The following is the transcript of an interview with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Aug. 31, 2025.

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ED O'KEEFE: Governor Pritzker, thank you for doing this, and thanks for the tour. We appreciate it. I want to start with the fact that we've now learned the Trump administration is preparing to launch what they call major immigration enforcement here in Chicago in the coming days. The Homeland Security Secretary on Friday suggested, quote "going to use LA as an example." So that mix of federal agents deploying with the assistance of National Guard troops potentially, to protect them and federal property. What's your response to those apparent plans?

GOV. JB PRITZKER: Well, they've been here before, ICE has, scaring the communities across the city of Chicago. Frankly, right here in Little Village, businesses had to close, people had to stay home- people who are U.S. citizens, by the way, because they're afraid of being snatched off the streets and disappeared by people wearing masks and throwing them into vans. So the people of Chicago know what this looks like and are prepared. We hope that they don't send any troops along with ICE, and if they do, they'll be in court pretty quickly, because that is illegal. Posse Comitatus does not allow U.S. troops into U.S. cities to do- you know, to fight crime, to be involved in law enforcement. That's not their job.

ED O'KEEFE: If they're doing federal immigration work, a judge might say, if they're protecting those federal agents, that's okay. I mean, you'll just fight that in court as long as you can?

GOV. PRITZKER: Well, National Guard troops- any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don't belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency. There is not. 

ED O'KEEFE: Have you been briefed by anyone in the administration about these plans? 

GOV. PRITZKER: No one in the administration, the President, or anybody under him, has called anyone in my administration or- and me, have not called the city of Chicago or anyone else. So it's clear that, in secret, they're planning this- well, it's an invasion with U.S. troops, if they, in fact, do that. The other thing is, you know, they ought to be coordinating with local law enforcement. They ought to let us know when they're coming, where they're coming, if it's ICE or if it's ATF or whoever it is. But, they don't want to do that either and I must say, it's disruptive, it's dangerous. It tends to inflame passions on the ground when they don't let us know what their plans are, and when we can't coordinate with them.

ED O'KEEFE: We're speaking with Homeland Security Secretary Noem on Sunday. If she were to call you, what would you say? What's your message to her? 

GOV. PRITZKER: Well, I'd tell her that what she's doing is inflaming passions and causing disruption that doesn't need to be caused. We have people that have lived, yes in the state of Illinois and the city of Chicago for decades, working here, paying taxes. They're law abiding members of our communities, friends, neighbors, and why are we arresting them? Why are we making them disappear? Indeed, they're even disrupting the lives of people who are attempting to go through a legal process to stay in this country, who've been invited to a hearing, and then they're arresting them in the hallways on their way to that hearing. So this is dangerous. They shouldn't be doing it. It's anti-American. It's un-American. And I would tell her to maybe check herself for what does she really believe? 

ED O'KEEFE: She's also critical of the fact that Chicago is one of those cities that doesn't cooperate with federal immigration operations and she was quoted as saying that Illinois, quote, "refuses to have our back."

GOV. PRITZKER: Well, that's not true. In fact, there were police officers who made sure that there was nobody interfering or attacking or causing problems for the ICE officials that were here. People have a right to express themselves. People have a right to their First Amendment, you know, freedom to express and we protect that too in the city of Chicago. So it's not true that the- nobody has their backs. What we won't do, however, is engage in what is a federal effort, that is to say they have their job, immigration. We have our job, which is to fight violent crime on the streets of our city and by the way, we're succeeding at that job, but when they bring people in and don't coordinate with us, they're going to cause enormous problems. 

ED O'KEEFE: The President has had some things to say about the Windy City several times in recent days. "Next it should be Chicago." "Chicago is a killing field right now." "Everybody knows Chicago is a hell hole right now. Everybody knows it." Your reaction?

GOV. PRITZKER: You know, he wakes up in the morning and whatever whim strikes him is what he apparently says and recently, I guess I've been living rent free in his head. Chicago apparently is living rent free in his head, even though, on other days he'll talk about Baltimore, he'll talk about New York. Notice he never talks about where the most violent crime is occurring, which is in red states. Illinois is not even in the bottom half of states in terms of violent crime. Indeed, we're in the best half of the states so- but do you hear him talking about Florida, where he is now from. No, you don't hear him talking about that, or Texas. Their violent crime rates are much worse in other places, and we're very proud of the work that we've done. And we want more help. You know what kind of help we want? Civilian law enforcement help. We would like ATF agents to help us take more guns off the streets. We would like FBI, again, to coordinate with our local law enforcement to help catch perpetrators of crimes. If they would do that, we would welcome that. But that's not what they're planning to do. What they're planning to do is send troops into the city of Chicago, not because they want to fight crime, but because Donald Trump has other intentions.

