* Background is here if you need it. Actually, you may want to read it again to refresh your memory because you’re not seeing many actual quotes in responses like the one below. Also, calling a Jewish person who helped found a Holocaust museum an antisemite may be a first…
ILGOP Responds To Pritzker’s Vile, Antisemitic Attacks
CHICAGO — Lost in the shuffle of the grandstanding and hypocrisy from Governor Pritzker’s budget speech was the dangerous, divisive rhetoric he used – comparing President Trump and the Republican Party to Nazi’s.
During Wednesday’s budget speech, Pritzker referred to Nazi’s six times, painting an inaccurate and dangerously partisan picture of the Republican Party. As Pritzker continues to prepare for his 2028 run for President, ILGOP Chair Kathy Salvi released the following statement:
“JB Pritzker stoops to a new low and needs to be condemned by both Democrats and Republicans. His disgusting and repulsive attack on Republicans and this administration comes at a time when President Trump and Republicans are supporting Israel and the Jewish people as they defend themselves from barbaric terrorists. Meanwhile, JB Pritzker is standing with criminal illegals and further dividing our great nation. At the Illinois Republican Party, we continue to fight with the Trump Administration to combat an unprecedented wave of antisemitism and will always call out Pritzker’s repulsive language.”
Bottom Line: In their effort to combat vile, antisemitic attacks like those by Governor Pritzker on Wednesday, President Trump and Republicans are fighting antisemitism in the United States.
* Pritzker was asked about this on Wednesday after his speech…
Q: How is it not an insult to half the American public who voted for Trump when you’re talking about Trump being a Nazi?
Pritzker: Those words never came out of my mouth. That is not true what you just said.
Here is what I would say. I think it was important to talk about the destruction of a constitutional republic. I gave my own experience with it. I think something that’s actually unique to a little that we, that famous, the most famous case, went to the Supreme Court around an issue like the challenge of Nazis in America or in the world. And so I talked about that. I mean, we had a whole Holocaust Museum that was built because of that. I feel very passionately that we always need to be on guard about the future of our democracy, and there was a lot of discussion about it in the 2024 campaign. I never thought that that was something that voters would pay lots of close attention to, because people don’t know what that means.
What does it mean to say that democracy is challenged? Some people understand. Many people don’t. What they do understand is that prices are going up. They do understand that their livelihoods are challenged and they were promised certain things that are now not being delivered, and indeed, they’re getting worse because of the policies of the Trump administration. So I was just trying to bring all those things together to address what I think is a gathering storm in this country, and to recognize that what happened in Europe in the last century is something that could happen really anywhere.
The topic was also debated on the House floor on Thursday. From Rep. Dan Didech’s comments…
As a Jewish American, as a Jewish member of the General Assembly who represents one of the largest Jewish communities in the entire state of Illinois, I have spent the last year and a half with my life dominated by the rise of antisemitism. Among the most pernicious forms of antisemitism is conflating the actions of the government of Israel with Jewish Americans. Jewish Americans are diverse. We have a range of opinions about the state of Israel. I count myself as a supporter of the state of Israel. But when you say on the floor, you support Israel, and that makes you ‘Team Jew,’ you are engaging in among the most pernicious forms of antisemitism that exists.
I’ve asked the Pritzker campaign for a response.
…Adding… From the Pritzker campaign…
He said what he said.
- Roadrager - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 11:56 am:
I remember the simpler days, back when words like “antisemitism” had meanings.
Clown response from a state party chock full of ‘em.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 11:58 am:
The ILGOP is in good hands, people who don’t know what words mean. Top notch, Kathy.
- sewer thoughts - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:00 pm:
the caucus member whose wife said “…was right” on 1/6
arthur jones
as if this new moment in their party and caucus was new, or a moment, or only about “antisemitism”
thank you House GOP for playing right into a JB for President plan to keep this in the news cycle a bit longer, real brand geniuses over there right now
- Anyone Remember - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:11 pm:
Unrelated to the issue at hand, it is a very good thing to see an elected official tell the press they’re wrong … and be correct about it.
- NIU Grad - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:12 pm:
IL GOP is doubling down on never winning a statewide election again in the next decade.
- Google Is Your Friend - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:15 pm:
The ILGOP is just picking up the mantle of the administration in Washington, whose leader has a pattern of believing that him and his ilk dictate who is and isn’t a worthy Jew.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-rosh-hashanah-jewish-b2413633.html
- Rahm's Parking Meter - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:16 pm:
As a member of the Jewish community, what did JB say that was antisemitic? NOTHING.
