By: Mark Glennon*
“We saw a future president,” a South Florida Democratic consultant told Politico after watching Gov. JB Pritzker’s Saturday keynote speech to 1,000 Florida Democrats. “That was one of the best Democratic speeches I have seen in a while,” he said. Another Florida Democratic consultant said, “What Gov. Pritzker has shown is a path to stand up proudly for a woman’s right to choose and how to tackle economic challenges but do it in a way that brings people together.”
Yes, by all reported accounts, the speech was well received by those who attended, as was his speech last month to a New Hampshire Democrats’ convention.
It was also as caustic, divisive and dishonest as you will hear in a political speech, bristling with hypocrisy, claims that failures were successes and just plain absurdities. If Pritzker’s goal was to stake out a position as the most hateful toward the half of Americans who are right of center, he couldn’t have done any better.
The full speech is linked here, but these are the highlights:
A primary Pritzker theme was equating Florida Governor Ron DeSantis with Donald Trump, about whom Pritzker used his favorite invectives – “racism, homophobia and misogyny.” DeSantis is “just Trump with a mask on,” Pritzker said.
“He’s trying to pass off his covert racism, homophobia and misogyny as a more reasonable form of Trump Republicanism.” Being a DeSantis Republican is “a little bit like saying you’ve never been a fan of Darth Vader but you support the Empire’s political agenda,” Pritzker said.
All Republicans, for that matter are simply evil, Pritzker effectively said, because they do not care about human life on even a single matter. “Whether it’s assault weapons, or back alley abortions, or vaccines, or protecting transgender youth, or a frothing mob of traitors marching toward the capitol looking to shoot members of Congress and hang the Vice President – Give me one example of the Republican party showing up for life in this country,” he said.
A “frothing mob of traitors marching toward the capitol looking to shoot members of Congress and hang the Vice President?” How many voters does he think buy that?
Pritzker’s outright falsehoods included some old standbys. He repeated the claim that “Trump said there were ‘very fine people on both sides’ at the Charlottesville white supremacy rally.” That one has been discredited over and over again, even by two CNN hosts.
And he repeated the claim that Trump suggested ingesting bleach to stop COVID. Newsweek and even left-leaning PolitiFact, among many others, have shown that he didn’t.
Pritzker repeated the lie about what Florida’s restriction on teaching gender identity says, which is supported by DeSantis. “Under the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ agenda,” Pritzker said, “DeSantis wants to codify a modern day LGBTQ McCarthyism, forcing teachers to hide their marriages and children to out their peers at school.”
The bill says no such thing. It does not say “don’t say gay.” It only says classroom curriculum from kindergarten through third grade should not include teaching little children about gender identity. Two-thirds of Americans support that. “This polling reflects what our common sense already tells us,” one pollster said. “Only fanatics think the classroom curriculum from kindergarten through 3rd grade should include teaching little children about gender identity.”
He fumed about inflation. “It’s hard to find an affordable apartment. It’s almost impossible to buy a house, It’s hard to find baby formula.…”
Does he think Americans don’t know who has been in charge? Does he think we don’t know that he has been among the biggest cheerleaders of $14 trillion of federal spending posing as pandemic relief that is helping fuel inflation?
“Just for the record, Chicago should be no one’s punching bag,” he said, and went on to praise its virtues.
That hardly needs to be countered, but a reminder is in order that Chicago and all Illinois cities are instrumentalities of the state. He and the supermajority of his allies in the Illinois General Assembly have long held not just the power but the responsibility to intervene and force sensible reforms on the city, including prosecutions for crimes going unpunished. They’ve done nothing.
Pritzker celebrated the departure to Florida of billionaire Ken Griffin and former Gov. Bruce Rauner, telling Floridians they are “your problem now.”
But he made no mention of the enormous sums of money Griffin paid in taxes and contributed philanthropically while in Illinois. And no mention of the fortune Rauner made for Illinois public pensions when he was in venture capital here, or the fact that his management of pension money was supported by none other than the president of one of Illinois’ teacher unions, to which Pritzker bows every day.
