GOP falsely blaming Pelosi for leaving Capitol defenseless 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. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a Trump ally, tweeted: "Capitol Police requested National Guard help prior to January 6th. That request was denied by Speaker Pelosi and her Sergeant at Arms." This is speculative. Public testimony shows Pelosi did not even hear about the request until two days later. Jordan also tried to pin the blame on the House sergeant-at-arms, but testimony shows the Senate sergeant-at-arms also was not keen about the idea. 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. Que será, será It's one of the big-picture promises now on his White House agenda. President Biden for years has been championing an immigration overhaul that would clear a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented residents. When Biden gets into details, however, he sometimes runs into trouble. "The vast majority of the people, the 11 million undocumented, they're not Hispanics," he said in a CNN town hall. In a virtual meeting with the Mexican president, Biden said, "As you know, the fastest-growing population in the United States is Hispanic." Both claims are wrong on a very basic level. Reliable studies show that of the estimated 11 million U.S. undocumented residents, the vast majority, about 75 percent according to one group, are in fact Hispanic. In terms of population growth, the Census Bureau says Hispanics have been running in second place to Asian Americans since about 2010, and are projected to keep running behind Asians through 2060 at least. The White House says Biden misspoke and meant to reference education enrollment statistics, not population growth, but we didn't get an explanation for the other error. The president earned Three Pinocchios. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @rizzoTK, @mmkelly22) 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. | 
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