* Politico reporter…

SCOOP: IL Gov. JB Pritzker, a potential VP pick, has strongly criticized e-cigarettes in recent years. But his own cousin Nicholas Pritzker is the 2nd largest shareholder of e-cigarette company Juul, from which he and his family have made at least $1.8B. https://t.co/yXHuFbYgEP pic.twitter.com/ALwOjp2w62

— Daniel Lippman (@dlippman) July 26, 2024

Pritzker’s campaign responded…

In case you missed it, a new “scoop” from POLITICO reveals how Gov. JB Pritzker has used his influence as Governor of Illinois to implement new regulations against harmful e-cigarettes and call out the industry, even as his first cousin once removed serves as a board member for Juul. What’s more, Gov. Pritzker didn’t even profit from his first cousin once removed’s actions and frankly thinks first cousin once removed is a pretty distant relative to be involved in this story at all.

These new details highlight what was long suspected: Gov. Pritzker is beholden to the Illinois families he was elected to serve, not anyone else.

“Just when you think you know who someone is,” said JB for Governor communications director Christina Amestoy. “He turns around and proves you exactly right.”

Also…

Click here for Schuba’s 2018 story.

* Meanwhile, Pritzker was on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” yesterday…

Look, the electorate is energized. Democrats are ready to go. You’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people signing up to volunteer. Plus, our candidate is the Energizer Bunny. She’s been everywhere all the time over the last several days, and we’re excited about that, to get to see her in the battleground states and all over the country.

And her message is one that I think resonates with people. One of those things, of course, is pointing out the differences between these two candidates.

I mean, on the other side, they’re just weird. I mean, they really are. The things that they stand for — Donald Trump, of course, is afraid of windmills and, you know, he talks about all kinds of crazy stuff. You know, his running mate, as you probably have heard, is, you know, getting known for his obsession with couches, and — and somebody who is hiding his views on a woman’s right to choose. And then just broadly, the attack on people who are childless and saying that we ought to raise taxes on childless people and calling them “cat ladies,” I think, you know, he apologized to cats, but he hasn’t apologized to women.

* This morning, Pritzker was asked about how Democrats were lately calling some top Republicans “weird” and if he embraced the move…

I actually talked about it yesterday. The truth is, there are a lot of very weird, strange things coming out of both the Republican nominee and the vice presidential nominee on the Republican side. I mean, there’s this consistent kind of talk about Donald Trump’s fear of sharks. I’m not sure why that’s relevant to becoming president of the United States. There’s the talk about couches and dolphins in the vice presidential candidate’s case, and and it’s just, you know, I don’t understand. We should be talking about the issues that are important to working families across the United States. That’s what Kamala Harris is talking about. That’s what all of us ought to be focused on.

* Pritzker did not mention sharks, couches or dolphins in his afternoon Q and A, but he was asked about some confusion over whether he said he was being vetted or not. It was impossible to hear much of the question, but this is how he responded…

I’ll correct your timeline. I think I said no on Tuesday morning that I had not received vetting documents, and then subsequently I was asked the question, just so you can go back and look at your records. And what I’ve said repeatedly since then is that, you know, I’m not going to talk about the conversations that I’ve had with the vice president or with her campaign, other than to say that I have committed myself to Kamala Harris, that I will go out and work my heart out for her to win this election, because we must. Because we cannot have Donald Trump as President of the United States.

Please pardon all transcription errors.