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* Gov. JB Pritzker spoke to reporters today. Most of the questions were about President Joe Biden. First up, his impression of last week’s White House meeting with the governors…
First of all, he was fully engaged. We had, I don’t know, around 20 governors, some, most, half of them in the room, half of them on Zoom, had a very good discussion between us. And again, the President did a great job of answering questions throughout that meeting. 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. So you know, Joe Biden’s going to be our nominee.
Please pardon any transcription errors.
* Asked about his campaigning in other states and whether he was in reality introducing himself to potential voters in other states…
I suppose you could say that about any of the surrogates who are traveling around the Midwest or the country, that they’re introducing themselves in some way or another. But importantly, what we’re doing is talking about why it’s important to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and why it’s important to defeat Donald Trump, who is trying to take away your freedoms, who is trying to send jobs overseas, and frankly, would be bad for the economy and bad for working families.
* Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has said she will not run even if Biden drops out. Would he make the same statement?…
What I can tell you is I’m not engaging in any hypotheticals. You can see that I’m all in for Joe Biden. Joe Biden’s going to be the nominee of the Democratic Party. I’m going to go out there and wholeheartedly campaigning for him. I’ve endorsed him and Kamala Harris, he’s going to be at the convention in August, accepting the nomination, and I’ll be cheering for him in the audience.
* Do you think Biden is physically and mentally capable of serving?…
Of course.
* More on last week’s meeting and his brief statement afterward…
It was a robust meeting, lots of conversation. There were questions of the president. He answered those questions. Some people came away with different impressions, maybe. But for the most part, you saw that the head of the Democratic Governors Association and two other governors went and did a press conference together, representing all 20 of us, because, again, some weren’t able to be at the White House, and some of us had to go catch a plane. The truth is that it was a, it was a, I think, a robust discussion. And I just wanted to be accurate about how I reported what happened in that meeting.
* What the president needs to do now…
I think that President Biden, and I’ve said this, he needs to go out there and answer all the questions, and he needs to show people that he is the leader of the free world, and that he’s doing a heck of a job of making sure that the United States is leading us. We have a lot of enemies in the world, and it is going to take a tough, strong, smart and principled leader, and that’s what Joe Biden is.
* On people like US Rep. Mike Quigley calling on Biden to get out of the race…
Look, I think it’s not unreasonable for people to have differing opinions about all this. But I know Mike Quigley. I know he does not want Donald Trump to become President of the United States. So you’ve seen a lot of comments by congresspeople, by others who have questions. In the end, everybody understands that we’re pulling together to put our party and our party’s nominee and our issues over the line, and importantly, the working families of America need our party and the issues that we’re pushing in order for them to have better lives and better opportunity for their children.
* Any chance of a brokered party convention?…
No, I can’t imagine that Joe Biden said he’s going to be the nominee, he’s planning to be at the convention, he’s planning to be the guy who accepts the delegate vote. That’s going to occur, and so I can’t imagine what else could happen. […]
You know the old Will Rogers line, ‘I don’t belong to an organized party, I’m a Democrat.’ I’m sure that we haven’t seen anything like that in I don’t know, seems like in my lifetime? Well, yeah, in my lifetime, thinking about the last brokered convention in my life. The fact is that I think it would be different for all of for everybody that would be attending. But again, I don’t expect that to happen. We’re going to have an orderly convention. Again, there’s going to be a roll call before the convention, and at the convention and all the speeches, of course, endorsing President Biden.
* More…
I think that obviously the President had a bad performance at a debate. That doesn’t help anybody. He knows that, and what you have to do is stand up and say, ‘I didn’t do it well,’ which I think he said, and prove people wrong about what they want to say about him. And he’s doing that. He’s getting out there and talking. And you know, I think he’s having an impact. And I think you saw last night that the Black Caucus in the congressional delegation, right, in the congressional in Congress, right, the Black Caucus in Congress stood up for Joe Biden yesterday. I don’t think there was a single member of the Black Caucus who said anything except we 100% support Joe Biden. And that’s just one example of the many, many people that do support Joe Biden. And many, by the way, who had questions we’re all going to come together and support him for President.
* Novel idea considering that presidential election turnout is almost a lot higher than off-year turnout…
What I would say is that we all have to work hard up and down the ballot. I actually am a believer, and I think you’ve seen this about the way that I’ve run for office, I believe that people who are down-ballot actually lift people up who are on top of the ballot, and so the stronger they can do at the local level, getting people out to vote for people you know on your block, in your neighborhood, in your community, that those people after they vote for the person that they know best, their community member for Office. They’re going to work their way up the ballot, voting for Democrats. So that’s going to help Joe Biden.
