Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Republicans were “trying to keep our schools from teaching black history.”
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you on the issue set that Democrats are running on, your office told- told us you’re very focused on school board races in Illinois to make sure extreme right wing candidates aren’t dominating them. I’m wondering how strong the Republican ground operation is on things like school boards. Is parents’ rights really something you think Democrats need to be concerned about on a national scale?
PRITZKER: Well, what Republicans are trying to do is, of course, ban books in libraries, they’re trying to keep our schools from teaching black history. They make up things about CRT in schools that just don’t exist. And so they’ve got a lot of extreme right wing candidates, frankly, on the crazy end of things that are running and we just want to make sure that people know who they are and know not to vote for them.
BRENNAN: All right, Governor, there’s a lot I want to get to with you on the other side of this commercial breaks up, please stay with us. And we’ll be right back.
BRENNAN: Welcome back to FACE THE NATION. We want to continue our conversation now with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Governor, thank you for staying with us through the break. I’m going to follow up on something you said right before we took that break. You said you want to make sure people know who they are and not to vote for them. You were talking about Republicans, you said trying to do things like ban teaching Black history, banned books and banned CRT? Are you talking about people in Illinois who you’re talking about? Where’s that happening?
PRITZKER: Well, you asked- you asked me about school boards. And I’m telling you, we’ve got people running at the local level who believe that but of course, the Republicans are carrying this as a national message. And honestly, it’s something that’s offensive to most Americans. This idea of banning Black history. It’s important for people to understand the history of slavery in the United States, you know, in our- our entire US history, warts and all.
BRENNAN: Okay, in Florida, who, where I think you’re gesturing to they are not blan- banning black history, it was specifically that AP college course that’s what you’re referring to there? That version of it.
PRITZKER: Well, when they’re trying to dive in and take over a an AP History exam, and edit it and edit out parts that they don’t like, that’s banning history. That’s what they’re doing in Florida. That’s what Ron DeSantis is doing.
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