While sipping drinks during a bar crawl on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Gov. JB Pritzker said he was “concerned” about President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects before he dropped out of the race last month.
“A lot of us were concerned about the direction of the election and whether Joe Biden was going to be competitive because the polls weren’t good,” Pritzker said.
The moment of apparent candor came in an otherwise ridiculous video in which the governor and correspondent Jordan Klepper toured a handful of Chicago bars, including Guthrie’s Tavern and Murphy’s Bleachers in Wrigleyville.
The Daily Show plans to broadcast the Democratic National Convention from Chicago throughout the week.
Prompted by Klepper in the edited video, Pritzker said “governors are talking” but insisted that Democratic governors did not push Biden out of the race. In lighter moments of the video, Pritzker also took a shot at Malort and said he had coined the hashtag #BallsToTheWalz to describe his support for vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
“I think he’s actually the perfect choice. You know, I immediately had the idea of creating hashtags, like ‘Balls to the Walz,'” Pritzker told Klepper.
Pritzker was previously considered a candidate to become Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate and has since thrown his full support behind the Harris-Walz ticket.
As he has said before, Pritzker predicted a high-energy convention. He cited former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Macarena dance at the 1996 convention as a historic moment at the Democratic National Committee in Chicago.
“Hillary Clinton did the Macarena like nobody else,” Pritzker said, “so I think this is one of the great moments of her life.” Clinton was scheduled to speak at the Democratic convention in Chicago on Monday. Pritzker, the convention’s de facto host, was scheduled to take the stage on Tuesday.