The Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday launched a series of false allegations about the 2020 election.
The CPAC schedule made it clear in advance that the conference – which will take place in Orlando instead of its usual home just outside Washington, DC – will contain election-related lies. Over three days, the CPAC agenda includes seven separate panels or speeches entitled ‘Election Protection’ – plus appearances by other prominent figures, including former President Donald Trump himself, who falsely demanded that the election be stolen.
We will add fact checking to this article as the Friday proceedings continue. Here is a preliminary list:
Biden wins field on election night
Early in the Friday proceedings, CPAC played a video segment that strongly suggested that there was mass fraud or widespread use in the 2020 election.
The segment is titled “YOUR VOTES SLIDE.” Among other things, it has been suggested that there is something shameful about the fact that Joe Biden won field late on election night in the counting of votes in swing states, showing that one commenter says it is “statistically impossible”, and a another one that it was “very strange”. and another, the late radio host Rush Limbaugh, said the “voice fairy” visited overnight.
Facts first: This is nonsense, as CNN and many others do. repeatedly explained since November. Biden has gained ground in the vote count in some states because legitimate votes were counted legally.
Biden simply fared much better than Trump with people voting using ballot papers, which some states counted later than their personal votes counted. (In Pennsylvania, for example, this happened in part because Republican state lawmakers refused to allow voting to begin before election day, as Democrats have suggested.) Biden also fared much better in most major cities than Trump, who had more . ballot papers to count as smaller communities.
Biden did not win field in every competitive state late at night. In Florida, where counties could start counting with the turnout of votes before election day, Biden jumped to what was ultimately an aerial image of a big lead, but Trump overtook him after personal votes were counted. In Arizona, Trump won ground when the count continued beyond election day, though he still lost.
The legitimacy of the election
TW Shannon, a former Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma, said crowds occur “when people have a sense of hopelessness.” After Shannon claimed that the Democratic mayors could not offer the people who eventually burned cities in the summer of 2020, Shannon said: ‘The reason people stormed the Capitol was because they felt hopeless due to a difficult election . ‘
Facts first: The election was not concluded. Joe Biden was the legal winner. There is no evidence of widespread fraud or malpractice.
Shannon would have been right if he had said that many of the people who stormed the Capitol believe that the election was hampered. But that’s not what he said.
Fraud and fall boxes
Conservative commentator Deroy Murdock said: “Democrats, not Republicans, put ballot papers on sidewalks, where no one was in charge. How many fraudulent ballots were deposited unnoticed in these boxes and then counted? Who knows.”
Facts first: Murdock’s suggestion that ballot papers are unsafe is untrue; there is no sign that these subjects were fraudulently used in the 2020 election. The boxes are fastened different ways: mounted on the ground, designed with toddler measures, and in many cases subject to 24 hours video surveillance. Also some states and provinces run by Republicans made use of ballot papers.
In addition, states and provinces used various security measures to ensure the legitimacy of the ballot papers deposited in the boxes. Even if hypotheticals are knee-jerkly hampered, the ballot papers must still pass the usual checks as soon as they arrive at an election office.
Who committed the attack on the Capitol
Conservative radio presenter Wayne Dupree said of the attack on the Capitol: there were ‘many people – Antifa was there, BLM was there, MAGA people were there, everyone was there. And if Joe Biden wants to speak of unity, there was unity on that day, because America is sick and tired of it.
Facts first: Dupree was wrong and suggested that the attack on the Capitol was carried out by a united group of political activists of left and right movements. In fact, the uprising was overwhelmingly committed by supporters of Donald Trump.
We know this from videos taken on the day of the attack, social media posts by participants in the attack, and court documents subsequently filed by the FBI. The FBI said there was no indication that Antifa members disguised themselves as Trump supporters that day.
