Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday once again likened the Trump administration to an authoritarian regime, and urged Americans to stand up for free speech and democracy after ABC pulled comedian Jimmy Kimmel off air over his Charlie Kirk comments amid pressure from the Federal Communications Commission.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Briefing with Jen Psaki,” the Democratic governor accused President Donald Trump of following an authoritarian playbook by silencing his opponents and urged Americans to “write letters, write e-mails, post online, speak up [and] protest” ABC’s decision.
“Authoritarians want control. And every time they get someone to act in an appeasing fashion, they make one step toward control. And they will silence that group, move on to the next one,” Pritzker said. “ And we’re seeing it with regard to the media now, silencing people who are opponents, political opponents, of his administration. I mean, when that happens, well, what’s left actually if no one can speak out because they’re too afraid or because they have been fired and silenced?”
Kimmel made several remarks about Kirk’s assassination on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Monday and Tuesday’s shows, including that “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk.” During his Monday monologue, Kimmel suggested Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, might have been a pro-Trump Republican.
“The MAGA Gang (is) desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” Kimmel said. “In between the finger-pointing, there was grieving.”
That prompted FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to call Kimmel’s comments “truly sick” during a podcast on Wednesday.
Pritzker said it’s evident that there are consequences for speaking out against the Trump administration, but said, “the consequences of not standing up, though, are much, much worse.”
“We see it in authoritarian regimes. When things just happen, there’s a whole cadre of people who just step back, sit back, they’re bystanders, they don’t do anything about it, because they’re hoping, if they duck and keep their head low, nothing will happen to them. Well, eventually, something happens to them,” Pritzker told Psaki. "...That pushback that he [Trump] offers is hard, but we are fighting for our democracy now, and that is why people need to stand up and speak out.”
Pritzker brought up his founding of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and said he has “read a whole lot about authoritarian regimes.”
“This is the playbook, folks,” Pritzker said. “If you’re not paying attention now and doing something about it, well, then you’re going to have to sit down the rest of your life, because democracy is being taken away.”
Pritzker himself has drawn criticism from Illinois Republicans for his own comments shortly after the Kirk shooting, when he said “the president’s rhetoric often foments” political violence. Pritzker doubled down on those remarks Monday.
“Anyone who is fomenting attacks, anyone who is saying things that — especially in this moment when you should have calm, you should have someone at the top who is asking people to take a step back — anyone who’s doing that deserves criticism,” Pritzker said. “This is a democracy. We can be critical of one another, we can belong to different political parties and have different views, and act in a peaceful fashion.”
That’s the message that Trump should be sending, but “instead, he actively fans the flames of division,” Pritzker said.
Pritzker also drew criticism from Illinois Republicans when he compared Trump’s “authoritarian playbook” to the rise of Nazis during a State of the State address in February.
“It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic,” Pritzker said. “All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.”
And he was accused of “inciting violence” by Trump’s top policy adviser Stephen Miller after an April speech in New Hampshire.
“Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption,” Pritzker said. “But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They must understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soap box and then punish them at the ballot box.”
The Democratic governor responded to Miller’s claims in April, saying Miller mischaracterized his words.
“He wasn’t listening to my speech at all,” Pritzker said. “I called on people to take out their megaphones and the microphones, to stand up on soapboxes and get to the ballot box in order to defeat the people who were trying to take so many things away from the American people.”
