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President Donald Trump on Tuesday said crime in Chicago is “out of control” and blasted so-called “liberal judges” after a woman was set on fire in the deep-blue city last week — allegedly by a man with 72 prior arrests who had been out on bond despite prosecutors calling for him to be incarcerated.
Trump, speaking at the White House during the annual Thanksgiving turkey pardon, again called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to allow National Guard troops to be deployed to the Windy City to tackle crime amid a wave of recent violent incidents.
The president’s plea came a week after Bethany MaGee, 26, was allegedly set on fire by 50-year-old Lawrence Reed, who has spent decades cycling through the criminal justice system. Additionally, a teenager was fatally shot and at least eight others were injured after two shootings on Friday night in downtown Chicago.
“This is a very serious thing,” Trump said. “They burned this beautiful woman riding in a train. A man was arrested 72 times. 72 times. Think of that. And they’ll let him out again, the liberal judges will let him out again.”
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Trump for months has attempted to send troops to Chicago, as he has done in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Memphis, Tenn., to help curb violent crime. He has said those deployments caused crime to plummet.
But Pritzker and Johnson have staunchly opposed deploying troops. They have called any deployment unconstitutional and insisted the city is not facing the kind of crime crisis the White House claims. The president has also floated invoking the Insurrection Act to tackle violent crime in Chicago.
“But we’re ready to go,” Trump said Tuesday. “You know, we’ve been moving toward Chicago. We have a governor that thinks it’s wonderful that only like seven people were killed this week… It’s horrible what’s happening in Chicago.”
Trump said a federal response would make Chicago “totally safe” in a matter of weeks.
“And the people of Chicago want us to go there. And if you look at the crime that’s taking place in Chicago in the last two weeks, just take a look. It’s on the front page of every newspaper,” Trump said. “It’s out of control. The mayor is incompetent, and the governor is a big fat slob. He ought to invite us in and say, ‘please make Chicago safe.’”
“We’re going to lose a great city if we don’t do it quickly,” Trump added.
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Critics of Illinois’ progressive criminal policies point to the attack on MaGee as the latest in a string of crimes perpetrated by career criminals who are repeatedly released back onto the streets to target law-abiding citizens.
Reed, MaGee’s alleged attacker, had been ordered onto electronic monitoring on Aug. 22 when Cook County Judge Teresa Molina-Gonzalez denied a prosecution request to keep him jailed on felony allegations that he knocked a social worker unconscious inside MacNeal Hospital’s psychiatric ward.
During that hearing, transcripts show Molina-Gonzalez told prosecutors, “I can’t keep everybody in jail because the State’s Attorney wants me to.”
According to court documents in that battery case, Cook County electronic monitoring records show Reed repeatedly violated his curfew and movement restrictions in the days leading up to the alleged Chicago Transit Authority attack on MaGee on Nov. 17.
Shortly before Trump’s comments on Tuesday, the White House weighed in on the attack, blasting left-wing policies in deep-blue cities.
“Liberal soft-on-crime policies are FAILING American communities and endangering law-abiding citizens,” the White House wrote on X.
“A career criminal with 72 arrests should have never been free to roam the streets. Pray for Bethany.”
Fox News’ Stephen Sorace, Greg Wehner, Alexandra Koch and Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.
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