Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said President Donald Trump has dementia despite previously rejecting challenges of former President Joe Biden's mental fitness. (Scott Olson/Getty Images; Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Bruce Glikas/WireImage)
The sharp criticism comes after Pritzker defended Biden following the release of a report from Special Counsel Robert Hur in February 2024 that described the former president as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."
"I smell a rat," Pritzker was quoted as telling reporters the day after Hur’s report was made public.
"It was extremely unfair for a Trump appointee, originally to the Department of Justice, to offer his own opinions about the mental acuity or age of the President of the United States," Pritzker added, according to Politico.
Pritzker further defended Biden's fitness to serve.
"I’ve been with the President of the United States many times, he is on the ball," Pritzker said at a press conference in February 2024, according to WLS-TV. "The man knows more than most of us have forgotten. He knows so much more because he’s been in government for a number of years and has served in important positions."
Biden later dropped his re-election bid in July after a disastrous debate performance against Trump. Biden's own party quietly ceded to concerns over his fitness, mental competency and overall strength as a candidate as fallout from the debate overtook conversation on the campaign trail and on Capitol Hill.
Smoke is seen rising as federal law enforcement pushes back anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Ill., on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (Fox News)
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The White House Rapid Response team said Pritzker "calls President Trump a Nazi — fomenting more deranged violence from his Radical Left lunatic supporters."
Trump on Wednesday said on Truth Social that Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson should be jailed for not defending ICE agents. The White House provided Fox News Digital with a statement elaborating on the president's post, noting that 30 people were shot, five of whom died, in Chicago last week alone, yet "these Trump-Deranged buffoons would rather allow the violence to continue and attack the President for wanting to help make their city safe again."
The White House did not immediately address Pritzker's specific "dementia" comment about Trump.
Fox News Digital also reached out to Pritzker's office for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Aubrie Spady, Alexandra Koch and Patrick McGovern contributed to this report.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pritzker-hurls-dementia-claim-trump-amid-national-guard-feud-despite-defending-bidens-mental-fitness