ED O'KEEFE: So bottom line would more federal agents in Chicago, assisting local law enforcement help deter crime right now?

GOV. PRITZKER: Of course, you want to help us catch bad guys? Bring the FBI, bring the ATF. We already coordinate with them, by the way. We do a lot of work with them. We do some- we do drug interdiction, we do- fighting gangs, and we do, you know, interdiction of guns at the borders. I want to point out, by the way, what- if Donald Trump really wants to help us, what he would do is pass universal background checks for guns. We have that in the state of Illinois, but no state around us has it. How about having it on a federal level? Because that would help keep guns off the streets.

ED O'KEEFE:  And part of the reason I ask about the potential for federal deployments to help right now is that according to a CBS News data analysis of what's gone on in Washington just in the last few weeks, while crime there as well was down and in most cases down double digits. It's down nearly 50 percent in the three weeks since the National Guard moved in. It's also down 41 percent, homicides down 69 percent, robbery down 63 percent, and the mayor concedes carjacking, which would become a bigger problem, down 83 percent since the federal agents showed up. So this kind of deployment he's set up in Washington, that he says he wants to do in other cities, at least in Washington, is showing potential success. And what I hear you saying is, well, sure, if they show up, it might help us, too?

GOV. PRITZKER: I'm saying we don't want troops on the streets of American cities. That's un-American, and frankly, the President of the United States ought to know better. This one doesn't seem to. He hasn't read any books. He doesn't seem to understand the Constitution or the laws.

ED O'KEEFE:  But if he just sends the FBI, the ATF, DEA-- 

GOV. PRITZKER:  -- Yeah, they're here already --  

ED O'KEEFE: -- And he sends more of them. 

GOV. PRITZKER: We have some working with us now. Would love more help. You know what else he's doing? He's cutting funds that help us to fight violent crime from the federal government.

ED O'KEEFE: Give me an example of how those cuts have affected the ability to fight crime in Chicago. 

GOV. PRITZKER: So, let me just tell you what happened in Illinois when we had a Republican governor and he cut funding for programs that helped prevent crime. What happened was we saw a significant increase in crime. When you cut, for example, those programs that help to interdict crime, right, that help the- give kids summer jobs and so on. When you cut those programs, crime goes up. Our Republican governor, who preceded me, did that and what do you know? Crime went up. Donald Trump is now doing the same thing. He's taking away federal funding for those programs which are so important to us. We've increased funding at the state level, but we need that federal funding. It's on top of that. One more thing, the business community in the city of Chicago got together and put $100 million forward to help us, back in 2022, to help us to fight crime through these prevention programs. It's working. Crime is down. I mean, murders are down 50 percent in the city of Chicago and you can go through every statistic, almost everything is much better as a result of that work. Donald Trump is trying to take that money away. And he isn't listening to the business community here. He isn't listening to the clergy here. He isn't listening to people on the ground, Republicans here who understand that putting troops on the city of Chicago's streets is going to cause more problems than he understands.

ED O'KEEFE:  Have you called him or anyone at the White House to say there's no need to come?

GOV. PRITZKER: I think I've been pretty clear publicly-- 

ED O'KEEFE:  Well, it's one thing to be clear to us, why not pick up the phone? 

GOV. PRITZKER: If he wants to send troops, he should call. I've been very clear about what it is that we'd like help with. But, instead, he's talking about sending troops. Nobody's called, literally nobody from the White House. Nobody from the federal government has called anybody in our administration or the city of Chicago. If they actually wanted to help, they might call and say, what help do you need? I think I've been pretty clear about what help we need. I don't know why they haven't bothered to reach out if they have plans of their own, but honestly, we'd be happy to receive a call.

ED O'KEEFE: But you see no need to call yourself and say, what is this all about? Here's what I would like instead?

GOV. PRITZKER: When we have an emergency and we need the federal government to send troops in, believe me, I will pick up the phone and call. That is not something going on in Chicago today.

ED O'KEEFE: You know, there's another example of how you could potentially be responding to this, and there's no question that what he's talking about is unprecedented. But we've already seen now another state, California, say they're going to be sending teams of state police into major cities. Sounds like it might be to thwart potential federal deployments. Is that something you would consider? Sending Illinois State Police into the streets to help deter crime?