Whoever wrote that needs to learn a bit about antisemitism versus scoring cheap talking points.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:17 pm:
So the guy who helped found a Holocaust museum is an antisemite?
Welcome to the upside down everybody.
But I shouldn’t be surprised.I have had people tell me the Governor is just like Hitler and they say it with every bit of sincerity they can….
- Sue - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:17 pm:
Hey NIU- right back at you as the Dems will not win a national election again in our lifetime
- VK - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:17 pm:
Projection is a real thing and absolutely exhausting.
- TJ - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:19 pm:
GOP only knows how to project. But hey, hearts out to them, I guess.
@ Sue
Pretty big claim considering that Trump won a whopping 49.8% of the popular vote last year.
- Payback - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:19 pm:
“I gave my own experience with it.” It’s hard to consider Pritzker’s “lived experience” as victimhood. He holds the highest office in the state of Illinois, with State Police bodyguards we pay for, and a private jet to travel. He’s a billionaire, and can hire private security for the rest of his life after he retires.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:20 pm:
===as victimhood===
Stop projecting.
- Chito - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:21 pm:
I’m more offended by the GOPs use of the possessive (“nazi’s”) instead of the plural in their press release.
- Timey Tim - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:23 pm:
The left’s base literally shut down college campuses and city streets protesting for the Palestinians, who elected Hamas time and again. They protested Israel destroying Hamas after those terrorists raped women and cooked babies in ovens. I think we forget that too often in these discussions. The leftist base was tearing down missing posters of hostages. That is pretty anti Jewish behavior.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:24 pm:
Any of these clowns condemn Elon Musk or Bannon for their Nazi salutes? No?
The Illinois GOP is fully engaged in the kind of disinformation fascists rely on to discrete legitimate criticism. I’m sure they’re familiar with the playbook, they area, after all, represented by someone in congress who favorably quotes Hitler just before her husband declares war on the American people.
The way the GOP is throwing around the term antisemitism is also meant to detract from when that term is used accurately to describe what these [redacted][redacted] are doing.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:25 pm:
===The left’s base===
And that has what to do with this post?
- Squib Kick - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:26 pm:
Apparently the Trump folks didn’t get Kathy’s message …
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/french-leader-cancels-cpac-speech-after-bannons-apparent-nazi-salute/ar-AA1zwYgH
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:29 pm:
MAGA might be offended by Pritzker after all Trump said and did? If Illinois had clutching pearls to sell for fake Republican outrage, it would pay off its debts by next week. Pritzker and Democrats should absolutely not let themselves be shamed by these people, who try to gaslight.
- anon2 - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:30 pm:
Does the GOP even have any Jewish members in the General Assembly nowadays? Rep. Sid Mathias has been gone for many years.
- Sue - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:32 pm:
TJ- you do know after the 2030 census- R states pick up 6 additional electoral college votes
- New Day - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:32 pm:
“I gave my own experience with it.” It’s hard to consider Pritzker’s “lived experience” as victimhood. He holds the highest office in the state of Illinois, with State Police bodyguards we pay for, and a private jet to travel. He’s a billionaire, and can hire private security for the rest of his life after he retires.”
And that word salad shows that JB is wrong about what exactly.
And Salvi - umm, those words don’t mean what you think they do.
- Roadrager - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:33 pm:
==They protested Israel destroying Hamas after those terrorists raped women and cooked babies in ovens.==
The correction always gets less attention than the lie, but this whole babies in ovens thing was widely debunked and I believe even the IDF itself stepped back from it. But you probably aren’t interested in that chapter of the story.
==who elected Hamas time and again==
There hasn’t been a Palestinian election in over eighteen years.
==The left’s base literally shut down college campuses and city streets protesting for the Palestinians==
So freedom of assembly is antisemitism now. Got it.
- TJ - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:33 pm:
== TJ- you do know after the 2030 census- R states pick up 6 additional electoral college votes ==
Yes, but equating that to the Dems having remotely as much of an uphill climb nationally as the GOP has in Illinois is nonsensical.
- @misterjayem - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:33 pm:
“How is it not an insult to half the American public who voted for Trump when you’re talking about Trump being a Nazi?”
What is the name of the person who asked this?
I followed the link but didn’t find the answer.
