The flimsy evidence cited by Ron Johnson against Democrats The mass shooting in Buffalo has brought new attention to the "great replacement" conspiracy theory, embraced by some GOP lawmakers, that claims Democrats are plotting to reduce the influence of Whites in the United States. But is Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) among them? The evidence is murky. "I get accused of talking about something I'd never even heard of. Okay. I don't think I've ever even said the word. And I'm not going to say it now," he said on a conservative radio show. "About this theory, all I've ever done is parroted exactly what Democrats have said about this." As regular readers know, we have written often about how Johnson frames some of his more controversial statements as questions. It's a way of avoiding accountability for the statements — after all, he's just asking questions. But when we dug into his evidence of what he claims Democrats have said, it turns out he is basing his comments on a mischaracterization of statements almost a decade old. There's nothing that suggests Democrats hope to secure the votes of illegal immigrants once they achieve a legal status though legislation pushed by Democrats. So, without that evidence, his basic claim — that Democrats seek to change the nature of electorate — starts to fall apart. He earned Three Pinocchios. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Eric Holder's spin about his 'opposition' to Democratic maps The partisan makeup of the next Congress is being shaped by fights over the congressional lines being redrawn in every state. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee has filed suit against Republican efforts to draw maps that it says are gerrymandered to build safe Republican seats and wipe away Democratic gains in population in key states. But both parties can play this game. Courts have thrown out gerrymandered maps in New York and Maryland — states controlled by Democrats. In an interview, former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr., chairman of the group, told CBS's "Face the Nation" he "indicated my opposition" to the map drawn by Maryland's legislature and that he would not have drawn the maps in New York. Holder is a skilled practitioner of the Sunday news shows. An ordinary listener might have gotten the impression that Holder was not a fan of the gerrymandered New York and Maryland maps. But we found that he certainly did not object to them with the fervor that he did Republican maps — and apparently would not have minded if they had passed muster with the courts. For instance, in Maryland, Holder said he "indicated my opposition" to what the legislation did and agreed with the judge. But his statement after the ruling actually did not indicate opposition to the legislative action: "The judge is right and the legislature is not wrong." Holder earned Two Pinocchios. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. | 
Email
No comments:
Post a Comment