GREG GUTFELD: Lori Lightfoot's loss is a lesson for everyone else in politics

Happy Wednesday, everybody. Yes, you are amazing. What a glorious Wednesday it is. For one, Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, seen here having her prostate checked, became Chicago's first incumbent mayor in 40 years to lose re-election. Congrats, Lori. She deserves it because she broke another glass ceiling. She was the first Black lesbian mayor of Chicago, but now she's the worst mayor ever, which sadly means no Black lesbian mayors for awhile in Chicago. Way to ruin it for them.

She got roughly 17% of the vote. So even if her fan base from the Cook County Jail population, all 5,700 of them voted, still wasn't enough. Losing to former head of Chicago Public School, Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson, they took 34 and 20% of the vote, respectively, and will now head to a runoff to determine the next mayor. That was boring. It was. I should've just cut all that out. We didn't care about those numbers. My fault. But now, this is supposedly good news.

But why is it news at all? It shouldn't be news when the worst mayor in the country loses. This should be expected. But it wasn't. Why is that? Well, it's because it's news that she lost despite having more protection than a Fort Knox full of condoms. Lightfoot was a historical first, of course. First Black female lesbian Chicago mayor. Perhaps also a garden gnome, a woodland nymph, a magical imp, a Ghost of Christmas Past, Medusa. But because of that, the media cut her more slack than a tailor on meth.

GREG GUTFELD: IT'S SO QUIET YOU COULD HEAR A BOOB DROP

But as she found out, you can't just run a city into the ground and then accuse people of racism and misogyny once those people find out you suck, which is exactly what she did after she lost, blamed it on the voters for being racist. When a reporter asked if she'd been treated unfairly, she answered, quote, "I'm a Black woman in America. Of course." Yeah, that makes sense. Racist, sexist, homophobes gave her a chance to be mayor, but only once. So now, she chalks up her loss to fictitious white supremacists. She's like a masculine version of Jussie Smollett. Did I get that reversed?

Of course, her loss is a win for Chicago and a lesson for everyone else in politics. So are you listening, Eric Adams, Karen Bass, London Breed, Muriel Bowser, Ted Wheeler, Jacob Frey? Maybe voters in a deep blue city finally said this experiment with dangerous, infantile lefties is finally over and ticking boxes only creates more boxes, except we call them coffins. True, if you're a progressive and want to set some records while in office, make sure it isn't for number of murders. Under her, the city's homicide rate rose to its highest numbers in 25 years. They haven't seen that many slaughter since Michael Jordan was thin.

The city saw 695 murders in 2022 and 804 in 2021. So I did some math. At that pace, if Lori got elected for four more years, at the end of her second term, Chicago's population would be the same as Gilligan's Island. Right now, if you're a kid in Chicago, you're just as likely to go outside and catch a bullet as you are a cold. Anyway, here's her concession speech.

[VIDEO]

LORI LIGHTFOOT: We fought the right fights and we put this city on a better path. I'm grateful that we've worked together to remove a record number of guns off our streets, reduced homicides, and started making real progress on public safety.

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So she reduced murders under her watch, but only after she presided over an explosion in murders under her watch? That's like Biden saying gas costs slightly fewer arms and legs. That makes sense. Anyway, I haven't seen someone that delusional since Rachel Levine tried on a two-piece. But I'm sure she'll land on her feet. It's hard not to when you wear a size 14 and a homeless guy's head. But lefties always get another job. If she's not teaching at Harvard, she'll be a spokesperson for Spirit Halloween.

Of course, the bigger question is, will other Democrat mayors with cities overrun by crime take note of Lightfoot getting the boot? We do know that several Democratic mayors are finally waking up to doing something about homelessness, committing the deranged to treatment. Meanwhile, others are distancing themselves from the Defund the Police movement like it's MS-13 with monkey pox.

So ironically, the woke is finally getting a wake up call. Let's hope they don't hit the snooze button because people are tired of being dead. To put it another way, they're dead tired of incompetence being protected by diversity. And they don't want a mayor that reminds you of Beetlejuice. Although, I'm going to miss those hemlines for her slacks. I used to do that. Further proof she steals her pants off shopping mall security guards.

Jussie Smollett files appeal argument in hate crime hoax conviction

Jussie Smollett’s legal team has filed their appeal brief, detailing their argument against the actor’s hate crime hoax conviction.

In documents obtained by Fox News Digital, Smollett's legal team argued his "renewed prosecution" violated Smollet's due process rights. In addition, the "circuit court judge improperly denied the defense motion for substitution of judge for cause because of his explicit bias towards Mr. Smollett, rendering every subsequent ruling and action in this case null and void."

A jury found Smollett guilty of five of the six charges of disorderly conduct against him following a nearly two-week trial in 2021.

Smollett, who is Black and gay, reported to Chicago police that he was the victim of a racist and homophobic attack by two men wearing ski masks in January 2019. The manhunt for the attackers soon turned into an investigation of Smollett and his arrest on charges that he’d orchestrated the attack and lied to police about it.

JUSSIE SMOLLETT RELEASED FROM JAIL PENDING APPEAL: ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL TO CHARGE SOMEONE TWICE,’ LAWYER SAYS

Smollett's legal team has planned to appeal the verdict since the December 2021 trial.

The appeal brief also stated Jussie's due process rights were violated when the trial court made "uninvited commentary that was dismissive of lines of defense questioning that had sought to establish homophobia, a central theory of the defense case; made commentary defending a detective's investigative decision during cross-examination; accused one of the defense counsel's without basis, of editorializing during cross-examination; and made commentary that sought to hurry along parts of the defense cross-examination; all of which occurred in front of the jury."

Smollet's lawyers argued "inappropriate comments" made during cross-examination impacted the jury's ability to provide an unbiased verdict.

"The verdict is inconsistent," attorney Nenye Uche said during a press conference at the time. "You can’t say Jussie is lying and say Jussie is not lying for the same exact incident."

"We are confident in our appellate system," Uche added. "We are confident in our Illinois Supreme Court, and we're confident that at the end of the day, what's out there in the news media and in the gossip forums are not going to stand a chance in court."

Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail following the conviction. The actor was also sentenced to 30 months felony probation, restitution to the city of Chicago in the amount of $120,106 and a fine of $25,000.

During his sentencing, Smollett maintained his innocence.

"I did not do this, and I am not suicidal, and if anything happens to me when I go there, I did not do it to myself, and you must all know that," Smollett said during his hearing.

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The "Empire" actor reported to jail on March 10, 2022, and was released just six days later pending his appeal.

Smollett has remained out of jail since. Following his release, Uche held a press conference stating that the family is "very, very happy."

Uche criticized the special prosecutor’s decision to charge Smollett a second time after the initial charges were dropped by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx and Smollett paid a fine. 

"It is unconstitutional to charge someone twice," Uche said, explaining that Smollett had initially paid a $10,000 fine and did community service.

"Some people might think Mr. Smollett is guilty, but I disagree," the attorney added. "The judge spent a great deal of time chastising and berating my client. … Not happy with that. ... I'm not playing politics."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.