Politics

"If it sounds to you like I am alarmist, that is because I am ringing an alarm. One that I hope every person listening will heed, both here in Illinois and across the country," Pritzker said. "Over the weekend, we learned from the media that Donald Trump has been planning for quite a while now to deploy armed military personnel to the streets of Chicago. This is exactly the type of overreach that our country's founders warned against."

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth: "Donald Trump never had the courage himself to raise his right hand and serve his country in uniform, but let me just say from personal experience - and that consists of 23 years in the military, 17 of which, proudly as a member of the Illinois National Guard - that the men and women who are brave enough to wear this country's flag on their shoulder are doing so to defend our nation's rights and freedoms, not to protect a tin-pot dictator's thin skin or to police their own neighbors," she said. "It's not what they signed up for, and it's certainly not what their training is focused on."

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin: "Make no mistake, the threat of federal troops to Chicago is not a serious effort to reduce crime in the neighborhoods of this city or state," Durbin said. "If it were a serious effort, it would be a coordinated effort with the mayor, the governor, law enforcement officials at all levels."

"This is not about fighting crime," Pritzker added, saying there is "no emergency in Chicago that calls for armed military intervention." "This is about Donald Trump searching for any justification to deploy the military in a blue city, in a blue state, to try and intimidate his political rivals."

"Hopefully the president will reconsider this dangerous and misguided encroachment upon our state and our city's sovereignty. Hopefully rational voices, if there are any left inside the White House or the Pentagon, will prevail in the coming days. If not, we're going to face an unprecedented and difficult time ahead," he said. "But I know you, Chicago, and I know you are up to it."

Video of remarks

Ed note: I posted a similar post earlier, this is more of the transcript of what he said. It's better.