Pritzker Claims Stephen Miller Is ‘Clearly Ordering People to Break the Law’ — Accountability Likely In Three Years

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) made the case to MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Thursday night that should a Democrat come to power after President Donald Trump, many of Trump’s top officials will likely be “held accountable” for “breaking the law.”

Psaki asked Pritzker, “You said on Sunday that you were looking at prosecuting ICE agents who violate the law. What can you tell us about that? What would that look like?”

“Well, we don’t know yet, because let’s start with the fact that the federal agents typically have federal immunity, but they’re not immune from the federal government holding them accountable and responsible. And so typically there are inspectors general, there are senior officials at agencies like ICE and CBP that will suspend somebody who’s been accused or found to have broken the law,” Pritzker replied, adding:

And as they suspend them, investigate it, and then determine whether that person should be punished criminally or otherwise. The problem now, of course, is that Donald Trump has fired many of the inspectors general, or he’s replaced them with political appointees. And so we don’t know that anybody would be held accountable at the federal level.

So we’re looking at all of the options at the local level with county and state’s attorneys, with attorneys general, to go after people when they’re breaking Illinois law, when they’re breaking local law. And we think that they have—you know, when they’re driving through an area, someone’s yelling at them and they decide to simply throw a tear gas canister out of the car as they’re driving through at someone who’s on the side of the road.

That, it seems to me, I know is a violation of Illinois law. And so the question is, can we hold the officers, the agents, responsible when they do something like that? If it were a police officer, we could. If it was, you know, you or me or just an average person throwing a tear gas canister out the side of a window at people, we could hold them responsible. So it seems like they ought to be held responsible for breaking local and state laws.

“It’s a test of that, and you’re very much on the front lines of that. Let’s go at something that’s related but slightly different. I mean, you appear to be—I guess a way to put it is—under the skin of Trump’s anti-migrant czar Stephen Miller. He called you a ‘moron who hates America.’ You mentioned him a few times today, saying he has abused the fact that Donald Trump has diminished capacity. You brought him up a couple times, which was interesting. But what did you mean by that?” Psaki followed up.

“Well, very plainly, it’s clear that Donald Trump has diminished capacity, which I think is sad, you know, that the people around him are not getting him help, and instead they’re just taking advantage of him. And that’s what Stephen Miller is. You can tell—you know, his rhetoric is so out of bounds. And then we know that he’s the one who is advising Kristi Noem at DHS. He’s the one who’s advising Tom Homan, who’s the kind of immigration czar, deportation czar,” Pritzker replied, adding:

And of course, he’s the spokesperson for this entire endeavor, including about deploying National Guard into cities. So I mean, he seems like a dangerous individual, and he has the power of the presidency because the president isn’t reining him in. And so that’s why I’m talking about Stephen Miller. I think that we should focus on his actions.

And let’s remember, and I’ve said this for some time, you know, they’re not always going to be in office, but they will—other than the president who’s now been given immunity by the Supreme Court—the people who serve for the president, including all the way down to ICE agents, can be held accountable when there’s a change of administration who’s willing to hold them accountable when they break the law.

Now Stephen Miller is clearly ordering people to break the law. You know, he should know that it may be three years from now that he is held accountable, but I think it’s important for them to know that whatever they do now, it’s not like we’re gonna forget, and it’s not like we don’t have a record of what they’re doing. That is why I mentioned Stephen Miller.

That’s why I mention other people—Tom Homan and Gregory Bovino, who’s the CBP leader on the ground, the one who executed their orders in Los Angeles. I mean, they did an awful job in Los Angeles and created all kinds of mayhem on the ground. Now he’s doing it in Chicago. And so all these people need to recognize that, you know, you may have immunity because Donald Trump’s willing to pardon anybody that’s carrying out his unlawful orders, but you’re not going to have it under another administration.

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.