Reality is immaterial in today's politics

Unless you’ve been under a rock, you likely know that former President Bill Clinton seemed to say that he flew on Jeffrey Epstein’s private jet with JB Pritzker and his spouse — after saying that it was likely that Epstein as well as his notorious co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell were passengers on every flight he took on that plane.

Clinton made his remarks during a deposition taken by the U.S. House Oversight Committee last month. He was asked during the deposition about whether Epstein and Maxwell were on “every flight” he took on the jet. Clinton said "I think he was" about Epstein’s presence and "I think she was" about Maxwell’s.

The former Democratic president then went on to say, "I think it was on one of these trips, I think that I had my first trip for the man who’s now the governor of Illinois, JB Pritzker and his wife, they gave me, they helped me get started." The video snippet was released online by the "rapid response" unit of the Republican National Committee.

The story has no factual support.

Clinton and Epstein went separate ways in the early 2000s and the Clinton flights with the Pritzkers were in 2008 and 2013.

Pritzker has never shown up on flight logs for Epstein’s plane.

A top Clinton aide issued a correction to his boss’ comments that very night, and the Pritzker campaign issued a flat-out denial.

KSDK TV in St. Louis checked the flight logs for both the 2008 and 2013 Clinton/Pritzker trips and confirmed no Epstein connections whatsoever.

But this is 2026. Reality matters less to more people than possibly ever before in politics. Both major parties have succumbed to fantasy worlds of their own making.

As just one example, a quick glance at Democratic primaries in this state at almost every level shows that some "true blue" Democrats are now regularly accused of being "MAGA supporters" on the flimsiest of pretenses.

Pritzker himself is funding a multi-million-dollar moral panic U.S. Senate campaign on behalf of his Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and against one of her rivals Democratic U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, which basically calls an immigrant a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cheerleader who literally "sold us out."

State Sen. Willie Preston, D-Chicago, and his congressional campaign have been intensely pushing an insanely false story about how one of his congressional rivals sought out the support of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Sen. Robert Peters, D-Chicago, is Jewish, so maybe that’s why, but there is no way on this planet that the progressive senator wanted AIPAC’s support. It’s laughable on its face.

Thankfully, no mass media outlets have taken that seriously and neither should you. After we took a pass on the story, Preston’s spokesperson accused us of not treating his candidate fairly. In the real world, it ranked right up there as the dumbest story pitch of the campaign season.

Incumbent state Rep. Jaime Andrade, D-Chicago, is trying to fend off a progressive primary challenger who’s backed by the Chicago Teachers Union by attempting to paint his leftie Latino activist and community leader rival as a supporter of… wait for it… ICE. Yes, ICE. Miguel Alvelo-Rivera may be a lot of things, but an ICE supporter he most definitely ain’t.

And this is how Andrade justified the claims he’s made repeatedly in advertising to the Chicago Tribune: "Congresswoman [Delia] Ramirez supports Alvelo-Rivera; Ramirez has received campaign contributions from two California Democrats, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia and House Democratic Chair Pete Aguilar; and those California lawmakers voted in 2024 for a resolution that included funding increases for parts of ICE."

Gimme a break.

This crud isn’t new, of course. We’ve had a problem in this country and in this state with hallucinatory campaigns that go beyond the normal campaign fibs for a very long time.

And connecting political rivals with pedophiles is also hardly new at the state level. Republican state legislative candidates who advocated for reducing state government mandates on school districts were regularly accused by Illinois House Democrats of opening the door for pedophiles and other dregs of society into children’s classrooms.

But a video of a former president saying he thinks he flew on Epstein’s jet with Pritzker and likely Epstein himself? Clinton did say what he said. The video is on the internet, and the internet is forever and quite strange. The fact that Pritzker’s wealthy cousin had close ties to Epstein will likely only fuel the fire.

It is undoubtedly false, but I doubt it’ll ever totally go away.

Rich Miller also publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com.