Like many on the left, Illinois Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker seems to have no issue leveling outrageous accusations against President Trump that have no basis in fact, but are accepted by a leftist media that is more than happy to facilitate the lies.
In 2023, Pritzker said on MSNBC that some of Trump's language was reminiscent of the Nazi era, brought up Nazi Germany and the incoming Trump administration in his State Budget address in 2025 and in a softball interview on NPR, and has repeatedly claimed that Trump has dementia, most recently on Thursday's edition of CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett.
Burnett was speaking to Pritzker about the Iran war and Donald Trump, when she played a very short clip of the President from earlier in the day.
BURNETT: When President Trump was asked about boots on the ground a few days ago, he didn't rule it out. Now today, the wordsmithing is a bit different. Let me play it for you Governor.
TRUMP CLIP: I'm not putting troops anywhere if I if I were, I certainly wouldn't tell you. But I'm not putting troops.
BURNETT: So does that mean anything sort of saying, well, I'm not, but if I were I wouldn't tell you. So there's 2000 on the way. I mean what do you think's about to happen here, Governor?
The first softball had been tossed.
PRITZKER: Look, you never know with Donald Trump. And frankly, it's not because he's being wily. It's because there's something wrong with him honestly. So I'm very fearful that there will be more troops sent or that they'll go into combat anyway. You know we've got Illinois National Guard's people, men and women on the front lines out there. We've got members of the military from Illinois also in harm's way and we don't need to be in this war this should end.
Next came the obligatory left wing talking points.
PRITZKER: Now everybody's going to suffer, not just the people who are on the front lines, but also people all across the united States who are paying higher prices for gas. Oil prices are going to affect inflation. We've already seen that in the numbers. We didn't need to be in this position, but Donald Trump has put us here. And contrary to what he promised when he ran for president.
Time for softball number two.
BURNETT: Governor, at the beginning of your answer, you said something that just stood out to me. You said there's something wrong with him. What do you mean by that?
PRITZKER: I mean, it's clear that he's not sure what he's saying from moment to moment, and then he'll promise something and then not deliver it. He'll say something, then he'll say something completely contrary to that. And I don't know anybody that acts like that, that doesn't have some kind of a problem. And some kind of issue, thinking things through. That is what I think. And I've been saying that for some time. I think he's got some dementia.
Burnett then reacted as if she had no idea he had said the same thing in the past
BURNETT: You think he's got dementia That's that's what you think we see when we see sentences like, I just played there then.
PRITZKER: Exactly. And then you know, you're hearing contrary things from one hour to the next. And not just about war, about lots of other things. You might think, oh, he's being secretive. Well, not when he's talking about, well domestic cost of goods, for example, or tariffs or other things. The man, there's something wrong with him. I can't diagnose it, but I'm sure other people can.
Burnett might have followed up with, "Not delivering on promises, for a politician is not unusual, neither is saying different things in public about military strategy while we are at war." She might of asked, "You say Trump has dementia, but you defended Joe Biden after the Hur Report said of him, a jury would see him as an 'elderly man with a poor memory.'" Of course she did not. The best she could come up with was, "Obviously we don't have any reporting on that (Trump's alleged dementia), but I just wanted to understand exactly what you were saying there."
I think it was quite obvious to all. It sounded like she wanted to make him repeat the smear, underline it.
