Chicago City Wire

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is drawing attention after appearing at an overflow Chicago Sky title-clinching championship game not wearing a mask.

“What a moment,” a smiling Lightfoot captioned a photo of herself on Twitter. “Congrats champs. A first but not the last.”

The episode isn't the first time Lightfoot has come under fire for what critics see as a double-standard in her handling of the coronavirus.

Back in January, Lightfoot faced criticism for attending a party for President-elect Joe Biden at a time when the city remained on COVID lockdown. Not long after the event, the mayor imposed a new 30-day stay-at-home order.

“Mask compliance in our city is actually up very, very high,” Lightfoot told the Hill. “Yes, there are times when we actually do need to have ... relief and come together, and I felt like that was one of those times.”

In May, Lightfoot drew even more criticism after vowing not to allow white journalists to interview her at the midway point of her term.

“I heard that news and was appalled,” said AM 560 The Morning Answer co-host Amy Jacobsen. “Can you imagine if a white mayor did that and said they're only granting interviews to white journalists? It’s petty and it's racist coming from the mayor of the third largest city in America.”

As the pandemic has continued to take a heavy toll on the city, Lightfoot and other city leaders have struggled to ensure city services have remained intact.

“We believe the worst thing we can do when we’re going through this kind of struggle is slash city services, slash city workforce and put people on the street,” she told Crain's Chicago Business, adding that she was considering using available government resources as a stimulus, instead of considering alternatives to layoffs and program cuts as a way of balancing the damage caused by the pandemic.