Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) said Sunday on CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation\u201d that Republicans were \u201ctrying to keep our schools from teaching black history.\u201d
Partial transcript as follows:
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you on the issue set that Democrats are running on, your office told- told us you\u2019re very focused on school board races in Illinois to make sure extreme right wing candidates aren\u2019t dominating them. I\u2019m wondering how strong the Republican ground operation is on things like school boards. Is parents\u2019 rights really something you think Democrats need to be concerned about on a national scale?
PRITZKER: Well, what Republicans are trying to do is, of course, ban books in libraries, they\u2019re trying to keep our schools from teaching black history. They make up things about CRT in schools that just don\u2019t exist. And so they\u2019ve got a lot of extreme right wing candidates, frankly, on the crazy end of things that are running and we just want to make sure that people know who they are and know not to vote for them.
BRENNAN: All right, Governor, there\u2019s a lot I want to get to with you on the other side of this commercial breaks up, please stay with us. And we\u2019ll be right back.
BRENNAN: Welcome back to FACE THE NATION. We want to continue our conversation now with Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Governor, thank you for staying with us through the break. I\u2019m going to follow up on something you said right before we took that break. You said you want to make sure people know who they are and not to vote for them. You were talking about Republicans, you said trying to do things like ban teaching Black history, banned books and banned CRT? Are you talking about people in Illinois who you\u2019re talking about? Where\u2019s that happening?
PRITZKER: Well, you asked- you asked me about school boards. And I\u2019m telling you, we\u2019ve got people running at the local level who believe that but of course, the Republicans are carrying this as a national message. And honestly, it\u2019s something that\u2019s offensive to most Americans. This idea of banning Black history. It\u2019s important for people to understand the history of slavery in the United States, you know, in our- our entire US history, warts and all.
BRENNAN: Okay, in Florida, who, where I think you\u2019re gesturing to they are not blan- banning black history, it was specifically that AP college course that\u2019s what you\u2019re referring to there? That version of it.
PRITZKER: Well, when they\u2019re trying to dive in and take over a an AP History exam, and edit it and edit out parts that they don\u2019t like, that\u2019s banning history. That\u2019s what they\u2019re doing in Florida. That\u2019s what Ron DeSantis is doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n