Mother Jones reports:

At a contentious January city council meeting marked by passionate speeches and so much heckling that an hour-long recess had to be called, the new mayor cast the tie-breaking vote on a 23-23 deadlock to approve a resolution calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. More than 100 local governments have done so, but Chicago remains the largest by population.

If Johnson wasn’t mired in meetings with local and national lawmakers and law enforcement personnel ahead of the convention, it’s not crazy to envision a previous version of him among the activists painting picket signs to march near the convention site. His support for the city council resolution put him at odds with President Joe Biden and much of the rest of Democratic Party leadership, which has so far continued to supply Israel with military aid despite more than 40,000 reported Palestinian deaths since the terrorist-group Hamas launched its October 7 attacks on Israel, killing 1,200 and capturing more than 240 hostages.

Johnson’s position on the conflict also goes well beyond that of freshly minted Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, who has shown sympathy for Palestinian suffering but has also expressed “unwavering” commitment to Israel and its security. “What’s happening right now is not only egregious, it is genocidal,” Johnson, by contrast, says in our interview. “We have to acknowledge and name it for what it is and have the moral courage to exercise our authority.”

His perspective on First Amendment rights also could not be more distinct from that of Richard J. Daley, who was Chicago’s mayor during the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago—which is frequently compared to this year’s confab. [Continue reading…]