During Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Chicago in the Crosshairs” town hall, Representative Bobby Rush (D-IL), who defeated President Obama in a primary race for Rush’s seat in the House, stated, “we have not yet at this moment, including the eight years of Obama, had someone in the White House who really cared about this city and about these problems here in the city of Chicago.”

Rush said, “I don’t know what Trump means when he’s saying, bring in the feds. First of all, my challenge to Trump is, Trump, bring your rump into the city of Chicago. Go to these communities, and hear what these people who are on the front lines day by day, hear what they have to say about their community and their aspirations for their community. I think that we need to take a moment to look beyond the violence, and see what is occurring beyond the violence.”

He continued, “If we look beyond the violence, we’ll not only see the schools that were closed, we’ll see — and Chicago State that is being threatened to close, but we’ll see the fact that Chicago, at one time, had nine black-owned banks, and now we’re down to one. That’s a federal policy. I’m saying that most of our problems that I’ve heard here today, and that I’ve thought about over the years, be it housing, be it education, be it mass incarceration, all of these are federal policies, and we have not yet at this moment, including the eight years of Obama, had someone in the White House who really cared about this city and about these problems here in the city of Chicago.”

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