The Conservative Political Action Conference is underway in Maryland. And the members of Congress, former government officials and conservative personalities who spoke at the conference on Thursday and Friday made false claims about a variety of topics.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio uttered two false claims about President Joe Biden. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia repeated a debunked claim about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama used two inaccurate statistics as he lamented the state of the country. Former Trump White House official Steve Bannon repeated his regular lie about the 2020 election having been stolen from Trump, this time baselesly blaming Fox for Trump’s defeat.
Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida incorrectly said a former Obama administration official had encouraged people to harass Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina inaccurately claimed Biden had laughed at a grieving mother and inaccurately insinuated that the FBI tipped off the media to its search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence. Two other speakers, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and former Trump administration official Sebastian Gorka, inflated the number of deaths from fentanyl.
And that’s not all. Here is a fact check of 13 false claims from the conference, which continues on Saturday.
Zelensky’s remark about American ‘sons and daughters’
Marjorie Taylor Greene said the Republican Party has a duty to protect children. Listing supposed threats to children, she said, “Now whether it’s like Zelensky saying he wants our sons and daughters to go die in Ukraine…” Later in her speech, she said, “I will look at a camera and directly tell Zelensky: you’d better leave your hands off of our sons and daughters, because they’re not dying over there.”
In reality, Zelensky predicted at a press conference in late February that if Ukraine loses the war against Russia because it does not receive sufficient support from elsewhere, Russia will proceed to enter North Atlantic Treaty Organization member countries in the Baltics (a region made up of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) that the US will be obligated to send troops to defend. Under the treaty that governs NATO, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all. Ukraine is not a NATO member, and Zelensky didn’t say Americans should fight there.
1. 16TH CENTURY 2. 17TH CENTURY 3. 18TH CENTURY 4. 1910S 5. 1920S 6. 1930S 7. 1940S 8. 1950S 9. 1960S 10. 1980S 11. 1990S 12. 19TH CENTURY 13. ABORTION 14. ACCIDENT 15. ACTOR 16. ADDICTION 17. ADOLESCENCE 18. ADOPTION 19. ADULTERY 20. ADVERTISING 21. AFGHANISTAN 22. AFRICA 23. AFTERCREDITSSTINGER 24. AGENT 25. AGRICULTURE 26. AIDS 27. AIRPLANE 28. AIRPLANE CRASH 29. AIRPORT 30. ALASKA 31. ALCOHOL 32. ALCOHOLIC 33. ALCOHOLISM 34. ALIEN 35. ALIEN INVASION 36. ALPS MOUNTAINS 37. ALZHEIMERS DISEASE 38. AMERICAN FOOTBALL 39. AMNESIA 40. AMUSEMENT PARK 41. ANCIENT ROME 42. ANDROID 43. ANGEL 44. ANIMAL 45. ANIMAL ATTACK 46. ANIME 47. ANTHOLOGY 48. ANTHROPOMORPHISM 49. APOCALYPSE 50. ARABIAN 51. ARCHITECT 52. ARCHITECTURE 53. ARGENTINA 54. ARIZONA 55. ARMY 56. ART 57. