Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) attempted in an interview on Thursday to once again gaslight Americans about the bloodletting in his state’s most populous city. Evidently immune to the Democrat’s latest deception, Fox News host Bret Baier shut down Pritzker’s attempt and confronted him with the facts about Chicago’s obscenely high murder rate.
“Why does Chicago have the highest murder rate of all the big cities?” asked Baier.
‘JB Pritzker just flat out lied about an obvious fact.’
Pritzker, whom President Donald Trump recently suggested should be jailed, responded, “Well, we are not in the top 30 in terms of our murder rate. … Our murder rate has been cut in half over the last four years, and every year it’s gone down by double digits, and if you look at all of the violent crime over the last four years, they’ve all gone down.”
Baier then pulled up a map highlighting the apparent murder rates for America’s biggest cities. The graphic indicated that Chicago led the way in blood with a murder rate of 17.47 homicides per 100,000 people.
By way of comparison, the reported murder rate for: Philadelphia was 16.91; Dallas was 13.62; Houston was 13.8; San Antonio was 8.39; Phoenix was 8.36; Los Angeles was 6.95; and New York City was 4.5.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
According to the Illinois-focused research nonprofit Wirepoints, Chicago ranked first last year for total murders out of the nation’s 75 biggest cities, with 573 homicides. It also reportedly experienced the most homicides per capita among the nation’s 20 biggest cities last year.
Chicago Police Department statistics indicate that as of Oct. 19, the city has seen 347 known homicides so far this year.
After Baier noted that “Chicago is number one over Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, and San Diego,” Pritzker said, “Look, you can pull statistics up. I can too.”
“No, no, no,” said Baier. “These are murders.”
“I’m explaining to you that our murder rate has been cut in half, and very importantly, Bret, and you gotta hear this, very importantly we’ve been doing the things that are necessary to bring crime down, right?” added the Democratic governor.
Critics had a field day with Pritzker’s attempt to put a positive spin on Chicago’s murder rate.
“JB Pritzker just flat out lied about an obvious fact,” wrote Elon Musk.
Former National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch wrote, “Cut in half and still number one. Great job, @GovPritzker.”
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Illinois, Chicago, Murder, Violence, Crime, Brand johnson, Jb pritzker, Donald trump, Bret baier, Lying, Gaslighting, Politics