| PolitiFact
President Donald Trump has been charged again
President Trump has been charged after a crowd of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol while Congress certified the election of Joe Biden.
Staff Video, USA TODAY
A week after supporters of President Donald Trump attacked the Capitol, Trump became the first president to be charged twice.
House President Nancy Pelosi calls Trump a ‘clear and current danger’ to the country. The final vote was 232 to 197.
While most Republicans rejected accusations as unnecessary, vengeful, or hurried, ten of them broke up with their colleagues. They argued that Trump should be held responsible for spreading unfounded allegations that the election figure was fraudulent.
Though the top-notch Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy said he was opposed to the indictment, saying Trump was “responsible for the attack on Congress on Wednesday by mob rioters.”
“He should have exposed the mob immediately when he saw what was unfolding,” McCarthy said. “These facts call for immediate action by President Trump, accept his share of responsibility, quell the unrest and enable President-elect Biden to begin his term successfully.”
McCarthy and many other Republicans have argued that Trump’s accusation would only further divide a polarized nation.
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Opposed “we will never have unity without truth.”
More: There is no evidence that antifa stormed the US capital. The rumor spreads fast anyway
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“Words have consequences,” McGovern said. “What would have happened would never have happened if everyone had stood up in unity and called the president if he had not told the American people the truth, and when he demanded a big lie.”
We checked several of the claims made on the house floor.
“Democrats objected to more states in 2017 than last week, but somehow we are wrong.” – Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio
This is misleading on two points. While Jordan is correct about the number of states – Democrats dispute the results of nine states in 2017, and Republicans scored against two objections in 2021 – the circumstances of the objections were very different.
In the 2017 joint session of Congress to confirm the results of the Electoral College, the Democrats do not dispute the validity of the final vote. Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton has long conceded. By 2021, many Republicans were planning to change the results.
The scope and scope of the objections was much greater in 2021. In 2017, six Democratic representatives filed objections, but no Democratic senator joined any of them. This meant that everyone died after being raised. In 2021, by contrast, seven Republican senators joined as many as 138 Republican representatives.
The 2020 presidential election was “” an election that 80 million Americans, half of the electorate, Republicans and Democrats, have doubts about. ‘ – Rep Jordan
The number is a bit high and the meaning is unclear. According to several polls conducted in November, about 39% of the public said they did not fully trust the outcome of the election. That equates to about 60 million people. Jordan said 80 million are half the electorate, and about 160 million people voted in the election.
What is unclear is what people meant when they expressed a lack of self-confidence. Some may believe that votes were stolen, or that people voted fraudulently. Some may think that some voters have been deprived of the opportunity to vote.
The mob “seized the Capitol … while the Trump family and White House aides cheerfully watched television.” – Rep. David Cicilline, DR.I.
That’s wrong. A similar claim was circulated on social media, allegedly backed by a video of Donald Trump Jr. The video showed Trump, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, and others frolicking in a tent space. A large monitor shows the rally outside the White House. The scene did not take place while a mob stormed the Capitol. It was rather during the protest before Trump spoke. When the attack took place, Trump was in the White House.
“And then we have the presidential election in 2020, where the president correctly pointed out unconstitutional behavior, irregularities in the vote, concerns about tablets, dead people voting, and now accusations again.” – US Representative Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
That’s wrong. More than 60 lawsuits by Trump and his allies who wanted to stop the election failed because they could not prove their allegations, including about voter fraud. Republicans and Trump appointments were among the judges who rejected these lawsuits.
Judges in fact pointed out that it was the plaintiffs who wanted to take away voters’ rights. “Plaintiffs are trying to redress the denial of their votes by invalidating the votes of millions of others,” U.S. District Court Judge Matthew W. Brann wrote in a case in Pennsylvania. “Instead of asking for their votes to be counted, they try to discredit numerous other votes, but only for one race. That is simply not how the Constitution works.”
Officials from two Homeland Security committees released a joint statement after the election exposing Trump’s blatant misinformation campaign. “The November 3 election was the safest in American history,” the statement said.
