These are not the Robert Lees you're looking for The 2017 MTV Video Music Awards were held two weeks after the white-supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Va., and featured a special guest with a noble message. "My name is Robert Lee IV, I'm a descendant of Robert E. Lee, the Civil War general whose statue was at the center of violence in Charlottesville," he said. "We have made my ancestor an idol of white supremacy, racism, and hate. As a pastor, it is my moral duty to speak out against racism, America's original sin." Weeks later, Lee was on ABC's "The View." "So, you're the great-great-great-great nephew of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, you were born and raised in the South," Whoopi Goldberg said while introducing him. "Why did you decide to speak out against these Confederate monuments?" "I want it to be said of me that there was a Lee in history who stood up for something that was right, instead of a General Lee who stood up for something that was wrong," he said to applause. But there is no evidence that this man, the Rev. Rob W. Lee of North Carolina, is related to the Confederate general Robert E. Lee of Virginia, according to The Fact Checker's review of historical and genealogical records. Records show that instead, he is descended from William Lee of Alabama, who arrived in the United States from England at least 100 years after the Lees of Virginia. Family tales and memories can often be inaccurate. Rob Lee may have firmly believed he was somehow related to Robert E. Lee, based on stories he heard at home about "Uncle Bob." But there's no reason anyone else should play along. 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. Whitewashing the Jan. 6 attack It's hard to pinpoint an exact moment when the sentiment began to shift, but some Republicans have made a 180-degree turn, from initially denouncing the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 to whitewashing the violence. "Watching the TV footage of those who entered the Capitol and walked through Statuary Hall showed people in an orderly fashion staying between the stanchions and ropes, taking videos, pictures," Rep. Andrew S. Clyde (R-Ga.) said this week, the kind of contortion that violates the laws of physics. "You know, if you didn't know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit." Video editor and Fact Checker Adriana Usero collected different examples of how Republicans are minimizing, revising, playing down or outright erasing details of the Jan. 6 attack. Some Republicans who criticized Trump for riling up the protesters later began to argue that Trump could not possibly be blamed. Others engaged in a false equivalency, comparing the most brutal violence at the Capitol since the War of 1812 to the riots and protests associated with Black Lives Matter or antifa. Others still suggested that the insurrectionists were not Trump supporters but impersonators sent by antifa. 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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