‘That Is Completely Deranged!’ CNN Fact-Checker Daniel Dale Torpedoes Trump Whoppers In Middle Of Presser
CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale torpedoed”insane” and “deranged” whoppers from former President Donald Trump’s post-SCOTUS speech — while the speech was still going on.
The Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday morning in a case that will determine whether states can ban Trump from the ballot on the grounds that he violated the 14th Amendment by engaging in insurrection on January 6.
Shortly after the hearing ended, CNN anchor Jake Tapper cut away from CNN’s post-hearing analysis to carry Trump’s speech from Mar-a-Lago — but only for a few minutes.
About two minutes in, as Trump rambled, Tapper cut away and imperiled George Conway’s airway with a one-liner:
DONALD TRUMP: You wouldn’t have any of the problems that we have today. And you certainly had a broker, and now you have a very rich Iran. Iran was broke when I left, and they had no money to give to Hamas–
JAKE TAPPER: Okay. I think we have gotten all the legal analysis we’re going to get out of president Trump. You know, it’s odd there because–.
GEORGE CONWAY: (literally chokes laughing).
Tapper eventually cut back to Trump twice, once when he commented on “legal matters,” and another when he began to take questions. They also dumped out of the Q&A so Kaitlan Collins and Dale could fact-check Trump’s rant about Jan. 6:
TAPPER: All right, let’s turned back into a campaign appearance. Let me go to Kaitlan Collins now outside the Supreme Court. Kaitlan, it appears from the questions asked that Donald Trump’s side had a good day at the Supreme Court today.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. It is interesting, though, what he’s getting into there is really not even something that his attorney who is arguing before the nine justices taking their questions got into in much of those arguments, which is actually what happened on January 6th and Trump’s role that day.
He was referencing there are parts of his speech on the ellipse that day where he told people to be peaceful. He ignored how he also told them to fight like hell or they wouldn’t have a country anymore that day or how long it took him to urge the rioters to go home that day, despite how he and his top aides were having many conversations about that with his own, you know, children pleading with him to put out statements, and yet he declined to do so for hours, Jake.
Of course, we heard much more from Donald Trump as he was standing outside Mar-a-Lago, preparing to go to Nevada and weighing in on what happened today.
For more on that, I want to bring in CNN’s Daniel Dale. Daniel, obviously, there’s several fact checks in the former president’s comments, including just the one I heard about crime alone, saying that crime is up when actually in 2023, most crime in major categories was actually down.
DANIEL DALE: Yes, you’ve done some good fact-checking there yourself. He also said this was an insurrection caused by Nancy Pelosi. That’s an insane statement. Like, that’s beyond, you know, fact-check false. That is completely deranged.
This was a mob of pro-Trump supporters called to town, urged to be wild by Trump himself. Nancy Pelosi tried to protect the Capitol, tried to summon National Guard troops. Completely just absolute bonkers nonsense. He also said there were no guns, something we’ve heard again and again from him. There were, in fact, guns.
We may not ever get a complete list of how many guns were there because most of the rioters were permitted to go home without arrest that day. But some people were arrested with guns. I have a list here. Mark Mazza of Indiana, two loaded handguns, arrested, sentenced to prison. Guy Reffitt of Texas. He had a firearm, entered Capitol grounds.
Christopher Alberts of Maryland had a pistol during the riot. Jerod Thomas Bargar of Missouri pleaded guilty to having a gun on Capitol grounds that day. So this idea that’s taken hold in parts of the riot fueled by Trump that there were no guns that day, completely not true, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yes, and also, you know, they used other weapons, including flagpoles and spray to beat up these cops. And then just one more, of course, you know, you talked about the mental institutions and people letting immigrants out and coming into the U.S. We’ve also asked the Trump campaign for facts on that. They’ve never been able to provide any evidence.
Daniel Dale, great to have you here to fact check that. Thank you.
Watch above via CNN.
