In an interview with Barbara Walters, Mrs. Sterling said “I really think personally he has dementia.”…

There’s no set science as far as making a diagnosis of this kind, and Mrs. Sterling and I are in no way medical professionals, but in viewing his public behavior, it’s a conclusion that has merit.

ABC News also asked Dr. Igor Galynker, the associate chairman of research at Mt. Sinai Beth Israel in New York City and the author of several papers on dementia, to weigh in. “The most universal sign of early dementia is not memory loss, but personality change. Two basic characteristics not related to memory are apathy and indifference or callousness. People become withdrawn and disinterested in other people to the point of being rude.”

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: None of this should in any way be seen as an attempt to exonerate or explain away Donald Sterling’s racist behavior both in the past month or throughout the course of his life. He has been a vile bigot for decades and he’s a vile bigot now; it’s just that he may be in a place where he doesn’t care if he says prejudicial things out loud and/or is no longer aware how it will be received.