CHICAGO, IL – Yesterday, Governor JB Pritzker published a Substack article, slamming Donald Trump’s primetime address on the 2020 election results and calling out MAGA Republicans for promoting election lies.
Gov. Pritzker questioned Trump’s priorities: “Donald Trump is forcing false debates over the past at a time when people are begging for help to put food on the table and healthcare for their families. He should be talking about raising the federal minimum wage, achieving healthcare for all Americans, and reining in corporate greed. Instead, he’s forcing the country to relitigate a long-ago debunked lie about an election he won’t admit he lost.”
Gov. Pritzker didn’t hold back on Trump’s tactics: “The push to pass the SAVE America Act is just Donald Trump’s latest attempt to reshape the electorate in MAGA’s favor. That’s why he’s also attacked vote by mail. That’s why he demanded state legislatures eliminate congressional districts with minority populations. That’s why he threatened to post federal agents at polling places. He doesn’t want a legitimate election; he wants certain victory.”
Gov. Pritzker on the race ahead: “I wish we could just move on. But even now, I am running against an opponent who has endorsed Trump’s most outrageous election conspiracies. Darren Bailey called the January 6 attack on the Capitol a “farce,” and spread lies that there was fraud in the 2020 election. He has even associated with and supported January 6 rioters. MAGA candidates like Bailey must be defeated if we are ever going to restore election legitimacy in our country.”
Read the full piece below:
JB Pritzker | Substack: Lies and the Lying Liar Who Tells Them
Tonight, Donald Trump reminded us again just how desperate he is to hang onto a Congress he controls now but is likely to lose in November.
The president floated a flurry of misleading strands of intelligence and suggested they are bombshell revelations of an international conspiracy against him. With his vague claims of non-citizen and other ineligible voters on the rolls, he attempted to once again claim victimhood despite having won the presidency twice under the same rules under which he lost in 2020. For years now, we have heard him whine using fakery about stolen elections. And after many detailed investigations, legitimate prosecutors could find only a fraction of a fraction of a percent of invalid voters or election tampering.
Trump’s purpose in making us listen to another round of lies about the 2020 election is clear. First, he wants to provide an excuse for passing laws to deny voting rights to citizens who disagree with him, thereby ensuring MAGA Republicans will win and he won’t be held accountable for his greed and corruption in office. Second, he needs to validate his long-time narcissistic belief in his victimhood.
Tonight’s speech wasn’t some clear-eyed national security assessment. It was an attempt by Donald Trump to muddy the waters just enough among the American public that he could pretend he didn’t actually lose the 2020 election.
After nearly six years of waiting for any evidence of stuffed ballot boxes or voting machine tampering, nothing of the sort has been found. Most Americans are sick of Trump talking about his fake claims of a stolen 2020 election. I, for one, find laughable the notion that his election was rigged, but all the other Republicans who won on the same ballot that night were legitimate winners. It’s also maddening that he has persistently lied about siccing a mob on the U.S. Capitol and has never been held accountable. Trump pardoned thousands of insurrectionists, and nearly a hundred of them have gone on to face more criminal charges, including serious ones like homicide, kidnapping, crimes involving child sex abuse material, and plotting to assassinate elected officials.
Let’s remember that Trump and his White House cronies fomented the January 6 attack on the Capitol to try to overturn the legitimate outcome of the 2020 election, which Joe Biden won. The hypocrisy is endless.
Donald Trump is forcing false debates over the past at a time when people are begging for help to put food on the table and healthcare for their families. He should be talking about raising the federal minimum wage, achieving healthcare for all Americans, and reining in corporate greed. Instead, he’s forcing the country to relitigate a long-ago debunked lie about an election he won’t admit he lost.
The truth is this isn’t just another Trump ego trip or dementia-filled rant. His ranting and raving and whining have a much more sinister aim: he wants the MAGA Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, perhaps the most egregiously misnamed legislation in decades.
For many Americans, the SAVE America Act would transform voter registration into a bureaucratic nightmare. Instead of being able to register online or through the mail, Americans would have to register in person. Prospective voters would need to present documentation like a passport or birth certificate, and a birth certificate would not even be an option for many of the tens of millions of married women who change their names. A government-issued REAL ID—an ID meant to be secure enough to prevent terrorists from boarding airplanes—would not necessarily satisfy the requirement. Americans would need to redo this entire process whenever they moved, even within the same neighborhood.
Is there an American citizen in your life who might struggle to register to vote under this new law? Well, that’s its purpose.
The push to pass the SAVE America Act is just Donald Trump’s latest attempt to reshape the electorate in MAGA’s favor. That’s why he’s also attacked vote by mail. That’s why he demanded state legislatures eliminate congressional districts with minority populations. That’s why he threatened to post federal agents at polling places. He doesn’t want a legitimate election; he wants certain victory.
I have never been afraid of Illinois voters. That is why I didn’t flinch before signing legislation to make it easier for citizens to make their voices heard. We added voting locations, made it easier for people with disabilities and seniors to vote, and enabled students of voting age to register at their high schools.
Americans are sick of soaring costs, flat wages, and Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans who seem solely focused on taking away healthcare from working families, making rich people richer, reducing support for public schools, and starting foreign wars.
Our constitutional republic has a remedy when we don’t like the people holding public office. It’s called voting.
Because of their embarrassing record, Donald Trump knows his party can’t win fair and square at the ballot box this November. So he is doing everything he can to suppress the vote of infuriated Americans. He’s lying about 2020 because he needs an excuse to dismantle fair elections.
I wish we could just move on. But even now, I am running against an opponent who has endorsed Trump’s most outrageous election conspiracies. Darren Bailey called the January 6 attack on the Capitol a “farce,” and spread lies that there was fraud in the 2020 election. He has even associated with and supported January 6 rioters. MAGA candidates like Bailey must be defeated if we are ever going to restore election legitimacy in our country.
Here is the truth: Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. People like Darren Bailey who promote Trump’s election lies are the ultimate enemies of free and fair elections. It will take all of us to end their coordinated attack on our democracy.
###
CONTACT: press@jbpritzkercampaign.com