Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson spoke Saturday for the first time in response to Donald Trump\u2019s plans to ramp up deportation operations in Chicago, and delivered a diatribe filled with left-wing talking points but little else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The self-described \u201cprogressive\u201d Democrat mayor appeared<\/a> on CNN host Victor Blackwell\u2019s \u201cFirst of All\u201d podcast on Saturday, but despite being asked over and over about whether or not he would block Trump\u2019s deportation efforts, Johnson refused to answer and instead spewed a constant stream of anti-Trump talking points and liberal doggerel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blackwell opened his podcast asking<\/a> the mayor, \u201cLet\u2019s start here your reaction to Homan saying he\u2019s going to come after you if you stand in his way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, you know, unfortunately \u2014 first of all, good morning and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to the people of the globe,\u201d the mayor began. \u201cLook the president elect and the former president of the United States of America, Trump, has demonstrated an incredible disdain for people, and my responsibility as Mayor of the City of Chicago is to invest in people, to protect people, and connect them to the resources that are ultimately needed in order to build not just a better, stronger, safer Chicago, but to build in the economy that\u2019s sustainable,\u201d Johnson said while working to avoid the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou know, this President has shown disdain towards not just immigrants, but lovers of public education. He is dead set on abolishing the entire education department. As a former public school teacher, as a product of public education, as someone who sends my children to public schools; working people around this country want public education to work,\u201d Johnson said, continuing with his anti-Trump talking points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe has shown an incredible animus towards public housing. Public Housing has been the way in which families have found true stability, their ability to experience a human right. He has demonstrated contempt towards vouchers, which would ultimately make it hard for families to access affordable homes. We built 3600 affordable homes in the city of Chicago since I\u2019ve been in office,\u201d the left-wing mayor said, patting himself on the back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s also shown a great deal of evilness towards the Department of the Environment. He doesn\u2019t believe in science. Twenty percent of the world\u2019s fresh water is right here in the city of Chicago. We can build a green, blue economy to create real, sustainable opportunities for people. And so he has not just shown animus towards immigrants. He has shown a great deal of animus towards working people across the city of Chicago, and it is my responsibility, and is my joy, to protect all residents of this beloved city,\u201d he said, still avoiding Blackwell\u2019s actual question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blackwell then played a clip of Trump border czar Tom Homan, who said he was asking for Democrat-controlled police departments to let Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents know the whereabouts of criminal illegals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t want them to be immigration officers,\u201d Homan said of police departments in the clip Blackwell played. \u201cI want them, when they arrest an illegal alien for a serious crime, I\u2019m just asking them to tell us where to find them. I don\u2019t want you to hold a minute more. You have to hold them under your charges. But just work with us and take these public safety threats, not only off the streets but on the country. \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Blackwell then honed his question to a sharper point and asked Johnson, \u201cSo let me, let me ask you specifically, if you have someone in CPD who takes custody of someone who fits that scenario, that profile, accused of a violent crime in the country illegally, does local law allow you to inform ICE? And will you do that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johnson again went off with left-wing talking points and refused to actually answer the question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHere\u2019s what the local law does. First of all, you know, as a sanctuary city. You know, this ordinance was birthed by the first black mayor in the history of Chicago, Mayor Harry Washington. He understood during the Reagan administration, as foreign policies disrupted Central and South America, he made it very clear that the city of Chicago will serve as refuge for people around the globe. And so there\u2019s a strong black liberation presentation that comes out of the city of Chicago as it relates to being a sanctuary city,\u201d Johnson exclaimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLook, the law is very clear. Local police officers are not federal agents. That is clear. This so-called border czar seems to be getting educated more and more throughout you know, you know his, I guess, his speaking tour. It\u2019s unfortunate, though, that there is an abominable ignorance that exists within the Trump administration that continues to displace and cause chaos,\u201d Johnson said in his well-worn accusatory manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The rest of the interview was equally useless as CNN\u2019s Blackwell pressed Johnson on the point several times and asked the mayor if his city\u2019s sanctuary ordinances prevent the police from informing ICE about the presence in the city\u2019s jails of illegal aliens, or if he \u2014 as mayor \u2014 simply intends to enforce a personal policy of preventing that cooperation. But the mayor refused to directly answer the question and instead danced around the issue, repeatedly falling back on the canard that \u201cthe police are not immigration agents\u201d when no one \u2014 including Homan \u2014 has ever said they are or should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later in the interview, Johnson also made the false claim that Jesus of Nazareth was a \u201crefugee\u201d when he was born.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere are people all across this country who are going to celebrate this holiday season about the birth of Jesus Christ who fleed [sic] political and religious oppression as a refugee, as an asylum seeker,\u201d Johnson blurted out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n