* 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.
