Sangamon Sun

Despite shutting down all of Illinois since March, Gov. J.B. Pritzker was spotted celebrating President Donald Trump’s loss and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in a recent celebration.

Since March, Pritzker has repeatedly told Illinois residents to stay home and not go anywhere. He’s repeatedly told them to not gather with others, he’s canceled school sports and he’s banned indoor dining, Patch reported.

However, after Biden was announced as the winner of the presidential election, he was seen walking down a Boystown sidewalk which was crowded despite the state’s COVID-19 numbers spiking to record levels, Patch reported.

A video on Twitter shows Pritzker walking down the street, masked, not observing social distancing protocols. As he passes by a Mexican restaurant, two unmasked men cheer as he goes by. The men are eating indoors, against Pritzker’s indoor dining rules. Pritzker is seen taking selfies with those on the sidewalk.

Many were dumbfounded by Pritzker’s disregard of his own rules, especially after he came down on Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot one week prior about no exceptions for his indoor dining ban.

"Unfortunately, the virus doesn't make exceptions, and it would be ill-advised to make exceptions to the rules we put in place as the best mitigations to stop the spread," Pritzker said at that time, Patch reported.

Lightfoot then said that large family gatherings would have to be foregone so that more could happen later on.

“This is not shocking,” one Twitter user said. “Politics has always been more important than the pandemic to @GovPritzker. He went from isolation to a sidewalk parade in less than 24 hours. Dr. Arwady always says ... you can’t test out of quarantine.”

Mark Konkol writes that regardless of what Pritzker says about the incident, the damage has been done.

“Why would you listen to a guy who doesn’t take his own advice?” he asked.