– MrJM
- Rudy’s teeth - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:34 pm:
If only some in the ILGOP were students of history, read journals and accounts, and reflected on this sad chapter in history. But, no. That’s too much to ask from a group that jumps on the latest whim coming from noise and turmoil.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:36 pm:
===And that has what to do with this post? ===
Rich, if they’re not allowed their red herrings, gish gallops, and all manner of arguments from fallacy there’d be no defense for the ILGOP’s statement. The only defense for the GOP’s argument from fallacy is more fallacy.
This kind of messaging is straight out of the populist handbook and was lovingly rekindled by Karl Rove. Accuse your opponent of the thing you’re doing in order to detract from the folks who call out what you’re doing.
Of course that means whoever is responsible for this communication knows that they’re being antisemitic and are tending towards Nazis and making an effort to win the fight over messaging by falsely accusing JB Pritzker of antisemitism.
- H-W - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:36 pm:
The Salvi statement speaks so ill of Salvi. It also suggest she is ignorant of the larger picture she is painting. Saying “we stand behind Trump regardless of the devil in the details” is a sickening statement. Trump openly attacks numerous social categories, and he is advocating the Palestinian Removal Act is “pro-Israel.”
If Salvi wants to defend Trump, she needs to defend all of his actions against categories of humanity, not cherry pick one because it sounds politically correct in the current social milieu.
Shame on Salvi.
- Candy Dogood - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:44 pm:
===students of history, read journals and accounts, and reflected on this sad chapter in history===
The mistake you’re making is that an education in history automatically imparts lessons in ethics and morality. Someone sympathetic to the goals of Nazis and other fascists are pulling different lessons from history than other students.
- Who else - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:48 pm:
There are instances where flipping the script does not work and this is one of them.
It can be a clever and effective way to manipulate the narrative. You get people responding to your newly created narrative instead of the original inconvenient one.
“He said what he said” is a solid response that shuts down any potential to flip this script…and as the headline indicates, there was not a lot of potential to begin with.
- 47th Ward - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:50 pm:
===The leftist base was tearing down missing posters of hostages.===
That was like, a handful of people. I like to think our base is bigger than that.
And I know our base isn’t as monolithic as you think. We’re a pretty broad and diverse coalition of Americans. We don’t agree with each other on a lot of issues, but I watched how other members of our base condemned the vandalism and counter-protested in support of Israel. That might hurt your brain, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true. It happened. I saw it.
Take your broad brush back to FB.
- illinifan - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:52 pm:
Before commenting I had to read JBs words again. I never saw him say that Republicans or Trump are Nazis. What I read was a brief review of the history that allowed for the rise of authoritarian Nazis and to learn from that history to ensure we keep constitutional restraints in place that would not allow for an American authoritarianism to occur. This does not mean the people who are not checking Trumps authoritarian tendency are Nazis. It just means the caution signs are up and we need to be cautious before it is too late.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 12:59 pm:
Just a quick note: If you have the supreme arrogance to suggest in comments that you are bringing us “the truth,” you’re likely to be deleted and perhaps even banned unless you can somehow prove you are a deity.
- OneMan - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:02 pm:
I’m glad the Party of Fiscal Responsibility and Smaller Government decided to pick that to talk about.
Come on man…
Make the budget your money quotes about the budget address, not that other stuff. If you want more people to attend your services, you must stop preaching to the choir.
You have the “I don’t like JB” voters.
- Hello Friend - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:05 pm:
@Sue
You have seen Republican constituents yelling at their representatives this week, right? If the trend continues, how about we check back in 19 months when the next “national election” occurs.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:07 pm:
===You have seen Republican constituents===
I’m not sure that’s accurate. However, like Rauner before him, I don’t think this administration quite appreciates the political blowback they’re in the process of creating. Or they do and don’t care.
- Cool Papa Bell - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:15 pm:
=Lost in the shuffle of the grandstanding and hypocrisy=
I guess lost in the shuffle was Rep. Mary Miller (no-relation) talking about what Hitler got right, and Elon’s Nazi salute and the one Bannon just did at CPAC.
I’m over it. Republicans on a national stage are what they are. But do better in Illinois if you want to be taken more seriously. Otherwise, each time you choose not to speak up - it’s condoning the actions of members and leaders of your dear party.
- ZC - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:16 pm:
So much fallacy of composition going on here.
There’s been -a- connection (how much, you can debate) between Trump, and neo-Nazis in America, at least as far back as 2015 when David Duke endorsed Trump for the still-competitive GOP nomination, and in the slowest-moving-possible-pitch-straight-over-the-plate-to-swing-at, Trump nevertheless refused to disavow Duke’s endorsement. He did later. But the proper % of times to reject a Nazi’s endorsement, is 100%.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9geYl9J_Mc
- 312Lawyer - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:16 pm:
The national politicization of state parties has helped Republicans in certain states: Michigan, West Virginia, Florida, and Nevada come to mind.
