Christian Maxwell is a Republican candidate running for Congress in Illinois' 1st Congressional District No. 1, a seat currently held by current Democratic candidate Bobby Rush. In this episode, Christian talks about why she thinks President Trump should send in the National Guard to Chicago to clean up the streets.
00:03:24.700And then I came to Chicago to pursue school, and I ended up finding my husband here and marrying him.
00:03:30.840And that's how I ended up being a resident of this amazing city.
00:03:33.360So right now, I'm just in the middle of the fight that a lot of people are in, which is figuring out how to make Chicago a livable place once again.
00:03:40.380So that's the thing I'm excited to talk about with you today.
00:03:43.420Yeah, you're running in Congressional District No. 1.
00:04:02.560Should Trump send in the National Guard?
00:04:04.740Yes, I do believe Trump should send in the National Guard.
00:04:07.620And there's a few key reasons for this.
00:04:09.760So when we think about the National Guard, the entire purpose of the National Guard is to do in-country work.
00:04:15.280The whole concept of people kind of looking at it like a SEAL team is being deployed on U.S. soil to police and kind of like detain American citizens.
00:04:27.300That's just not what the National Guard is.
00:04:29.340And it's really sad to see them looked at the way they're being looked at right now, like an enemy force that's going to be against the American citizens.
00:04:36.960Their entire purpose is to provide support to states while also being able to access federal funding so states don't have to bear the burden of needing those extra resources.
00:04:48.100So what we see in a lot of other states right now is that a lot of people keep bringing up like, oh, red states, he needs to send them to red states first.
00:04:53.860Well, the issue is that a lot of red states are already having multiple federal task force or federal integrated task force where they're working with the federal government and leveraging those resources.
00:06:15.200And the reason why I bring this up, after 100 years of Democrat supermajority, congressionally, you know, at the federal level, at the state level.
00:06:33.220And where I grew up, I made this joke to one of the shows the day before.
00:06:39.580I was like, oh, I mean, Chicago's not that bad.
00:06:42.780I mean, I was only shot at, like, two or three times as a kid.
00:06:47.340My friend only saw one corpse dragged through an alley.
00:06:50.320I only got—we only got mugged by gangbangers, you know, 15 times.
00:06:54.200Like, the joke is, that shouldn't be happening.
00:06:56.880So the question I have for you, especially with you running for office, is, you know, when I ask, like, should the National Guard come in, it's clearly because the policies aren't working.
00:07:05.880Why do you think, after a century, they have not been able to get a handle on this crime?
00:07:13.420So what I think they should be doing—so I think as far as the policies, I do believe that the one issue I see right now with a lot of liberals is that they really do want to just do a one-size-fits-all approach to this.
00:07:46.220And I know that that's something that people don't want to talk about for some reason.
00:07:49.120But there really are people who are beyond the reach of a dialogue, whether it's a mental health situation or just a, you know, just being so inundated with criminality that now it really is just the only way you look at life.
00:08:01.320There are some people who are just inherently bad, whether they're rapers, murderers, drug dealers, you know, like whatever the situation is, there is no talking to them.
00:08:11.780So no amount of affordable housing, no amount of food stamps, no truck parked in their neighborhood with vegetables and cucumbers is going to change how they approach life.
00:08:36.380When you do open up resources to people who just have a criminal nature, what they end up doing is you'll open up more senior living facilities and then you will see their grandsons, these older women, their grandsons will infiltrate the senior living facility and be in their apartment unit and they can't even get them out.
00:08:55.060You know, like there's a lot of situations like that or women will have Section 8 and then they'll have a boyfriend who's living there, who's dealing drugs out of a Section 8 unit.
00:09:04.460And it's like, yeah, this is the housing that she should have because she has children.
00:09:08.720But her boyfriend is literally not doing a single thing to provide for that household and is not incentivized to do so because his biggest cost is already covered.
00:09:18.060And if you have Section 8, you have food stamps too.
00:09:22.760I mean, that's another huge issue in the city, but it's so entrenched.
00:09:25.380And so, you know, for me, when I was talking to my friends from the South, I mean, Southwest, I don't want to act like it's, you know, 45th or something, but we're by Midway Airport, LeClaire Courts area.
00:09:38.240And I said, which would you prefer, the muggings at our local park or a handful of National Guard picking up trash and walking around the park?
00:09:47.700Everybody laughs because they're like, no one fears National Guard.
00:10:07.640And it's fascinating that it is the well-to-do liberals in the wealthier neighborhoods telling me, my friends, and my family, the protection we're asking for is illegal, illegitimate.
00:11:42.300You know, like, why is deodorant locked up?
00:11:44.420Because, like, it's deodorant, you know, like, and, you know, it really, it's one of those things where you get used to it where you're like, hey, let me push the button to order my deodorant and wait for the person to come over and give me my deodorant.
00:11:55.960Like, can you give, can you give me the one with the 24-hour strength because I'm really sweaty?
00:11:59.760Like, that's not something you want to do with a person, you know?
00:12:28.020So if you have the National Guard here as a support and as a deterrent, that frees up more of the officers that we barely have.
00:12:34.520I think we only have about 11,000 or 13,000.
00:12:37.400It frees up some of those officers who may be stationed downtown to kind of go into some different districts because a lot of these districts are not covered the way that people would think that they are covered.
00:12:47.480I actually know for a fact that there have been multiple times where the mayor has decided to pull Southside officers to go downtown to stand on corners to keep downtown safe.
00:12:59.120So while a lot of Black people are saying, you know, they're just going to be downtown, well, great.
