MILWAUKEE — After speaking at a “Serbs for Trump” rally at a downtown bar, disgraced ex-Gov. Rod Blagojevich acknowledged his conversion from a leading Illinois Democrat to a self-described “Trumpocrat” has been as much personal as political.
“I feel the profound sense of gratitude, debt of gratitude, to President Trump for what he did. Restored my freedom. Reunited with my family. Gave my little girls their father back,” Blagojevich said, referring to then-President Donald Trump’s 2020 decision to commute the former governor’s 14-year prison sentence on federal corruption charges.
“So putting the personal aside, which is part of my motivation, I’d be dishonest if I said otherwise, it’s also the fact that the Democratic Party today, as I said, is not the same party I was active in. But the Republican Party isn’t either,” he told the Tribune.
“America is going through a political realignment. People are moving from one party to the other. A lot of these corporate country club people are becoming the new Democrats and a lot of everyday, regular working people are joining this new Trump Republican Party. So, I’m part of that realignment,” he said.
Unlike the last convention in Chicago, when Democrats gathered in 1996 and Blagojevich was a congressional candidate and a rising political star, he has no main event stage presence scheduled at the Republican National Convention, which does include showmen like wrestler Hulk Hogan as part of the primetime festivities.
Instead, he was one of the headliners at the Serbian-themed event Wednesday evening before a bar crowd of about 60 people, along with home-state conservative firebrand U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, in a recognition of Milwaukee’s long history with Serbian emigres.
For some Illinois Republicans, Blagojevich’s embrace of Trump makes him an unwelcome guest at the party. Some opposed Trump’s decision to free Blagojevich to time served, although he was not granted a pardon for his crimes.
At the Serbs for Trump gathering, members of the self-proclaimed party of “law and order” listened happily as Blagojevich touted another convicted felon, Trump.
The two have a history that goes back more than a decade when the former governor, while awaiting trial in his criminal case, appeared on Trump’s popular reality TV series “Celebrity Apprentice” in 2010 only to hear the words, “You’re Fired,” in the fourth episode.
A decade later, Trump freed Blagojevich from prison after he served almost eight years on charges that included shaking down a children’s hospital for campaign contributions and trying to personally enrich himself by offering to sell then-President-Elect Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.
“To quote me, him freeing me after 2,896 days, that’s almost eight years. Well, that was effin’ golden,” Blagojevich told the crowd, a flippant nod to the infamous FBI recording that captured the ex-governor discussing the price of Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.
“By the way, Donald Trump is also a historical figure in many ways and one of them is he’s the only president in American history to have fired and freed the same guy,” he said, to a smattering of laughter. “Even Lincoln didn’t do that.”
In his nearly half-hour speech, Blagojevich sought to portray both himself and Trump as victims of “a corrupt system that we have now in America.” In an interview afterwards, an unrepentant Blagojevich called both men’s convictions “fraudulent.”
“Some of these prosecutors are corrupt. Some of these judges are corrupt. It’s not that they’re taking money. But they’re refusing the rule of law by turning themselves into political weapons and they’re lying and cheating in big trials,” Blagojevich said. “That’s what they did to me. That’s what they did to Trump.”
Trump was convicted in May in his “hush money” trial in New York but his sentencing was postponed after the Supreme Court ruled former presidents have broad immunity for “official” acts. He also has two other cases pending, both involving charges that he plotted to steal the 2020 election win from Democrat Joe Biden.
Blagojevich also bashed the present-day Democratic Party, saying it’s not the same as when he was on the rise from being a state representative, to a congressman, to governor.
“They’re no longer the party of everyday, ordinary working people,” Blagojevich said of Democrats in his speech. “They no longer represent the home healthcare worker who takes care of your sick grandmother.”
But Blagojevich’s empathetic views run counter to his thoughts captured on an FBI tape after the Tribune, only months before his arrest, reported that a poll found him with a record low 13% job approval rating.
“I (expletive) busted my ass and pissed people off and gave your grandmother a free (expletive) ride on a bus. OK? I gave your (expletive) baby a chance to have health care. And what do I get for that? Only 13% of you all out there think I’m doing a good job. So (expletive) all of you,” Blagojevich said then.
Instead of welcoming his embrace of Trump, some leading Illinois Republicans say he brings little to the party given his status as the state’s first impeached governor and a convicted corrupt politician.
Outgoing Illinois GOP Chairman Don Tracy said he’s “not a fan of Gov. Blagojevich at all,” though he can understand why he’d want to ride on Trump’s coattails. He also said he thinks Blagojevich’s conviction is not comparable to Trump’s.
“There is no comparison between what Blagojevich did to get convicted by the Feds for trying to sell a U.S. Senate office and the sham political prosecution of President Trump,” said Tracy, of Springfield.
U.S. Reps. Mike Bost, of Murphysboro, and Darin LaHood, of Peoria, co-signed a letter in 2018 to then-President Trump expressing their concerns about granting clemency to Blagojevich. On Thursday, Bost, who as an Illinois House member was a member of the committee that considered Blagojevich’s impeachment, agreed with Tracy that the former governor’s case can’t be compared to Trump’s.
“If he wants to talk good about Republicans, God bless him,” Bost said of Blagojevich. “He sure wasn’t a Republican when he did what he did.”
LaHood, a former federal prosecutor, said he thought Trump’s commutation of Blagojevich sent the wrong message.
“President Trump talks about draining the swamp,” LaHood said. “Nothing exemplifies the swamp more than Rod Blagojevich and his actions.”
Kathy Salvi, selected last week to succeed Tracy as chair of the Illinois GOP, voiced a more sympathetic tone about the former governor, noting how he and her husband, former state Rep. Al Salvi, served together in the Illinois House in the 1990s.
She also said that while Blagojevich’s story and the mistakes he made should serve as an example, his support for Trump and his American First agenda is welcomed.
“I welcome the support of anybody who is willing to vote Republican and support those principles, which are good for this country and will set us on a good path,” Salvi said.
