Kansas City mayor claims Trump targeting cities with Black leaders in crime crackdown

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas argued that race was driving President Donald Trump s crackdown on crime in major U S cities like Washington D C because they are run by Black mayors On Monday Trump deployed the National Guard to Washington D C and federalized the police department to crack down on crime in the area During a press conference he listed several other cities such as Chicago Los Angeles Baltimore and Oakland as other places that are being harmed by crime While speaking to CNN s Kate Bolduan on Wednesday Lucas pointed out that various of those major cities have Black mayors such as himself and maintained that both race and politics are primarily behind Trump s more up-to-date attacks CHRIS MATTHEWS SAYS DEMOCRATS 'FALLING INTO A TRAP OF DEFENDING WHAT S INDEFENSIBLE' ON CRIME I won t say that s the totality of it but I absolutely think it is Lucas declared You re trying to create a counterpoint often in politics And what is a better counterpoint than Donald Trump in whatever way you see him and a mayor Black women mayors have been the subject of lots of attacks Lucas listed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass as an example of someone Trump likes to pick fights with and encouraged others to also fight back even if their cities are experiencing high crime rates And by the way this is one of the best fights to pick because what I have to sit in front of you and say is yes there are homicides in my city Yes there is crime But we don t think the same prescription of help is necessary Lucas declared It s a tough position But I think frankly this is the situation we re in And he s not really interested in trying to save lives for us but just exploiting the political issue CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE OF MEDIA AND CULTURELucas remarked that his city is unlikely to be targeted by Trump because of their Republican governor and it s not as compelling from just a broader political point This is nothing but a wedge issue against American cities and against American mayors who largely don t have the same megaphone to respond Lucas declared D C Mayor Muriel Bowser a Black woman has called Trump s National Guard move unsettling and unprecedented and has repeatedly argued that the city is not experiencing a spike in crime CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP