WLS-AM 890 Town Hall: Garry McCarthy

In this half-hour special pulled from the live John & Ray Morning Show on Friday, April 7, 2017, McCarthy talks about everything from his current home life to the prospect of running for mayor of Chicago.

John Howell and Ray Stevens are joined by Mary Ann Ahern of NBC 5 Chicago and WLS-AM News Director John Dempsey.

Video Courtesy of NBC 5 Chicago

Hosted By: John Howell, Ray Stevens
Contributors: John Dempsey, Mary Ann Ahern
Guest: Garry McCarthy
Camera: William Jennings, NBC Chicago
Editing: Jen DeSalvo
Operations Manager: Michael Garay
Executive Producer: Bryan Biggs

 

By John Dempsey, WLS-AM News

(CHICAGO) Former Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, referring to whether he might run for Mayor of Chicago in 2019, said “maybe I’m going to do it,” during an appearance on WLS Friday morning.

McCarthy appeared in studio for an entire hour on “The Big John and Ray Show” to expand on comments he made on the program Wednesday morning in which he said “a lot of people” are encouraging him to run for Mayor. If McCarthy ran he would be facing off against Rahm Emanuel, the man who fired McCarthy as top cop in December of 2015, following the court-ordered release of a video that showed white officer Jason Van Dyke pumping 16 shots into the body of black teenager LaQuan McDonald.

McCarthy says while he is thinking about getting into politics, he is still not sure, saying he first must make sure his wife Kristin Barnette approves of the idea.

 “I just don’t know. I’m not planning what’s going to happen in the next few months. I’m just trying to have an impact in some fashion by talking about what’s going on, and if that means getting involved in politics then maybe I’m going to do it. I can tell you this, the first person I have to convince is Kristin. She would much rather I have a low profile and people leave us alone.”

McCarthy did say he is upset at the way his relationship with Emanuel is now non-existent.

“I am disappointed in the way that this entire scenario played out. I’m disappointed at the fact that, you know, I haven’t heard from the guy in 15 months. He didn’t check in to see if I was OK, he didn’t say ‘congratulations on the birth of your son,’ you know, that’s not the way it’s supposed to work. If he needed to make a decision that he thought was a good decision, doesn’t mean the relationship is over, but apparently it is.”

The former Superintendent also said there is no question that Emanuel is the most political of all the mayors he has worked for, including Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg in New York, and Corey Booker in Newark, New Jersey.

“I think he’s much more political. You asked who’s the most political animal, I would say that Rahm Emanuel is. He functions on that level.”

On Wednesday Emanuel refused to comment when asked about McCarthy.

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