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 58. ARTIST 59. ASSASSIN 60. ASSASSINATION 61. ASTRONAUT 62. ASYLUM 63. ATOMIC BOMB 64. AUSTRALIA 65. AUSTRIA 66. AUTHOR 67. AUTISM 68. AVANT GARDE 69. AVIATION 70. B MOVIE 71. BABY 72. BABYSITTER 73. BALLET 74. BAND 75. BANDIT 76. BANK 77. BANK ROBBER 78. BANK ROBBERY 79. BARCELONA SPAIN 80. BASEBALL 81. BASED ON A TRUE STORY 82. BASED ON CHILDRENS BOOK 83. BASED ON COMIC 84. BASED ON MANGA 85. BASED ON MEMOIR OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY 86. BASED ON NOVEL OR BOOK 87. BASED ON PLAY OR MUSICAL 88. BASED ON SHORT STORY 89. BASED ON TV SERIES 90. BASED ON VIDEO GAME 91. BASED ON YOUNG ADULT NOVEL 92. BASKETBALL 93. BATTLE 94. BEACH 95. BEAR 96. BEER 97. BEHIND THE SCENES 98. BERLIN GERMANY 99. BEST FRIEND 100. BETRAYAL 101. BIBLE 102. BICYCLE 103. BIGFOOT 104. BIKER 105. BIOGRAPHY 106. BIRD 107. BIRTHDAY 108. BLACK AND WHITE 109. BLACK MAGIC 110. BLACKMAIL 111. BLAXPLOITATION 112. BLIND 113. BLINDNESS 114. BLUES 115. BOARDING SCHOOL 116. BOAT 117. BOMB 118. BONDAGE 119. BOUNTY HUNTER 120. BOXER 121. BOXING 122. BREAK UP 123. BRIDGE 124. BRITISH NOIR 125. BROADWAY 126. BROOKLYN NEW YORK CITY 127. BROTHEL 128. BROTHER 129. BUDDHISM 130. BULLY 131. BULLYING 132. CABARET 133. CABIN 134. CALIFORNIA 135. CAMPING 136. CANADA 137. CANCER 138. CANNIBAL 139. CANNIBALISM 140. CANUXPLOITATION 141. CAPITALISM 142. CAR ACCIDENT 143. CAR CRASH 144. CAR RACE 145. CARIBBEAN SEA 146. CARNIVAL 147. CARTOON 148. CASINO 149. CASTLE 150. CAT 151. CATTLE 152. CAVE 153. CELEBRITY 154. CEMETERY 155. CHANCHADA 156. CHASE 157. CHEATING 158. CHICAGO USA 159. CHILD 160. CHILDHOOD 161. CHILDHOOD FRIENDS 162. CHILDREN 163. CHILE 164. CHINA 165. CHINESE 166. CHRISTIAN FILM 167. CHRISTIANITY 168. CHRISTMAS 169. CHURCH 170. CIA 171. CINEMA 172. CIRCUS 173. CIVIL WAR 174. CLASSICAL MUSIC 175. CLAYMATION 176. CLIMATE CHANGE 177. CLIMBING 178. CLOWN 179. COCAINE 180. COLD WAR 181. COLLEGE 182. COLONIALISM 183. COLOR 184. COMEDIAN 185. COMIC BOOK 186. COMING OF AGE 187. COMING OUT 188. COMMUNISM 189. COMMUNIST 190. COMPETITION 191. COMPILATION 192. COMPOSER 193. COMPUTER 194. COMPUTER ANIMATION 195. CON MAN 196. CONCERT 197. CONCERT FILM 198. CONCERT FOOTAGE 199. CONSPIRACY 200. CONSPIRACY THEORY 201. COOKING 202. COP 203. CORPSE 204. CORRUPTION 205. COUNTRY MUSIC 206. COUNTRYSIDE 207. COUPLE 208. COURT CASE 209. COURTROOM 210. COWBOY 211. CREATURE 212. CRIMINAL 213. CUBA 214. CULT 215. CULT FILM 216. CULTURE 217. CURSE 218. CYBERPUNK 219. CYBORG 220. CYCLING 221. DANCE 222. DANCER 223. DANCING 224. DARK COMEDY 225. DATING 226. DAUGHTER 227. DC COMICS 228. DEATH 229. DEBT 230. DECAPITATION 231. DECEPTION 232. DEMON 233. DENMARK 234. DEPRESSION 235. DESERT 236. DETECTIVE 237. DEVIL 238. DIAMOND 239. DINOSAUR 240. DISABILITY 241. DISAPPEARANCE 242. DISASTER 243. DISEASE 244. DISGUISE 245. DIVORCE 246. DOCTOR 247. DOCUDRAMA 248. DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKING 249. DOG 250. DOMESTIC VIOLENCE 251. DRAG QUEEN 252. DRAGON 253. DREAM 254. DRUG ABUSE 255. DRUG ADDICTION 256. DRUG DEALER 257. DRUG TRAFFIC 258. DRUG USE 259. DRUGS 260. DUEL 261. DURINGCREDITSSTINGER 262. DUTCH CABARET 263. DYING AND DEATH 264. DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY 265. DYSTOPIA 266. EARLY 1900S 267. EARTHQUAKE 268. ECONOMICS 269. EDUCATION 270. EDUCATIONAL 271. EGYPT 272. ELDERLY 273. ELECTION 274. ELEPHANT 275. ENGLAND 276. ENVIRONMENT 277. EPIC 278. EROTICISM 279. ESCAPE 280. ESPIONAGE 281. ESSAY FILM 282. EUROPE 283. EVIL 284. EX CON 285. EXORCISM 286. EXPERIMENT 287. EXPLOITATION 288. EXPLOSION 289. EXTRAMARITAL AFFAIR 290. EXTREME SPORTS 291. FACTORY 292. FAIRY TALE 293. FAITH 294. FALLING IN LOVE 295. FAMILY 296. FAMILY DRAMA 297. FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 298. FAMILY SECRETS 299. FAN FILM 300. FARM 301. HORROR 302. ZOMBIE 303. THE DARK 304. FILMS 305. NORMAL 306. SUCCESS 307. STUDY 308. ABNORMAL 309. