>> Good evening and thanks for joining us on the weekend review.

I'm Brandis Friedman Nick Bloomberg has the evening off.

>> Reserve Chair Jerome Powell visit Chicago and brings with him a stark warning.

>> The level of tariff increases announced so far is significantly larger than anticipated.

And the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth.

>> Those remarks drew a blistering response from President Donald Trump.

>> I'm not happy with him.

Let him know.

And I want end of real fast believe.

>> Former President Joe Biden was also in Chicago to deliver his first major speech since leaving office and took immediate aim at the Trump administration accusing it of taking a hatchet to Social Security.

>> One of wreck it so they can drop it.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration doubles down on its deportation of a man sent prison in El Salvador.

>> Despite previously calling it a mistake, he's an El Salvador and that's where the president plans on keeping them.

The Chicago City Council blocks participants in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol from holding city jobs.

Raiders.

So the country should not be allowed to work for the city of Chicago.

Plus, Chicago teachers ratify a contract.

The city is on the brink of exhausting its budget to pay for police misconduct.

And Northwestern says it will continue to find at risk scientific research amid a federal funding freeze.

>> And now to our week in review panel.

Joining us, our Steve Daniels from the Chicago Tribune, our own Heather Sharon of Wt Tw News Elvia now gone from the Chicago Sun-Times and from Block Club Chicago Melody mercado.

Let's get right to it.

Welcome, everybody.

Good to see you.

So Heather, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell appointed by President Trump during his first term was in Chicago Wednesday speaking the Economic Club of Chicago making comments that didn't go over so well with the president's.

>> much well.

He was explaining how tariff works that will serves inflationary force in the economy.

It will make the prices of goods rise across the board and that will make it tougher for people to let you know, make ends meet.

The president did not want to that because in his mind, tariffs work in a way that defies time and space and gravity and drone Paul was trying to bring that back to art.

Steve, your former business journalist, anything from that Powell's talk of like the likely economic impact of tariffs.

>> Anything that struck was out of line.

>> No, I mean He spoke honestly.

I he has a difficult job with Donald Trump as president because we all he knows any economists knows how tariffs particularly terrace that size will affect the economy the short run and Trump makes the argument about the longer run.

This will bring jobs back.

We to amend to the U.S. and we're looking at it that way.

The Federals.

Fed chairman's job is to look is to manage the economy right now and so he was, you know, explaining that.

But it's a delicate thing with him when Donald Trump doesn't want that message, advertising also wants is beating on the Fed chairman to lower interest rates, which is happening, by the way in Europe.

So so Trump is you know, upset about that because he thinks that would help the economy and help him politically.

Does the Fed have any room to cut interest rates as Trump is pushing them to do?

>> Well, they can always do that.

Sure, but I wouldn't let it go all the idea.

None of greats I reread relatively high that they're certainly certainly could cut them that.

But they don't want to stoke inflation.

And and if you've got already inflationary effects happening due to tariffs than probably what don't want to do is further stoke that.

I think that's the way they're looking at.

They're also being cautious saying we need to see how all of this chaos plays out.

>> Powell also he addressed the U.S. National debt which currently stands at more than 36 trillion dollars and rising.

>> Us federal debt is on unsustainable path.

It's not unsustainable level.

And no one really knows how much further we can go.

This is a situation that we very much need to address.

Sooner or later will have to and sooner is better than later.

>> Melody, that message would seem to conflict with the President Republicans who are intent on pushing through further tax cuts that would after that debt.

>> Is this something that Americans, particularly voters are concerned about the national debt?

I think I think they're more concerned whether they can afford eggs milk and now small business owners were worrying whether or not they can afford.

>> The tariffs that are extremely high and are affecting the way they can continue to run their business.

So I think, you know, although the national debt is something to always be concerned about, I don't think for the average.

>> American that that is what they're concerned about.

Their concern about inflation.

>> Heather, President Trump, he's not calling for Pao's termination.

As we heard in that sound bite earlier.

But it was Fed chair in the Fed supposed to be operating independently.

Can he do >> No so, you know, you saw the Dow started dropped precipitously after the president made those remarks because I think a lot of investors, especially institutional investors, would find the dismissal of the Fed chair very concerning.

There are a number of cases working their way the court where the president moved to terminate the heads of so-called independent federal agency is and it will be eventually up to the Supreme Court decide whether the president has exceeded his authority if they find that he has not exceeded his authority and firing those independent agency heads, I think become more likely that the president moves to terminate Powell before his term ends.

If the Supreme Court blocks those firings, it is unclear what the president And Steve, the markets have already had whiplash from Trump's tariff announcements.

How are the markets likely to respond if he can, if he does fire the Fed chair.

