Bret Baier Confronts Gov. JB Pritzker Over Chicago Having ‘The Highest Murder Rate’
Fox News host Bret Baier confronted Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker over Chicago having “the highest murder rate of all the big cities,” Thursday.
During an interview with Pritzker on Fox News, Thursday evening, Baier asked bluntly, “Why does Chicago have the highest murder rate of all the big cities?”
“Well, we are not in the top 30 in terms of our murder rate,” claimed Pritzker. “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–”
Baier interrupted, “Here’s a map. Most populous U.S. cities. 17.47 per 100,000 population. Chicago is number one over Philadelphia, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Los Angeles, New York, and San Diego.”
The interview continued:
Pritzker: What I’m explaining to you is–
Baier: No, you’re talking about violent crime.
Pritzker: Look, you can pull statistics up–
Baier: No, no, no, these are murders!
Pritzker: I’m explaining to you that our murder rate has been cut in half, and very importantly, Bret, you gotta hear this, very importantly we’ve been doing the things that are necessary to bring crime down, right? We’ve invested in community violence interruption, we’ve invested in police. I’ve added more state police than any governor in quite a long time. It’s very important that we do both of those things and more to invest in our communities so that we bring crime down. We’re doing that, and you know who’s doing the opposite? Donald Trump. That’s not what we need.
In August, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized Pritzker for “parading out there, saying that there is nothing wrong with Chicago” when its murder rate per capita was significantly higher than Islamabad, Pakistan, and Delhi, India.
“We’ve been seeing the governor of Illinois parading out there, saying that there is nothing wrong with Chicago, it’s a great place to live, there’s no crime there, he doesn’t need President Trump’s help,” said Leavitt. “Well, I think the residents of Chicago beg to differ and the statistics beg to differ.”
She continued, “For thirteen consecutive years, Chicago has had the most murders of any U.S. city. This is JB Pritzker’s legacy,” adding, “In 2024, just last year, Chicago’s murder rate per capita was three times higher than Los Angeles and nearly five times higher than New York City. That’s nearly double rate in Islamabad and nearly fifteen times more than Delhi.”
Watch above via Fox News.
