Gov. Pritzker: ‘Everybody Should Be Saying that ABC Should Reverse Their Decision ... What’s at Stake Here Is Free Speech’

PSAKI: “You said — and you never hold back, and it’s one of the things I always love to talk to you about — you said that politicians, people should be speaking up, this is an undemocratic act. People are just digesting this, it’s a part of a pattern. What does that look like? What is the kind of pressure you think politicians or people watching right now could put on ABC or Disney or others about this?”
PRITZKER: “Well, first, everybody should be saying that ABC should reverse their decision. This is not something they should have been doing. I don’t think that ABC, at least historically, has not been an organization that has exhibited this kind of behavior. But, you know, now we’re seeing the pressure that can be brought by the federal government. You can imagine the pressure that’s on Disney and ABC and on their business based upon, well, what’s been said so far today. And so I must say, I do not understand why people are not standing up and pushing back when they ought to, because what’s at stake here is free speech, it’s our Constitution and our way of life. Do we really want the president of the United States intimidating people, organizations to get others fired? This is not that moment. This is — people ought to be standing up and speaking out. What can they do? Well, it’s what I’ve been saying for some time now, which is if we want to get action, we now can’t rely upon a MAGA-controlled Congress. We can’t rely on the president of the United States, seemingly, although we’ll see whether we can rely on the Supreme Court of the United States. Increasingly, it doesn’t appear that way. And so we only have one other thing to do, which is public action. People actually speaking up, speaking out, boycotting, showing up and protesting, and their representatives who agree with them doing the very same.”
PSAKI: “What should people be boycotting right now? It’s bigger than just today’s story. But what does that look like?”
PRITZKER: “It is. But I think if we can work on ABC to make them understand how wrong the decision is. In other words, if people will write letters, write emails, post online, speak up, protest. That’s what I’m calling for, I think that it may be that ABC and Disney see that they may have made a mistake and they would reverse that decision. By the way, if they do that, you can see what happens when organizations and people stand up and push back. You can actually accomplish something. You can move the ball. I’ve seen that for the state of Illinois. We’ve seen that for the universities where there are boards that are willing to step up and speak out and push back. It’s going to be a hard three plus years under Donald Trump, but I believe that there is momentum that can be gained by doing like this. And the elections are coming up in November of 2026. And if in November of 2026, the — the public will show up at the ballot box and in the meantime, speak up with their megaphones and their microphones, that I believe we can at least stop this intrusion on the Constitution, this kind of UN-American behavior by the president for his last two years in office.”