>> Well, what Heather said is right.

so the Powell's term is up next year.

It's not like he's not there He's not there for it.

You've got to go through the entire Supreme Court process.

These first cases they're going to have to adjudicate if they indeed do rule that the president has ability to remove he's independent agency heads.

Then the next step would be too fire.

Powell, there would be some sort of litigation or lawsuit trying to block that probably go back to the Supreme Court.

By the time you get to the point where he's actually able to move in this term might be practically up.

So, but it certainly adds to the again, the sense of chaos, the sense not being able to predict who you know what the Fed's going to do?

Who's in charge of the Fed is part of how you print how you figure out what interest rates are going to be.

So.

Yeah, I mean, in some respects, obviously, if there was some idea the Fed was going to cut interest rates, at least a short-term stock market would go on that news.

>> haven't forgotten about for President.

Joe Biden was in Chicago this week making his first public major speech since leaving office.

They typically keep a lower profile.

of course, he assailed the Trump administration for undermining Social Security.

What do you say?

he was here to speak to disability groups.

>> And his main message was fat.

We all have paid into Social Security.

So we shirt it's not as how the Trump administration is characterizing it as being some sort of scam or some kind waste because what former President Biden was saying was that we have all paid into it and everyone should have access to it.

He also made some pretty strong political remarks regarding that.

You know, no one should be keying things like that.

So it was kind the first time that we've heard on President Biden's since all of this has happened.

Do you think people are listening to him on this series?

yesterday's news.

Does anybody want to hear from the old guard?

>> I think he's a bit of yesterday's Unfortunately, I think.

>> So much has happened and everyone is trying to keep up with all the changes, all that different lawsuits.

This group losing federal funding.

What's going on with the workers?

It's just been so much chaos that I do think that strong voice from a Democratic leader has been lost.

everybody else thinks by tweet was like a or the Democrats over I mean, I think given that, you know, he had to sort of drop out of the presidential election.

We still haven't really heard from the former vice President, Kamala Harris.

You know, she's turns weighing her political future.

>> I think that there will be much more attention focused on her and sort of whether she seeks to sort of grab the mantle of leadership for the Democratic Party.

But she's got a number of challengers, Cory Booker and his record-breaking filibuster and of course, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the New York congresswoman whose barnstorming the country getting huge crowds to talk about the need to fight the president and stand up against his efforts.

Madgen that most Democrats, Democratic leaders would probably prefer he stay on the sidelines.

>> You know, he's he's the reason that they lost to Trump.

Let's just be honest.

And and coming out and being the voice is not I don't think well, most Democratic leaders are looking for right now.

Melody.

>> Yeah, I agree.

I mean, I think like we said, we're barely 100 days in and to the Trump presidency.

I was a little surprised to hear to see Biden so soon.

But I also think he's not the face that people were wanting to see or the voice that people were hoping to hear from.

>> Deportation obviously been a big deal this week as well.

Country seems to be barreling towards maybe a constitutional crisis as the administration is refusing to comply with U.S. district judge's order, calling it a clear violation of a Supreme Court order to return a man who has been mistakenly deported to El Salvador to bring him back to the U.S. in that blistering opinion, 4th court, the circuit of Appeals chief Judge J Harvey Wilkinson, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, by the way, said it is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter.

But in this case, it is not hard at all.

The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process.

That is the foundation of our constitutional order goes on to say the should be shocking not only to judges what's intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from court house is still hold dear.

It would reduce the rule of law, lawlessness and tarnish the very values for which Americans of divisive, diverse views and persuasions have always stood.

They know how they know how to write it to because that's that's pretty clear.

Their melodies and Trump administration shows no inclination to back down or we already in a constitutional crisis.

Should people be I was worried.

The second they said they weren't going to send him back when on they have the leader of Al Salvador and the White House.

>> And he said, how would I smuggle hullett smuggle him in and refer to him as a terrorist?

And so I think the question here is how far as the Trump administration willing to reading, you know, the judge's remarks it was it was just like very astounding.

How pointed and he was in through through throughout the whole thing in just saying there is no choice.

This this is goes against our constitution and you need to bring him back and you need to actually be making the effort to bring him back.

So I think we're all just kind of waiting with bated breath to see what the administration will do.

But it doesn't seem like they're going back down.

What about the rest of you constitutional crisis over there?

I think.

>> Either very close or yes, I think one of the biggest things that's concerning is what happens when someone goes to this prison in El Salvador?

We know how the criminal system works here or even the simple process of immigration court.

You know, there's a due process.

There's appeals even for someone who has the harshest census death penalty, they're still in the appeals process.

They're still a process that people can follow.

But and then Al Salvador from everything I've read, the only way to get out of that prison is if you die.

