Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told Newsmax on Tuesday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson “should be in jail” for failing to provide police backup to federal agents.
Appearing on “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Giuliani reacted to reports that 500 National Guard troops — including 200 from Texas and 300 from Illinois — have been deployed to Chicago to protect federal buildings and personnel amid mounting unrest over Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the deployment after claiming federal officers were left vulnerable during recent riots. Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, both Democrats, opposed the move.
Giuliani, who led New York City through a dramatic crime decline in the 1990s, said Chicago’s problems stem from years of political decay and weak leadership.
“Every weekend in Chicago, it’s a question of how many people are going to get slaughtered, and nobody does anything about it,” he said. “Police deployment is almost nonexistent because they are without any kind of esprit de corps. They get no backing anywhere.”
Giuliani accused Johnson of failing to meet his legal responsibility to protect federal facilities.
“You’ve got a mayor who literally should be in jail right now for taking away protection from the federal officers,” Giuliani said. “He was supposed to provide it — he didn’t. They’ve been doing that for a long, long time, putting federal agents in harm’s way.”
Giuliani said the National Guard’s presence in Chicago highlights how badly local leadership has failed.
“This is 65 years of crooked Democratic rule,” he said. “Chicago is legendarily probably the most crooked city in the history of America.”
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