CHICAGO — Illinois Governor JB Pritzker shared his Thanksgiving plans during his COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday after he said his family has received threatening messages following a debunked photo claiming to show his daughter eating out at a Chicago restaurant.
Gov. Pritzker had been asked about his Thanksgiving plans during his Monday briefing. When asked if he’d be in Illinois for the holiday he said “That is my hope. But I will let you know.” During Tuesday’s briefing he said he was taken aback by Monday’s question.
“I was taken aback by yesterday's question about my family's holiday plans, in part because my wife and I were in the process of making the very hard decision that we may need to celebrate Thanksgiving apart from one another for the first time ever. And it was weighing heavily on my mind,” Gov. Pritzker said.
Before he took questions on Tuesday he said he tries very hard to keep his high-school-age children out of the spotlight.
“They were not elected to anything. They did not choose this public life. And I have a reasonable expectation that their privacy will be protected,” he added.
Gov. Pritzker said he will celebrate Thanksgiving in Chicago with his son. He said his wife and daughter are in Florida and they will remain there “indefinitely.”
“Let me tell you why,” he said.
“Last week, my daughter came under attack in an attempt to have some political effect on me. A parody Twitter account posted a picture of a group of individuals eating outside a Chicago restaurant, supposedly breaking the COVID rules the city put in place, and the person posting the photo claimed one of the people in it was my daughter. That was a lie. It wasn't her, but the picture falsely identifying her started making the rounds on social media, helped along by the trolls who permeate these social media platforms these days,” Gov. Pritzker said.
The governor added that his office put out a statement to make it clear that it wasn’t his daughter.
“My office put out a statement, making clear this wasn't my daughter. But that didn't stop Republican elected officials, a network of propaganda publications in the state and some radio shock jocks from telling people that the picture was of my daughter, despite knowing that this was a lie, which lent permission to a slew of strangers who sent hateful, threatening messages to my daughter over the subsequent few days,” he said.
Gov. Pritzker also said a well-known lawyer “posted a bounty” on his Facebook page offering money to harass the governor’s family at Thanksgiving.
“My kids are off-limits. Among elected officials and people in positions of responsibility that didn't used to happen. There was a time in American politics when the rule was sacrosanct, kids are off-limits. This should not be controversial, so I'm appealing to our collective sense of decency and our fundamental understanding of right and wrong to keep my child out of political disagreements and to understand that I'm going to fight like hell to protect her privacy.”
He said his children shouldn’t have to come under attacked.
“Just like all of you, I want to be with my family for the holidays and just like all of you, because of COVID, my family is having to make sacrifices to stay safe.
“This is not a political fight, this is a fight to save people's lives, let's remember that as we enter the holiday season and now I'd be happy to take questions from members of the media.”
