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Here’s a compilation of the false and misleading allegations from Wednesday’s indictment.
What Trump did on January 6 said.
California Republican Representative Tom McClintock said Trump’s remarks at the Washington meeting prior to the Capitol uprising were unnecessarily confrontational and sometimes inaccurate, but Trump’s words were not impeachable conduct.
But what did he really say? That’s exactly what he said: I know that everyone here will soon be marching to Capitol Hill to raise their voices in a peaceful and patriotic manner. Is she all right? This is called freedom of speech, McClintock said.
Facts first: McClintock left out an important context in his speech. He quoted that particular comment from Mr. Trump – but did not highlight many others in the same speech, in which the President took a more combative tone.
So Trump challenged Republicans to stop fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back, saying: We want to be so respectful to everyone, even the wrong people. And we will have to fight much harder. Trump told the marshals you would never bring our country back with weakness. After calls by Congressional Republicans and Vice President Mike Pence to reject the results of the Electoral College, Trump said and cheating ruins everything, doesn’t it? If you catch someone cheating, you can follow a very different set of rules.
Trump said the consequences would be disastrous if his supporters did not act immediately – saying that if Biden took office, you would have an illegitimate president. That’s what you get. And we can’t let that happen. And he said: We fight like savages. And if you don’t fight like the devil, you have no country.
Mr Trump also spent much of his speech saying the election was marred by massive fraud. And he falsely claimed that we had won that election, and won it overwhelmingly.
It doesn’t matter: McClintock and other Trump allies are entitled to argue that all of these Trump comments are not impeccable, even if they are not inflammatory. He left a misleading impression when he asked the question, but what did he actually say? and failed to mention the most controversial things Trump actually said.
Democrats and violence
Texas Republican Lance Gooden said and I also want to thank my Democratic colleagues for finally joining Republicans in condemning mob violence after six months of refusing to acknowledge it.
Texas Republican Congressman Pat Fallon later made a similar statement, saying that while the riots had some benefit, Democrats now realized the riots were bad.
Facts first: It’s not true that Democrats are only now condemning mob violence or that they don’t approve of the riots. Many Democrats – including President-elect Joe Biden, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi and other prominent members of the caucus – have condemned last year’s riots and looting and supported peaceful protests against racism and police brutality.
Republicans are entitled to argue that Democrats should have issued such convictions more often or more frequently, but it is simply not true to say or claim that they did not issue convictions.
Mueller research
Ohio State Representative Jim Jordan said Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation cost $40 million and found nothing.
Facts first: It’s a lie anyway.
Mueller never said Trump did anything wrong. In fact, Mr Mueller’s final report explained that there was strong evidence that Mr Trump had repeatedly obstructed justice. But Mueller chose not to rule on Trump’s indictment for many reasons, including Justice Department policy that a president cannot be charged with a federal crime while in office.
The Mueller report also says that if his office were convinced that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would say so.
And according to the Department of Justice, the investigation cost $32 million, not $40 million.
Ukrainian whistleblower
Jordan also stated that the whistleblower who filed the first complaint about Trump’s relationship with Ukraine in 2019 worked for Joe Biden.
Facts first: There is no evidence that the whistleblower ever worked for Biden. In 2019, when this allegation first came to light, the whistleblower’s attorneys stated that our client had never worked for or advised any candidate, campaign or political party.
It’s possible that the whistleblower worked with Biden when he was in government, but it’s very different from working for Biden himself. In 2019, counsel for the whistleblower testified that our client had spent his entire career in government in non-political, executive positions and that in those positions our client had come into contact with the presidential candidates of both parties in their roles as elected officials and not as candidates.
CNN’s Melissa Tapia contributed to this article.
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