He wasn't popping off at Hillary Clinton, he says — it was Green Party candidate Jill Stein and the U.S. Department of Justice that got his goat.
McCarthy — fired in December by Mayor Rahm Emanuel — said during the speech last week that, "We actually have a presidential candidate, whose name I'm not even going to mention, campaigning on 'police violence.' This is empowering criminals."
It was a comment that drew a mild gasp from the packed audience, which assumed he was talking about Clinton, who used the phrase "police violence" in an interview this summer. Multiple news outlets, including this column, reported the McCarthy remark as a swipe against Clinton.
But McCarthy sent a text message to Chicago Inc. on Tuesday stating that he was in fact referring to Stein, who is polling below 4 percent nationally and has made similar comments about "police violence."
During his speech last week, McCarthy had also thrown a few jabs at a federal probe of the city's Police Department, adding, "Good idea Garry, go after the Department of Justice — what are they gonna do, go after me for having top-secret information on my server?"
Making a face of mock apology after the crowd again gasped, he added, "I had to!"
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