By Greg Bishop | The Center Square
The Center Square

(The Center Square) – Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday defended the use of an expletive that he used in front of a teachers union directing President Donald Trump and supporters where to go.

Video from the Illinois Federation of Teachers YouTube channel shows Pritzker making the comments at a recent IFT event.

“They want to punish teachers for telling the truth,” Pritzker said of Republicans during the union’s Oct. 19 event. “They want to criminalize educators for supporting LGBTQ students. They want to turn classrooms into cultural war battlegrounds. And I’m sorry to be vulgar, but Donald Trump and his cronies can [expletive] all the way off.”

Those in attendance stood in applause.

Potential Republican gubernatorial candidate Ted Dabrowski released a statement criticizing the governor, saying the comments follow Pritzker “comparing his political opponents to Nazis, and his words that have fomented violence against federal law enforcement officers.”

“Such language debases the office of the governor of Illinois,” Dabrowski said. “I am also disappointed that the audience of teachers gave Pritzker’s comments a standing ovation.”

Pritzker defended the comments Monday morning after an unrelated event. He said the comments were made “in that moment.”

“All the limits are off with Donald Trump as president in terms of what our reactions are to what he has to say,” Pritzker told reporters in Glen Ellyn.

He said “no” when asked “when they go low, you go lower?”

“In that moment, I really was feeling like all of the students in our public schools are being abused by this administration and it upsets me greatly,” Pritzker said. “And that was a word that came to mind to describe it.”

Dabrowski described the governor’s comments as “gutter talk.”

“You will hear no such language from me when I am governor,” he said. “I will restore common decency to the office, and that will include language I use to address even my most staunch opponents. I will defeat Pritzker and succeed as governor using the same tools I have always used – plain facts, common sense and persuasive language.”

Dabrowski said Pritzker has “spurned” integrity “all in the vain belief that abandoning such principles can propel him into the presidency.”

Dabrowski potentially faces at least two other candidates vying for the Republican nomination. The primary is March 17.