(The Center Square) – The fallout over comments Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker made about Nazis during his budget address spilled onto the House floor Thursday.
For more than five minutes Wednesday, Pritzker ended his address talking about the history of Nazi Germany and warned what he sees as the looming threat in America under the Trump administration.
“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.”
About 6 million Jews were killed in Nazi Germany in what is known as the Holocaust.
Asked after the speech how those comments are not an insult to more than half of the American public who voted for Trump, Pritzker said “those words never came out of my mouth.”
“That is not true what you just said,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “Here’s what I will say, I think it is important to talk about the destruction of a constitutional republic.”
On the House floor Thursday, state Rep. Steven Reick, R-Woodstock, blasted Pritzker’s comments, saying Republicans are far from anti-semitic and demanded an apology.
“We’ve issued resolutions, we’ve proposed resolutions, supporting the nation of Israel,” Reick said. “To put a not-too-fine point on it, we are part of Team Jew.”
Reick demanded an apology and said Pritzker’s comments were interpreted to cast Trump supporters and Republicans as Nazis and autocrats, and that’s wrong.
“And this is a guy who should know because, what was it during COVID, 40-some consecutive disaster declarations, ruling by executive order for 1,170-some days of his first 1,552 days in office,” Reick said.
Reick’s comments were immediately condemned by Democratic state Daniel Didech, D-Buffalo Grove.
“You are engaging in the most pernicious forms of anti-semitism that exist,” Didech said. “Yes you are. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
State Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, said Reick’s comments have no place.
“You have no right to use my pain, or the pain of our community, to score political points,” she said.
