Good Tuesday morning, Illinois. And what a pleasure to meet the deputy ambassadors of the EU countries based in D.C. who are visiting Chicago. I hope you get a chance to try the deep dish.

TOP TALKER

Hillary Clinton played all the hits at the Riviera in Chicago on Monday.

Striking a chord: The former U.S. senator, secretary of state and presidential candidate called former President Donald Trump a “cult leader” who will likely win the GOP presidential nomination. She pushed back at a question about older lawmakers not knowing when to hang it up.

And Clinton took vindication in a New York Times report that the Trump administration spent four years investigating the Clinton Foundation and didn’t find a file a single charge.

Singing the blues: Of course, Clinton talked about feeling crummy about losing the 2016 election and disbelief after the 2020 election — so “dystopian,” she said. And she hopes that bipartisanship can one day be a reality.

“I remain an optimist, but an optimist who worries a lot,” said Clinton, echoing her friend, the late Madeleine Albright.

The Q&A: Clinton’s comments came during an interview with Charlotte Alter, a Time correspondent and granddaughter of the late Joanne Alter, who in 1968 was the first woman to win a countywide election in Chicago when she was elected in commissioner for the Metropolitan Sanitary District,

The Chicago Humanities Festival sponsored the event, which was held at the 2,500-seat Riviera Theatre, built in the early 1900s as a movie theater.

First lady of Illinois MK Pritzker, who with husband Gov. JB Pritzker was a major donor to Clinton’s presidential campaign, attended Monday’s event. The first lady also hosted a reception for Clinton at her home. The governor was in Springfield, where lawmakers are still trying to nail down a budget.

On Trump, Clinton said he’ll benefit from the winner-take-all rule that most GOP primaries follow in awarding delegates. “So, he will most likely become the Republican nominee again, and he will be defeated by Joe Biden,” Clinton said to applause from the crowd.

On ageism: Alter, who is 33, referred to Democratic “disconnect” with the younger generation and asked why “smart people often make sort of foolish retirement choices.” Specifically, Alter pointed to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg and to Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

Clinton bristled. “You know, I have a very negative response to that question,” she said, adding Ginsberg was “energetic” and “sharp” to the end — and made the same judgment “that a lot of men have made” about staying on the job. Ginsberg had planned to retire had Clinton been elected president, Clinton noted.

As for Feinstein, Clinton said the Democratic senator from California has “suffered greatly” from the bout of shingles and encephalitis. But the real challenge is that “Republicans will not agree to add someone else to the Judiciary Committee if she retires,” Clinton said. “Right now, she can’t … if we’re going to get judges confirmed.”

SPOTTED: All the big names attended the reception for Clinton at the Pritzker’s Chicago home: Ariel Investments’ John Rogers Jr., Black Opal CEO Desirée Rogers, Johnson Publishing veteran Linda Johnson Rice, Conlon Public Strategies’ Kevin Conlon, businessman Kevin O’Keefe, Northwestern University’s Valerie Alexander, real estate developer Elzie Higginbottom, restaurateurs Karen and Phil Stefani, businessman Lee Miller, SPAAN Tech CEO Smita Shah, commentator Laura Schwartz, state Rep. Margaret Croke, attorney Lisa Duarte, businessman Raj Fernando, DSC Logistics CEO Ann Drake, business consultant Donna Zarcone, AmeriCorps board member Leslie Bluhm and environmentalist Wendy Abrams.

THE BUZZ

GUN TALK: Illinois and Chicago are strict about trying to clamp down on guns, yet crime rates are still higher than they should be. The thinking is that guns are harder to curb when they’re brought in from other states.

So when those states address gun issues, Illinois watches.

In Memphis, Tenn., federal investigators and local law enforcement officers are trying to slow down the proliferation of switches as a way to curb gun violence, according to The Associated Press. Illinois has already done that. Switches are devices that convert semiautomatic firearms into machine guns.

And get this: The Tennessee legislature is also planning a special session to focus on gun-related legislation. So what, you say, Illinois’ Democratic-led legislature has already done that. Yes, but Tennessee’s legislature is controlled by Republicans.

If you are MK Pritzker, Playbook would like to know what was on the menu for Hillary Clinton’s visit. Email [email protected].

WHERE'S JB

No official public events.

WHERE's BRANDON

No official public events.

Where's Toni

At the Sagawau Environmental Learning Center at 10 a.m. to preside over a meeting of the Forest Preserves.

Thank you for reading Illinois Playbook! Drop me a line sometime: [email protected]

THE STATEWIDES

— Senate passes Don Harmon’s bill to end courtroom ‘venue shopping’: The bill says only courtrooms in Sangamon and Cook counties can hear cases alleging a “constitutional violation” brought on by legislation or executive orders. It’s to prevent efforts to take cases to counties that are more sympathetic, reports State Journal-Register’s Patrick Keck.

— Lawmakers approve bill requiring schools to notify parents of bullying within 24 hours, by NBC 5’s Matt Stefanski

— State Sen. Mattie Hunter celebrates resolution creating task force on Black immigrants, via The Defender

CHICAGO

— Chicago’s top cop ends training agreement with Texas firm with ties to ex-police superintendent: “Professional Law Enforcement Training has been paid more than $1.3 million and is owned by a colleague of former Chicago Police Supt. David Brown,” by Sun-Times’ Tom Schuba.

