Gov. Pritzker meets with violence interrupters as Chicago prepares for possible federal troop deployment
Preparations continued Wednesday for an influx of federal agents to Chicago as President Trump considers sending in the National Guard.
But in a new wrinkle, Vice President JD Vance said the federal government has "no immediate plans" to send National Guard forces to Chicago.
Asked by reporters for details on a possible Guard deployment in Chicago, Vance deferred to Mr. Trump on Wednesday, before saying: "There are no immediate plans, but the president has said he has the legal authority to protect American citizens, whether that's in Chicago or in Washington, D.C."
On Tuesday, President Trump renewed his threats to send in federal troops to Chicago to crack down on crime, despite a judge in California ruling the president's deployment of troops in Los Angeles violated federal law.
The president said on Tuesday he still plans to send National Guard troops to Chicago, after the city saw at least eight people killed and 51 others wounded over the Labor Day weekend.
"Well, we're going in. I didn't say when. We're going in," Mr. Trump said Tuesday. "Look, I have an obligation. This isn't a political thing. I have an obligation."
But on Wednesday, President Trump also walked back his earlier statements about Chicago. He told reporters Wednesday that he is still trying to determine if he will send National Guard members to Chicago, and indicated that he might deploy troops to New Orleans instead.
"So we're making a determination now — do we go to Chicago, or do we go to a place like New Orleans where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that's become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad," President Trump said.
Nevertheless, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said he is still preparing for a possible deployment. On Wednesday, Pritzker met with violence interrupters at Chicago's Metropolitan Peace Initiatives as they run table exercises and trainings to learn how to encounter federal agents should they come to the city.
There continues to be no communication between his office and the White House. The governor said he will not call the president, because if President Trump sends the National Guard to Chicago, Pritzker will sue — and a phone call could be used as evidence by the Trump administration as some sort of appeal for help.
"The president is begging me to call him to ask him to do something that we don't want. He wants me to call him and ask him to call in the National Guard to the city of Chicago. We don't want it," Pritzker said. "So that's why I'm not calling the president."
Meanwhile, a lot of uncertainty remains about what's happening now, and next.
"It looks like they are going to be fully assembled on Friday," Pritzker said. "It doesn't mean they're going to be an action on Friday, although that could happen."
Pritzker said he continues to believe the National Guard is preparing for operations in Chicago.
"We're not going to get any help from Washington," the governor said. "In fact, they're going to do the opposite and what we can do is hold the line."
Metropolitan Peace Initiatives said the training would apply whether it involves additional agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, members of another federal agency, or the National Guard.
The organization's members take their work to the street — trying to minimize the teen takeovers that often pop up in Chicago in the summer months. Members of the organization talked with CBS News Chicago in May, saying members of its crisis response team train in classrooms for 18 weeks before they go out into the field and start talking to teens during trends.
"We've asked for the public to be ready with your iPhone, and any way that you can to record what is going on in their neighborhoods by ICE," Pritzker said.
The governor said Illinois law enforcement could not stand between National Guard members and civilians, but the state would initiate lawsuits.
Pritzker said he would support certain federal help.
"I have been very clear about what we do want," Pritzker said. "What we do want is civilian law-enforcement assistance. We want to make sure that we have enough FBI, ATF, DEA on the ground. We have some already, as you know."
Pritzker said Tuesday that he had learned from multiple sources that National Guard troops previously deployed in Los Angeles will soon be moved to Chicago, and some of them already have arrived. He also said members of the Texas National Guard would be sent to Chicago.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said this was not true, but at the Wednesday news conference, Pritzker said he does not trust Abbott.
"He has not been a good actor at all to the state of Illinois, so I don't really trust anything that he's saying at this moment," Pritzker said.
Pritzker also said it is possible the National Guard from Texas was sent without Abbott's approval.
On that issue of New Orleans, Pritzker noted the Louisiana governor can mobilize his own National Guard if he so chooses — as Pritzker himself has done in the past.