Veteran Chicago reporter and host of the YouTube podcast The Chicago Files, William J. Kelly, confronted Mayor Brandon Johnson during a Tuesday press conference with a pointed question.
Referencing a recent case in which a Nicaraguan illegal alien allegedly “bashed a Chicago woman’s head into the sidewalk, knocked her unconscious, and raped her,” Kelly asked, “If the victim had been your wife, Stacey, would you want ICE to deport that rapist? Yes or no?”
Johnson refused to answer, responding only, “Let’s move on.”
Kelly pressed. “Answer the question as a man — not as a mayor — but as a man. Would you want ICE to deport that rapist?”
When it became clear the mayor would not answer, Kelly said, “No? Okay, that’s the answer.”
This exchange began with Kelly citing the mayor’s recent claim that the “extreme right” still refuses to accept the outcome of the Civil War. Kelly noted that “300,000+ real Chicagoans say it is hate speech for you to evoke the Civil War, to evoke bringing back the confederacy, to say that law enforcement is a “sickness” when you, yourself, have over 150 sworn police officers on your detail.
“What do you say to these people and will you ask your 150 CPD officer detail to stand down if you and your wife Stacey are ever attacked, shot at, or rammed with a protester vehicle?”
Johnson’s reply was surreal. He said he was sorry to hear that Kelly’s “numbers of interactions” on social media had declined.
After some back and forth on this pointless issue, Johnson said “the addiction [to] jails and incarceration and the addiction of militarism, it is an evil. Dr. King made that very clear.”
The mayor’s words showed only that he’s missed the true message of Dr. King.
Kelly noted, “The real Chicagoans that I talk to, that I communicate with — mostly black and brown, actually — tell me that you don’t seem to know the difference between illegal aliens and real Chicago citizens. They feel that you are siding with the illegal aliens over them in their communities.”
Johnson deflected by telling Kelly to get on with his question which, of course, was about the Nicaraguan illegal alien’s rape of the Chicago woman.
Given his track record of holding Chicago mayors’ feet to the fire, it’s hardly surprising that Kelly’s X bio reads, “Despised by Mayors Johnson, Lightfoot.”
Johnson’s latest blunders in his defiance of the Trump administration’s deportation efforts in Chicago have left him on increasingly shaky ground.
After anti-deportation activists in Chicago took their protest to a dangerous new level last weekend — using their cars to ram and box in ICE vehicles — Chicago Police Department officials stunningly refused to dispatch officers to assist the surrounded agents (according to CPD dispatch recordings and internal communications). Surely, no one would issue a stand-down order without authorization from the mayor.
Next, Johnson signed an executive order creating “ICE-free zones” from which federal immigration agents would be prohibited from operating. The Marxist mayor said he was acting to “rein in this out of control administration.”
In a sane world, it would be unthinkable for a city mayor to dictate to a U.S. president what he will or will not permit. And in this case, the hubris extends all the way to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who filed a joint lawsuit with the mayor that same day to block the Trump administration’s lawful deployment of 400 National Guard troops to the state.
In a Wednesday post on Truth Social, President Trump wrote, “Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect Ice Officers! Governor Pritzker also!”
Johnson’s and Pritzker’s culpability was discussed at Wednesday’s White House “Roundtable on Antifa,” with Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem both agreeing that they had crossed the line.
The pair’s contempt for Trump, has calcified into an all-consuming obsession — one that leaves virtually nothing off-limits in their efforts to oppose him. Desperation has replaced rationality, and resistance itself has become their goal.
When defiance becomes doctrine, the line between dissent and disorder begins to blur. At a certain point, resistance ceases to be dissent and becomes insurrection.
Johnson’s and Pritzker’s latest actions in their fight against Trump make it clear — they’ve already crossed that line.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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