CHICAGO — President Joe Biden on Wednesday made his first visit to the Chicago region since taking office to discuss his plan to help working- and middle-class families but, as is often the case, the city’s rampant gun violence emerged as a theme of the day.
Just hours before Biden touched down in Chicago, two federal agents and a Chicago police officer were shot while in a vehicle near the Chicago Police Department’s Morgan Park District station on the Far South Side. On the flight to Chicago, White House officials told reporters that Biden had been in touch with Mayor Lori Lightfoot about the shootings and offered condolences to the families of the victims.
Biden did not address the shooting in his remarks during his scheduled event in northwest suburban Crystal Lake.
Upon his arrival at O’Hare International Airport, Biden was greeted by Lightfoot and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle before embarking on the purpose of his trip: a visit to northwest suburban McHenry County to tout his American Families Plan.
Biden and Lightfoot shook hands and spoke briefly before he turned to Preckwinkle. He spoke with both women for a few minutes before boarding a helicopter.
Ahead of Biden’s visit, Lightfoot she would ask him for help with “common-sense gun control” and crime.
“It makes no sense that we have a no-fly list of people who are too dangerous to get on a plane, but yet they can purchase firearms,” she said.
Lightfoot made those comments the day before the three officers were shot early Wednesday. The officers were in an unmarked police vehicle on their way to conduct a joint investigation between Chicago police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives when they were fired upon officials said. None of the injuries was believed to be life-threatening, and the assailants remained at large.
Last month, Biden’s Department of Justice announced an effort to target gun trafficking in five major cities — New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay Area. The crackdown is aimed at cities where federal authorities have said a substantial number of weapons used in crime come from other areas in the country.
Lightfoot said she wanted resources associated with that task force “today,” and called on the Justice Department to move “as fast as possible.”
Former President Donald Trump frequently seized on Chicago’s gun violence during his tenure in the White House and Republicans continued to do so Wednesday in connection with the president’s event.
“Chicagoans aren’t interested in platitudes when their loved ones are dying in the streets,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Preya Samsundar said. “Biden’s trip to the Windy City without a plan to address out-of-control crime or denounce the Democrats’ push to defund the police is a reminder that his party’s wish list is more important to his administration than keeping Chicago families safe.”
Biden’s visit follows one of its most violent weekends of the year in Chicago — with at least 108 people shot, and 17 fatally. For the year, Chicago has had 364 homicides and 2,021 shootings, both numbers up from 2020.
During a briefing ahead of Wednesday’s trip, White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted that violent crime rates have increased not just in Chicago, but across the country in recent months, noting that summertime often brings the worst spikes.
She said Biden would continue to push in his budget proposal for an additional $300 million for the Department of Justice’s COPS Hiring Program and $70 million more for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to assist efforts to crack down on illegal gun purchases.
The purpose of Biden’s trip, however, was not to discuss gun violence but his American Families Plan that would create free community college, extend the child tax credit and push for universal pre-K education. The president appeared before a gathering of a few hundred people in the gymnasium at McHenry County College where he made the case to ease the financial burden on working- and middle-class families.
“What we’re here to talk about today is human infrastructure,” Biden said in his speech. “To truly win the 21st century economy and once again lead the world, to truly build an economy from the bottom-up and the middle-out, to truly deal everyone in this time, we need to invest in our people.”
The stop is the latest by Biden to swing regions of the country to highlight his efforts to drive a strong recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which he has dubbed his Build Back Better agenda.
Biden carried Crystal Lake in the 2020 election, but Trump won McHenry County as a whole, with 50% of the votes to Biden’s 47%
While Illinois is solidly Democratic, McHenry County is represented by a pair of Democrats in Congress who won seats in historically GOP-leaning areas — U.S. Reps. Lauren Underwood of Naperville and Sean Casten of Downers Grove.
Asked during a briefing Tuesday why the northwest suburbs were chosen for the president’s visit, Psaki said Biden has emphasized he was elected to represent not just Democrats, but also independents and Republicans.
“I would see this as less of a political trip and more as an opportunity to speak to all Americans about why his Build Back Better agenda ... is something people of all political stripes should be able to support,” Psaki said.
Before the Crystal Lake event, Biden met with Gov. J.B. Pritzker, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, U.S. Rep. Underwood and Clint Gabbard, the president of McHenry County College. Also greeting Biden backstage: U.S. Reps. Casten, Robin Kelly, Raja Krishnamoorthi; Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, among others.
No other politicians spoke before Biden took the stage. Ahead of the visit, Pritzker called the president’s American Families Plan “very important for the people of Illinois.”
“So many aspects of that plan are about lifting up middle-class families, working-class families who really need help,” Pritzker said prior to the president’s visit. “I’m an advocate for it, and I look forward to talking to him about that.”
Pritzker also expressed excitement over discussing Biden’s bipartisan efforts to pass an infrastructure package that has had Illinois transportation officials dusting off their transit and highway wish lists.
The governor made note of the state infrastructure plan he passed two years ago, funded in part by an increase in the state gas tax. Pritzker said having projects in the pipeline as part of that six-year, $45 billion “Rebuild Illinois” program “means that we will be shovel-ready with our matching funds in order to take advantage of the federal dollars that will come from a federal infrastructure bill.”
Republicans, meanwhile, dubbed Biden’s trip the “more government, more spending tour.”
“No punch slogan can overshadow the disaster that is the Biden-Harris administration’s plan for America,” said Priscilla Ivasco, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Democrats want more government control no matter how much they have to spend to get there, and their economic policies are leaving American taxpayers with a burdensome tab to pay.”
Biden’s trip to Crystal Lake follows two other stops in politically purple areas in the Midwest that are home to key congressional districts or swing presidential regions.
Biden made a trip to LaCrosse, Wisconsin, last week to promote a bipartisan deal on infrastructure. Western Wisconsin is a key swing area in the key swing state of Wisconsin. Democrat U.S. Rep. Ron Kind narrowly held onto his seat representing the western Wisconsin district, which Biden lost to Trump. The president, however, kept the margins close enough there to defeat Trump in a state the former president won in 2016.
Biden followed that with a July 4 holiday weekend trip to Traverse City, Michigan, to highlight a return to pre-pandemic life in another key area of a swing state. Trump lost Michigan in 2020 after winning the state four years earlier, but won Grand Traverse County with 50.6% of the vote to 47.6% for Biden.
Crystal Lake is in Underwood’s district, which was among the closest races in the nation last year. Underwood hung on to defeat former state Sen. Jim Oberweis, winning 50.6% of the vote to 49.3% for Oberweis.
Democrats currently hold a slim nine-seat margin in the U.S. House, and midterm elections historically have served as difficult political terrain for the party of the sitting president. While Illinois Democrats will look to shore up Underwood’s district as part of a new congressional map drawn this year, her seat is still likely to be among the top targeted nationally by Republicans.
Psaki said Tuesday that Biden was “eager to see Congresswoman Underwood, given she’s been such an advocate for the expansion of health care, making it more affordable and accessible and that’s something he will continue to advocate for.”
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(Chicago Tribune reporter Gregory Pratt contributed to this report.)
