Dale Fail: CNN Fact-Checker Tells Jake Tapper ‘I Missed A Bunch Of That’ When Asked To Check Trump Oval Office Rant

Intrepid CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale had a rare lapse when anchor Jake Tapper asked him to analyze claims made by President Donald Trump during an Oval Office photo op.

Trump spoke to reporters for about 20 minutes Thursday during an Oval Office signing ceremony, taking questions and rattling off a characteristic string of false claims, many of which have repeatedly been fact-checked by journalists.

On Thursday’s edition of CNN’s The Lead, Tapper seemed to catch Dale off guard when he asked him which claims stood out among “a lot of golden oldies”:

TAPPER: Let’s bring in CNN’s Daniel Dale to help us fact check what President Trump said there in the Oval Office.

Daniel, a lot of golden oldies there in terms of false claims by President Trump. What stands out?

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: So, Jake, I missed a bunch of that, honestly. So forgive me if I omit some golden oldies, but I’m told that he repeated the story he’s been telling a lot this week.

This claim that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has admitted on tape that she rejected an offer of 10,000 National Guard troops for the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, that is not true at all. That’s not what the tape shows.

So it is true that Pelosi has a filmmaker daughter who was filming her on January 6th and showed Nancy Pelosi saying on that tape, she said, “I take responsibility for not having them prepare more.” Talking about Capitol security, but nothing in that general statement saying, you know, I wish I had done more to prevent this from happening is a specific admission that Trump made some sort of offer to her. In fact, she has steadfastly denied that he ever made such an offer to her, not admitted it, denied it.

And a lot of observers have said it wouldn’t even have made sense for Trump to have offered her the opportunity to accept or reject such an offer, because it is the president, not the House speaker, who is the commander of the D.C. National Guard.

So if even if he had made such an offer to her, she would not have had the power to turn it down.

Trump also said that January 6th rioters were there because they were protesting a crooked election. You hardly need me to fact check this. But no, they were rioting because they were denying the results of a legitimate election, Jake.

TAPPER: Daniel Dale, thank you so much.

Given the benefit of time to catch up, Dale later posted a write-up in which he challenged 11 of Trump’s claims.

Watch above via CNN’s The Lead.