Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot slammed at meeting: ‘Get the hell out’

Lame duck Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot got a tongue-lashing at a raucous city council meeting Wednesday, with a longtime critic telling the controversial pol to “get the hell out of my city.”

Journalist William Kelly, a frequent adversary of Lightfoot, berated the outgoing mayor for her botched leadership, including her response to the COVID-19 pandemic, during a public comment portion of the meeting.

“You shut down our schools, you shut down the churches, you shut down the businesses,” Kelly railed, according to a video posted by Forbes.

“You did the one thing that I thought could never happen,” he said. “As someone who was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, I never thought in my life that I would ever see the city of Chicago brought down so low as you have managed to bring it down.

“Shame on you,” Kelly said. “That is a legacy that you are going to have to carry.”

Kelly, who runs a TV production and event company called RevDigital, has long been a vocal critic of Lightfoot, and last year sued her and the city, Fox News said in a follow-up report on Thursday.

During his comments, Kelly chastised the mayor for rescinding his press credentials, claiming she did so in retaliation for his criticism of her leadership.

“I feel like this is more like a victim impact statement than an actual public comment,” he said. “What you’ve done to me is nothing compared to what you’ve done to my city, the city of Chicago, the city that I was born and raised in, the city that I love with all my heart.”

Lightfoot’s response is not heard in the footage, but it prompts Kelly to add, “you are a pandemic” before he walks off.

Lightfoot, 60, a Democrat who was elected in 2019, lost a re-election bid last month.

The one-term mayor has come under fire for spiking crime in Chicago during her tenure, with the city’s homicide rate last year spiking by 40% since she took office.

Lightfoot also developed an adversarial relationship with the city press corps, at one point limiting Freedom of Information access to public records.

The 800 murders in Chicago in 2021 were the highest in 25 years.

She blamed racism and gender bias after she lost her re-election bid, and publicly quarreled with powerful city teachers and police unions.