Tuesday, during an interview with The Washington Post’s Robert Costa, Governor J.B. Pritzker (D- IL) said President Donald Trump’s encouragement of lockdown protests with his “liberate” tweets could cost people their lives.
When asked about the Liberate tweets, Pritzker said, “I’m very disappointed with the rhetoric and messaging coming from the president. We should be pulling people together right now.”
He continued, “That doesn’t seem to be the message coming from the president when he tweets liberate Michigan or liberate Minnesota or liberate Virginia. He’s fomenting protests, and I hate to say that is fomenting some violence. I’m very concerned about what that might mean for the country if he keeps doing things like that. We should be bringing people together, not dividing them now.”
When asked what he thinks it could mean, Pritzker said, “I know what he’s trying to do, it’s a political maneuver in the middle of a national emergency, and he should stop it. What could it mean? It could mean terrible things. You could end up with violence.”
Pritzker said the protesters are going out in “large crowds,” adding, “where they’re frankly going to be giving each other coronavirus and people, unfortunately, will get sick and some people may die as a result of the president’s rhetoric that has brought them out to protest.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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