'That's nonsense': GOP ex-prosecutor fact-checks right-wing TV hosts on 'crisis' claim

Former state and federal prosecutor Pat Brady sounded off Monday on Newsmax host Katrina Szish over her defense of President Donald Trump’s looming threat to launch a federal takeover in Chicago, much like the ongoing takeover of Washington, D.C.

“The president's statements that somehow the city of Chicago is this great warzone [are] just not true,” Brady said, who chaired the Illinois Republican Party and is now a GOP strategist. “There are very localized areas on the south and west sides that are horrible, and this is where you see a lot of this crime occur, but if you go to the north side where I live, it's substantially better than it used to be.”

Trump first teased a federal takeover of Chicago shortly after launching the takeover of the nation’s capital, where thousands of federal officers and National Guard members currently patrol the streets, some of them armed. Trump teased a major announcement on a potential Chicago takeover last week, and railed against Chicago’s mayor for ‘justifying violent crime’ as recently as Monday morning.

Brady, while admitting that crime in Chicago was “a problem,” he said he fell short of a “crisis,” and certainly fell short of necessitating a federal takeover.

“The only people that get hurt in this are the people that live in the impoverished communities, mainly African Americans,” Brady said. “So I agree with the discussion, we need to have federal resources here, but top-down management of this is not going to work, you're going to get some resistance.”

Pushing back, Szish jumped in to say: “The fact of the matter, it is a huge crisis in Chicago” before getting cut off by Brady.

“No, I don't want to listen, it's not a huge [crisis], I live here!” Brady fired back.

“Listen, I live here and I was a prosecutor here; that's just all nonsense! It is bad in those areas, and I agree that we need to concentrate on that, but let's have a realistic and true discussion about it. It's a lot better!”

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