Governor Pritzker Has Spent Time In Wisconsin During Lockdown
It's a move some say is a violation of his own Stay-at-Home order. The governor does not seem to see it that way.
UPDATE: Jordan Abudayyeh, the press secretary for the governor, reached out with this comment:
This story online is completely inaccurate. Like the governor has said, he has not left the state. His wife was in Florida with family before the stay at home order was in effect and stayed there until it was safe to return home. They have a farm in Wisconsin with animals that need to be tended to and members of the Governor’s family have gone to the farm to tend to them and have returned home. The Governor has not left the state.
If you recall, about a month ago, Governor Pritzker was asked by a reporter if the governor's wife had left the state for their horse ranch in Florida:
When questioned about his travel north of the border to Wisconsin, according to the Chicago Tribune, he said, “I just will say we have a working farm. They’re there now. There are animals on that farm, that it’s an essential function to take care of animals at a farm, so that’s what they’re doing.”
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been spending some time in the great state to his north during quarantine, according to CNN.
Gov. Pritzker has a farm in Racine, Wis. that he's been spending time at with his family during the pandemic; however, some people are saying this is a violation of his own Stay-at-Home order.
When asked about their visits by the Chicago Tribune, Pritzker defended the trips, explaining that it is a working farm and noting his family is there now.
"There are animals on that farm, that it’s an essential function to take care of animals at a farm, so that’s what they’re doing," Pritker said.
A spokesperson for the governor's office clarified saying Gov. Pritzker and his family have been living in Chicago, but they have visited the farm.
This also comes after last month when Gov. Pritzker refused to answer if his wife was traveling to and from their estate in Florida.
As you might imagine, there's a bit of sensitivity to this topic.
Three days after she broke the news that his family was spending his statewide lockdown at an equestrian estate in Wisconsin, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker revoked longtime Chicago reporter Amy Jacobson’s access to his daily press briefing, claiming she is not an “impartial journalist.”
Pritzker’s press secretary, Jordan Abudayyeh, emailed Jacobson this afternoon to inform her of the ban.
On Friday, Jacobson was first to report that Pritzker’s wife and children, who have spent the last seven weeks at the family’s $12 million horse farm in Florida, had moved to another family horse farm in Wisconsin, just across the Illinois border.