"Face the Nation" on March 5, 2023
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Good morning, Margaret.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
No, I'm supporting Joe Biden. He's running for reelection, and he's going to get reelected.
I'm just happy that people think of me in that way. That's certainly very flattering. But I intend to serve out my term as governor of Illinois.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, I'm sorry to hear that.
It does surprise me a bit. I will say that Joe Biden has an awful lot that he gets to run on here. He's gotten a tremendous amount done for the country, saved literally hundreds of thousands of lives by making sure that vaccines were distributed. He passed legislation in a bipartisan fashion.
We got the IRA, which is going to help us fight climate change, infrastructure, which is helping everybody across the country, the CHIPS and Science ACT, which is going to help us bring manufacturing back to the United States, and what is Joe Biden's superpower, and that is, he demonstrates empathy in everything that he does. He truly cares about the American people.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
I don't think there's anybody that's serious that's actually considering running against Joe Biden, because he's done such a great job.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, what Republicans are trying to do is, of course, ban books in libraries. They're trying to keep our schools from teaching black history.
They make up things about CRT in schools that just don't exist. And so they have got a lot of extreme right-wing candidates, frankly, on the crazy end of things that are running. And we just want to make sure that people know who they are and know not to vote for them.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, you asked - you asked me about schoolboards.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
And I'm telling you we've got people running at the local level who believe that.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
But, of course, the Republicans are carrying this as a national message. And, honestly, it's something that's offensive to most Americans. This idea of banning black history. It's important for people to understand the history of slavery in the United States, you know, and our - - our entire U.S. history, warts and all.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, when they're trying to dive in and take over an AP history exam and edit it and edit out parts that they don't like, that's banning history. That's what they're doing in Florida. That's what Ron DeSantis is doing.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, in Illinois, we protect the other abortion drugs that are available. And we protect women's right to express their reproductive freedom. And so we're helping our clinics in Illinois. We're making sure that all the refugees from the states around us that have banned abortion know that there's an oasis here in the Midwest, here in the state of Illinois, to protect their health and their reproductive rights.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, that's something that happens at the federal level, but I offered to them to work with the federal government to try to speed up the process of certification. They want to certify it in Illinois and they want to be able to sell it here. So, we're going to help in any way that they ask us to.
But, look, on a broader scale, we should just recognize that these pharmacies need to protect women's health. That is the business that they should be in. And so in states where it's legal to have an abortion and legal to sell an abortion pill, they should still be doing it. And I've told them that. We need to make sure that the other pharmacies do the same.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Well, it was a messy primary. There's no doubt about it. Nine candidates, nobody got 50 percent, or anywhere near 50 percent. So, we have a runoff coming up.
I think that these two candidates have to make sure that their messages are clear, what they're going to do to protect health care, what they're going to do to address crime. Frankly, they have not been specific on a lot of these issues. And I'm asking them to be.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Thanks, Margaret.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source