so people can see crime and they can feel it,
and no matter where you are, and and if people
are telling you not to believe you're lying eyes, well,

(09:52):
I you know, I'm really not sure. But we've also
never seen before mega hats, red red, maga hat uh,
you know, constantly a constant presence in city Hall here
here in Chicago, African Americans rand those hats say, and
you're done, Brandon Johnson, You've screwed up the city. You're dangerous.

(10:13):
We don't believe you. Uh. And and your days are numbered.
So you know, there's there's so much going on, but
this is you know how this all shakes up memory.
We're all just kind of watching to see what happens.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Well, I'm sure that one of the guys that's going
to give us the info as soon as it's happening
is Jeff Bonasso from Fox News Radio who's in Chicago.
Jeff as always great information. Thanks so much for being
on the show today.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Thank you, buddy. Yet we're here, we'll let you know.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Big news item nationally, for a better part of a
month now has been the federal takeover in the National
Guard presence in Washington, d C. And the success that
that has had to the point where a Democratic mayor
in Muriel Bowser says you know this is actually working,
and it's working great. How do we keep this up?
At the same time, Chicago has been the next city

(11:00):
that Donald Trump says he wants to have that type
of presence in, and Chicago's Mayor Brandon Johnson and JB. Pritzker,
the Democratic governor of Illinois, have been adamantly pushing back,
saying we don't need your help. We have this under control.
They don't want to have Donald Trump intervene at all.
Joining us to help us break this down. Is the
CEO of the Alliance for Secure AI, Brendan Steinhauser. Brendan,

(11:23):
thanks so much for being on our show.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Great to be here with you.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
I look at this situation in Chicago, and you know,
we've tried to make as much sense as we can.
From a political standpoint, There's just no way Democrats are
going to say, Okay, Donald Trump will do whatever you think.
It's just not going to happen. But how can you
justify that, Brendan, if you're JB. Pritzker or Mayor Brandon
Johnson to your constituents when you are outright refusing something

(11:50):
that is proving to work in Washington.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Yeah, it's really hard for them to be able to
justify it. I mean, what they could do is just say, look,
you know, we won't support for local law enforcement, but
local law enforcement are going to take the lead. You know,
we're fine with the federal government supporting us. You know
we have it in you know, under control. We look
forward to their support. We want to reduce crime, we

(12:14):
want to work together. That kind of messaging I think
would resonate better and would be more realistic, frankly, than
just standing up and calling this an invasion and saying
it's a it's a total takeover of the city, and
they're acting as if they're resisting some kind of military
invasion our occupations. I think it's kind of ridiculous. And
look their cities right now. That their city of Chicago
is suffering, it has been for decades now, with high

(12:36):
crime rates, especially violent crime rates, and so you would
think they would want to put their citizens before their politics.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
The thought of doing that seems, you know, pretty common sense.
But I in my last segment kind of outlined how
Republicans utilize the illegal immigration issue for whatever it's you know,
it's not a one to one comparison, But during the
last couple of years of the Biden administration, people knew
that that was about as bad of an issue that

(13:04):
we had in the United States, and it made the
Republicans feel like, we can't deliver a win for Biden.
As this stays this poor, we're going to be in
great shape to win. And they ended up having a
great chance not only to win the presidency, but to
win control of Congress and keep control of Congress in
the House, and then get control in the Senate in
the twenty twenty four election. This seems like kind of

(13:26):
a power play from a democratic perspective here. Do you
think that there are other states or other cities that
are very blue that would offer their support for what
Chicago is trying to do to stand up to Donald Trump,
even though they know the crime numbers are out of control.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
I do think we could see that in other cities.
Against your point, heavily democratic city that make a big
donor base, a big donor base for the Democrats, and
a big source of activists and progressive activism and thought leadership.
So yeah, we could see this in other places. But

(14:03):
going back to your example with the Biden administration, you know,
one thing that comes to mind is that the Texas,
for example, Greg Abbitt was practically begging the federal government
to come in and help the state secure the border.
He kept sending letters, you would go out on TV
and say we want your support, we want troops on
the ground, we want more border patrol. So it is
kind of interesting that the Republican governor there was actually

(14:24):
looking to solve a problem and did everything that the
state to do to try and secure the border and
has some success, frankly, but then the Democratic administration, the
Biden administration, really rejected all of that and barely even
made it down to see what was going on. So
I think Republicans kind of showed in that instance that
you know, you don't have to agree with the party
in the White House to ask for their help to

(14:45):
get them to support what you're doing. It just turned
out to be just a completely different view of reality
visa VI the Republican versus the Democrats.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
And so I think we're.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Seeing a little bit of that here with law and order,
and so yeah, I think you could see some other
cities come out and do the same thing. In fact,
some of them might be wanting some of these layers
might be wanting the confrontations with the President because it
could help them in their future political ambitions.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
It's interesting Brendan Steinhauser's with us. He's the CEO of
the Alliance for Secure AI. So what if you had
a crystal ball, And I know you don't, but if
you could see how this is going to play out.
You have Donald Trump. He's planning on sending National Guard
troops to Chicago. He doesn't have the same type of
control over what Chicago can do versus what Washington d C.

