Lori Lightfoot — Chicago's first openly LGBT and first black female mayor — is developing a reputation for not mincing words when it comes to dealing with President Donald Trump's administration.
On Thursday, Lightfoot labeled White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany as a “Karen” — the derogatory nickname for privileged, racist white women shown in viral videos harassing or calling the police on Black people.
“Hey, Karen. Watch your mouth,” Lightfoot wrote on Twitter, in response to a post about McEnany's remarks from earlier in the day, when the press secretary called the Chicago mayor “derelict.”
The exchange was part of an ongoing and apparently escalating war of words about gun violence in Chicago. Earlier Thursday, when asked why Trump doesn't seem to be making the coronavirus pandemic his No. 1 priority, McEnany tried to change the subject.
“But there are other things the President has to focus on: namely, Democrat cities not controlling their streets; namely, the mayor of Chicago — people dying on the streets of her city every weekend. And the President sent her a letter saying, ‘You must secure your city,‘” McEnany said.
“I've listed for you the names of these kids who have died across this country. It is unacceptable, and under this President, he'll take action,” McEnany added later, responding to a question about Trump's recent statement that more white people are killed by police than Black people. “And the derelict mayor of Chicago should step up and ask for federal help because she's doing a very poor job at securing her streets.”
More from the Hill: A tracker operated by the Chicago Tribune reports that 1,901 people have been injured or killed in shootings so far this year, 550 more than had occurred at the same point in 2019. In an interview with MSNBC earlier this week, Lightfoot pinned blame for the violence on Trump, pointing to “too many illegal guns on our street” which she said was the “direct result of a failure of federal leadership.”
