Pritzker Defends Nazi Reference to Trump Admin.: 'Much of What I Said Has Been Proven to Be True'

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Inside Politics,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) defended invoking Nazi Germany in reference to the Trump administration and said that “what I was talking about was the fact that a constitutional republic was torn apart in 53 days in Germany in the 1930s, and that we need to watch out for that in this country” and “much of what I said has been proven to be true, that the institutions of this democracy are being attacked by the Republicans and by Donald Trump.”

Pritzker said there has been an “uptick of violence, on both sides, that has been against Republicans and Democrats, over the last, let’s say, eight to twelve years.”

He added, “Remember that it’s been Donald Trump and the Republicans that have called for political violence. Donald Trump, from the very beginning, remember when he talked about a protester at one of his rallies that they should just beat him up, punch him? He’s talked about the death penalty for Gen. Mark Milley. He has called for jailing his political opponents, me included. So this is a president who, unfortunately, slips into that mode so easily. But I think we should get away from all of that. I’m sure that we can find examples across both sides of the aisle of rhetoric that people didn’t mean or perhaps that they went too far about. This is a moment when I think we should all take a step back and just remember that this country needs to bring peace to its politics and that we need to just argue in the dialogue here about the issues and which party should be in control after November.”

Host Manu Raju then asked, “Because some of your critics may point to what you said in the State of the State last year, when you compared the Trump administration to the rise of Nazis. What would you say to them?”

Pritzker answered, “Well, Manu, remember, what I was talking about was the fact that a constitutional republic was torn apart in 53 days in Germany in the 1930s, and that we need to watch out for that in this country. That is what I was talking about. And we’ve seen it — by the way, that speech was given in February of ’25. I think, over the last year, much of what I said has been proven to be true, that the institutions of this democracy are being attacked by the Republicans and by Donald Trump.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett