* Governor Pritzker reiterated his support for President Biden yesterday during an unrelated news conference. Capitol News Illinois…

[Governor JB Pritzker] headed to Washington, D.C., to meet with the president and members of the Democratic Governors Association last Wednesday on the heels of Biden’s performance during the first of two scheduled debates with former President Donald Trump, which raised concerns about the president’s mental acuity. […]

On Tuesday, Pritzker said the exchange between Biden and the Democratic governors was “a robust discussion” – and he’s “all in” for Biden.

“Listen: Joe Biden is our nominee. I am for Joe Biden. I’ve been campaigning for Joe Biden. I think you’ve seen I’ve got dates scheduled to go to Indiana, to Ohio for Joe Biden,” he said at an unrelated event Tuesday. […]

And [Pritzker] said he wouldn’t engage in “hypotheticals” when asked if he’d be interested in replacing Biden should he drop out of the race.

* ABC Chicago…

This is the first time the governor has commented on the race since he and other Democratic governors met at the White House with the president last week to discuss his path forward after the debate debacle. Pritzker called it a robust meeting and had some advice for the president.

“I said, ‘You’ve got to get out there and talk to the American public more,’” Pritzker said. “It’s important for him to answer questions and talk about the issues. Hyper important, you know? People are thinking about their own families, how they’re going to deal with the kitchen table issues they’ve got in front of them and their personal freedoms.”

* Tribune…

Speaking to the Tribune earlier Tuesday, [Mayor Brandon Johnson] said he fully supports Biden.

“There is only one choice. That is President Joe Biden,” Johnson said, noting Biden is the only person to defeat Trump in a general election. Asked if he worries about Biden’s age, Johnson instead talked about his fears of what would happen if Trump returned to the White House.

“You know what my biggest concern is? It’s that you have someone who is trying to relitigate the Civil War,” Johnson said. “If there’s anything to be afraid of right now, it’s afraid of the fact that you have individuals that are organizing the return of the Confederacy. We have a president who is committed to democracy.”

* Mayor Johnson and other Democratic Governors spoke with Biden last night. After the call, Johnson emailed this letter to supporters, affirming his confidence in Biden…

Friends,

I hope you’re having a blessed Tuesday evening. I just got off the phone with President Biden and wanted to share an update with you.

I was joined by nearly 200 mayors across the country for a call that went for nearly an hour, and to be honest with you, President Biden was pretty fired up. He spoke extemporaneously about his campaign to defeat Donald Trump and, as always in our conversations, I’m glad he spoke proactively about the need to directly invest in cities across the country. He listed off priorities that are right in line with what we’ve been fighting for in Chicago, from investing in education and housing to banning assault weapons.

He is running on a bold, strong agenda that invests in people, which is exactly why I was so happy to head up to Milwaukee to stump for the Biden-Harris campaign on June 29th. Whether it was last month, this month, or any day between now and Election Day, we all need to do everything we can to re-elect President Biden and Vice President Harris — and defeat Donald Trump.

I know there has been a lot of chatter about the President’s performance in the debate, and the President himself has said he had a bad debate. Having spoken to the President just now, I can tell you he is ready, willing, and able to take on and defeat Donald Trump. He made it clear that he will be crisscrossing the country and campaigning relentlessly to defeat Donald Trump.

I want to be very clear with you and everyone I speak to in Chicago or anywhere else in the country: Donald Trump is an existential threat to the City of Chicago, our movement, our rights, and our freedoms. To be blunt, Trump is a threat to everything we hold dear here in Chicago. I am proud to stand up to Donald Trump and I’m proud to fully support President Biden and Vice President Harris in this election. They are our ticket, and he is our president and we need him to be reelected this fall. Our entire city is counting on it.

And that’s why I’m so excited that President Biden and Vice President Harris are coming to the greatest city on Earth to receive their nomination. President Biden and Vice President Harris are exactly the leaders we need at this moment.

It is critically important that we all spend the next several months doing everything we can to defeat Trump. That starts by ensuring we are fully united going into the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. From now until November, I am going to be doing all that I can to ensure that President Biden and Vice President Harris are reelected and Donald Trump is defeated. I look forward to seeing you out there with me.

Onward, Mayor Brandon Johnson

* More…

* SJ-R | Pritzker 2024? Not so fast. Governor holds steady with support for Biden: His first public appearance since that meeting, the governor said the conversation was “robust” and Biden answered pressing questions from the governors. Pritzker said he left the nation’s Capitol feeling confident that the president will be able to withstand a challenge from former President Donald Trump, now moving ahead slightly in many nationwide and swing state polls.

* Sun-Times | Johnson to join Democratic mayors on phone call with Biden as president fights to stay in presidential race: “What’s clear to me and to people across Chicago, is that Donald Trump is a dire threat to everything we hold dear, including our democracy, our freedoms and our economy,” Johnson said in a statement posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “Joe Biden is the president and our Democratic nominee, and we all need to do everything we can to defeat Donald Trump this November.”

* WCIA | Pritzker stands by Biden as others show concern: “I think obviously the President had a bad performance in the debate,” Pritzker said. “That doesn’t help anybody. He knows that, and what you have to do is stand up say, I didn’t do it well, which I think he said, and prove people wrong about what they want to say about it. And he’s doing that.” […] “I said you got to get out there and talk to the American public more,” Pritzker said. “It was important. I think they took too long. I think he admitted this to after the debate, for him to really go out and do press that would get national attention.”