On Tuesday’s edition of CBS’s “Late Show,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) acknowledged that Illinois’ congressional maps look like kindergartners drew them, but argued that it’s different because they did it after the Census and their gerrymandering isn’t racially discriminatory.
Pritzker stated, “Donald Trump’s trying to steal five seats from the people, frankly, of the country, not just the people of Texas, and disenfranchise people.”
After that, host Stephen Colbert asked, “If you’re considering doing a little more redrawing in Illinois, you already have some crazy districts in Illinois. Take a look at this. Look at 17 here. It does that, then it comes up here and it sneaks around there and it goes all the way up here and then goes right over there like that. And look at this one, it kind of goes up there. It’s like the stinger on a scorpion down here. Is this common for all states to do?”
Pritzker remarked, “Well, we handed it over to a kindergarten class and let them decide. … That’s our independent commission.”
Colbert followed up, “So, because all states, to a certain extent, do this, why is what Texas is doing particularly egregious in this case?”
Pritzker answered, “Well, every ten years, we do a Census in this country, and, right after the Census, we redraw districts in every state. But what the Republicans are trying to do and the Texas Republicans, frankly, at the behest of Donald Trump, are doing it mid-decade. That is extraordinarily rare. And the way they’re doing it is taking voting rights away from black and brown people. They’re literally obliterating districts that were written according to the Voting Rights Act. So, this is going to end up in court if they actually are actually able to do it, but the Texas House Democrats are trying to stop them from doing it, and they’re in Illinois to protect all of the people of the country.”
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