(15:31):
He could basically do whatever he wanted in DC because
of the home rule, if you will. So there will
certainly be challenges from Pritzker, from Brandon Johnson, and the
judicial system in Illinois to try to prevent anything like
this from happening. But do you anticipate the National Guard
ever really getting an opportunity to try to clean up

(15:52):
crime in Chicago or do you think they'll fight this
tooth and nail and it's just going to be kind
of a lot of political drama for the next several
weeks while the National Guard is sitting on their hands
waiting to help out.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Yeah, it's a good question, and I think it could
go either way. But I think one thing people aren't
talking enough about is the fact that the president could
invoke what's called the Insurrection Act. The Insurrection Act is
a mechanism for the president to federalize National Guard troops
in the state if the state is not enforcing its

(16:27):
own law, if they are riots in the city, if
there are there's lawlessness in the cities. And so I
would actually argue the president might do that in order
to say I'm acting constitutionally within my power to take
over state forces there federalize them as trying to think
under control. So I think that's something that's very likely,

(16:48):
and that invocation of the Insurrection Act would give him
the power to take over those the state forces that
are typically under the command and control of the governors,
because typically what happens is that governor will request troops
to come from the federal government. They'll make that request
and they'll come in. The troops will come in on
what's called Title ten status, which is just federalized datus.

(17:10):
Otherwise they're they're in that commanding control.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Of the states.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
So look for that, look for the Insurrection Act to
potentially be invoked to call the president to go forward
with this.

Speaker 1 (17:21):
When you you talked about that. You know, my first
inclination is what kind of opposition would show up. So
let's say he invokes the Insurrection Act and then there
are the arrival of visible troops in the Chicago area,
and certainly there are going to be protests. There's going
to be mobility from people from even outside of Chicago
and Illinois who love to go and be a part

(17:41):
of these giant riots and protests against anything that is
happening from the federal government or anyone else, whether it's
the police officers. We saw what happened with the you know,
aftermath of the George Floyd stuff, this stuff that we've
seen with ice operations around the country. Would this you know,
well that this would be my question. If that were

(18:01):
to happen, would that make Chicago safer in the long term,
or would Chicago all of a sudden be kind of
the site of quite a battle, hopefully not a truly
physical battle, but a battle of protests that really makes
visible areas of Chicago much more unsafe at the beginning
when National Guard troops do arrive.

Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, I think that's a possible scenario that you laid out.
I think protests are likely be some of the more
radical protesters, you know, throwing rocks and taking potshots at troops,
you know, not with maybe live ammunition, but you know,
finding ways to try and do some damage to vehicles
or using all sorts of creative ways to be violent

(18:45):
on a lower level. So, yeah, that would not be
good for the troops, that would not be good for
federal law enforcement agents. It wouldn't be good for local
police either. In frank of it wouldn't be good for
protesters because many of them would get hurt. And then
if you're a citizen of the city of Chicago, you know,
then you have to kind of wonder, well, how does
this help us? You know, whether you know, if you're
looking up what the protesters are doing and not really

(19:07):
making the city safer, they're actually making it more dangerous.
So I think it's the real possibility. But I also
think that you know, with enough, with the surge of
enough forces, with federal troops but also with law enforcement,
they could go to those key hotspots around the city
and try and make an immediate impact.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
But yeah, we'll see what happens, and.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
Certainly hope and praise for social cohesion, not unrushed, but
but That is definitely something to pay attention to because
we've seen that in LA and I think you're right.
People might be flocking in from all over the country
to do to do battle with the federal forces that
are that might be deployed to the city.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
It's just one of those things, you know, even if
something makes all the sense in the world, it doesn't
make sense if you just disagree politically with the person
whose idea It was very strange. Brendan Steinhauser is the
CEO of the Alliance for Secure Ai Brandan, thank you
so much for the information in the time today.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Thank you