— Dozens of new immigrants joining Chicago Public Schools as school year nears end: “As many as 50 immigrant children staying temporarily at Piotrowski Park joined Zapata Academy in South Lawndale, and about a dozen youths may enroll in Little Village Lawndale High School,” by Sun-Times’ Michael Loria.

— Environmental racism is real. Ask Chicago: “Like many cities, it’s coping with brownfields, pollution and minority neighborhoods with ill-health conditions,” by Merrill Goozner for Washington Monthly.

— FYI: Indicted former Ald. Carrie Austin is collecting more than $114K annual city pension, records show, via WTTW’s Heather Cherone and Jared Rutecki

— Northwest Side’s Marshall Field’s complex is being transformed into a film studio, by Tribune’s Brian J. Rogal

— Millennium Park fox family is the latest Chicago wildlife to go viral, by Sun-Times’ Emmanuel Camarillo

COOK COUNTY AND COLLARS

— Deal would allow Schaumburg police to access school cameras in emergencies, by Daily Herald’s Eric Peterson

— Bloomingdale mayor leads effort to go big in remaking Stratford Square, by Daily Herald’s Katlyn Smith

Reader Digest

We asked what you remember from your first day on the job.

Lisa Brasch: “My boss left a vase of fresh cut lilacs on my new desk.”

Lucas Hawley: “I started at the Board of Review as an analyst on the same day as a Cook County Board meeting, so I was able to stop by and surprise Commissioner Deborah Sims, who I knew when I was going to school.”

Conny Moody: “As an analyst for the Illinois Bureau of the Budget (now called GOMB), I was handed a $1 billion proposed budget for a state agency and being told – ‘Please analyze this and be ready to present your analysis to Director [Joan] Walters at the end of the week.’ I met the deadline!”

Jennifer Olaya, with the Illinois Secretary of State Securities Department: “I was conferencing a case that was going to trial when one of the lawyers asked me, ‘How long have you been working here?’ I looked at the courtroom clock and said, ‘about 10 minutes.’ I ended up working at that job for six years!”

Golnar Teimouri, former policy adviser to the mayor: “On my first day at City Hall straight from Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s inauguration, I asked where the coffee was. I was told, ‘Honey, this is the government. You go buy your own coffee.’”

Alison Pure-Slovin: “Meeting the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi Marvin Hier, in his L.A. office. I noticed the two Academy Awards he won for Holocaust documentaries and he then pointed me to the nearby bookcase, saying, ‘what keeps the spirit of the Jewish people alive is contained in our sacred books, not the shiny awards’”

When do you always pick the same seat? Email [email protected]

TAKING NAMES

— Bruce Rauner, the former governor of Illinois, is weighing in on education issues — in Florida, where he’s now a resident, via South Florida Sun Sentinel.

— Kara Demirjian Huss has been appointed to the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board. In her day job, Demirjian Huss is VP and global marketing director for TCCI Manufacturing, a technology and electric vehicle component manufacturing firm.

THE NATIONAL TAKE

— Driver arrested and Nazi flag seized after truck crashes into security barriers near the White House, via NBC News

— Why the debt talks are McCarthy’s second job interview, by POLITICO’s Olivia Beavers

— ‘Blood in the water for DeSantis’: Trump world embraces Tim Scott’s candidacy, by POLITICO’s Meridith McGraw

— Many transgender health bills came from a handful of far-right interest groups, The Associated Press finds

— Exclusive: Paul Whelan tells CNN he’s confident ‘wheels are turning’ toward his release

— COLUMN: Vivek Ramaswamy came to Chicago’s South Shore to talk migrants. South Shore mostly stayed away, writes Sun-Times’ Rummana Hussain

IN MEMORIAM

— Lesbian Icon Marge Summit Dies At 87: She was a community organizer and bar owner, who “forced people to reckon with their prejudice against LGBTQ+ people in creative ways,” writes Block Club’s Kayleigh Padar.

TRANSITIONS

— Boston Scientific has added Sarah Macchiarola as director of international affairs and Whitney Craig as director of federal affairs. Macchiarola was VP of federal policy and government relations at the Illinois Health and Hospital Association. Craig was VP of federal affairs at AHIP.

TRIVIA

MONDAY’s ANSWER: Congrats to Matthew Beaudet for being first to answer that in 1842, William Bissell, a partner at Bissell and Shields law firm, was offended by a letter that Abraham Lincoln wrote to a local newspaper, so he challenged Lincoln to a duel. Lincoln accepted, though the two resolved the issue before it came down to a fight. In 1850, now Congressman Bissell infuriated Jefferson Davis, who challenged Bissell to a duel. Davis then decided against it.

TODAY’s QUESTION: How many publicly elected Chicago mayors became publicly elected Chicago aldermen after serving as mayor? Email [email protected]

BIRTHDAYS

Chicago Buildings Department Commissioner Matthew Beaudet, who celebrates the big 6-0; Barrington Hills Plan Commissioner Kelly Mazeski, former Congressman Tom Corcoran and Jeremy Ennis, chief of staff to state Rep. Maurice West.

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