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz last visited Washington 310. Joe Biden has faced questions over whether he is best suited 311. Biden the most progressive president that we’ve had in a long time 312. Joe Biden team is moving to tap top Democratic allies 313. Joe Biden had a cancerous skin lesion removed last month 314. Joe Biden has claimed he'll stop all efforts to cut Social Security 315. Joe Biden positioned himself as a champion of statehood 316. Joe Biden Administration's New Cyber Policy 317. Joe Biden schedule for May had not yet been finalized Biden has visited Ukraine since the start of the country war with Russia
Greene is one of the people who shared the out-of-context video on Twitter this week. You can read a full fact-check, with Zelensky’s complete quote, here.
Fox and the 2020 election
Right-wing commentator and former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon criticized right-wing cable channel Fox at length for, he argued, being insufficiently supportive of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Among other things, Bannon claimed that, on the night of the election in November 2020, “Fox News illegitimately called it for the opposition and not Donald J. Trump, of which our nation has never recovered.” Later, he said Trump is running again after “having it stolen, in broad daylight, of which they [Fox] participate in.”
Biden’s attempted deportation pause
Rep. Jim Jordan claimed that Biden, “on day one,” made “three key changes” to immigration policy. Jordan said one of those changes was this: “We’re not going to deport anyone who come.” He proceeded to argue that people knowing “we’re not going to get deported” was a reason they decided to migrate to the US under Biden.
Facts First: Jordan inaccurately described the 100-day deportation pause that Biden attempted to impose immediately after he took office on January 20, 2021. The policy did not say the US wouldn’t deport “anyone who comes.” It explicitly did not apply to anyone who arrived in the country after the end of October 2020, meaning people who arrived under the Biden administration or in the last months of the Trump administration could still be deported.
Biden did say during the 2020 Democratic primary that “no one, no one will be deported at all” in his first 100 days as president. But Jordan claimed that this was the policy Biden actually implemented on his first day in office; Biden’s actual first-day policy was considerably narrower.
Biden’s attempted 100-day pause also did not apply to people who engaged in or were suspected of terrorism or espionage, were seen to pose a national security risk, had waived their right to remain in the US, or whom the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement determined the law required to be removed.
The pause was supposed to be in effect while the Department of Homeland Security conducted a review of immigration enforcement practices, but it was blocked by a federal judge shortly after it was announced.