He ridiculed the national call for law and order, which he said is a “call that points at Black and brown people and then they scream ‘lock them up!’”
Something different concerns him more: “We do, however, need to start recognizing that we have an epidemic of young men enamored with white nationalism shooting up their communities with assault weapons.”
There’s an “epidemic of such young men”?
Worst of all, respecting crime, he repeated the Biden Administration’s claim, which has been nationally ridiculed, that “our most pressing security threat is the rise of white domestic extremism.”
Republicans, he said, are “afraid of fighting inflation by producing goods Made in America.”
But wasn’t the demand for fair, reciprocal trade terms – particularly with China – among the most popular initiatives of the Trump Administration? And what has the Biden Administration done to address the baby formula shortage Pritzker complained about? Import 23 million bottles.
He repeated his two most consistent, biggest whoppers, which are that Illinois was facing unprecedented challenges because we had a Republican governor who decided to hold the state budget hostage” and that he fixed it with a balanced budget.
Both of those claims are absurd; we wrote about them specifically earlier this week.
“I passed a record setting infrastructure bill,” Pritzker bragged.
Hold on. That infrastructure bill was paid for with over $5 billion of regressive tax increases on the working class on things like car titles. It was a recklessly oversized $45 billion, as we explained at the time. And, it was passed in 2019 – before the gush of federal “pandemic relief,” much of which is for infrastructure. But the Illinois bill has never been cut back appropriately.
“I promised to enact a comprehensive, nation-leading law to fight climate change,” Pritzker said, and he did pass what is widely described as the most aggressive state form of the Green New Deal, forcing the state to turn entirely to renewable sources for electricity.
It’s now partially to blame for Illinois facing “high risk” of brownouts and 50% increases in electricity across two-thirds of the state, all of which is explained here.
He strongly implied that access to birth control and fertility treatment are at risk if his party does not prevail, which is hysterical nonsense. Nowhere is there a serious movement to block that access. Justice Clarence Thomas’ sole dissent in the Dobbs abortion decision would eliminate a constitutional guaranty of privacy, but states would have to act to block access to birth control and fertility treatments even if that opinion was ever accepted by a majority of the Court, and there’s no way states will do that.
DeSantis, Pritzker says, “pretended COVID was a minor disease by cooking the books on Florida’s COVID data, and refusing to order COVID vaccines for children under five” and he bragged about superior COVID policies in Illinois.
Wrong. COVID deaths per capita, age-adjusted, are nearly identical for Illinois and Florida and not far from the national average, but Florida did it without any of the most costly mandates in the nation, as Illinois did. Illinois was guilty of a long list of COVID policy mistakes that we have written about here and will be compiling soon. Over 400 studies have concluded that harsh lockdowns and other restraints like Illinois had were ineffective. And COVID vaccinations for children under five are extremely controversial.
“We honor the results of elections,” Pritzker said.
In Illinois, that would be elections based on the most gerrymandered map in the nation, which he approved in violation of what many regarded as his most important campaign promise – to deliver fair maps.
Yet, after all that, Pritzker said, “The Republican game plan is to divide Democrats and to divide America.”
Talk about projection.
Pritzker’s speech was well received by his allies, as noted at the top of this column. But it’s hard to imagine how any of the above will win over some of the 4 million Floridians who elected DeSantis, the 74 million who voted for Trump, however many millions identify as Republicans and countless others who are fed up with division and dishonesty.
“I’m here to tell you that the GOP is naked and afraid,” Pritzker said. If those GOPers read Pritzker’s speech and end up facing him, the challenge they in fact may face is overconfidence.
Credit Pritzker for ending his speech on an honest note. “We Democrats feel like we play by the rules – that we respect democracy….”
“But,” he went on:
But in the face of what’s happening in this country today – in the face of what the Supreme Court and the radical right wing are trying to do to the fundamental rights of every American – we, the coalition of the sane, owe something else to our children and our grandchildren. We need to win.