We can not definitively talk about the political positions of every person involved in the mob, and the ideology of some alleged participants may be difficult to ascertain. (One of them, who has a unique political history, previously used the hashtags #antifa and #blm on social media, although he denied that he was actually part of the Antifa movement.) But it is clear that the vast majority majority Trump were supporters.
Churches in California
Mike Lee of Utah and James Lankford, senator of Oklahoma, criticized California for the restrictions on coronavirus.
“The people of California are recalling their governor because they have had enough of these strict closures. “They have had enough of the violation of their rights, and enough that the government has told them that they can enjoy a five-star meal with their governor at ‘French Laundry’, but they can not go to church, ‘Lee said. said.
Later, Lankford reflected Lee’s insinuation of California’s hypocrisy, saying that California is a place “where you can go to fancy restaurants, but not to church.”
Facts first: It needs context.
California residents can currently go to places of worship that prefer to open, although the capacity indoors is limited. The state initially banned indoor church services in provinces that considered the widespread risk of coronavirus transmission, but after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the churches on Feb. 5, California had to revise its guidelines. According to the latest guidance, places of worship should limit indoor attendance to 25% of capacity. The state’s Covid-19 website also notes that church capacity can be expanded to 50% of building capacity based on the level of coronavirus threat the state is experiencing. Singing and singing were allowed as artists wore masks and maintained distance.
Lee and Lankford’s argument for hypocrisy refers to the attendance of California Governor Gavin Newsom at an event with a dozen people at the Michelin-starred The French Laundry restaurant, for which he was widely criticized. According to photos obtained by Fox 11 in Los Angeles, Newsom and the other guests were sitting on the restaurant’s outdoor patio, but none of them were wearing a mask, even though they were nearby.
Newsom apologized for his behavior and the decision to go out to eat in the restaurant when he announced new coronavirus restrictions later this month, which moved all provinces to the strictest level. Newsom’s conduct at The French Laundry would violate the face covering guidelines included in the new restrictions. Under the new guidelines, diners may only remove their masks if they are ‘actively eating or drinking’ and are at least six feet from anyone who is not in their household.
Biden’s comments on China and the Uyghurs
Robby Starbuck, who is running for Congress in Tennessee, sued Biden for comments he claimed Biden made during a CNN town hall earlier this month.
‘They did something I did – I never thought CNN would do it, but they asked him about the Uyghurs in China being raped, tortured and kidnapped, forced to praise China as their mother and to praise communism as their savior. . “They asked Joe Biden about it, and he said it came down to a mere cultural difference,” Starbuck said.
Starbuck added: “I do not think more disgusting words have ever left the lips of an American president.”
Facts first: Starbuck misleadingly described what Biden said. Biden did refer to cultural differences during this section of the town hall, but he did not dismiss China’s persecution of the Uyghurs as a ‘mere cultural difference’. In fact, moments before his remark on cultural differences, he said it was important for a US president to speak out against the Uyghurs and other human rights violations.
Here’s what actually happened.
When Anderson Cooper asked, “What about the Uyghurs? What about the human rights violations in China? Biden replies: ‘We must advocate for human rights. This is who we are. Biden said he had pointed out to Chinese President Xi Jinping during their telephone conversation in February that “no American president can be maintained as president if he does not reflect the values of the United States.” And so the idea that I will not speak out against what he is doing in Hong Kong, what he is doing with the Uyghurs in the western mountains of China … ”
Biden quickly pursues, ‘And by the – he said he – he gets it. In the cultural field, there are different norms that each country and they – their leaders – expect to follow. ”
Biden’s comments were a bit confusing. In context, however, he seems to say that Xi understands that, given the different cultural norms for each country’s leader, there is a cultural norm for a US president to speak out on human rights issues. And since Biden has just said that ‘we need to speak out for human rights’ and we need to speak out against ‘what he’s doing with the Uyghurs’, Starbuck’s version of Biden’s response to Cooper has left out important information.
Misleading descriptions of Biden’s remark have widely distributed among conservatives on social media.