But look, in the end, this is about the tremendous job that Joe Biden has done, bringing jobs back to the United States. We’ve seen manufacturing come back to the United States. We’ve seen him fight hard to bring down prices, costs across the United States. I think there’s no question we have the better argument. We’ve seen the chaos that Donald Trump has sowed, and we’ve seen that he wants to take away people’s freedoms, particularly a woman’s right to choose. That’s not something people are going to accept when they go into the ballot box. They’re going to vote for the guy who’s voting for them, who’s doing the right thing for them. And that’s Joe Biden.
* What was his advice to Biden last week?…
I said you got to get out there and talk to the American public more. It was important. I think they took too long. I think he admitted this too after the debate, for him to really go out and do press that would get national attention. I know they did some rallies along the way, but 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. And there’s no candidate better on those issues than Joe Biden. And by the way, the Vice President, Kamala Harris.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 2:16 pm
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Previous Post: CTA President: ‘The governance model is not the problem here’ - RTA Chair: ‘Funding cures most ills’ (Updated)
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“This country has gotten where it is in spite of politics, not by the aid of it. That we have carried as much political bunk as we have and still survived shows we are a super nation.” - Will Rogers
Comment by Dotnonymous x Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 2:25 pm
-We’ve seen him fight hard to bring down prices-
What does that mean? Prices on energy, health insurance, and food are much higher than 4 years ago.
Comment by Steve Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 2:30 pm
The American Dream is the best dream anybody ever had…don’t forget it?
Comment by Dotnonymous x Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 2:34 pm
My feelings aside, I think the CBC and AOC stemmed the bleeding coming out strong in Biden’s corner.
Comment by ChicagoVinny Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 2:35 pm
I wish Roger’s “wisdom” could be viewed as sustainable, sadly we’re seeing a rejection of the values that led this nation into the world leadership position it held post WW 2. Dragged down by people who falsely believe they’re making America great again. Our allies will no longer see us as trustworthy partners. They will be hesitant to share secrets with a country whose leader stole top secret documents and shared them for egotistical pleasure.
Comment by Norseman Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 2:53 pm
– But importantly, what we’re doing is talking about why it’s important to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris –
And Kamala Harris.
Indeed.
Comment by JB13 Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 2:56 pm
Thank you again Guv for being a thoughtful voice of reason. It’s time to shut this all down. The media frenzy is out of control and sadly some Dems are trying to keep it alive - do they think that actually helps the party? No. Axe, Quigley and others need to move on. Biden is not going anywhere. Dems need to lock arms and get behind him. The other alternatives are too much of an unknown at this stage of the election. Onward.
Comment by Shytown Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 3:06 pm
I’m anxious for someone to fully explain the Quigley comments in context of his political position. it’s very interesting. and the most recent Durbin cautionary comment also interesting.
Comment by Amalia Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 3:11 pm
- I’m anxious for someone to fully explain the Quigley comments… -
Ask trial balloon Quigley…and see if his answer makes a lick of democratic sense.
Comment by Dotnonymous x Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 3:22 pm
- The other alternatives are too much of an unknown at this stage -
It’s the known those of us without our heads in the sand are concerned about. Biden gave Trump an enormous gift at that debate, and it’s not going to die down no matter how much you ignore it.
Comment by Excitable Boy Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 3:38 pm
The concern us normies and regular voters have is that President Biden does not look well or make a lot of sense when he has to speak even remotely extemporaneously. The only person who can alleviate those concerns is Joe Biden, and he failed twice at this task. What other electeds and big shots say does not matter.
Comment by Three Dimensional Checkers Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 3:45 pm
==believe that people who are down-ballot actually lift people up who are on top of the ballot==
I have always believed that as we, hence my focus on “low level” races.
Comment by low level Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 3:56 pm
Gaslighting defined.
Comment by Gravitas Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 4:22 pm
Pritzker has conceded that Joe Biden is the only one who can tell Joe Biden to exit the race, and that Joe Biden isn’t interested.
Comment by Nick Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 5:04 pm
- Pritzker has conceded that Joe Biden is the only one who can tell Joe Biden to exit the race -
He’s conceded he doesn’t want to get involved in that fight. I can’t blame him, but it doesn’t solve the problem in any way.
Comment by Excitable Boy Tuesday, Jul 9, 24 @ 6:49 pm