WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden, developing strategies to curb gun violence, on Monday will meet with Chicago Police Supt. David Brown; D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser; Eric Adams, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor; and other local officials, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.
The afternoon meeting at the White House comes as Chicago continues to grapple with unrelenting gun violence and days after Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked Biden at O’Hare Airport to speed up his plans announced June 23 to send additional federal resources to Chicago within a month.
Brown at a news conference last week emphasized how Chicago shootings are done with illegal guns brought into Chicago.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, discussing Biden’s meeting with law enforcement officials, said at the Friday briefing — without naming the participants — the president “will meet with local leaders — including law enforcement, elected officials and a community violence intervention advocate — to discuss his administration’s comprehensive strategy to reduce gun crimes and other violent crimes.”
The meeting comes as Adams, a former New York police officer, won the Democratic nomination last week, making law and order a centerpiece of his campaign. The nomination of Adams, the frontrunner to be the next mayor, could potentially help put the brakes on Republican efforts — that stepped up last year as former President Donald Trump was seeking reelection — to portray Democrats as wanting to “defund the police.”
Biden has never called for defunding the police and is proposing sending more federal funds to cities for law enforcement.
The White House confirmed that besides Brown, Bowser and Adams, others at the meeting will be San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo; Memphis police chief Chief C.J. Davis and Lt. Anthony “Tony” Lima of the Newark Police Department.
On Sunday, Adams, on CNN’s “State of the Union” told host Jake Tapper that national Democrats’ priorities have been misplaced when it comes to gun laws and praised Biden for stating “that it is time for us to stop ignoring what is happening in the South Sides of Chicago, in the Brownsvilles, in the Atlantas of our country.”
