Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot lashed out at President Trump on Friday as “foolish” after he deemed all churches and synagogues and places of worship as “essential.”
Lightfoot says President Trump has no power to override her local lockdown on churches and businesses.
Chicago police fined three churches last weekend for holding worship services.
South Side Churches cheered President Trump’s announcement on Friday.
Sun Times reported:
A Sunday service showdown could be looming across the state this weekend.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot slammed President Donald Trump’s calls on Friday for churches and other houses of worship to reopen, while Gov. J.B. Pritzker — who has managed to fend off a series of legal challenges against his stay-at-home order — said Illinois will “continue to operate on the basis of science and data.”
Lightfoot was more pointed in her criticism of Trump, who, during a hastily arranged White House press conference, said he’d identified churches, synagogues and mosques as “essential places that provide essential services” — and that he would “override” governors who don’t abide by his request to open them.
The mayor called those remarks the latest in a long list of “dangerous and foolish” things the president has said.
“The faith leaders that I’ve talked to across the city recognize that they have to be smart about this, they’re worried about their parishioners, and we get that,” Lightfoot said during a news conference announcing plans to “cautiously reopen” sectors of the city economy.
“We are not going to rush to do something, so he can fulfill a campaign promise that sets people’s lives at risk. … He’s said so many dangerous and foolish things — add this to the list,” she said.
