President Donald Trump this afternoon parachuted into Kenosha, Wisconsin, the latest community to become a flashpoint in the debate about race and law enforcement in America after a white police officer shot a Black man in the back little more than a week ago.
While it was an official White House visit, the president doubled down on a law-and-order mantra that is shaping his reelection bid. He even managed to bash Chicago, just an hour’s drive south, while he was at it.
The president made it very clear that he made the afternoon trip to Kenosha to thank police and other law enforcement who clashed with some protesters and had to respond when some businesses were looted and torched in the aftermath of the Aug. 23 police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Acknowledging there are some “bad apples” in law enforcement and others who “choke” on the job, Trump stressed that “the vast and overwhelming majority of police officers are honorable, courageous and devoted public servants. They’re incredible. Yet many politicians ignore their sacrifice and ignore the African American and Hispanic victims.”
The White House did have a representative in Chicago today: Coronavirus coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx was in town and expressed concern over the rising COVID-19 rates in some pockets of the state.
Saying their white colleagues are “now uncomfortable,” the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus are calling for hearings on criminal justice, education and economic reform.
And disgraced former Cook County Commissioner and McCook Mayor Jeff Tobolski pleaded guilty to extortion charges in a hearing during which it was revealed he’s cooperating with authorities. While he’s facing up to 14 years behind bars, Tobolski is expected to get a break under the deal, my Tribune colleague Jason Meisner reports.
Tobolski is just the latest domino to fall in a sprawling federal corruption investigation that has touched some of the Democratic Party’s key suburban political players, Meisner points out.
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Trump swings through Kenosha, Wisconsin; lauds police, bashes Chicago
The road to Kenosha: Air Force One landed in Illinois — at the Waukegan airport — over the noon hour. President Trump and Attorney General William Barr exited the aircraft and made the final leg of the trip to Wisconsin via motorcade. Supporters and protesters lined the route as the president made his way into the lakeside community about an hour’s drive north of Chicago, MSNBC reports,
“There was love in the streets … when we were coming in,” Trump said in a meeting with officials.
The president stopped to view property damaged in the aftermath of Officer Rusten Sheskey’s shooting of Jacob Blake — caught on video — little more than a week ago. A visit to a public safety command center was followed by a roundtable discussion with law enforcement.
His message: “We cherish our police” and “we honor you,” the president said to law enforcement, business and elected leaders at a roundtable event. He acknowledged that “bad apples” can end up in a workplace but that “anti-police rhetoric” must be condemned. The Tribune’s Bill Ruthhart and Rick Pearson have more dispatches from the president’s visit here.
Jacob Blake’s family threw a block party to help the community come together: As Trump met with business and law enforcement officers, the Tribune’s Ruthhart reports, Jacob Blake’s family was a few blocks over holding a block party. Justin Blake, Blake’s uncle, said: “Do you see Trump here? This is where you heal the community. He’s not present, is he?”
Justin Blake also said the family refuses to let Trump use Jacob’s shooting as a “political prop” and reported that his nephew’s spirits have improved over the last day or so, though he remains paralyzed from the waist down.
Trump toured the city after declining to condemn one of his supporters, 17-year-old Antioch native Kyle Rittenhouse, who is charged with murder after prosecutors said he shot three protesters during demonstrations in Kenosha last week.
He managed to slide Chicago into his comments: As WBBM-TV CBS 2 reports: “Without evidence, the president claimed there have been more than 1,000 arrests in Chicago in the first month after he deployed hundreds of federal agents to fight crime as part of ‘Operation Legend‘ in late July.”
“We went to Chicago very recently. Obviously, that’s been a disaster, Chicago, total disaster, with again radical left Democrat,” he said. “It’s all Democrat. Everything is Democrat. All of these problems are Democrat cities. We don’t want to say it, but it is.”
Context: Trump is trying to portray himself as a friend of police and to place Democrats on the defensive, the Associated Press notes. He says he came to thank law enforcement and decried property destruction during last week’s protests, saying, “You don’t have a democracy when then happens.”
Kenosha and the November election: “Wisconsin is a swing state in the Nov. 3 election, and Trump narrowly carried it in 2016, in part by being the first Republican presidential candidate to carry Kenosha County in 44 years,” the Tribune’s Bill Ruthhart and Rick Pearson report.
“The president also took credit for the reduction in violence and destruction in Kenosha over the last several nights, which he said has coincided with the increase in National Guard and federal law enforcement officials in the city,” Ruthhart and Pearson remind.
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Kenosha County officials said that wasn’t true, and the head of the Wisconsin National Guard noted that activation decisions are made at the state level. Read Ruthhart and Pearson’s full story here.
Road to November: Chicago-area counties boost election judges’ pay, ramp up recruitment efforts as nation faces ‘critical shortage’ of election workers: The Tribune’s Kelli Smith has the details here.
Gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords, hosts virtual gun control event in Chicago: The former Arizona congresswoman, critically injured in a mass shooting a decade, is bringing her “Road to Universal Background Checks” campaign to Illinois tomorrow.
The virtual event will feature Giffords along with U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, the veteran Illinois Democrat who’s running for a 5th term this November, Giffords Managing Director Robin Lloyd and Youth Activist Ke’shon Newman. The aim of the event is to spotlight candidates who would support federally mandated universal background checks. The National Rifle Association, a powerful lobby with deep pockets, has opposed such gun control measures.
Since her shooting, Giffords founded with husband Mark Kelly – who’s now entered the political arena – the gun-control organization Americans for Responsible Solutions.
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The Tribune’s Jason Meisner writes: “Former Cook County commissioner and McCook Mayor Jeffrey Tobolski pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to conspiring with a local police official to extort” the owner of a restaurant on McCook property “who needed permission to host events serving alcohol.
“During the hearing before U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, prosecutors announced that Tobolski is cooperating with the investigation and his assistance is ongoing.
There’s more: “Tobolski also admitted in the plea that he extorted or collected bribes with at least four other people by abusing his official position as mayor or county commissioner,” Meisner writes. “The amount of bribes he collected totaled at least $250,000, though the plea does not spell out how many victims were involved.” Read the full Tribune story, including a cast of Democrats linked to the sprawling federal investigation, here.
The Tribune’s Abdel Jimenez writes: “Illinois hasn’t been approved for the extra $300 in weekly unemployment benefits authorized by President Donald Trump, but is already warning the aid will be limited.
The state said Monday it has applied for the Lost Wage Assistance program, which President Donald Trump created through executive action to extend federal jobless benefits after the $600 weekly supplement ran out at the end of July.
The state said in a Monday news release it expects the “shelf-life” of the program under the current funding model to last about three weeks.
In a news release issued yesterday, the state said it expects the “shelf-life” of the program under the current funding model to last about three weeks. It said about 55,000 low-income claimants won’t be eligible for the funds, which are limited to those who qualify for at least $100 in weekly unemployment benefits, either through state programs or the federal pandemic assistance program. Read the full story here.
In Chicago visit, Dr. Birx raises alarm over growing COVID-19 positivity rates in parts of Illinois
The Tribune’s Lisa Schencker writes: White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx expressed concern during a visit to Chicago on Tuesday about the growing number of counties in Illinois where 5% to 10% of COVID-19 tests are coming back positive.
“Over the last four weeks we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of counties that are over 10% and over 5% test positivity,” Birx said at a news conference following a private meeting with state and local officials at Rush University Medical Center.
Schencker notes: Illinois now has more than 60 counties where 5% or more of tests are coming back positive, and more than a dozen of those counties have test positivity rates of 10% or higher, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
Datapoints: Illinois health officials on Tuesday announced 1,492 new known cases of COVID-19 and 39 additional fatalities, bringing the total number of known infections in Illinois to 236,515 and the statewide death toll to 8,064 since the start of the pandemic. The seven-day statewide positivity rate is 4.3%.
Also: The city of Chicago added North Carolina, Hawaii and Nebraska to its mandatory quarantine order, while warning that a recent spike in cases in Indiana could put that state on the list. Read the latest here.
Northwestern University president apologizes and reduces tuition after shifting 1st and 2nd-year students to remote learning. The Tribune’s Elyssa Cherney has the story here.
Flooding is the most conspicuous example of how a changing climate is having a profound effect on Lake Ontario, Patrick O’Connell writes in the Tribune’s latest look at the Great Lakes.
The International Joint Commission, a binational organization founded a century ago by the governments of the United States and Canada, cooperatively manages lake and river systems of the borderlands in the U.S. and Canada.
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But in the wake of the devastating coastal flooding, the IJC has come under fire for the implementation and then deviation from a new Great Lakes management plan
The IJC says its goal is to protect against extreme water levels, restore wetlands and prepare for climate change. But critics, including the New York state government, small town mayors and shoreline residents, say the plan contributed and worsened the damaging floods of 2017 and 2019. Read the full story, including how businesses and resident are affected, here.
The Tribune’s Jamie Munks writes: Amid a nationwide reckoning on race, the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus on Tuesday floated an expansive agenda for legislative action on police accountability, economic access and health care.
Black caucus members are planning a series of legislative committee hearings over the next two-and-a-half months leading up to the Illinois General Assembly’s scheduled fall veto session to take up four policy areas: criminal justice reform, violence reduction and police accountability; education and workforce development; economic access and equity; and health care and human services.
“For years, the cries and the fight have been unheard. And we are now at a moment where our white colleagues, that have been raised in white communities that just didn’t understand what we were talking about, are now uncomfortable,” Chicago Democratic Rep. La Shawn Ford said at a Tuesday morning news conference. Read the full story here.
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