In this file photo, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks at the McCormick Place alternate care facility in Chicago on Friday, April 10, 2020.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is standing by a tweet in which she referred to White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany as a "Karen."
On Thursday, Lightfoot tweeted, "Hey Karen, watch your mouth" after McEnany called her a "derelict mayor" during a press briefing.
Karen, according to Urban Dictionary, is the “stereotypical name associated with rude, obnoxious and insufferable middle aged white women.”
At an unrelated news conference Friday, Lightfoot called her comment "pretty straightforward" and said some in the Trump administration think they can score political points by trying to demonize Democratic mayors, particularly women mayors.
"They think that they're going to take us on, and make us look bad because that'll score points with their base," she stated.
Lightfoot once again took aim at President Trump who she accused of repeatedly lying about resources the federal government is providing to fight the coronavirus and said his team wants to change the subject from what she called failed leadership.
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"And this won't be the last time that his flacks will try to take me on," the mayor said. "But good luck. I'm still here. I'm going to lead this city as best I can."
"If you really wanted to help the city, let's start with the fact that you would weigh in, Mr. President, on common sense... gun reform," she said. "It makes no sense that people from Chicago can go across the border to Indiana and buy military grade weapons and bring them back to our city and kill our children."
President Trump has often disparaged Chicago's leadership and it's violence, even as recently as Monday.
At a law enforcement discussion, the president then said Chicago is "worse than Afghanistan" or any war zone that the U.S. is in, according to Forbes.
Lightfoot contended Friday that she believes the president doesn't really want to help.
"What he wants to do is use me and this city and other cities across the country as punching bags, and I'm not having it. Period," she said.
