Pritzker: Trump threat to send troops to Chicago ‘an insult’
Related Video: Trump Blasts Chicago Leaders, Crime As National Guard Threat Looms | SUNRISE
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) told reporters Tuesday that he was insulted by President Trump’s suggestion this week that the governor should call him and ask for help in combating crime in Chicago.
“It’s an insult to any and every citizen to suggest that any governor should have to beg the president of any political party for resources owed their people,” Pritzker said during a news conference. “When did we become a country where it’s okay for the U.S. president to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for anything, especially something we don’t want?”
“Have we truly lost all sense of sanity in this nation, that we treat this as normal?” he added.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that he would “gain respect” for Pritzker if the Democratic governor called him first to seek assistance.
“I would love to have Gov. Pritzker call me — I’d gain respect for him — and say, ‘We do have a problem, and we’d love you to send in the troops,'” the president said. “Because, you know what, the people — they have to be protected.”
The Illinois leader, who has been a vocal critic of Trump, said he won’t call the president, though he believes that the White House is already moving to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as the administration expands its law enforcement takeover of the nation’s capital to other Democrat-led areas with high crime rates.
Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton (D) on Tuesday accused the Trump administration of trying to “manufacture a crisis” in Chicago to justify the deployment of National Guard troops to the Windy City.
White House border czar Tom Homan confirmed last week that “a large contingent” of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers would be sent to Chicago after Labor Day.
Pritzker, Stratton and local leaders have blasted the Trump administration for what they have described as a lack of coordination on the effort.
“Our state police regularly works with the FBI, the ATF, the DEA to go after gangs and gun runners and drug cartels,” the governor said Tuesday. “Under previous White House administrations, we regularly received notice and worked together on crime fighting operations.”
He noted that Illinois and Chicago leaders facilitated the deployment of the Illinois National Guard ahead of the Democratic National Convention last year.
“The mayor and I were briefed at the highest levels of government, and we pledged unwavering support in the effort to pull off a convention that kept attendees safe and protected the rights of all citizens to express their First Amendment rights,” Pritzker said.