Gov. JB Pritzker on Monday rejected accusations from Republicans — including the state party and the White House — that he was inciting violence with a fiery speech in New Hampshire in which he said Republicans shouldn’t “know a moment of peace.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Pritzker said at an unrelated news conference when asked about the GOP response to his speech. “The peace that I’m talking about is making sure that they know at all times that the American public opposes the policies of congressional Republicans and of the White House.”
Pritzker on Sunday spoke at a New Hampshire Democratic Party fundraising dinner and called for “mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption” against Republicans to protest the Trump administration.
“These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace,” he said in the speech, which received national attention. “They must understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soap box and then punish them at the ballot box.”
He also criticized his own party, lambasting “do-nothing political types” whom he said have displayed “simpering timidity” in their response to President Donald Trump and the GOP.
Illinois Republicans issued a news release that said Pritzker’s remarks on disruption and protest constituted a call “for political violence against Republicans.”
“JB Pritzker’s ego-driven obsession with becoming President is putting Illinois, and Republicans across the country, at risk,” Kathy Salvi, chair of the state Republican Party, said in a statement. “His inflammatory and dangerous speech is focused on further dividing our country and I hope to see Illinois Democrats condemn his call for violence.”
Donald Trump Jr., the president’s son, reposted a clip of Pritzker’s speech on social media and asked, “Are you trying to inspire a 3rd assassination attempt on my dad?” And deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller in Washington also criticized the remarks, saying they “could be construed as inciting violence.”
“The destruction of property sits directly adjacent to the — to attacks on humans, physical attacks,” said Miller, who also cited the past assassination attempts on Trump.
Pritzker called Miller’s accusation “a terrible hypocrisy.”
“Remember, Stephen Miller is part of a gang of people who apparently support the idea of attacking the federal Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and then offering a pardon to all of those people who committed violent crimes,” Pritzker said, referring to the Trump administration’s decision to grant blanket clemency and pardons to those charged or convicted for a role in the attack.
Pritzker is widely considered to be a potential candidate for president in 2028. The fundraiser crowd in New Hampshire, long considered a key state in presidential elections because of its early primary, cheered his calls to push back harder against Trump.
Both Pritzker and Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, the
first candidate to announce a bid for U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin’s seat in next year’s election, in recent days have called for Democrats to fight more vigorously against the Trump administration’s actions and sweeping cuts to federally funded programs as the president approaches 100 days in office on Tuesday.
Also on Monday, Pritzker said he had accepted an invitation to meet with Mayor Brandon Johnson this week as the mayor
lobbies lawmakers in Springfield.
But as he did last week, the governor preemptively tamped down expectations for his ability to accommodate Johnson’s requests for the city in a tight budget year, and again questioned the mayor’s communications efforts.
“There’s plenty of months for people to express to me what they’d like me to include in a budget, and I didn’t really hear much from the mayor’s office during that period,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker has previously said his office puts together its budget proposal in the year prior to presenting it to the General Assembly, but left the door open to moving some parts of the budget around on Chicago’s behalf.
Johnson heads downstate while facing a litany of impending financial challenges and uncertainty at the federal level.
Chicago Public Schools reached a tentative contract with the Chicago Teachers Union earlier this month without a strike, but also without the means to fully pay for it. The region’s public transportation system is facing a projected $730 million fiscal cliff that the budget proposed by Pritzker does not yet address. The Chicago Bears’ proposal a year ago — that Johnson backed — for a new domed lakefront stadium hasn’t advanced in Springfield. And the mayor will soon have to make
tough decisions on the city’s own budget.
At the same time, both the city and state are operating under the threat of federal funding cuts from the Trump administration that could far exceed their ability to make them up.
“The city of Chicago is an economic engine for the state, but there are also a lot of other cities across the state of Illinois and a lot of people across the state that deserve our support,” Pritzker said Monday.
