Governor Pritzker Responds to Trump’s Threat

President Trump hurled insults toward Illinois Governor JB Pritzker amid tensions over the National Guard possibly being sent to Chicago.

Governor Pritzker responded to President Donald Trump’s threats to send the National Guard to Chicago, saying there is “no emergency” that requires him to deploy military to the city.

“Earlier today in the Oval Office, Donald Trump looked at the assembled cameras and asked for me personally to say, “Mr. President, can you do us the honor of protecting our city?” Instead, I say, “Mr. President, do not come to Chicago.”

“You are neither wanted here nor needed here. Your remarks about this effort over the last several weeks have betrayed a continuing slip in your mental faculties and are not fit for the auspicious office that you occupy.

“Most alarming, you seem to lack any appropriate concern as our commander-in-chief for the members of the military that you would so callously deploy as pawns in your ever-more-alarming grabs for power.

“So, in case there was any doubt as to the motivation behind Trump’s military occupations, take note: 13 of the top 20 cities in homicide rate have Republican governors. None of these cities is Chicago.

“To the members of the press who are assembled here today, and listening across the country, I am asking for your courage to tell it like it is.

“What President Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It is illegal. It is unconstitutional. It is un-American.

“This is not a time to pretend here that there are two sides to this story. This is not a time to fall back into the reflexive crouch that I so often see, where the authoritarian creep by this administration is ignored in favor of some horse race piece on who will be helped politically by the president’s actions.”

Read the full speech at www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/illinois-governor-jb-pritzker-speech-news-conference-full-text-trump.