He really didn’t need to say he has no intention of playing by rules. The speech showed it.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- Illinois economy, jobs suffer under potential presidential candidate J.B. Pritzker
- Chicago carjackings on pace for a 22-year high – and they’re getting more and more weaponized
- New analysis projects big hit to public pensions in Illinois and the nation from recent market losses
- Four more states move to a flat tax. Illinoisans were right to reject Pritzker’s progressive income tax.
- Four things you need to know about mass shootings and the new gun control landscape
You know you are Big Time when you are assigned a troll to divert the topic toward emotional and unproductive nonsense.
He must be very worried…
His personal attacks are immature, low, and very off-putting. And the falsities he tosses in the air like popcorn he tries to catch, are beyond unreal. Sadly, it sounds like what today’s dems would absolutely go for, plus, he has the budget for it. Too bad for him, though, he’s gotta go against the slick-haired creep from Cali. :/
This fat slob has spent $180 million of his inheritance getting elected and trying to raise taxes. He’s as delusional as he is fat.
Are there that many people who agree with this rich twit? I guess time will tell.
Just ask Gov. Pritzker if he and his family employ “estate planning” lawyers to lower their taxes and pass on more of their wealth from generation to generation of Pritzkers. When the answer comes back, “yes,” that is all you need to know.
Well, that and the fact Pritzker ripped all the toilets out of a house he bought to make it uninhabitable and lower his real estate taxes on it.
Great guy!!!
Age adjusted Covid death rate is asinine! Maine is the oldest state and it has a relatively low Covid death rate. Bottom line—DeathSantis killed more Americans than Osama Bin Laden. Of course, so did George W Bush and Republicans supported him right up until Trump told them he didn’t have any clothes on.
Take your meds. And thanks for identifying yourself as a card carrying member of the Osama fan club. Typical liberal that hates the country that provides the freedoms he enjoys. But he worships the lying wheeling dealing Clinton’s and Obama, master of the 2% economy. Obamacare saved no one, but made healthcare exponentially more expensive for everyone. See how this works Jared? We can all do it.
Trump’s first 3 years averaged 2.6% GDP growth with increasing deficits…Obama‘a last 3 years featured 2.5% GDP growth with declining deficits. Trump strengthened Obamacare because the Kushner family is heavily invested in the ACA Exchange subsidies via Oscar Health.
You are very gullible which is why you fell for the lies of the con man Trump after falling for the lies of George W Bush who stole the 2000 election and then lied us into an asinine war all the while selling us out to China!! And you are the one who celebrates DeathSantis wantonly killing grannies!!
You cherry pick stats and ignore others that don’t support your narrative. The typical liberal behavior. Age adjusted covid statistics are valid, because the virus disproportionately affects the elderly. It’s all out there if you can take the blinders off.
Lying about your name and pretending to be somebody else is banned here, like everywhere. Get lost.
You think only one person can have a name?? You are a typical Cheney Republican—banning anyone that dares print facts that don’t fit your worldview!
You are a typical Hastert Republican that bans people that state facts that conflict with your ideology. You should work at Twitter!
Give me one example of the Republican party showing up for life in this country,” he said.
Well. I am waiting.
Law and order, the vax, antiterrorism and, in the longer run, the foundational principles of a republican democracy, which are now under assault from the left but ultimately save humanity from the crushing poverty and short life expectancies that other systems ultimately succumb to. That would be for starters. And here are 3 great articles explaining how the left’s woke/BLM madness is killing people:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pursuit-of-social-justice-killed-testing-stop-frisk-gun-policy-biden-administration-11657658420?st=431vma535fmsmsn&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
https://www.foxnews.com/us/defunding-police-vilifying-them-every-turn-contributing-officer-suicides-experts-say
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2022/07/20/woke_corporate_support_of_blm_has_deadly_consequences_147919.html
You may want to rethink the vax, Mark.
Should be clear from the way the Dem administration, Dem states, woke corporations, and the owned medical industrial complex has behaved, the vax is about utilizing govt to coerce and control the populace.
