Some members of the members of the Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson ascend to help him prepare for what is expected to be an aggressive attack in the hearing of the House of Representatives Control Committee to put the city reserve in Washington, DC, next week.
Among those who advise former mayor Ram Emmanuel and Lori Laifut is among those who advise Johnson about how to deal with interrogation from some of the most explicit actors in Congress in the hearing that many see as a political theater in a crusade against democratic policies.
Johnson has not pulled any punches against Lightfoot or Emanuel in the past, nor Lightfoot against Johnson. The three are all points different from the democratic political spectrum.
But it seems that all concerned are setting local competitions aside to strike a supportive tone while facilitating the city for the main stage.
“There is a very small club from the mayors, all of them, regardless of their differences, they all love this city,” Johnson Advisor Johnson said in an interview with WBEZ on Friday. “And when the city is under a microscope or under the attack in any way, it is not surprising that they respond when summoning to support this.”
Light Foot, who meets with Johnson on Saturday, chanted this feeling in a statement to WBEZ.
“When Chicago leaders are given a national platform, it is important to fight satirical novels and sermon from our city,” she said. “Anything I can do to help retreat against Republicans Trump and the right -wing media to tell the true story of this great city, I will do. I look forward to talking to Mayor Johnson.”
Johnson is scheduled to appear on March 5 in front of the Government Supervision and Reform Committee to defend the city's law, which partly restricts the police from detention of people only based on the state of immigration – a policy that was first, by executive order, since 1985.
The session will include five -minute opening data from the president, an arrangement member and every witness, followed by five minutes of interrogation from each of the members present, according to a spokesman for a member of the committee.
The committee, which consists of 26 Republicans and 21 democratic, displays some of the controversial and controversial publications of Republican MP Jim Jordan, Margori Taylor Green and Lauren Boubert to democratic representatives. Ayana Presley, Rashida Tilib and Jasimin Crocate.
He told me that the invitation between Emmanuel and Johnson this week was individual and lasted about 30 to 45 minutes. He did not share the advice given by Emmanuel to Johnson, but he indicated that Emmanuel had great experience in Capitol Hill, after he served in Congress and Chief of Staff to former President Barack Obama before he became a mayor in 2011.
“He has a great experience in moving in the capital and understands the goals and directs the Republicans in the oversight committee and what they are trying to do, and so on, he has some ideas on how to move in these challenges.”
As for Lightfoot, he called me the opponent of the former mayor of Johnson and angered by the Union of Teachers in Chicago, the union who helped in his election, “a wonderful legal mind.”
“It is clear that Lori Livot, in addition to being a mayor, is an extraordinary lawyer – a wonderful legal mind – he argued many cases and has wisdom in how to deal with aggressive paintings.”
This is not the first time that Johnson has spoken to his predecessors since he took office. In the summer of 2023, Bammanuel met at a meeting of advice on how to use profanity. He met with Lightfoot while the authority moved on the fifth floor of the city hall, when he took office. But this may be the first time that Johnson has communicated to obtain specific advice on how to move in great responsibility for his mayor.
Johnson is also planning to meet Arni Denkan, the Civil Leader of Chicago, former CEO of General Schools in Chicago and the former US Education Minister, who was also a pointed target for CTU in the past.
Denkan's advisor, Peter Keningham, said that Denkan “always believes in highlighting the place where our interests are converging instead of the place where you are divergent,” and this speaks Denkan and the mayor regularly.
“We want to see the mayor succeeds and represents the city well,” said Caningham. Caningham said Denkan has seen in front of Congress on multiple occasions and Johnson will recommend how to deal with this pressure.
Johnson also asked for advice Thursday evening from a group of community organizers, including civil rights lawyers and immigration advocates. The groups concerned did not mention to me, but he said they wanted to see Johnson fighting for federal resources while defending the attacks.
The group of unlikely characters for the characters together to support Johnson can be an indication of how the session is a political blessing. In the face of personal attacks, Johnson may seem sympathetic to his critics, and he may record a strong performance in the homeland.
But Delmarie Cobb, veteran democratic political expert, said that the danger is that if he is not well prepared, “may lose a lot of land and credibility”, and that the future competitors in the future will closely monitor your eyes.
She said: “If he hit his nose, they will watch him to see how he did so, because they are looking for any opening they can get.” “We are now this season after everyone has now tried to discover their next steps and what they can do to make Johnson look bad.”
Cope advised that Johnson be calm and on the message, not to engage in the screaming match and prepare for the facts.
He told me to expect it. He said Johnson's behavior will be “generous, respectful, calm.” He said that the mayors of Chicago are “uniquely equipped” to deal with personal attacks, given the coarse and struggling political scene in the city.
He told me: “Tenor and the tone of Chicago's policy are legendary.” “I think Harold Washington is the one who said:” Politics is not a cloth bag. “So, I think Brandon Johnson is definitely ready to deal with what may come.”
He told me that while the rulers of the Republicans who made Chicago a goal worked to plan a “misunderstanding” about the laws of Chicago's haven, the session is an opportunity to reshape public opinion about what policy does and does not do.
For example, while the city reserve law prohibits the Chicago police from asking a person about the state of migration or keeping a post -launch person without a judicial order to give time to reach the ice, it does not allow police officers to hinder enforcement officials from implementing an arrest warrant.
Police director Larry Senning said at a press conference in January: The Chicago Police Department is speaking regularly with the enforcement of migration and customs when they are deported here.
He told me that Johnson will highlight these nuances of his testimony.
But it remains to see whether the current lawsuit by the Trump administration against the city will be limited to what Johnson or the city's lawyer, Mary Richardson Luier, believes that he can say in the session.
The lawsuit aims to nullify parts of local and state protection and claim that laws “deliberately hinder” enforcement of federal immigration.
“Certainly it's consideration,” he said. “Among the four mayors, he is the only person who has been raised by the Ministry of Justice on these same issues. There is also legislation to be proposed in Congress that would remember funding from the cities of the haven, so that there are some legal and political effects on the subject that is failed in this testimony.”
Johnson is expected to appear alongside Boston Michel Wu mayor, New York City mayor Eric Adams and Denver Mike Johnston mayor. Adams worked on a preference with Trump and refrained from criticizing him; After meeting with the borders of Caesar Tom Human, Adams said that he would retract the law of the campus city in New York City to allow Ice agents on Rikeers, a prison facility. Earlier this month, the Trump Ministry of Justice has ordered the federal prosecutors to drop corruption charges against Adams.
Maria, pepper, Tisa Winburg covers politics and government in Chicago, WBEZ.
