Lori Lightfoot, the first black woman and first lesbian to serve as mayor of Chicago, spoke for many Americans on Friday afternoon, when she hurled a “coded” F-bomb at President Donald Trump.
Lightfoot was responding to Trump’s racist, violent threat toward Minneapolis protesters earlier in the day — which he later pathetically attempted to walk back.
“He wants to show failures on the part of Democratic local leaders, to throw red meat to his base,” Lightfoot said during her opening remarks at an afternoon news conference. “His goal is to polarize, to destabilize local government and inflame racist urges. We can absolutely not let him prevail. And I will code what I really want to say to Donald Trump. It’s two words. It begins with F and it ends with U.”
More from the Chicago Tribune: Asked later whether she should have used that language toward Trump, in light of former first lady Michelle Obama’s “when they go low, we go high” mantra, Lightfoot didn’t back down. “I don’t take the bait every time, but this time, when we are suffering pain and trauma at the killing of a black man in the street, to try to, for political gain, and blow the dog whistle to his base, I’m a black woman, and a leader, and I feel an obligation to speak out when something as offensive as that is said by anyone, but particularly the president,” she said. “And I make no apologies whatsoever for my word choice, and the way in which I’m calling him out for what he said.”