GOV. PRITZKER: We do that all the time. We have Illinois State Police- I have the best state police in the country. And, in fact, they coordinate with the Chicago Police Department and police departments all across the state of Illinois to do exactly that, to make sure that we're bringing crime down. They've been very successful.

ED O'KEEFE: I long wondered, his focus on Chicago, do you think that has anything to do with the fact that back in the day, he had a business relationship with your extended family in the hotel business? There was a conflict, for example, in New York over a Hyatt Hotel. He has real estate, obviously, here in the city. I mean, could that be part of it? He mentioned, for example, this past week, I'm in the hotel business. His family's in the hotel business. Is there something from that that might cause this?

GOV. PRITZKER: I don't know, but I'm not in the hotel business. I'm not engaged in that and I was--

ED O'KEEFE: I said extended family, right.

GOV. PRITZKER: – a kid. I was a kid when he was doing any business back then. So all I can say is that, for some reason, he's got it in his head that he should be attacking the city of Chicago. We won't stand for it. 

ED O'KEEFE: What do you think it's going to do to the country if that happens? Deploying in Washington, where he has federal control, is one thing, but if he sends military forces into a major American city- in a state that didn't ask for it, beyond Los Angeles, what do Americans make of that?

GOV. PRITZKER: Well, they should understand that he has other aims, other than fighting crime. That's the first thing they should understand. The second is, it's an attack on the American people by the President of the United States. Now, he may disagree with a state that didn't vote for him. But, should he be sending troops in? No. And think about what- think about what he says. He says he's sending troops to fight crime. Are any of the red states that vote for him- voted for him, seeing troops in their states, and yet they have higher crime rates than the city of Chicago? No.

ED O'KEEFE: You said he has other aims. What are the other aims? 

GOV. PRITZKER: The other aims are that he'd like to stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections. He'll just claim that there's some problem with an election, and then he's got troops on the ground that can take control if, in fact, he's allowed to do this. We have sovereignty. There's a 10th Amendment in the United States, and it says that the states have sovereignty. Our laws are supreme unless there is a federal law that supersedes it. Our National Guard should be under the control of our governors. When the President calls up the National Guard, in my entire lifetime, that has only been to either enforce a federal law, in the case of 1965, as you're aware, that was done, or to send them, as regularly happens, happened under Biden, happened under every president my lifetime, to send them abroad to fight for this country, because they're trained to go to war. They're trained to protect the country. They're not trained to do law enforcement on the street. 

ED O'KEEFE: I hear you talking about invasion, I hear you talking about- I hear you talking about him suspending elections. Are you suggesting- is it your belief he's an authoritarian?

GOV. PRITZKER: Look, I can tell you this. I built a Holocaust Museum. I know what the history was of a constitutional republic being overturned, after an election, in 53 days. And I'm very, very concerned. We could talk about lots of authoritarian regimes in the world, but that just happens to be the one that I know. And I can tell you that- that the playbook is the same. It's thwart the media, it's create mayhem that requires military interdiction. These are things that happen throughout history, and Donald Trump is just following that playbook.

ED O'KEEFE: On guns real quick, you've passed and signed some pretty significant firearms legislation this summer here in Illinois. How does that legislation help stop shootings at churches and schools from happening?

GOV. PRITZKER: Well, we've banned assault weapons in the state of Illinois. We've banned bump stocks. We've banned switches that turn a regular gun into, essentially, an automatic weapon. These are all things that reduce the number of shootings. And by the way, guess what? Shootings are down significantly in the city of Chicago and across the state of Illinois. And again, I very much believe that people who have a right to own a gun should be able to go get one, but that you've got to have universal background checks. You've got to make sure that you're not selling guns that give someone the ability to commit a mass attack, in a school or anywhere else. But people have a right to protect themselves. There's a second amendment and I believe that.

ED O'KEEFE: You said you're having some issues with the states around Illinois, right? 

GOV. PRITZKER: Well, yeah. There's not a single state around Illinois that has universal background checks. Don't we think we ought to make sure that people who buy guns should have a right to own a gun, and that we shouldn't have people who have significant mental health issues, or a felony record that should keep them from owning a gun?

ED O'KEEFE: There appears to be a bit of a divide in your party about how to approach the President. You either fight back, don't cooperate, don't show up for meetings with him, or you find ways to seek common ground and do things on behalf of your state. I think I know the answer to this, but where do you come down on how Democrats should be engaging the White House? 