Facts investigators have investigated several allegations that votes were cast in large numbers on behalf of dead people and found them to be false. Similarly, claims on behalf of Trump about widespread “voting irregularities” are unproven.
“President Trump rightly pointed out the improper activities of the Biden crime family and as a result he was proven right.” – Rep. Gaetz
That’s wrong. Hunter Biden, son of Elected President Joe Biden, is facing allegations that his business operations violated the law. While his taxes are being investigated, and a separate investigation into money laundering could possibly affect some of his cases, nothing has been proven yet.
A report by the Republican Senate states that Biden received $ 3.5 million from the widow of the former mayor of Moscow, but Democrats say the newspaper is failing to support it. The Republicans did not want to share the documents that would confirm their conclusion.
A number of allegations concern Hunter Biden’s work in China. His investments have raised ethical questions, but it is not clear that any law has been violated.
“Democrats have (for the past four years) endorsed and made possible violent riots that have left billions in property damage and 47 deaths in the United States.” – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
That’s wrong. During the summer, Democratic leaders turned down the looting, fires and fighting in some riots across the country after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd.
Biden defended protests against police brutality as ‘right and necessary’.
“But to break down communities and unnecessary destruction is not it,” Biden wrote on May 31. “Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that is not the joints of community service businesses.”
Pelosi said some people otherwise exploit non-violent protests and underline their message.
Pelosi said on June 2: ‘Police vehicles that break down with firebombs, demolish businesses and destroy our neighborhoods. The lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery are being dishonored.
Rep. Democratic House Whip James Clyburn said ‘peaceful protest is our game’.
“To light a fire, to throw stones at police officers, it is destructive behavior that will contribute nothing to a better country,” Clyburn said on June 3.
“Some say the riots were caused by antifa. There is absolutely no evidence of that.” – Home Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California.
It is true. In the first hours and days after the attack on the Capitol, it was a common point of discussion on the right that antifa activists – a general term for a loose collection of activists rallying against fascism and far-right groups – organized the whole affair. We have heard these allegations from Republican lawmakers, such as Representative Mo Brooks, R-Ala., From Fox News hosts and other conservative experts.
Nothing cited as evidence. The claim that a facial recognition firm spotted antifa members evaporated when the firm said it only identified people with neo-Nazi connections.
FBI Assistant Director Steven D’Antuono told a news conference that the agency had “no indication” that antifa had played a role in the riot.
“The hypocrisy of the left is fully exhibited … ‘Take him behind the gym and knock the hell out of him.’ … Does that sound familiar? ‘ – Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.
At best an apple-to-oranges comparison. Boebert’s claim goes back to remarks Biden made in reference to Trump’s lewd comments about women, captured in an “Access Hollywood” video before Trump became president.
“They asked me if I wanted to debate this gentleman, and I said, ‘No. “I said, ‘If we were in high school, I would take him to the gym and beat the hell out of him,'” Biden said during a March 2018 rally at the University of Miami about Trump.
In a podcast interview later that month, Biden said he “did not have to say what I said.”
Biden made similar remarks in October 2016. “The press always asks me, ‘I do not want me to debate him?’ Biden said. “No, I wish we were in high school, I could take him behind the gym. That’s what I want.”
“What about the gentle New York woman who defended the looting by saying that looters just wanted bread?” – Rep. Boebert
Boebert seems to be referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, DN.Y., but she made a misrepresentation what Ocasio-Cortez said.
In October 2020, Ocasio-Cortez spoke about an increase in crime in New York, citing several reasons why she thinks it would happen, including: ‘Maybe it has to do with people not paying their rent and they are afraid to pay their rent, and therefore they go out and they have to feed their child, and they have no money … They are placed in a position where they feel that they or their bread should be shoplifting or must get hungry. ‘
PolitiFact staff writers Amy Sherman and Miriam Valverde contributed to this report.
Contact Jon Greenberg at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @JonZGreenberg