Tim Scott's origin story: 'From cotton to Congress' Like many other politicians, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) has a tightly-scripted and powerful tale that explains his ascent to Congress. He occasionally tells the story of his Black family in the segregated South, of a grandfather who "suffered the indignity of being forced out of school as a third-grader to pick cotton, and never learned to read or write." "Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime," Scott said in a speech to the Republican National Convention last year. Our research reveals a more complex story. Scott leaves out that his grandfather's father was a substantial landowner — and Scott's grandfather, Artis Ware, worked on that farm. Indeed, Scott's family history in South Carolina offers a fascinating window into a little-known aspect of history in the racist South following the Civil War and in the immediate aftermath of slavery: that some enterprising Black families purchased property as a way to avoid sharecropping and achieve a measure of independence from White-dominated society. Against heavy odds, Scott's ancestors amassed relatively large areas of farmland, a mark of distinction in the Black community at the time, though this distinction did not necessarily translate to wealth at the time, according to our investigation. Still, in portraying his grandfather's life, Scott blurs out any details of his great-grandfather's farm — a farm that was expanded through land acquisitions even during the Great Depression, when many other Black farmers were forced out of business. It's a good example of how fascinating biographical details sometimes get blotted out when a story is boxed up for political consumption. 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. Stephen Miller v. ICE Miller was the architect of many of President Donald Trump's signature immigration policies, the same policies President Biden is now busy dismantling. For example, Biden has directed immigration officials to focus on deporting gang members, national security threats and people convicted of "aggravated felonies" who pose a public risk. Miller went on Fox News and claimed that because of this new guidance, "Innocent people are going to get killed." Miller said: "Under normal administrations, whether it was the Obama administration, the Trump administration, the Bush administration, the Clinton administration, if a criminal alien was arrested by a local sheriff's department, a police department, state troopers, state police, highway patrol, they were then flagged by ICE. Something called a detainer was issued. ... They were placed into ICE custody. ... The Biden administration has stopped doing that in the vast majority of cases." It's mostly wrong and we awarded Three Pinocchios. Miller is onto something when he claims detainers have mostly stopped being issued under Biden, though his claim was a puzzle to fact-check. But he failed to mention that Biden's guidelines prioritize public safety threats for deportation. He distorted history with his comments about prior administrations. And, as Trump did for years, he associated undocumented migrants with higher violent crime even though research studies disprove that there is any link. 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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