The political implications of the vax are anti-freedom.
The medical implications of the vas are anti-life.
After I got the vax I had a compulsion to watch and listen to all of the content the Obamas have created…one night I came out of a blackout and the credits were rolling and Malia Obama was a production assistant on whatever I was watching…I’m really scared!
Lots of that is true, and I realize that the vax has turned out to be far less effective and more risky than the establishment claimed initially. But for the very elderly, I do think it saved many lives and the benefit/risk was OK. Keep in mind that we here opposed pushing it on younger people.
Lol, you got downvoted because you said something positive about the vaccine!! Low information Trump voters believe the vaccines are not only ineffective BUT dangerous!! Berenson was on Clay and Travis today and he almost made a gaffe of stating the fact that prior to Omicron the vaccines mitigated severity. So during the southeast Delta death surge he would be on the program wishcasting that highly vaxxed NYC would have a Delta death surge like the southeast because he would say the vaccines are crappy, masking does nothing, and Covid is seasonal. Well NYC avoided the Delta death surge because… Read more »
this doesn’t make any sense.
Trust me, it makes sense. You seem like a fairly typical Hastert Republican that lacks critical thinking skills.
Law and Order? The Republican Party? Remember this?
?itok=Mz6KMxCP
Tune in Thursday night for more….
Someone needs deprogramming
does this photo make you think of law and order? police officers were beaten and one was killed. is that order?
The only death that day was Ashli Babbitt. I’ll leave it to you to research who she was and how she died. And no one has been charged with a crime in her death despite authorities knowing exactly who did it and how. And you know for sure the instigators on capital hill that day were right wingers (and not BLM and Antifa) because . . . the Jan 6 commission told you so? While you’re at it, also research Ray Epps. Why was he in DC and why isn’t he rotting in jail like the many others (uncharged) despite… Read more »
This is what the low information population hears and believes. Very sad
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ANTIFA/BLM sit for a portrait on their tourism trip to DC.
Turn off CNN
Not only do you love your propaganda, you believe it! smh
rent free!
The vax?
So you are fine taking a dump and wiping your ass with the Bill of Rights…except you would never infringe the Second Amendment, right?? Under “constitutional carry” you can’t have “stop and frisk” brainiac!
Why is that? Please explain.
Make sure you tell us the purpose of stop and frisk so we can clearly understand the point you’re making.
Stop and frisk is to find guns on people without probable cause, the cops only need a much lower standard of reasonable suspicion. In constitutional carry states it is not illegal for people to carry guns without licenses and so in those states there is nothing illegal about carrying a concealed handgun. Giuliani credits enforcing gun laws as a big part of bringing down NYC’s crime rate when he was mayor.
I see the confusion now. Stop and frisk is a hugely successful Supreme Court approved crime prevention method used by NYPD under Giuliani which saw police stop criminal suspects in order to determine whether they were participating in criminal activity. Stop and frisk was not to find guns on people. It was to give police a substantial tool to investigate criminal activity in real time which could include being in possession of weapons illegally, including guns, and illegal contraband such as drugs. As you may know, a lot of criminal activity involves the trafficking and sale of drugs. Crime plummeted… Read more »
Terry is bad law just like Roe/Casey…dead man walking.
You’re either misstating or simply misunderstanding WHY stop and frisk worked. Stop and frisk worked because it made gangbangers reluctant to carry their piece in public for fear of being arrested, and without a gun hidden in the waistband, they were less likely to shoot at their rival or mug somebody. It’s really that simple. The risk to carrying a gun in NYC outweighed the benefit, and with less gang bangers shooting each other or terrorizing residents, the city flourished. The problem isn’t guns – Montana has a high gun ownership and a low crime rate. The problem is gangbangers… Read more »
And I am still waiting…
50+million aborted babies. Standing to stop this ghoulish process. Giving one defenseless child the right to life. Some people are shameless.
