Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) defended his comparison of the Trump administration to Nazi Germany in an interview with CNN.
Speaking to host Manu Raju, Pritzker stated, “[W]hat I was talking about was the fact that a constitutional republic was torn apart in 53 days in Germany in the 1930s, and that we need to watch out for that in this country.” He added, “much of what I said has been proven to be true, that the institutions of this democracy are being attacked by the Republicans and by Donald Trump.”
Pritzker claimed that there has been an “uptick of violence, on both sides, that has been against Republicans and Democrats, over the last, let’s say, eight to twelve years.”
He added, “Remember that it’s been Donald Trump and the Republicans that have called for political violence. Donald Trump, from the very beginning, remember when he talked about a protester at one of his rallies that they should just beat him up, punch him? He’s talked about the death penalty for Gen. Mark Milley. He has called for jailing his political opponents, me included. So this is a president who, unfortunately, slips into that mode so easily.”
“But I think we should get away from all of that. I’m sure that we can find examples across both sides of the aisle of rhetoric that people didn’t mean or perhaps that they went too far about,” he continued. “This is a moment when I think we should all take a step back and just remember that this country needs to bring peace to its politics and that we need to just argue in the dialogue here about the issues and which party should be in control after November.”