So I think that's very troubling.

And my co-worker, Adriana WBZ, wrote a story about how a man who was for as well and was living in South Shore.

He's also at that prison as well.

And so the question is what happens to people is there seems like there's no process.

>> the videos, the images that we see from the prison as pretty are pretty striking.

A U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.

She is insisting that a brand bringing Garcia is not going to be allowed back and presumably this could be back in front of the Supreme Court.

Steve, do you think the administration will refused to comply with an even more explicit order from a higher court the question and I I don't think this I think we're not there So we had a toy allies on this and we certainly said that.

>> He needs to be brought back but what the Supreme Court gave with the verbiage that they used gave the administration room to interpret it.

That that they could that they it's El Salvador, didn't act and then there was they didn't have to do anything that it was.

It was sort of the ball is in Salvador's court, which is, you know, I think defies logic.

But that was that was a loophole that they left.

If it comes back to them and they're more pointed and more direct and say, no, no, we really meant it.

Then then a different level of crisis that we're at right now.

So we're just not there yet.

And I tonight I do think I detect some nervousness on the Trump side in terms of how this is going and how the narrative is going.

So I I think we just need to wait and I think that it was really interesting to see on, you know, senior Senator Chuck Grassley in.

>> And Iowa, even at a town hall in in a place where I used to do some reporting.

It's a deeply red state and even seeing some of voters in the room say you need to bring him back.

And I was very astounded to see I that's not something that I would have on expected from voters Senator Grassley.

But it's starting to happen.

I think people are getting the the idea that, hey, if you can do this to this guy.

>> You can take it a step further.

If you defy the Supreme Court and just if we pick somebody up just by stakes and then to another country into a prison.

Then all bets are off.

And we have are that we don't know for the responsibility that immigration judge said don't send him back to that would make.

That is the one protection that he actually did from in immigration attorney because we're also seeing international students.

They're losing their visas, both here in Illinois across the country.

Illinois has some 55,000 international students making us.

I think what the 5th highest population in the country of international students.

>> Steve, what impact is this going to have on universities if more and more students lose their visas?

That's a good.

That's an interesting way of looking at the the universities have depended >> on an international students for huge amounts of their revenue in really for the last 10 20 years and University of Illinois certainly isn't that in that place, the risk Chicago.

>> I'm really, really all all of them to one degree or another.

So if that is cut off or reduced, greatly reduced as going to create significant fiscal problems for those universities.

It's going to mean it's going to the price potentially for people in to attend university might have to go up.

Just so the ramifications of all this are really multifaceted.

>> If the pressure that that the president is putting on the universities as well.

It's it's about a number of things, right?

But, you know, all of it involves like taking back federal money.

If you don't do this, that and the other a lot of it, though, has been tied to how the universities handle antisemitism on campus.

Just about Anti-Semitism or something else.

I mean, I think we've seen a fair amount of argument that the president was determined to sort of, >> you know, attack for lack of a better for universities for what he found to be sort of a support for, you know, left-leaning idea is and I you know, I read a number of stories, opinion piece is that said if it wasn't Anti-Semitism, it wouldn't would have been something else and that this is essentially pretextual.

You know, I think Harvard and, you know, Columbia has both said we have taken significant steps to address every instance of antisemitism that we can have seen.

We've taken significant sort of disciplinary actions against students that has not been sufficient for the Trump administration and they seem unwilling to sort of make sure that they're telling a line between protecting Jewish students and ensuring that people have free speech.

I think that raises questions about sort of underpinning of the whole movement Elvia.

Meanwhile, in Chicago, ice is claiming that Mayor Brandon Johnson's team hired a film crew to document ice arrests.

>> How did this claim emerging?

What did the mayor's >> It's part of the federal that the government has accounts.

Chicago, Cook County and the state for their sanctuary policies.

Essentially ice would really like to get into places like the Cook County Jail so they can facilitate detaining.

More immigrants because this is part of Trump's plan to deport as many people possible.

But they are facing resistance here because of existing sanctuary law.

So this was part of a filing in which they were lifting off several reasons things that they can I get into and I said that they had received information.

mayor of Brands Inc Johnson's office had contracted with some kind of video company.

2 film arrest for the purpose of trying to see if any CPD officers we're involved and to discipline them.

Now, I will saying there was no information about where who is this where information about the contract?

The mayor's Office, of course, said, but no, they have not hired anyone.

The ACLU of Illinois said that it was a bit ironic that ice was making this claim because, of course, we all saw that in the days and after Trump was inaugurated, they came here to Chicago with film crews including Doctor Dr. Phil Doctor Phil and they were of filming all of these arrests happening in the Chicago area.

Rich coming from Consider what we know >> Melody City Council voted this week to block January 6.

