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Chicago Democrat Raymond Lopez tore into his own party for turning a blind eye to crime, accusing leaders like Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson of whitewashing the issue while standing in the way of President Trump’s crackdown.
“History will prove the Democratic Party wrong in this moment,” Lopez said Monday on “Fox & Friends.”
“There are very few of us who are standing up to say, ‘No, we do not need to move the goalpost that far to the left to be relevant,’ and, unfortunately, we have a small segment of our electorate who thinks that that is the right way to go.”
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Chicago Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at a news conference in Chicago, flanked by Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker (left). Chicago Alderman Raymond Lopez, a Democrat, is pictured on the right. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images (left); Fox & Friends (right))
Lopez, who has represented Chicago’s 15th Ward as an alderman since 2015, warned that electing “left of left” leaders like Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani will only lead Democrats further down the wrong path and tarnish their image.
“If we want to be of relevance, we need to get back to the center,” he said.
This comes as the Democrats resist the Trump administration’s floated idea to expand its Washington, D.C. crime crackdown into other deep blue cities, including Chicago.
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Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker delivers remarks in Chicago alongside Mayor Brandon Johnson and other officials after reports the White House is preparing to deploy National Guard troops to the city. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images)
Pritzker and Johnson have signaled multiple times that bringing in National Guard troops is an unwelcome idea in the Windy City.
Both politicians have defended the city’s crime statistics recently.
During an appearance on journalist Katie Couric’s YouTube channel, Pritzker said Chicago’s homicide rate has been cut in half over the last four years, crediting a mix of policing initiatives and state investments in community programs.
Johnson, meanwhile, said in an August statement that crime is down in Chicago. He said the city in the past year has reduced homicides by more than 30%, robberies by 35% and shootings by almost 40%.
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While Lopez has acknowledged statistics are trending in the right direction, he has also said that “any” number of homicides is “not normal” and improvements can be made.
“Every day we’ve seen where individuals are being victimized in the city of Chicago…” he said.
“And to hear our leaders like Governor Pritzker and Mayor Johnson say that ‘Everything’s fine. Don’t worry. We’re doing just great,’ would be like a cancer doctor telling you that we’ve cured you just enough this year. We need to save some for next year. No one would ever accept that as an analogy, and neither should we in Chicago.”
Fox News’ Diana Stancy and Marc Tamasco contributed to this report.
