JB Pritzker told a crowd of Democrats that Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace.”
Four months later, Charlie Kirk was assassinated.
Now – with Kirk four months in the ground – Pritzker is on Politico telling America that Donald Trump set the tone for political violence.
The Speech He Wants You to Forget
April 27, 2025. New Hampshire. Pritzker strides into a ballroom full of Democratic donors and delivers a line that will define him.
“Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption,” he said. “But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”
The Illinois Republican Party immediately put out a press release calling it incitement.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Pritzker’s comments “could be construed as inciting violence.”
Pritzker laughed it off.
Then September 10th happened.
https://twitter.com/MaryMargOlohan/status/2051672606386864288?s=20
A sniper climbed onto a rooftop at Utah Valley University and put a bullet in Charlie Kirk’s neck while Kirk was answering student questions in front of 3,000 people.
Kirk – 31 years old, Trump’s closest ally in the conservative youth movement – was dead.
Republican lawmakers in Illinois immediately filed articles of impeachment against Pritzker.
“Pritzker’s remarks are providing legitimacy to radicals who are committing these heinous crimes against people like Charlie Kirk,” said state Rep. Adam Niemerg.
Pritzker’s response was to hold a press conference and blame Trump.
The Man Who Incited Them Is Now Investigating the Fire
This week in Politico, Pritzker said Trump has “set a tone where political violence is okay.”
He said he’s receiving death threats.
He said antisemites have “come out of the woodwork.”
He said threats against him have spiked – and Trump is responsible.
The same man who called for “disruption” and told Democrats to become “street fighters.”
The same governor whose state just had the Turning Point USA shooting on its threat radar – the Minnesota shooter’s list of targets included Illinois lawmakers’ names.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2049288584650273153?s=20
The same Pritzker who, when ICE officers were assaulted by rioters outside the Broadview Processing Center in his state, stayed silent while the Department of Homeland Security put out a statement demanding he condemn it.
DHS called it out directly: “The violent targeting of law enforcement in Illinois by lawless rioters is despicable and Governor JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson must call for it to end.”
They never did.
The Left Created This and They Know It
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania – that happened.
The second attempt in West Palm Beach – that happened too.
A Bernie Sanders volunteer shot Steve Scalise and four others at a congressional baseball practice in 2017.
A man showed up at Brett Kavanaugh’s home with a weapon and zip ties in 2022.
Senate Democrats blocked the bill to protect Supreme Court justices from exactly that kind of threat.
The man who attacked Paul Pelosi was a far-left conspiracy theorist.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated by a 22-year-old who had become increasingly radicalized against everything Kirk stood for.
The political environment that produced that shooter was built over years – by governors who told rallies that Republicans “cannot know a moment of peace,” by media outlets that called Trump voters fascists and Nazis, by a party that spent four years telling its base that the other side was an existential threat to democracy who had to be stopped by any means necessary.
Pritzker knows that.
He just needs you to forget he said it eight weeks ago.
He is flying on his private jet, living behind security walls, and pointing at Donald Trump while the movement he inflamed buries one of the best young voices on the American right.
The audacity is breathtaking.
Sources:
- Pam Key, “JB Pritzker: Trump ‘Has Set a Tone Where Political Violence Is Okay,'” Breitbart, May 5, 2026.
- Ben Szalinski, “Trump’s 100 Days: Pritzker Calls for Mass Mobilization as He Grows His National Profile,” Capitol News Illinois, April 30, 2025.
- Staff, “Pritzker Swiftly Fact-Checked After Claiming He Never Derided GOP,” Fox News, September 17, 2025.
- Staff, “Violent Rioters Assault Law Enforcement at ICE Broadview Processing Center,” Department of Homeland Security, September 19, 2025.
- Staff, “Assassination of Charlie Kirk,” Wikipedia / Associated Press, September 10, 2025.
- Staff, “List from Minnesota Shooter Had Illinois Lawmakers’ Names on It,” WANDTV / Associated Press, June 2025.