Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D), who spends much of his time criticizing President Donald Trump and denigrating ICE agents, was caught lying on national television about Chicago’s murder capital status.
Pritzker was caught red-handed trying to downplay the homicide rate in his state, arguably due to his soft-on-crime approach, among other factors.
In a Fox News interview, host Brett Baier asked the Illinois Democrat to explain why his state holds one of the largest murder rates in the country.
In response, Pritzker tried to make it seem like there was no crime issue in Chicago.
Needless to say, it didn’t work out for him.
“Why does Chicago have the highest murder rate?” Baier asked.
Pritzker then tried to excuse himself by claiming that Chicago wasn’t even “in the top 30” over this issue.
Fox News quickly shut Pritzker down.
The network showed a map of FBI crime statistics, which showed that in Chicago, there were about 17.5 murders for every 100,000 people in 2024, marking the highest in the country, as the Daily Mail reported.
“Chicago is number one over Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York and San Diego,” Baier told Pritzker.
Despite the statistics, Pritzker remained unconvinced that Chicago had the highest murder rate in the U.S. of any city, all of which are Democrat-run.
“You can pull statistics up, I can too. I am explaining to you that our murder rate has been cut in half,” Pritzker said.
The Illinois governor then claimed that his administration has done enough to reduce violent crime in the state.
“Very importantly Bret, we’ve been doing the things necessary to bring crime down. We’ve invested in community violence interruption, we’ve invested in police,” he said.
It’s been quite the week for Pritzker.
A day before being caught lying on air, the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched an investigation into top Democrats, including Pritzker, for allegedly trying to halt ICE operations across the nation, Resist the Mainstream previously reported.
Alongside Pritzker, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) are being investigated.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the department would not tolerate such behavior from the Democrats.
Lightfoot called for the creation of a so-called “centralized archive” documenting the alleged crimes committed by ICE agents.
In response, Bondi said the ex-Chicago mayor would receive a letter from the DOJ.
“She will be getting a letter from us tomorrow to preserve anything that she’s done, as well to make sure that she’s not violating the law. It appears she is. You cannot disclose the identity of a federal agent, where they live, anything that could harm them,” Bondi told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “Priztker? Same ballgame with him,” Bondi said.
Pritzker went as far as to compare ICE to an “authoritarian regime.”
“Early on in an authoritarian regime, wherever it is in the world throughout history, this is what happens,” he said. “It’s the beginning of something very bad for a country, especially a constitutional republic.”
