Fact check of Trump’s indictment debate in the House

Fact check of Trump’s indictment debate in the House

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Here is a selection of false and misleading allegations from Wednesday’s indictment.

What Trump said on January 6

The Republican Republic of California, Tom McClintock, said that Trump’s remarks during the Washington, DC protests that preceded the uprising in the Capitol were too confrontational and sometimes inaccurate – but that Trump’s words did not amount to impeccable behavior.

“But what did he actually say? His exact words were, ‘I know everyone here will soon be going up to the Capitol building to make your voices heard peacefully and patriotically.’ “It’s impeccable, it’s called freedom of speech,” McClintock said.

Facts first: McClintock’s speech left important contexts out of the question. He accurately presented this particular Trump comment – but he did not explain many others comments from the same speech in which the president showed a more belligerent tone.

Trump, for example, urged Republicans to stop fighting like a boxer “with his hands tied behind his back” and said, “We want so much respect for everyone, even bad people. And we will have to fight much harder. . Trump told marchers: “You will never take back our country with weakness.” After Trump urged Republicans and Vice President Mike Pence to reject the election results, Trump said: “And fraud breaks everything, doesn ‘t it? If you catch someone as a cheater, you may apply according to many other rules. ”

Trump claims there would be serious consequences if his supporters did not act immediately, saying that if Biden takes office, ‘you will have an illegitimate president. This is what you will have. And we can not let that happen. “And he said, ‘We fight like hell. And if you do not fight like hell, you will not have a land anymore. ”

Trump also spent much of his speech on the false case that the election was damaged by massive fraud. And he falsely claimed, “We won this election and we won it with a big victory.”

In summary: McClintock and other Trump allies are entitled to argue that all of these Trump comments are not impeccable, even that they are not flammable. But he left a misleading impression when he asked the question, “but what did he actually say?” and did not mention the controversial things Trump actually said.

Democrats and violence

Texas Republican Rep. Lance Gooden said: “And I also want to thank my Democratic colleagues for finally joining Republicans in condemning mob violence after six months of not acknowledging it.

The Republican Republic of Texas, Pat Fallon, later made a similar allegation, saying that if the riot had a “silver lining”, it was that the Democrats now “realized that riots are bad.”

Facts first: It’s not true that Democrats only now condemn the violence of the crowd or say they do not approve of riots. Many Democrats – inclusive Elected President Joe Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior members of the party caucus congress – condemned riots and looting last year, while also supporting peaceful protests against racism and police brutality.
Republicans are entitled to argue that Democrats should have issued such convictions more forcefully or frequently, but it is only inaccurate to say or suggest that they did not issue the convictions at all.

Mueller Research

Ohio Representative Jim Jordan claims Special Attorney Robert Mueller’s investigation cost $ 40 million and found nothing.

Facts first: This is untrue on both counts.

Mueller never said Trump did anything wrong. In fact, Mueller’s final report states that there has been strong evidence several times that Trump has obstructed justice. But Mueller has decided for many reasons not to make a decision on whether to prosecute Trump, including the Department of Justice’s policy that a president cannot be prosecuted for a federal crime while in office . ‘
The Mueller report also said if his office “had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.”
And according to figures released by the Department of Justice, the investigation actually cost $ 32 million, not $ 40 million.

The Ukraine Whistleblower

Jordan also said since he was as far back as 2019, that the whistleblower who filed the primary complaint of 2019 about Trump’s dealings with Ukraine “worked for Joe Biden.”
Facts first: There is no evidence that the whistleblower ever worked for Biden. The advocates of the whistleblower said in 2019, when this allegation first arose, that ‘our client has never worked for or given advice on a political candidate, campaign or party.’

It is possible that the whistleblower interacted with Biden during their work commitments in government, but this is fundamentally different from working for Biden himself. The whistleblower’s advocates said in 2019 that ‘our client has spent their entire career in government in non-political officials in the Executive Branch’ and that ‘in these positions our client has come into contact with presidential candidates from both parties in their roles as elected. officials – not as candidates. ‘

CNN’s Melissa Tapia contributed to this article.

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