Don’t underestimate JB’s staying power. He’s a persuasive speaker, quick debater, and given the size of his bankroll, he’s not short of courtiers eager to tell him how brilliant and courageous he is, and could he throw a few dollars over here?
Amen. And lots of favors to call for himself and family from political contributions and business work.
I don’t see how JB is a persuasive speaker. On July 4, he had to read that he is “furious” from a prepared statement. He didn’t so a particularly good job speaking off the cuff here. When he gives a speech one may call decent, he sounds kind of wimpy. He has never struck me as quick, witty, or comical. I’d like to see him debate DeSantis who went to Harvard Law, while Pritzker went to a law school with his family name on it. Then again, if he debated Kristi Noam, it would be like watching Beth Dutton debate… Read more »
What words would you use to describe a White person who loves his race and wants to see it continue into the future? Hater? Racist? Nazi? White supremacist?
Our anti-White establishment is doing everything within its power to eliminate White children through massive non-White immigration and FORCED assimilation into EVERY White country and ONLY White countries.
Under international law, this is genocide, White Genocide.
They say they are anti-racist, but what they are is anti-White.
Anti-racist is a codeword for anti-White.
As you well know; Democrats are pigs, and Pigs Get Slaughtered.
As you well know, Democrats are pathological liars and violent ghettotrash.
Fatso has been a disaster for Illinois from the gitgo. He is the “Boss Hoss” of Illinois, running a crooked spoils system to keep the Dems in office.
“He is the ‘Boss HOGG’ of Illinois”.
fify
That makes Pritzker’s cousin Lulu Coltrane Hogg. Check him (I mean her) out…just make sure you haven’t eaten recently because you will throw everything up. 😉
Forget about abortion, which affects a very small subset of the population. The most important question to him should be: “Why do you want to confiscate wealth and income from highly successful people and redistribute those earnings to a permanent welfare state?”
The democrat media can no longer hide or cover up their party wide incompetence and corruption, and their bench is paper thin so the O N L Y way a democrat is sworn into office come January 2025 is if they decide to go full throttle with their well established election fraud campaign. It’s their best and only play. Fortunately for them, well over half of the republicans are full fledged members of the uni-party, and as evidenced by their lack of action thus far, they will not take any action to legitimize the electoral process, going forward. I’ll bet… Read more »
No, folks, Thomas does not want to block access to birth control, interracial marriage (obviously), etc. His point was that the doctrine of Substantive Due Process is a poor and insufficient foundation. Better arguments need to be found.
As a Chicago resident, I watch the evening news to see all those “White Nationalists” peddling fentanyl-laced drugs, shooting each other, innocent children, and babies. They are looting stores and carjacking motorists. Gov. Pritzker tells us White Nationalists are responsible for this, and victims who complain about losing loved ones are racists. Pritzker is your man if you want to make the United States just like Chicago.
I can’t name a single Democrat in the country I would vote for at the Presidential level. And really, it’s not so much as individual Democrats, it’s the Democrats as a party that is so revolting. As for Desantis, I would and do support him any day, any time over any of the Democrats, or those in the previously named “Mainstream Media” ….
I think you said once that you were thinking about writing about how today’s leftists have some form of mental disorder. You should do it. I don’t know what it is but it includes no embarassment ever about lying constantly.
I really do think there is some kind of psychological phenomenon going on with today’s left, which has caused so many of them to throw away ethical standards and even professional reputations. The symptoms include dishonesty as you say, brazen hypocrisy and indifference to time-proven principles. I’m in no position to diagnose it, though. I can only hope it is temporary.
And Republicans rejecting public health measures in 2021 literally killed tens of thousands of Americans…and you don’t care. And I’m sure in 2002 you were cheering on Bush mobilizing for a war that would eventually cost $5 trillion dollars and kill more Americans than died on 9/11 and at most saved 100 Americans in the homeland.
Nice word salad of lefty talking points without one original thought.
BTW Biden has the Covid death tally record.
Now tell us how inflation and high crime is a good thing for poor Democrats.
