Democratic Alderman Raymond Lopez of Chicago told “America Reports” co-host Sandra Smith on Friday that no matter how much Vice President Kamala Harris may laugh at the violence plaguing his city, to him it’s no laughing matter.
Harris was in Chicago for the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund’s annual “Gun Sense University” when she was asked about gun violence in the city.
“How are you thinking about this issue right now in this moment?” Harris was asked.
In what has become the vice president’s go-to move when asked a potentially awkward question, Harris laughed in response and said “vote.gov,” the federal government’s site for voter registration information — an apparent call from the vice president to Democrat voters to register and vote.
Given that Chicago has been governed by Democratic mayors since 1931, it was not immediately clear how Harris expected more Democratic voters to change anything about the city’s governance.
Lopez didn’t seem to appreciate Harris’s response either.
“This is not a laughing matter and I don’t find it funny one bit, having had to comfort families who have been torn apart by gun violence, gang violence, the word no Democrat ever seems to want to say out loud, and the drug-fueled violence,” he told Smith when she asked why the Democrats would “highlight” a city like Chicago that has experienced “such clear problems.”
“She’s touting Democrat success in the state of Illinois, city of Chicago,” Lopez said ironically. “Well look at the success we’ve had: Crime is out of control, immigration is now at our feet because of the border crisis which she has ignored for the past two years since she was named the border czar, and here we are trying to address this in a way that makes sense for our future.”
According to The Daily Caller, nearly 1.8 million illegal immigrants have been “encountered” by U.S. Customs and Border protection this fiscal year, according to federal government data.
That followed nearly 2.4 million in fiscal 2022 and almost 1.75 million the year prior to that.
And those numbers do not include the illegal immigrants who managed to avoid contact with the CBP altogether; Fox News reported that number to be in the neighborhood of 600,000 in 2022 alone.
Harris was appointed the “border czar” by President Joe Biden in March, 2021, so most of that occurred on her watch.
“There’s no better example of people not feeling safe than Chicago right now,” Smith said, citing corporations that have left the city over concerns for worker safety and residents who have relocated for similar reasons.
“Oftentimes, [Biden administration members] aren’t paying attention to what’s going on on the streets,” Lopez said. “They don’t have to walk the streets the way someone like I have to.”
“Because they don’t see it, they’re living in a very academic world,” he explained. “And they think this is some sort of exercise that can be changed with rainbows and hugs.”
“It’s not going to happen that way,” he concluded.
Interested readers can watch the interview with Lopez here.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.