Rioters from holding city jobs.

44 to 3 Any sense of how many people that might impact?

>> We don't really You know, it was up about 1500 people that were pardoned in total by by President Trump.

I don't really know how many of those are going for Chicago to come and work for city government.

>> But I think various of aldermen thought it was important to take a stance to say that those individuals should not be, you know, having taxpayer jobs who were the 3 alders that voted against them.

Do we have your vote against this?

Do we have a Is the 3 far northwest side Alderman Alderman Anthony Napolitano, Nicholas was and Jim Garner, they represent an area of the city where there are a lot of police officers and firefighters who live.

>> Perhaps an interesting data point given that nearly 150 officers were injured during the Capitol insurrection and of course of 5 died as a result of their injuries from that tragic day.

Heather, you've also been looking at the cost of police misconduct, what it's costing the city different.

Well, it is the entire annual budget to cover police misconduct settlements and verdicts was 82 million dollars.

Today is April 19th for and that money is exhausted.

It has all been spent and that is raising real questions about where the rest of the money is going to come because we know that the city council is going to be asked to resolve other lawsuits.

It's also possible that they will be asked to pay more than 200 million dollars injury for fix before the end of the year.

And it's not clear where the city will get that money given that the city is in a somewhat serious.

I think he's probably understating it financial crisis.

It also raises real questions about the city's ability to manage the risk in how the police department operates on our streets.

Melody, new plan being floated by Second Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins looking to explore expand police powers to declare curfews.

What is he proposing?

So this initially started about last year when Alderman Hopkins wanted to implement an 08:00PM curfew for downtown as a result of team trends that are happening in his ward.

>> And so that failed pretty pretty instantly.

And so he there's been some incidents in Streeterville where he wanted to revive it in some collaboration with the mayor's office.

They said they reached a compromise and he introduced an ordinance and that would basically allow the police department to implement this situational traveling curfew.

So let's say they they received information that there might be a youth gathering in a certain neighborhood during a particular time they can implement a curfew for whatever time, on whatever day to correspond with that event, there's been some concerns from advocates that I have talked to that this gives police a little bit too much power to possibly profile youth beat because it says advocates that I have spoken to have said, how do we know how do how do we give the power for someone to say that they can decide what's going to incite violence or problems and what is not.

just going to say that the police department already has the authority to declare gatherings to be unlawful and to order people to disperse.

And that is, in fact, what they've done when things have gotten out of control in Streeterville.

>> I know that aldermen Hoskins has told a lot of reporters that this is compromise measure that has some level of support in the mayor's office.

The mayor was questioned about that very closely after the city Council meeting I get paid to listen to the I did not hear him endorse this plan.

And I think that perhaps it is going to be a harder lift to get this through the city council than one would expect to have an ordinance that has 31 co-sponsors at this moment.

There are real constitutional questions about the police department's ability sort of decide what is First Amendment protected activity and what is not First Amendment protected activity.

The consent decree involves rules about police can declare people to be unlawfully loitering, which is certainly sort of, you know, part and parcel of this.

So I think this will not be the last week in review that we talked about the issue curfews in Maybe back next time made right.

That is we can review.

Thank you, everybody.

See Daniels had a Sharon of ongoing and no Thanks.

Good to see.

Well.

>> And we're back to wrap things up right after this.

>> Tonight's presentation of Chicago Tonight Week in review is made possible in part by and and rich car.

Bnsf railway, Francine and Doctor Anthony Brown.

And the moment, however, progressive philanthropic fund in honor of even moment supporting quality journalism.

Chicago tonight is made possible in part why the Alexandra and John Nichols family.

The Pope Brothers Foundation, additional support is provided by.

>> And that's our show for this Friday night.

Stay connected with our reporters and what they're working on by following us on Instagram at W T Tw Chicago.

Now for the weekend review.

I'm Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe.

Have a great weekend.

>> The other thing we didn't get to the teachers contract was ratified this week.

First time in 15 years without a strike vote by an overwhelming majority of you know, of the Chicago teachers union, which I think a reflection that deals are to addressed their major concerns.

We still have to have the board of Education approved it.

That's coming up this week.

And of course, they've got to figure out how to pay for it.

like that's no big deal.

Right now.

We can find out in the couch cushions.

Be I mean, do we think by Board of Education is going to?

I would be very surprised they have any problem with it because that would send everybody back to the drawing board.

And I'm not sure that, you know, the management so to speak and get anything more or different.

And after nearly a year really tense negotiations, warnings really up to 30,000 teachers, almost 30,000 treasures can agree on.

hopefully 21 member work and as well.

>> Closed captioning is made possible.

Why Robert, a cliff and Clifford law offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death that serves the needs of clients in the