March 5, 2021 ☼ trump ☼ jan6 ☼ lies ☼ jordan
Source: The Washington Post - Link
Two Republicans got Four Pinocchios this week for claiming that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) left the Capitol defenseless, rejecting thousands of National Guard troops in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 riot.
First up was former president Donald Trump. We will have a high bar for fact-checking Trump now that he’s out of office. But his misinformation can still make waves on right-wing media.
On Fox News, Trump said: “I requested … I definitely gave the number of 10,000 National Guardsmen, and [said] I think you should have 10,000 of the National Guard ready. They took that number. From what I understand, they gave it to the people at the Capitol, which is controlled by Pelosi. And I heard they rejected it because they didn’t think it would look good.”
Pure fantasy. Trump apparently mentioned “10,000” National Guard troops during a White House meeting on an unrelated matter Jan. 5, according to reporting in Vanity Fair, but there’s no evidence it was anything other than a stray comment, much less an official order, and the same article says the acting defense secretary took it as hyperbole. “We have no record of such an order being given,” a Pentagon spokesman told us.
I can’t believe they would make this crap up and get away with it. Oh wait… I can.
The second liar was Jim Jordan of Ohio.