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(Video Credit: Fox News)
In an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich revealed many little-known details about his family history and past before he was pardoned by former President Donald Trump.
Blagojevich explained on “Tucker Carlson Today” that after his Yugoslavian father was held as a prisoner of war, he immigrated to the United States and found an opportunity to work in the Illinois steel industry at Finkl Steel Company.
“[Radislav Blagojevich] spent four years in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp during the war for fighting on the side of the Allies, and then was in a refugee camp for three years, waiting for the chance to hopefully have the United States Congress– that one day, his youngest son would become a member of– pass a law called the Displaced Persons Act,” he explained, according to a report by Fox News.
“That permitted my father and millions of others like him, with these long and hard-to-pronounce last names a chance to come to America, to pursue freedom and opportunity,” he said.
“My mother and father were working people, so they wound up in Chicago, like so many people from Central and Eastern Europe,” he added, noting that his father found work in the still-active steel industry in the Windy City.
Blagojevich recalled the memorable events in the city following the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King as riots enveloped the city in flames and looting.
The city’s then-Democratic Mayor Richard J. Daley was strongly rebuked for seemingly encouraging the violence against the rioters with an order to “shoot to main or cripple anyone looting.”
Daley urged then-Police Superintendent James Conlisk to issue an order to “shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand because they are potential murders.”
Blagojevich recalled that the strong position of the mayor was “derided by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, but actually embraced by the traditional working-class Democrat.”
“It was [popular in my neighborhood] not because anybody wanted to see that happen, but because we wanted to see someone take a strong position on the lawlessness and the rioting, the looting, and the violence that was burning the city down, and costing people not only property but costing lives,” the lifelong Democrat explained.
Blagojevich also recalled the “shock and awe” of his arrest in Dec. 2008 where SWAT teams were sent to surround his house that he believes was “a big bluff” used to get him to give in and take a light sentence.
“I fought back, and I’m still fighting back,” he said explaining why he didn’t give in. “This is much larger than just me, this is ‘We the People.'”
Despite the 9-1 odds he said the Vegas oddsmakers had on his wife leaving him just days after his arrest, he called her a “true hero” for sticking by his side, figuring out how to build up her business, pay the bills and keep their house while he was imprisoned on his 14-year sentence on charges of public corruption.
Blagojevich previously spoke out about the corruption surrounding his arrest and subsequent trial – blaming the FBI for altering evidence.
“They lie and they cheat; they manipulate and minimize evidence; they hide and cover up exculpatory evidence – evidence that proves innocence,” he said. “And to this day, in my case, they are still covering up tape recordings they made because those tapes show innocence.”
Blagojevich says FBI treated Flynn exactly how they treated him: ‘They lie and cheat, manipulate evidence’ https://t.co/jctQpirRvK
— Conservative News (@BIZPACReview) May 9, 2020
Many people on social media believe the former governor is telling the truth and should not have been convicted of any crimes, while others have some choice words to describe him with.
I really think it was a calculated set up. Unfortunately you were the scapegoat.
— Marzipan (@soul_sovereign) January 22, 2022
Please out the IL corruption. You were thrown under the bus and that psychopath Pritzker is now governor.
— Marzipan (@soul_sovereign) January 22, 2022
Scumbag felon….
— harperThomas (@satirecat57) January 22, 2022
Rod is a good guy. He’s less corrupt than our president, not even in the same league as Biden and his level of corruption. Same with all the liberal elites.
Ask yourself why they went after rod for practically nothing.
— Row Jimmy (@ddhonch) January 22, 2022
Before leaving office, President Donald Trump commuted Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence in January 2020 after he had already served eight years prison time for a 2011 conviction, leading the former governor to proclaim himself a “Trumpocrat.”
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