give us your take on what's happening on
the street there. Does Chicago need the
National Guard to keep streets safe?
>> Chicago does not need the National
Guard. Uh Chicago could use uh gun
violence intervention funding that he's
seen fit to claw back from agencies that
were promised funding. And he he was so
worried about crime, he wouldn't have
shut down the Office of Gun Violence
Prevention on day one or two of his
presidency. Uh the stats are the stats.
Crime has gone down. No one has said
there's no more crime, but uh Chicago
was working on it and they've been
working on it and we're seeing the, you
know, the proof of them working on it.
Crime has gone down. It's not
eliminated, but it's gone down.
>> That's certainly the case according to
Chicago's own crime tracker. I'm looking
at it right now. It's got crime down in
all categories from this time last year.
Do you believe though that's a total
representation of what's happening in
Chicago?
>> I do. I mean, I don't think the mayor or
anybody else, the police superintendent
is trying to say, you know, there's not
more work to do. There is more work to
do. Any crime is too much crime. But,
you know, he's pointing to all
Democratic cities, and I would say all
Democratic cities that have black mayors
on top of it is just part of his uh, you
know, scheme of fear, uh, racism, and
division.
Well, you know what a lot of Republicans
are saying right now, and I've been
hearing this since before Chicago uh was
part of the conversation, is that this
is a win politically for Republicans,
that the whole point of this is for
Donald Trump to get Democrats like you
to push back on this idea, to reinforce
the idea that Democrats are soft on
crime. Congresswoman, how would you
react to that?
>> Well, we're not soft on crime. We just
have other ways to deal with it. Again,
crime has gone down.
>> Do you think that's what's actually
happening, though? Is is this an effort
to try to make you look soft on crime?
>> Oh, I'm Oh, I'm sure they're going to
try everything they can do because they
know they're on their way to losing in
November 2026 and he doesn't want to
give up his kingdom. So, that's what
this is all about. And we just have to
keep speaking the truth and also do
everything we can do uh to um you know
decrease crime in all of our cities. But
there there's a lot of proof that red
states have crime too. A lot of crime.
He was actually asked today if he would
send National Guard troops into cities
in red states, suggesting he said that
there aren't many of them, but but that
he would in fact. You started talking
about the funding that you need though
to pursue uh crime programs in Chicago.
What are the proven methods that you're
referring to?
>> Well, there you can look at um you know,
people talk about CRED. I can name a lot
of organizations people you know have
not heard of. Good kids mad city, Polish
Pebbles. There's a lot of different
ready there's a lot of different
programs uh that work to uh kids off the
block to keep kids off the street to
give kids hope to give kids positive
things to do proven methods of gun
violence prevention. It doesn't stop
everything, you know, doesn't stop every
murder, every, you know, homicide or,
you know, programs to stop suicide, but
um there's definitely improvements, and
those are improvements all around the
United States, not just in Chicago.
>> Where are the guns coming from,
Congresswoman? Illinois, of course, has
very strict gun laws, so they're coming
from out of state. Can they be stopped
at the border? How do you address that?
Well, when we passed the bipartisan
safer communities act, my part of it was
the trafficking and straw purchasing
because every time I went to DC, people
would say that Chicago has the toughest
gun laws, but if no one else around us
has tough gun laws, that makes it very
hard. And if you take the resources away
from alcohol, tobacco, and firearm who
um you know go to the gun stores whose
job it is uh to track guns, it's
difficult to do that. I believe since
I've been in Congress the last 12 years,
Indiana has made it even easier to buy a
gun as other places have around the
United States. So, yeah, our guns come
from Indiana. Uh I would venture to say
they're coming from, you know, some of
the southern states and I know in New
York they talk about, you know, their
guns coming um up from the southern
states also. But we're kind of like a
oasis at least. you know, New York as
New Jersey and Connecticut, but but
we're an oasis in many, many ways.
>> I want to ask you, we only have a minute
left, Congresswoman, about no cash bail
because the president signed an EO today
ending that practice aimed to at least
Your state of Illinois was the first in
the nation to pass a cashless bail law.
What does Donald Trump not understand?
>> He doesn't understand that this gives
judges the discretion uh more discretion
to make that decision. you know, they
can say no if they think it's someone
that will, you know, go out and be
violent. They're they're not they're too
risky. But if, you know, they have
nothing in their past or the judge feels
that, you know, they'll be safe and it's
okay to, you know, let them out, they
have that discretion. So, but Donald
Trump doesn't care. Again, this is part
of his, you know, fear. This is part of
his distraction uh from other things
going on in the world, you know, or
other things going on in the United
States. Like he said he would lower
prices. That hasn't happened. So these
are all distractions.