Inflation is global and the rise in violent crime started under Trump. The Trumpcine is just as crappy as one would expect but it at least mitigated severity through Delta…unfortunately low information Trump voters rejected the vaccines and have died in higher numbers since the availability of the vaccines. Trump’s 3 biggest accomplishments were surrendering to the Taliban, a crappy vaccine, and building a wall to keep Mexican turtles out of America…those are some bad tortugas. 😉
Thank God Bush won in 2004 and marriage remains between one man with one pee pee and one woman with one wee wee—as God intended!
He is evil personified! God help this country if he gets anywhere near the White House.
Would an Illinois Democrat do it any other way? Even if the truth would help, their first inclination is to lie.
When all your political career you have never been held to account, let alone challenged, by the establishment media in IL how would Pritzker know any different? Bloviating, lying, and corruption are the norm. I’m sure the hired ‘consultants’ tell Pritzker everyday he is just great! It’s like Spaulding Smails at the casino with ‘friends’.
Per Pritzker, “Chicago should be no one’s punching bag”. Where does that leave the citizens of Chicago, who are getting repeatedly punched by a group of mostly young thugs who have decided that these citizens ARE nothing but punching bags, and they can punch anyone at anytime with zero consequences? In Pritzker’s twisted billionaire world of make believe, Chicago is the shining city on a hill of which no ill can be spoken, but its citizens are nothing more than prey for predators. I hope he runs for President because even though his fellow travelers love him, the independents in… Read more »
JUST A TRUE YUGE PIECE OF CRAP…………NO WONDER ILL IS A MESS
Excellent article Mark. The arrogance of Pritzker is astounding, On the progressives could think he is a viable candidate for president.
In 2018 JB Pritzker, the future governor had to spend $171 million of his wealth to try and become governor. So now, in 2022, governor JB Pritzker cuts a $90M check for the reelection campaign. He spent all this money to race Illinois to the bottom.
Consider this problem unemotionally: Humans are organisms triggered by stimuli, like quivering petri dishes of gelatinous agar. Some humans, let’s classify as Pritzker-esque, are motivated primarily by stimuli triggering their pleasure center receptors involving appetites and physical pleasure; secondarily the need for ‘love and approval’ from a tribe or parental unit. Some humans let’s call them the plebs, are motivated primarily by the need for ‘love and approval’ from a tribe or parental unit. BUT: is this only because the plebs are not granted the OPTION of being primarily motivated by pleasure-center stimulation? Perhaps the Pritzker-esque desperately seek first-circle-of-intimacy approval… Read more »
Only 1,000 in attendance? Wow, such a tiny number for his Yuuuuge ego. Trump is still living rent free in his head. Hilarious!!
“I passed a record setting infrastructure bill…”
…as a member of the same political party that drafted the bill and holds a super-majority.
JB lives in a pretend world where every state is like Illinois. It his arrogance that promotes such thinking. It is the same arrogance that has him convinced that he is so much smarter, and better, than everyone else that he is entitled to make the rules. Mrs. Clinton suffered from the same affliction, and her basket of deplorables comment sank her campaign. Arrogance has a way of tripping people up. I believe the same thing will happen should JB enter the race to replace a sitting president of his own party.
Thanks wirepoints for ruining my breakfast that picture of Pritzker behind the Presidential seal did it, lol.
How sad is it that Pritzker can get away with this sort of thing with so little consequence? In my personal and business life, I’ve learned that the opportunity costs of telling the truth are unfailingly more positive than what you have to go through after you’ve got what you wanted (or think that you did) by telling a lie. In politics, well, not so much. A Democrat can trot out the “big lie” in politics and count on 40-some-odd percent of the public to cheer them on, 40 some-odd-percent to believe that they’re lying even when they’re telling the… Read more »
Thank you, great article…
JBP & the progressive left can not make it anymore obvious…
They think of us as the unwashed masses yearning for their approval & guidance…
They believe that *they & only *they* know what’s best for us ignorant rubes…
I’m tired of their bombastic lies & lectures…
What concerns me tho, is that far too many in the electorate believe them…