After another lively exchange with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago correspondent William Kelly followed up on Newsmax, saying he is not going to back down from holding officials accountable for violence in the city.
"Mayor Lori Lightfoot is failing the City of Chicago," Kelly told "Saturday Agenda." "There's no question about it. Since that interview, we've had 30-plus shootings. She still claims that crime is down."
Kelly added to told host Joe Pinion, the city and state residents "deserve" answers from their elected officials on violent crime.
"I think my invitation is the First Amendment," Kelly told Pinion about his media credential that was double checked by mayoral aides after last week's press briefing exchange.
"I will continue to press Mayor Lori Lightfoot and every other Chicago or Illinois elected official when it comes to incompetence, crime, corruption – whatever the case may be.
"The people of Chicago, the people of Illinois deserve that."
Kelly added a rebuke of Lightfoot having a heavy hand on playing the race card with criticism of her failing to stem the tide of violent crime in Chicago.
"She's the one that went on TV and said that 99% of the criticism of her is based on her being a Black woman," Kelly said. "The fact of the matter is that the Chicago City Council is made up of many, many, many Black women, alderman, who are criticizing her.
"Basically, she can say that Newsmax is wrong, she can say that my questions are wrong, the fact of the matter is she is just wrong on the face of it."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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