Mayor Brandon Johnson defends alderman who spoke at rally in front of burned U.S. flag
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday shrugged off calls from some alderpeople to remove progressive ally Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) as chair of the City Council Housing Committee as punishment for speaking at a pro-Palestinian rally where a protester had burned a U.S. flag last week.
"I can be offended by someone's presentation, and also recognize that they have a fundamental right to express that. I don't even know why this is being debated, quite frankly. It's actually quite disturbing that, as a city, we're having a conversation about protected speech in America," Johnson said.
Sigcho-Lopez spoke at a protest rally on Friday outside City Hall where a Marine veteran had burned an American flag.
On Wednesday, 11 of the alderman's colleagues urged Johnson to demand Sigcho-Lopez resign as Housing Committee chair.
"I'd prefer Ald. Sigcho-Lopez apologize for his role in this, the mayor condemn his actions of a leader who seems to somehow revel in division, but unfortunately, those things have not happened," Ald. Bill Conway (34th), an active reserve intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy, said on Wednesday.
A group of 15 City Council members have since called for a special meeting on Monday to force Sigcho-Lopez out as Housing Committee chair, though the alderman's critics remain short of the 26 members needed to establish the necessary quorum to hold the meeting.
But Sigcho-Lopez has said he has nothing to apologize for, saying he was not at the rally when the flag was burned, and didn't see it on the ground in front of him when he spoke at the rally.
On Thursday, Johnson said it would be "morally reprehensible and irresponsible" to punish Sigcho-Lopez for the way someone else exercised their First Amendment rights.
"It's important that, as a democracy, that we don't lose sight of one of the core elements of a democracy, and one of the core elements of a democracy is actually having the First Amendment to be able to have protected speech. Anything short of protected speech would undo this experience that we are in the midst of right now," Johnson said.
The mayor said, while people have the right to disagree with or be offended by burning an American flag as a form of protest, he said the right to free speech protections is a "fundamental value of this country."
"I support the First Amendment. Anyone in this country has a right … to speak their political opinion and position, and we should be protected. The larger question that I would ask is are we okay as a society that would curtail and disrupt someone's First Amendment right?" Johnson said.
Sigcho-Lopez spoke at a Friday rally outside City Hall to call for the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to be canceled.
The organizers of Friday's protest said the person who burned the flag before Sigcho-Lopez arrived was a Marine veteran who was protesting Israel's actions in Gaza and paying tribute to U.S. Air Force airman Aaron Bushnell, who died after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C., last month in protest of the war in Gaza.
Sigcho-Lopez defended that Marine veteran's First Amendment right to protest the DNC and Biden by burning a flag.
"My colleagues should actually talk to this veteran. To this day, they haven't," he said. "What he's talking about is housing for veterans, talking about mental health for veterans, talking about Aaron Bushnell, who is an airman who burned himself alive, saying that this is what the status quo, this is what the ruling class want to normalize. That's what he said. Free Palestine. That's what he was elevating."
Sigcho-Lopez said he supports cancelling the DNC because of President Joe Biden's lack of support for an immediate ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and what he sees as the Democratic Party's lack of support for migrants.
"I have every right to say it, and I'm not going to apologize for standing up for my community and for working people," he said Wednesday.
Johnson said he found it "quite disturbing" that members of the City Council are seeking to remove Sigcho-Lopez from his leadership post over what happened at the protest rally.
"Under my administration, I fully expect that the City Council recognizes its responsibility, and that it will not move forward in the type of fascist forms of expression that have left too many of our countries in desperate peril," he said.
As for City Council members who have said they no longer want to work with Sigcho-Lopez because of what happened, Johnson said he and other politicians have to work with people they disagree with all the time.
"If people are as petulant as someone who would be unwilling to engage with someone that they disagree with, we wouldn't be standing here today. Do you know how many conversations Black leaders have had to have with racists? It's multiple," he said. "There are people in the City Council who have stood with open racist white supremacist organizations."
While Johnson did not name any specific alderpeople who have stood with white supremacists, multiple social media posts have shared pictures of City Council members who have criticized Sigcho-Lopez attending rallies with members of the Proud Boys extremist group and people later convicted of taking part in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.