Add Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker to the long list of people who ex-President Donald Trump is demonizing, taunting him at a rally last weekend in Vandalia, Ohio — about his weight. About eating too many hamburgers, not that Trump would know. He makes stuff up. And people believe him.
And that’s where we are dangerously stuck. Tuesday’s Illinois victories of Trump and President Joe Biden only rubber stamped how they already clinched their respective nominations in earlier primary states.
We have eight months until the Nov. 5 election. The Biden-Trump rematch is going to be a long, grueling, draining slog, punctuated by the Republican convention July 15-18 in Milwaukee and the Democratic gathering in Chicago Aug. 19-22.
I dropped by Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen, 1141 S. Jefferson St., on Tuesday because it is the traditional election day lunchtime gathering spot for the political tribe in Chicago, and the gang showed up, including the team organizing the Democratic National Convention and the Biden delegates who were on Tuesday’s ballot.
I talked to a bunch of Illinois Democrats, and my takeaway is Biden’s bid for a second term is facing daunting challenges — from energizing turnout of the Democratic base to addressing the voting boycott and demonstration threats coming Biden’s way because of his handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Biden’s efforts for a cease-fire — and yes, he is saying the word now — and his stepped-up efforts to rein in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — need to deliver some results.
Negotiations continue as hostages Hamas took in Israel remain captive in Gaza and as Israeli military strikes have killed tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza. Biden talked to Netanyahu on Monday, and the prime minister agreed to send staff to Washington to discuss how Israel can fight Hamas without a ground operation in the Gaza city of Rafah.
Trump — who presided over bans on people coming to the U.S. from some Muslim countries — has yet to articulate any plan on how the Israel–Hamas war could end with Israel’s future security assured, the threat of Hamas terrorists ended and whether he supports the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank.
But Trump — who has not said whether Congress should impose any conditions on U.S. military aid sent to Israel – proposals to do so are in play – did have a mouthful to say about Pritzker.
Trump’s juvenile bullying was on display at the Ohio rally when he jabbed Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who he calls “Newscum.”
Earlier this month, I wrote about how Pritzker, at a Democratic Party of Virginia gathering, said Trump will “spew his hateful lies, his vitriol, his dark vision for this country, and he’ll do everything he can to claw his way back into office.”
Pritzker threw in that Trump was “stupid and ignorant,” and “everything Trump stands for is even worse this time around.”
But Trump’s hamburger offensive against Pritzker, a top Biden surrogate, was not a grilling about his policies. It was the bullying words of a juvenile.
Said Trump: “When you look at what Democrats have done, look at Illinois. I don’t know how it continues. You have this guy Pritzker. I don’t know, he’s too busy eating. He wants to eat all the time. Would you like a hamburger? How many do you want? Five? I’ll have five burgers, please. You go to his office. Would you like a hamburger? Yeah. I’ll have five burgers, please. Who the hell orders five burgers?”
Who the hell eats poorly? The junk food-loving Donald Trump.
