Journalist slams 'hypocritical' Chicago mayor for having police keep protesters off her block

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is being "hypocritical" by allowing the Chicago Police Department to prevent protesters from demonstrating on the block where she lives, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charlie LeDuff told "The Story" Friday night.

"In a way, I understand. She's scared," LeDuff told host Martha MacCallum. "One, you have a responsibility to us, however, to explain the nature of these threats so we can assess the necessity for this. Two -- I called my people in the Chicago police department -- you've got cops in your home, you have them outside your home. To extend that [perimeter] out is to pull cops from that district so everybody else gets less, so in a way, it's hypocritical.

LORI LIGHTFOOT DEFENDS BAN ON PROTESTERS ON HER BLOCK, CITING HER RIGHT TO SAFETY

"You have an 80% approval rating, and yet you feel beseiged by a really vociferious minority ... I just think at this point, it's just not credible. You took the job. You're not allowed to cordon off the world when the rest of us want exactly what you want. We would like the police to respond to us. We would like professional police to protect us, and when you do it, we don't have it. So, I guess this is up to Chicago to deal with it but if it was to be done in Detroit, the guy would be laughed out of town," he said.

Host Martha MacCallum said the furor reminded her of when Lightfoot defended making a trip to a hair salon while Chicago was under stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic in April by saying she was the "public face of this city. I'm on national media and I'm out in the public eye."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"You gotta know when you're a public figure in this country, you gotta live like the rest of us. You do," LeDuff said. "You're on TV? Put a hat on."