A prominent Democratic governor warned Tuesday that "something nefarious" is happening with President Donald Trump.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker described the current "Trump crisis" and ongoing ICE raids in his state during an interview with The Atlantic's Mark Leibovich published Tuesday, describing how he lives "rent-free" in the president's head. Pritzker is calling for action, adding a new "accountability commission" that will monitor ICE activity in Illinois and "document any potentially illegal behavior that federal authorities engage in while they are in Illinois."
“Someone who is acting improperly now, who’s acting abusively now,” he said, “will likely think twice if they think that there’s going to be a record of it and that eventually this will come back to haunt them.”
Adding those guardrails and additional oversight could help keep those in power and Trump loyalists accountable — not necessarily now — but in the future, he added.
“I think that all the pieces of something nefarious seem to be occurring, and I’m just putting the pieces together,” Pritzker said. “I’m hopeful I’m wrong, but I don’t think we can assume that I’m wrong.”
The governor also pointed to how fast authoritarianism can happen.
“And if you’re not willing to stand up and push back while it’s happening in the early days,” he explained, “it gets a lot harder later.”