GOV. PRITZKER: I think I've been pretty clear, since the very beginning, that I know who Donald Trump is, I know what his aims are, and they're not good for the American people. They're not good for the people of Illinois. And so, yeah, I've been standing up to Donald Trump, and I'm going to do everything I can to stop him from taking away people's rights and from using the military to invade states. I think it's very important for us all to stand up. I've called for people to get out in the streets, use their megaphones and their microphones, make sure they go to the ballot box to vote. That's been my attitude toward Donald Trump, and that's what I think people should be doing all across the country.

ED O'KEEFE Does the next Democratic presidential nominee, though, need to campaign to promise to undo everything he's done?

GOV. PRITZKER: Oh, I don't know. I'm not thinking about- that's too far away. Let's talk about the 2026 election. 

ED O'KEEFE: You're running for reelection. 

GOV. PRITZKER: I am running for reelection. 

ED O'KEEFE: Can a voter walk into the booth in Illinois knowing that you're going to serve a full term if you're reelected to a third term?

GOV. PRITZKER: I'm- I've been in office now for six-and-a-half years. I have dedicated myself, myself entirely to the state of Illinois, and I always will. I don't know what the future holds. What I can tell you is I'm totally dedicated to upholding the rights of people in the state of Illinois and making sure that we're protecting them, especially from a tyrant who's taken over the White House.

ED O'KEEFE: But you- are you planning to run for President right now?

GOV. PRITZKER: My plan is to run for reelection as governor of the state.

ED O'KEEFE Is it something you think about at least?

GOV. PRITZKER: You know, I look around, we've got a bench among the Democratic Party that is really terrific. I could point to governors. I could point to senators. I think there are a lot of good choices. I can just say that there, you know, there's no reason for us not to be thinking about all of those choices and thinking about what is it that the American people really want? What they want is to be able to go to the grocery store and afford things. They want to be able to buy a house. They want to be able to get a good job, and those are things that Democrats are fighting for. Republicans with tariffs, with fighting against the middle class by giving a massive tax cut to the wealthiest, while taking away Medicaid and food assistance, where clearly, Republicans are not on the side of average working people in the United States.

ED O'KEEFE: When we talk about the bench. Is it responsible, is it accurate to put you on that bench?

GOV. PRITZKER: What's accurate is that we've got a terrific group of people who could be President of the United States, on the Democratic side, and I'm happy to stand with them as we stand against Donald Trump.

ED O'KEEFE: I'm acknowledging that they're trying to get us to wrap up and so I just have like two more so they can calm down. One of the- when people start looking at the future field and your name comes up and you're familiar with this, they go, well, yes, successful Midwestern governor, but he's a billionaire whose family made its money in hotels. Is a guy who's a billionaire because his family made money in hotels and other successful companies, the answer to the Democratic Party's future? Especially when the base of your party is so worried about issues like income inequality and the rich getting away with things that the working class doesn't?

GOV. PRITZKER: You know, people asked that question when I ran for governor back in 2018, and I think what I've proven to them is, first of all, I won by a significant margin, almost 16 percent in the state. Second, what I've proven to them is that I stand up for working people and the most vulnerable in our society, that I am a true blue Democrat who's been fighting for the rights of women, the rights of minorities, making sure that we're doing everything that we can to keep the people of Illinois safe. And I think that's why I got reelected, also by double digits, and I hope to get reelected again next year.

ED O'KEEFE:  And bottom line it for us, is there any chance Illinois redraws its congressional lines before next year's midterm elections? 

GOV. PRITZKER: That's not something that I want to do. It's not something that any of us want to do. But I have to say, if Donald Trump is going to force his will on the American people by going to his MAGA allies in various states and have they- having them redraw in the middle of a decade, when you're supposed to be doing it right after a census, with a year ending in one, not a year ending in five. If he's going to do that all over the country, I think all of us have to think about what it is that we can do to counter that.

ED O'KEEFE: What much- what much more could you do, though, as an Illinois Democrat? I mean, your map already gets an F from most good government groups for being gerrymandered. Would you wipe out all the Republican districts? 

GOV. PRITZKER: We've had a lot of very successful candidates in the state, and I can tell you this, that, yeah, it is possible to have more democratic districts in the state of Illinois, and we- we could do it. Like I said, it's not something that I want to do, and I'd like it to stop here. I know Texas is now signing this map into law, the governor of Texas. We know how much he cares about the country, not at all. And we're now going to see it in California, probably. I hope that it ends there. It ought to end there. And we ought to, you know, get a census done in 2030 and a new map done in 2031.

ED O'KEEFE: Alright, we'll end it there. Thank you for taking the time. 

GOV. PRITZKER: Thanks, Ed, good to see you.