WASHINGTON — Gov. JB Pritzker emerged relatively unscathed Thursday from a fiery House committee hearing on immigration policy, despite frequent goading from President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies on everything from Hamas, to Mayor Brandon Johnson’s record — and whether he had ever used a women’s bathroom.
There were political targets set on Pritzker, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul in the Republican-led House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Hochul was attacked persistently — dubbed a “terrible” governor and blamed for some of the most heinous crimes New York has experienced, by residents who lacked legal status.
Walz was punished for running on the Democratic presidential ticket alongside former Vice President Kamala Harris, and questioned frequently about former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity.
And Pritzker was hammered for providing health care for migrants and immigrants — and declining to say that the state’s TRUST law violates federal law, which it does not.
After more than six hours of the congressional hearing, Pritzker — largely seen as a 2028 presidential contender — went on the offensive in response to attacks from Reps. Mary Miller, R-Ill., Darin LaHood, R-Ill., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado.
A hearing that spanned more than seven hours — including an intermission for congressional Republicans to vote in favor of clawing back more then $9 billion in public media and federal aid funding — came to a combative conclusion with central Illinois GOP Rep. Darin LaHood slamming Pritzker over his sanctuary policies.
“You all have the ability to fix this. Do your job,” a visibly irritated Pritzker interjected.
“I’d deflect if I was you too, Governor,” LaHood said.
Before that, Pritzker went toe-to-toe with hardline conservative Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, a fierce Trump loyalist who asked whether the “destruction of private and governmental property” constituted the definition of a peaceful protest.
“I find it hard to believe that you’re lecturing us about peaceful protest,” Pritzker said. “Look at what happened on Jan. 6. You were at the Capitol… You want to talk about an absolute insurrection.”
Boebert later falsely claimed, “Yeah, that didn’t happen here,” about the Jan. 6, 2021 riots.
The marathon political theater gave Republicans an extended platform to hammer Democrats on immigration. But it also gave Pritzker and other Democrats a high-profile stage as they mull their own futures.
Jewish governor asked if he supports Hamas
Almost two hours into the hearing, GOP Texas Rep. Brandon Gill bombarded Pritzker with rapid-fire questions ranging from the cost of providing health care to people in Illinois without legal status to whether the governor supports Hamas.
“Sir, I do not. They are a terrorist organization,” Pritzker responded. “I have spent my life fighting antisemitism.”
Republican Florida Rep. Byron Donalds slammed the governor for not knowing the specific cost of providing services for immigrants — a figure that Mayor Johnson couldn’t pull for Donalds when the Chicago mayor was summoned to D.C. to testify before the same committee earlier this year.
“I think this might be an Illinois problem,” Donalds said.
GOP Georgia Rep. Brian Jack asked Pritzker to grade Johnson “A to F” on his management of law enforcement in the city. Pritzker sidestepped the question but praised Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling.
At one point, Gill diverted the topic of the hearing to whether or not the governor supports men using women’s bathrooms, with Gill asking Pritzker if he’s ever used a women’s bathroom.
“Not that I can recall,” Pritzker said with a laugh. He accused Gill of “admitting that this is just a political circus.”
He and Walz were at turns called “arrogant” and “smug” by GOP lawmakers during the hearing, which at one point saw Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Alabama, accuse the governors of being a threat to national security over their sanctuary policies.
“You’re in violation of federal law. Charges should be brought for obstruction, should be brought against each one of you for doing this,” Palmer said. “I’ll leave that up to the Department of Justice.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, interjected to call Palmer’s statement “a point of intimidation.”
Asked by Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., what Illinois would do if Trump border czar Tom Homan came to arrest him, Pritzker said he’d take the hit. Trump this week told reporters that if he were Homan, he would arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“I have the highest duty to protect the people of my state, and if Tom Homan were to try to arrest me, I can say first of all, he can try,” Pritzker said. “I can also tell you that I will stand in the way of Tom Homan going after people who don’t deserve to be frightened in their communities, who don’t deserve to be threatened or terrorized. I would rather he come and arrest me than do that to the people of my state.”
The Illinois Republican Party quickly worked to fundraise off Pritzker’s comments. In an email, the party wrote, “Pritzker is DOUBLING DOWN, and now he’s bragging that he will stand directly in the way of ICE agents doing their jobs.”
Sparring with Rep. Mary Miller
After the hearing, Pritzker called it a “demonstration of just how bad this Republican-controlled Congress really is.”
He called downstate Rep. Mary Miller “a terrible congresswoman for her district.” Miller earlier asked Pritzker whether he stood by his “policy of tying the hands of Illinois law enforcement.”
The governor responded that he wouldn’t be lectured “by somebody who extolled the virtue of Adolf Hitler.
“All she does is attack, attack, attack,” Pritzker said after the hearing. “She does that on her Twitter account. She does that on her Facebook account. She barely shows up for her constituents and almost never wants to engage in conversation about actual policies that will help the people of her district.”
The governor said he wasn’t surprised by any of the questioning, and wasn’t concerned about any potential charges, which were thrown around by some Republican members of the committee.
Pritzker’s chief of staff, Anne Caprara later dryly thanked hardline conservative members of the Illinois state House’s Freedom Caucus who traveled to Washington to attend the hearing.
“When we found out that they were here last night, it really crystallized for the governor just how much of a political stunt this was, and I think it gave him the energy and the vigor to go into this hearing and have a really great hearing,” Caprara said.
Tina Sfondeles reported from Washington. Mitchell Armentrout reported from Chicago.