Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot arrives on stage before speaking during the election night party in Chicago, Illinois on April 2, 2019. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images)
**FILE** Chicago Mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot arrives on stage before speaking during the election night party in Chicago, Illinois on April 2, 2019. (Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP/Getty Images)

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lashed out at President Donald Trump Thursday, scolding him over a lack of leadership during one of the most turbulent times in the nationโ€™s history.

Lightfoot said the reason behind the presidentโ€™s criticisms of her and fellow Mayors Jenny Durkan of Seattle, Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta and Muriel Bowser of D.C. is patently transparent.

โ€œHeโ€™s trying to borrow a page off Richard Nixonโ€™s playbook where you divide and conquer, where you scare White suburbanites,โ€ Lightfoot said on CNN. โ€œYou scare White working-class folks into thinking youโ€™re the person who has all the answers and that the Democrats have failed.

โ€œBut hereโ€™s the reality for this president: when he picks on me and Jenny Durkan, and Keisha Lance Bottoms and Muriel Bowser, [he fails to realize that] weโ€™re all very tough women,โ€ Lightfoot said. โ€œAnd we are leading because thatโ€™s what leaders do. We are not failing every single day to step up and own responsibility and be a leader in this incredible time.

โ€œWe need the president to be a better leader. We need him to take ownership of responsibility,โ€ she said. โ€œEven though heโ€™s failed in these three months, he still has an opportunity to lead, but heโ€™s not interested. But what heโ€™s interested in is dividing and conquering, and thatโ€™s a recipe for disaster.โ€

This correspondent is a guest contributor to The Washington Informer.

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