Rahm responds after Trump attacks Chicago's immigration policies, violence

After he was attacked by Donald Trump at a rally Tuesday night, Rahm Emanuel fired back Wednesday telling the president his time would be better spent looking for a good defense lawyer.

The mayor responded with a snarky reference to the president's legal problems.

“First of all, we'll always be a welcoming city, because Chicago welcomed my grandfather, etc. But let me just say one thing, if I were Donald Trump, I’d spend my time figuring out which attorney I’m going to have,” Mayor Emanuel said.

This comes after the president at a rally in West Virginia attacked sanctuary cities, including Chicago, for failing to help federal agents enforce immigration laws.

“If you want to stop this craziness of sanctuary cities, where criminals are protected -- take a look at Chicago. How about the mayor of Chicago? It's like a war zone. It's a great city. It's like a war zone. This is what those policies do,” Trump said.

But a highly-respected researcher at a local university told FOX 32 News that's not true. While declining to be named for this story, the researcher said violence in what might be called "war zones," Chicago’s bloodiest neighborhoods, is virtually all carried out by native-born Americans. The researcher said immigrants here illegally commit a small share of Chicago’s violent crimes, but did not offer specific numbers.

There is a political payoff for both the mayor and the president from their long-distance verbal sparring. Rahm got boos at the West Virginia rally, and a new survey shows 20 percent of voters here in Cook County have a favorable view of President Trump, while 70 percent are unfavorable.