00:13:03.940Let somebody else think about downtown so we can be thought of.
00:13:07.160Because when I say that the Southside is not a priority, we're not a priority.
00:13:11.420Do you find that the Black community in Chicago, these neighborhoods, would prefer a greater police presence?
00:13:17.700I think that's why a lot of people are really upset.
00:13:19.820The comment I keep seeing is they're not going to come to the Southside.
00:13:23.040And initially I was like, guys, why are you so hung up on that?
00:13:25.440But then I really thought about it and I'm like, this is almost like a reverse cry for help.
00:13:29.580People are basically saying, like, they're just going to not think about us again.
00:13:33.540That's what I think that people are saying when they keep commenting over and over that the National Guard isn't going to come to the Southside.
00:13:40.780It's because people are used to calling 911 and nobody comes.
00:13:44.580And even if they do come, the response time for CPD is pretty low.
00:14:17.680So I actually live in a really interesting area.
00:14:19.200It's like being, I don't want to call it gentrified, but they're knocking down old stuff and putting up million dollar homes.
00:14:24.420And I literally watched the million dollar home next door to me be burglarized.
00:14:28.120Like somebody came up on a scooter and started bashing this glass door, patio door on a million dollar home.
00:14:35.440And before the million dollar home was even built, three guys came up with chainsaws and took their time and robbed the construction containers.
00:14:59.840So I think that if you are willing to study the laws pretty much very often, you need to know what you can and cannot do here because there's a lot of rules on law abiding citizens.
00:15:10.940There's more rules for us than obviously it is for criminals.
00:15:14.560So if you don't understand what is considered your castle, like you can't just, your car is not an extension of your castle here in Chicago.
00:15:21.840So if your car is being burglarized, like there's not much you can do.
00:15:26.460You have to be in, and you should always have to be in imminent harm in order to use a weapon.
00:15:33.520But the way that you can really get caught up and end up in jail as a law abiding citizen, if you don't know all of the rules and regulations for how to use your weapon here, you can get in a lot of trouble.
00:15:44.320And to be honest, they will probably throw the book at you even more than they would actual criminal.
00:15:47.700So if you, I would say anybody in Illinois, you should have your FOID, even though it's really ridiculous that you have to have one, but you should have your FOID.
00:15:55.820And then you need to go and get your concealed carry because it's your job to self-rescue.
00:16:00.080In a state like Illinois, they cannot rescue you.
00:16:19.440For women who, I see a lot of women walking around.
00:16:21.160I'm like, I really hope that you have something in that little pouch besides lip gloss because, you know, it's a lot more going on here than Chicago is going to tell you because they're not transparent about how much crime is happening in this city because they want you to feel safe.
00:16:47.200People don't realize I brought, I did a video on TikTok and I was talking about, I'm like, guys, I don't know if you know, but there's a really extensive cartel presence in Illinois.
00:16:56.040And some people were like, oh, man, don't talk about it.
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00:17:57.220Hey, this is Dan Harris, host of the 10% Happier podcast.
00:18:00.660I'm here to tell you about a new series we're running this September on 10% Happier.
00:18:04.360The goal is to help you do your life better.
00:18:36.720Because when you have a cartel presence, that means you have a trafficking presence.
00:18:40.680And if you're, you know, a young woman, like, you're a commodity.
00:18:45.580You know, like, you have to be aware of your surroundings in a way that's a lot higher here.
00:18:50.240And I think that a lot of people just think of gang violence and it's like, oh, it's just some Black guys on the South Side.
00:18:54.940Like, no, there's a lot of different types of crime in Chicago.
00:18:58.280This is why you see, you know, there was just recently, it was a Chinese person who was, I think they were, they, the DA got them because they were trying to change over $65 million from a transaction for fentanyl.
00:19:13.660And then there was just recently a major cartel leader from the Sinaloa cartel, I believe, apprehended here or charged here.
00:19:22.140I'm like, that's like, that's like Mexico.
00:19:31.380There is a real criminal element here that goes so much deeper than just Black guys on the South Side where people are like, they shouldn't be over-policed.
00:19:38.700I could care less about the crime that people think this is about.
00:19:42.820There is something that the government knows that we're not 100% aware of that I for sure want them to come and handle.
00:19:50.680What I just never understood, and it's one of the reasons why I decided to leave the city, is how after 100 years, they've not solved anything.
00:19:58.180I mean, we go back 100 years, we're talking about Al Capone, and you still have violent crime, and the gangs have gotten worse.
00:20:13.380So that's something that I've been looking into as well.
00:20:16.580There are less and less people voting in these elections.
00:20:19.240Even though there is still a Democratic stronghold, they have just broken the wheel of so many conservative or even moderate Democrat voters to the point where they just don't show up.
00:20:28.180If you even look at for some of the surrounding suburbs where there's mayoral elections, you'll have a mayor win with like 1,400 votes.
00:20:49.520So it's like there wasn't some overwhelming majority of people who said that Brandon Johnson was going to be a great mayor.
00:20:54.840It was a small group of people who cared enough to go out and vote.
00:20:58.760And they didn't come back for the runoff, which is why Paul Vallis ended up losing.
00:21:03.960Paul Vallis would have been the mayor.
00:21:05.300Now, honestly, I know quite a few black people who voted for Paul Vallis and for sure wanted him over Brandon Johnson because nobody in their right mind wanted Brandon Johnson.
00:21:13.920If you ask any black person who's like, I don't want to call him boomer age, but even like my age and up, they know for a fact that his whole, the youth just needs to kumbaya with me and they're going to come over to the law abiding side.