Chicago Reporter Gives Lightfoot a Tongue-Lashing During City Council Meeting

Leah Barkoukis | March 17, 2023 10:00 AM

A Chicago reporter whose press credentials were revoked by outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot unloaded on the Democrat during a city council meeting on Wednesday.

Journalist William Kelly, who said he felt like he was giving a "victim impact statement," excoriated Lightfoot for what she’s done to the city and said he plans to chronicle her failures in a book for the historical record.

“I should be sitting over there with my colleagues, but I’m standing over here because on a weekly basis I was going viral asking you obvious questions and instead of answering them, you told me that crime was down, my videos went viral, amassed millions of likes and shares, and it was hurting your re-election campaign, so you revoked my media credential,” Kelly said. “That should never happen in a free country.”

Lightfoot not only harmed him, Kelly argued, but the Windy City as a whole.

“You shut down our schools, you shut down the churches, you shut down the businesses. You did the one thing I thought could never happen: as somebody who was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, I never thought in my life that I would ever see the city for Chicago brought down so low, as you have managed to bring it down. Shame on you,” he continued. “I hope that after today’s city council meeting, you will pack your suitcase and get the hell out of my city.”