Democratic governors say they are leading state-level efforts to ‘protect democracy’

Donald Trump isn’t the only one preparing for his return to the White House. Several Democratic governors are uniting, they say, to protect democracy at the state level during Trump’s second term in office. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced the launch of Governors Safeguarding Democracy. Pritzker joined Amna Nawaz to discuss more.
Amna Nawaz:
Donald Trump isn’t the only one preparing for his return to the White House. Several Democratic governors across the country are too. And they are uniting, they say, to protect democracy at the state level during Trump’s second term in office.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Colorado Governor Jared Polis announced the launch of Governors Safeguarding Democracy.
And Governor Pritzker joins us now.
Governor, welcome back to the “News Hour.” Thanks for being with us.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL):
Thanks, Amna. Great to be with you.
Amna Nawaz:
I want to start with your reaction to the news that president-elect Trump has named Matt Gaetz to be his attorney general. What message does that send to you as a governor about how Mr. Trump views the rule of law, and also the role of the Department of Justice, what that could be in his next administration?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker:
Well, the nomination of Matt Gaetz raises the question about whether the office of attorney general is now going to be fully politicized.
Matt Gaetz is somebody who has demonstrated that he’s willing to say things that aren’t true, that he has advocated that the Justice Department should go after certain people or choose not to for political reasons.
So I’m deeply concerned and hopeful that the Senate will take seriously its obligation to advise and consent on this one in particular, because we want a Justice Department that’s fair and impartial.
Amna Nawaz:
Let me ask you about this group that you and Governor Polis announced today, Governors Safeguarding Democracy.
What does that mean in real and practical terms in terms of the steps that you’re taking now? And can you give us a sense of how many governors have signed on to join this group?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker:
Sure.
Well, let’s begin with the idea that each governor has good ideas that are worth sharing across state lines with one another about how to safeguard our states from what we think might be an onslaught from the federal government to take powers away from the states and/or to actually violate the Constitution.
So we want to know, I want to know what governors across the country, whether they be Republican or Democrat, have — what their ideas are for pushing back. So, in Illinois, we have done a number of things to protect, for example, reproductive rights. Other states may not have taken those actions.
Executive orders are useful for some governors who may not have a legislature that agrees with them. And in other cases, like in my state, where we have Democrats in control of the legislature and the governorship, we might be able to move on legislation.
But getting ideas, sharing ideas, and, by the way, bringing in outside advisers and organizations to give us thoughts about how do we deal with the fact that the Trump administration, when it comes into office, apparently wants to reimpose prayer in public schools?
And I know that can sound like it’s something that would be a Supreme Court issue, but it may be that they’re going to try to take away funding from our schools if, in fact, we’re upholding the separation of church and state. So how do we push back on that? So that’s just one idea.
But the point is, we have a lot of very smart governors across the country, and we will work in a bipartisan fashion to try to solve for these problems.
Amna Nawaz:
Well, we know Mr. Trump has specifically mentioned on immigration some of his plans, right? He says that he wants to begin mass deportations on day one in the White House.
You in Illinois have an estimated 400,000 or so undocumented immigrants. So what does it mean to you to be able to safeguard democracy at the state level against something like that? Could you protect them? Could you block federal agents from carrying out raids in your state, for example?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker:
Well, we’re not legally allowed to block federal agents from coming into the state to carry out their duties.
However, to the extent that they want to deputize local law enforcement or sheriffs, there are a lot of sheriffs who think that they have some independent constitutional capability that they don’t have. But the reality is that the federal government cannot order our state law enforcement to carry out those deportations.
Now, as far as I’m concerned, when we’re talking about violent criminals who are undocumented, we obviously want help from the federal government in order to find out, seek out, make sure that we’re taking care — deporting people who are dangerous to the people in our states.
But importantly, what we don’t want — and I heard this just two days ago. What we don’t want is red state National Guard moving into blue states to try to enforce this kind of mass deportation. That is illegal. We want to push back on that and make sure that we’re not allowing that to happen. And I won’t let it happen in the state of Illinois.
Amna Nawaz:
So does the formation of this group sort of send the signal that you and others are preparing for four years of opposition and resistance to this incoming administration? Or is there — are there areas that you think you can work with this president on?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker:
Of course I think that there are areas.
I was governor for the last two years of the last Trump administration. And, of course, there are areas that we will work with the Trump administration on. But we’re also preparing for the idea that there may be things that we really have to band together or share ideas about how to push back.
So it’s both. Look, the federal government plays a very important role in people’s lives all across this country. And we just want them to live within the law and make sure that they’re not taking away rights that we have established in our respective states.
Amna Nawaz:
Governor, when you look at your own party right now, President Biden is now on his way out. Vice President Harris just lost both the electoral vote and the popular vote across the country.
Who would you say in your party right now is the leader? Who’s the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party right now?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker:
I don’t think there’s any one person that you would look at.
But I will say, we have a set of values as Democrats that really are shared across quite a number of leaders. I would point at the governors, by the way, because we — I remember sitting around the table at Vice President Harris’ residence when she had invited a number of governors just to talk about the election back in April, before the switch took place.
And I looked around the room at people like Roy Cooper and Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro and Tony Evers, and I thought, this is a spectacular group of leaders in the Democratic Party, and we share a common set of values. And they are values about standing up for working-class people and the most vulnerable in our country.
And so I really feel good about the potential future for our party. But I can’t point to one person and say that person is now the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party.
Amna Nawaz:
In the minute or so I have left, though, it’s worth noting that American voters did not agree with what Democrats have laid out as their vision for the country in this last election. So what do Democrats need to do to course-correct? Where did you go wrong?
Gov. J.B. Pritzker:
Well, let’s be clear.
The American public agrees with Democrats on the issues, and you can see that poll after poll after poll. So the question is, what went wrong, if they agree with us on the issues? And I think — I don’t want to speculate, because there’s a lot of data that we all need to look at before we come to a conclusion.
But, certainly, one conclusion you could reach is that we aren’t messaging properly to the middle class, to working-class people, if we lost their votes, because we have the issues. They agree with us on those.
So I don’t know which one of those individual issues. We could sit here and speculate. But I think we need to look at the data and come back. And we have a little bit of time to do that. But, importantly, I think the values that we’re carrying out as Democrats across the states, as governors, certainly, are, I think, commonly viewed by middle-class, working-class and vulnerable people across our country as the values that they hold dear.
Amna Nawaz:
That’s the Democratic governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker.
Governor, always good to speak with you. Thank you.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker:
Thanks, Amna.