JB Pritzker Fires Back at Trump’s Threat to Arrest Runaway Texas Dems: ‘Our State Troopers Protect Everybody’
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) made it clear that he’ll block President Donald Trump’s efforts to have the Texas Democrats sheltered in his state arrested by the FBI and sent back to Texas.
Last week, the Democrats fled Texas for Illinois in an effort to block a redistricting vote. The proposed redistricting would give the Republican Party an additional five seats in the House should it pass, and the proposal has been met with harsh backlash from the other side of the aisle. Trump, who pushed for the new gerrymandered map, said he “may have to” get involved with returning the Democrats to Texas, which has issued civil warrants for their arrest.
As a result of the Democrats fleeing the state, some from the Republican Party have called for them to be arrested and forcibly brought back to Texas. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) went so far as to urge Trump’s FBI to help track down, detain, and return the Democrats to Texas — accusing them of possible “criminal acts,” including bribery.
On Wednesday’s episode of News Not Noise with Jessica Yellin, Pritzker explained why he’d block the federal government’s efforts to take the lawmakers by force:
YELLIN: Well, let me ask you about that because, quite clearly, Texas officials have no authority to make arrests in your state; but Senator [John Cornyn] of Texas has called for the FBI to arrest them and President Trump also said they the FBI might have to do that. So, what do you feel is your responsibility as the governor to protect these lawmakers if federal agents show up?
PRITZKER: Well, they’re grandstanding. There literally is no federal law applicable to this situation — none. They can say that they’re sending FBI. FBI agents might show up just to — I don’t know — again, to put a show on.
But the fact is that you know our local law enforcement protect everybody in Illinois. Our state troopers protect everybody in Illinois and anybody who’s here in Illinois. And so, whether it’s federal agents coming to Illinois or state rangers from Texas, if you haven’t broken federal law, you’re basically unwelcome and there’s no way that our state legislators here — the Texas state legislators — can be arrested.
YELLIN: OK. I hope that’s not tested. If it is, are we headed to a standoff between state and federal authority over who controls our elections? Is that where we are?
PRITZKER: Look, we follow the law and the law is what I just laid it out to be. But, as you know, Donald Trump does not follow the law. Indeed, he’s a convicted felon. And in Texas, they are also not following the law. They are thwarting the Constitution with the Voting Rights Act and making threats that they can’t carry out. John Cornyn, of course, is running against Ken Paxton for his seat in the U.S. Senate; and so they’re fighting, bickering over who can be tougher on this topic. But the fact is that I think they’re demonstrating as a result of that bickering — and [Texas Gov. Greg Abbott] has weighed in, as well — that this is really all about politics. This has nothing to do– I mean, have you ever heard of such a thing what’s happening right now?
YELLIN: No.
PRITZKER: –where people are calling in the FBI about some people who are out of state. It just never happens. And yet, here we are; and it’s because Donald Trump is president and because Greg Abbott is his avid follower.
Watch the clip above.
