ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in his State of the State address Wednesday raised red flags about what he calls President Donald Trump's "authoritarian playbook".
"We don't have kings in America and I don't intend to bend my knee to one," said Pritzker. "If you think I'm overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this: it took the Nazi's one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic."
"All I'm saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control."
Pritzker also raised concerns about the uncertainty of federal funding as he rolled out a $55.2 billion spending plan.
Capitol News Illinois Statehouse Reporter Peter Hancock joined Megan Lynch to discuss the speech which focused mainly on the state budget.
"On the Democratic side of the aisle, there wasn't a whole lot of response," said Hancock on 'Total Information A.M.' "Those that did respond I think were generally positive."
Illinois Republicans criticized the plan, with Republicans saying Pritzker is 'teeing up' a run for President in 2028, based on some of the comments in the speech.
"It appeared as though some Republicans in the General Assembly got up and walk out," said Hancock. "I was in a news conference with Minority Leader Tony McCombie, (Deputy Minority Leader) Ryan Spain and State Rep. Norine Hammond, the top three House Republicans there, and they were very offended."
"It felt like the Governor was calling them Nazis or somehow equating Republicans with Nazis, which I don't think was necessarily his complete intent, but he obviously was drawing a parallel to the Trump Administration and authoritarian regimes like Nazi Germany."
Listen to the full conversation Hancock had with Lynch on 'Total Information A.M.' in the player above to hear more details on Pritzker's State of the State address.