Gov. Pritzker gives school board president benefit of doubt for antisemitic, pro-Hamas remarks
A majority of the Chicago City Council is calling for the embattled Chicago Board of Education president to resign
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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker expressed concern on Wednesday about antisemitic remarks made by Rev. Mitchell Johnson, the president of the Chicago Board of Education, but stopped short of saying Johnson should resign.
“If you’re asking whether I condone the remarks that were made, I do not,” Pritzker said at a press conference. Johnson’s comments were first reported by Jewish Insider.
He said Johnson’s appointment to the high-profile position in early October was a failure of the vetting process but seemed inclined to give Johnson the benefit of the doubt regarding the content of his inflammatory social media posts.
“I must say that to the extent that someone [was] put up for a position, especially one as important as chair of the Chicago schools, I think vetting is vitally important. That doesn’t seem to have occurred here,” Pritzker said. “All I can say is that I think we should hear from the chair more about what his positions really are. He’s written things, but, you know, people can change, theoretically, change their views.”
Johnson did not respond to a request for comment regarding his Facebook posts, including one saying that his “Jewish colleagues appear drunk with the Israeli power.” But he posted a quote on Facebook on Tuesday night suggesting he will not back down or apologize.
A majority of the Chicago City Council signed onto a letter on Wednesday calling for Rev. Johnson to resign and criticizing Mayor Brandon Johnson for appointing him to the role. Mayor Johnson has not commented on the revelations about Rev. Johnson’s social media posts. (The two are not related.)
Pritzker didn’t directly call out Mayor Johnson. But he questioned why these posts weren’t identified by members of the mayor’s team.
“You’re supposed to vet people. Look, can you miss things in peoples’ vets, sure. But it feels like Facebook posts are pretty easy to find,” Pritzker said.
Still, Pritzker said “judgment should be withheld” pending a look at his entire social media history.
“It is possible that people write things or say things that they didn’t mean, you know, in the heat of passion one time or twice. So if that’s the case, the chair should say something about that,” Pritzker said. “If that’s not the case, and this is somebody’s lifelong record — I think, for example, Donald Trump is an example of somebody who has a very long record, and I think it’s fairly straightforward. So I just want to be clear that more vetting should’ve been done.”