President Donald Trump slammed political leaders in Chicago on Thursday, blaming city officials for the weekend violence that left 12 people dead.
“I guess you have to take it from the leadership,” Trump said in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was holding a meeting on prison reform. “It’s called bad leadership.”
In his remarks Thursday, the president did not name Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as President Barack Obama’s first chief of staff. Trump instead spoke broadly about the “bad stuff” happening in the city, and blamed its leaders.
“There’s no reason in a million years something like that should be happening,” Trump said.
The Emanuel administration, which has been repeatedly attacked by Trump during his nearly 20 months in the White House, chaffed at the barb from Trump.
“Bob Mueller’s investigation and Paul Manafort’s criminal trial must be getting to the president,” said Adam Collins, a spokesman for Emanuel. “We’re too busy working to continue reducing crime with police, community leaders, ministers and federal prosecutors to pay attention to his musings.”
The mayor said this week that “we as a city, in every corner, have an accountability and responsibility.”
“If you know who did this, be a neighbor,” Emmanuel said. “Speak up.”
Read more at USA Today.
