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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot received a brutal surprise after showing up for a union fundraiser.
She was immediately “drowned out by boos,” Fox News reports.
She was reportedly “booed off the stage” after speaking for less than a minute.
“Almost deafening,” one person explained. This witness asked Fox News to remain anonymous.
“I was sitting at the table with a bunch of plumbers. They’re like, `We’ve never heard that before here.’”
“Clearly, their membership is not with her,” the witness continued. “They were calling her names. It was bad.”
“I knew that was going to happen,” another person said off-camera in the video below.
“That’s f—-ing brutal,” one person said in the video.
Watch the clip:
You tell me pic.twitter.com/0O845l98vW
— the312conservative (@the312conserva1) October 26, 2021
The unwelcoming gesture came during an annual fundraiser for Plumbers Union Local 130.
The union was the first to endorse her back during the 2019 runoff election.
One attendee, who asked to remain anonymous, told the outlet that Lightfoot
More from Fox News:
Video purportedly taken at the event circulated on social media Wednesday after being picked up by conservative media. It showed Jim Coyne, the union’s business manager, introducing Lightfoot and a loud round of boos erupting as she took the podium.
Union officials downplayed the boos. Pat McCarthy, the union’s recording secretary, said Lightfoot was able to finish her remarks.
“I was there when she was speaking. There were a couple of people in the corner that booed. But it was nothing significant. And it didn’t disrupt the event at all,” McCarthy told the Sun-Times. “I would have to suspect whoever was booing at that event was not a member of this local. … We respect her and we have no problems with the mayor.”
Lightfoot’s political director, Dave Mellet, said he’s confident the union will endorse the mayor’s reelection in 2023.
“I don’t believe that she was, quote-unquote, ‘booed’ at this event,” he told the outlet. “I believe she was well received. There may have been a couple of people in the room who came in there to shout and be loud.”
Lightfoot has sparked the ire of unions over her vaccine mandate, which requires city workers to report their COVID-19 vaccination status or be placed on unpaid leave.
