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Then-Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker talks with President Donald Trump and others during a meeting with newly elected governors in the White House Cabinet Room in December 2018.
Evan Vucci/AP
Then-Gov.-elect J.B. Pritzker talks with President Donald Trump and others during a meeting with newly elected governors in the White House Cabinet Room in December 2018.
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When Gov. J.B. Pritzker sharply denounced President Donald Trump’s rhetoric in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death during a call of the nation’s governors, it not only laid bare the animosity between the two men, it also quickly elevated Pritzker’s stature among national Democrats.

Pritzker’s criticism of the president drew widespread attention and led to appearances by the governor on cable news shows. Since his comments came in an ostensibly closed setting, a White House conference call, questions were raised about Pritzker’s political motivation for speaking up.

What the governor clearly showed is that unlike most of his counterparts, he isn’t afraid to challenge a president known for not letting any slight go unavenged, said David Yepsen, a former director at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

“When I heard him take on Trump like that, I thought first of all that some of these governors are intimidated by Trump,” said Yepsen, former longtime political columnist at the Des Moines Register. “Trump holds purse strings for money that they need. They don’t want to alienate him. But Pritzker came off to me as a guy who gets inside Trump’s head.”

Pritzker’s criticism of Trump during Monday’s phone call followed nearly an hour of remarks by Trump and 10 other governors, both Democrat and Republican, that largely dealt with the president’s push to use the National Guard to “dominate” the streets. He said governors who weren’t standing up to violent protests looked “weak” and “like jerks.”

But Pritzker was the only governor who focused directly on the White House response to Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police. Trump had taken to social media to say “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” and warning that the federal government “will step in and do what has to be done and that includes using the unlimited power of our military.”

“I wanted to take this moment, I can’t let it pass, to speak up and say that I’ve been extraordinarily concerned with the rhetoric that’s been used by you. It’s been inflammatory and it’s not OK for that officer to choke George Floyd to death. But we have to call for calm,” Pritzker told Trump, referring to former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with second-degree murder.

“We have to have police reform called for. We’ve called out our National Guard and our state police, but the rhetoric that’s coming out of the White House is making it worse,” Pritzker said. “And I need to say that people are feeling real pain out here and that we’ve got to have national leadership that is calling for calm and making sure that we’re addressing the concerns of the legitimate peaceful protesters. That will help us bring order.”

“OK, well thank you very much, J.B.,” Trump responded in a dismissive tone. “I don’t like your rhetoric much either because I watched it with respect to the coronavirus, and I don’t like your rhetoric much either. I think you could’ve done a much better job, frankly. But that’s OK. And you know, we don’t agree with each other.”

Trump went on to contend he used “great compassion” in discussing the death — at one point referring to the victim as “Officer Floyd” — before emphasizing “we need law and order in our country and if we don’t have law and order we don’t have a country.”

The governor has long been critical of the president, and lambasted the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic at every opportunity.

His latest salvo drew even more attention, and could make Pritzker an effective surrogate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the fall campaign, particularly in nearby battleground states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa.

“He can say things that Joe Biden can’t say or shouldn’t say,” Yepsen said of Pritzker. “If you’re Gov. Pritzker and he wants to help his party beat Trump, there are things you can do. Not just money that you can spend, but psychological operations rattling Trump.”

Pritzker can get Trump’s attention because the president knows the Illinois governor, with a net worth estimated at $3.4 billion by Forbes, is worth more than he is, said Yepsen.

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One longtime Democratic strategist in Illinois agreed that the governor could find a national role to assist Biden and his as-yet unknown running mate.

“The vice presidential nominee traditionally plays the role of the attack dog, saying things the presidential nominee wouldn’t necessarily say,” said the strategist, who asked not to be identified so he could speak candidly about Pritzker. “But with Biden announcing the choice would be a woman, (the vice presidential nominee) could face unfair sexist criticism and Biden could dole out that (attack) role to a few more folks like J.B.”

Pritzker knows that his attacks on Trump energize the governor’s supporters as much as Trump’s criticisms of Pritzker rev up the president’s backers, the strategist said.

“I think he goes into some of these things knowing that he will benefit,” the strategist said of Pritzker.

Pritzker aides said there was no premeditated political motivation or endgame to the governor’s direct criticism of Trump.

Instead, they pointed to uncritical if not outright deferential comments toward the president made by other governors on the call including Republican Jim Justice of West Virginia, who told Trump he was “a looming hero here and we’ll protect you in every way and there won’t be any disturbance whatsoever.”

Such comments prompted Pritzker to offer his criticism to Trump recognizing that in a historic moment there was a need for the president to do better, his office said.

“As we come together in this moment to listen to and learn from the pain, fear and rage black Americans feel every single day, the governor believes it’s his job as a leader to call out rhetoric rooted in racism,” Pritzker spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh said in a statement.

“Gov. Pritzker has never shied away from tough conversations and will confront racism when he sees it. The governor used his time with the president to make a genuine plea for the president to rise to the occasion and finally live up to the duty the highest office in the nation requires,” she said.

Former Republican Gov. Jim Edgar, who speaks frequently with Pritzker, said he has been “amazed” that so many of the nation’s governors have been so reserved with Trump, particularly given the administration’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Regardless of whether people agree or disagree with Pritzker’s comments to Trump, “it was probably appropriate he said that to the president,” Edgar said.

“In any position of power, you have people around you who want to tell you what you want to hear. That’s not a good atmosphere,” said Edgar, Illinois’ chief executive from 1991 to 1999. “Whether you agree with what Pritzker said, it was good that he said it and that not everybody thinks (Trump) is wonderful or great.”

From his early days on the campaign trail for governor, Pritzker has not been shy to criticize Trump. Pritzker backed both of Hillary Clinton’s runs for the White House, including her failed 2008 effort to win the Democratic nomination against then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

In a digital ad that ran in October 2017, before winning the Democratic nomination the following March, Pritzker declared that the president was a “racist and a xenophobe” and pledged to make Illinois “a firewall against Trump’s destructive and bigoted agenda.”

While the 2020 matchup between Biden and Trump is all but official, could a run for president be something down the road for Pritzker, who faces reelection as governor in 2022?

“Any governor of a major American state thinks about it. For one thing, they all look at Jimmy Carter and think, ‘If he can do it,'” Yepsen said. “So, if you’re a leader of a big state or a big city, you’re automatically an influential American political leader and sure you’re going to think about it.”

The Democratic strategist said that while he has not heard anything about an elevated political future for Pritzker from the governor or his senior staff, it’s a good guess.

“I’ve always assumed he’s running for something else,” the strategist said. “I mean, especially after spending $171 million just to become Illinois governor.”

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