Chicago Mayor Blasted for Getting Haircut After Telling Chicagoans to Shut Down Shops

The Associated Press
The Associated Press

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot took guff Monday for getting a haircut only a week after scolding the Windy City for not shutting down “non-essential” businesses, including barbers and beauty salons.

The celebrated first openly gay mayor was pressed by the Chicago media over the haircut she got over the weekend. But Lightfoot insisted that since she is the “face of the city,” she deserves to be excused from the governor’s orders to shut down non-essential businesses as a measure to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus.

The vain mayor told the media:

I’m the public face of this city. I’m on national media and I’m out in the public eye.
I’m a person who, I take my personal hygiene very seriously. As I said, I felt like I needed to have a haircut. I’m not able to do that myself, so I got a haircut. You want to talk more about that?

Lightfoot also defended the woman who cut her hair, saying, “the woman who cut my hair had a mask and gloves on, so we are, I am practicing what I’m preaching.”

But the mayor is not exactly practicing what she has been preaching, because she has several times scolded those Chicagoans who have been seen out in public “unnecessarily.”

Last week, Lightfoot aimed at Chicagoans, who insisted on walking, biking, and jogging on the city’s famed lakefront.

“Congregating on our lakefront, to be blunt, is going to create a risk that is unacceptable and could lead to death. That is why we are taking these actions and going back and saying again: dear god, stay home, save lives,” she said after a city employee reportedly died from the virus.

Indeed, after shutting down Chicago’s lakefront, Lightfoot sent out squadrons of Chicago Police officers to stand sentry to prevent people from using the paths, sidewalks, and lakefront facilities.

Lightfoot even scolded the media for simply talking about her haircut fiasco.

“I think what really people want to talk about is, we’re talking about people dying here. We’re talking about significant health disparities. I think that’s what people care most about,” she said.

City Alderman Carlos Ramierez-Rosa, though, was unconvinced by the mayor’s arguments.

“She is under no obligation to look good on national TV. She is under no obligation to book national interviews. But she is under an obligation to follow and promote social distancing in order to save lives. This is a bad example for our city,” he tweeted on Monday.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston.

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