But in Illinois, it hasn’t. Rauner had the correct approach in 2014: Run to the center or center-left on social issues and go right on fiscal issues.
That’s still a winning issue in Illinois, but the state party doesn’t have the discipline to stick to it.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:22 pm:
===That’s still a winning issue in Illinois===
Not the way that Rauner did it.
- H-W - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:41 pm:
Re: Post
=== Pritzker was asked about this on Wednesday after his speech… ===
The linked video clip attached to this line is very insightful.
- vern - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:42 pm:
Reick sets a pretty classic example here for why Jews still vote 75/25 for Democratic candidates. Claims to be “Team Jew” because he supports Jews who are halfway around the world, while calling an American Jew antisemitic for making comparisons between current and historical fascists. No Jewish legislators in his party, but he thinks he knows antisemitism well enough to lob accusations of it against the Jewish Governor. When a Jewish legislator explains that treating us as Israelis instead of Americans is itself antisemitic, he gets mad instead of learning the lesson.
Thanks for the attempt, Rep. Reick, but this Jew gonna decline your invitation to support the party that insists the US is a “Christian nation.”
- 312Lawyer - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:45 pm:
Rich,
Of course not. But if the fair tax, Bring Chicago Home, and soda tax have shown over and over and over again, people do not want more taxes.
You can run on fiscal discipline. Go moderate on social issues.
Granted, the 2026 midterms are likely an unkind environment for any Pub if the past is prologue.
- Pundent - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:51 pm:
=Rauner had the correct approach.=
He hid his true intentions. Once they became apparent he incurred the wrath of the voters and inflicted a mortal wound which his party has yet to recover from.
- Annon3 - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:53 pm:
@Sue “in our lifetimes” hopefully is a long time, and I believe the Dems will be able to pivot and recapture a majority.
- JS Mill - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 1:59 pm:
=JB Pritzker stoops to a new low and needs to be condemned by both Democrats and Republicans. =
This is the ILGOP’s “the Ukraine started the war” moment.
Not one word of Pritzker’s statement was wrong. He accurately and succinctly expalined how the Nazi’s gained power and ubverted the cosntitution in Germany prior to WWII.
The ILGOP is no longer worthy of anyone’s time as they simply don’t tell the truth. Sad.
- Give Us Barabbas - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 2:00 pm:
I found it telling, that the typos in the GOP press release indicate the intelligence of the people composing it. I would correct their misuse of the apostrophe, but then we’d be talking about grammar nazis, not actual ones.
- ste_with a v_en - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 2:08 pm:
We still have an Illinois GOP?
- Hello Friend - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 2:12 pm:
@Rich:
I should have specified out of Illinois. Small sample size, yes, but if it continues it’s something to look at on a national basis, and that was what I was taking up with Sue.
- TooManyJens - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 2:18 pm:
God, I love the update.
- walker - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 2:30 pm:
We can get statements all over the place, from politicians of all stripes, on any issue, but the ILGOP always seems to take the nonsense prize.
It’s not Salvi, but a long tradition.
- Grandson of Man - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 2:31 pm:
“He said what he said.”
Good response by the JB team. Don’t fall for fake outrage. Who is the head of the Republican Party? Enough said.
- Save Ferris - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 2:45 pm:
“the Palestinians, who elected Hamas time and again”
To defend the Palestinian people, Hamas was elected in 2006. No further elections have been held. They’ve been continuously “delayed.”
The people haven’t had any choice in the matter since.
- BE - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 3:04 pm:
I’m trying to figure out what ‘moderate on social issues’ would be, in the current climate of of one side saying ‘mind your own business about someone else’s personal life’ vs the other side wants the government to say that Certain People (insert your choice here) shouldn’t exist in public/workplaces and we don’t really care if your life is horrible or ends, because you aren’t like Us.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 3:10 pm:
===I’m trying to figure out what ‘moderate on social issues’ would be===
Rauner signed a bill to provide taxpayer-funded abortions. So, when the above commenter said “moderate,” I’m not sure he was being fully factual.
- Excitable Boy - Friday, Feb 21, 25 @ 3:15 pm:
- That’s still a winning issue in Illinois, but the state party doesn’t have the discipline to stick to it. -
Not in a GOP primary it isn’t.