Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker accused President Trump of being a “wannabe dictator” in a fiery speech railing towards White Home plans to deploy Nationwide Guard troops in Chicago.
“That is precisely the kind of overreach that our nation’s founders warned towards,” Pritzker mentioned throughout an tackle within the coronary heart of the Windy Metropolis Monday.
“What Trump is doing is unprecedented and unwarranted. It’s unlawful. It’s unconstitutional. It’s un-American,” he mentioned, including no one in Chicago needs their “neighborhood became a warzone by a wannabe dictator.”
Pritzker’s feedback come two days after the Washington Publish revealed the White Home was creating plans to deploy presumably a number of thousand Nationwide Guard troops in Chicago as early as September to stem crime within the metropolis.
These plans have been creating for months, based on reviews, and would resemble Trump’s deployment of armed Nationwide Guard troops and active-duty troopers to Los Angeles in June and Washington DC this month.
The White Home has not confirmed the reviews, however when requested by reporters within the Oval Workplace earlier Monday whether or not he was contemplating sending troops to Chicago, Trump mentioned, “I’m.”
Pritzker referred to as Trump an “smug little man” on Monday, and characterised his plans as political intimidation.
“This isn’t about preventing crime. That is about Donald Trump trying to find any justification to deploy the army in a blue metropolis, in a blue state. To try to intimidate his political rivals,” Pritzker mentioned whereas accusing Trump of making an attempt to “militarize our cities, finish elections.”
Crime is down in Chicago throughout almost all classes, Pritzker mentioned, citing a 30% decline in murder charges yr over yr. And he mentioned nationally, Republican-led cities and states have worse crime charges than blue communities.
“We now have made no requests for federal intervention. None. We came upon what Trump was planning the identical method all of you probably did. We learn a narrative within the Washington submit,” Pritzker mentioned.
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