July 20, 2010 5:47 pm ET filed under Blog
After The Filibuster: Republicans Committed To Protecting The Rich, Ignoring The Jobless
July 19, 2010 10:30 am ET filed under Blog
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - July 18, 2010
July 19, 2010 10:18 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - July 18, 2010
The political shows were busy on Sunday, with Indiana Republican Mike Pence misleading Fox News Sunday viewers about the Recovery Act and Sen. Cornyn misrepresenting the origins of the federal deficit on Meet the Press. Sen. McConnell told State of the Union viewers a flagrant lie about the Obama administration's response to the Gulf oil spill, and exaggerated the number of small businesses that benefit from the Bush tax cuts for the rich. Elsewhere, NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions described the Tea Party as "one-third Democrat, one-third Republican" on Meet the Press despite clear evidence that Tea Party activists are overwhelmingly Republican. On Face the Nation, the task of defending Arizona's immigration law fell this week to former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, who offered no new evidence to support his conviction that SB 1070 will not lead to ethnic profiling.
July 14, 2010 11:56 am ET filed under Blog
The Republican Party's Alternate Set Of "Facts"
July 07, 2010 1:00 pm ET filed under Blog
Republicans Feign Outrage Over Berwick Appointment
June 21, 2010 2:06 pm ET filed under Fact Check
FLASHBACK: Republican Senators Claimed Judicial Filibusters Are Unconstitutional
During an interview on Fox News Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said it is "possible" that Republicans will attempt to filibuster Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. However, while filibustering is within the GOP's rights, at least eight Republican senators have publicly argued that judicial filibusters are unconstitutional.
June 21, 2010 11:05 am ET filed under Blog
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows — June 20, 2010
June 21, 2010 10:54 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking the Sunday Shows — June 20, 2010
On Sunday, Republicans struggled to deflect attention from Rep. Joe Barton's (R-TX) ridiculous apology to BP. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ludicrously suggested that President Obama has taken so much money from BP that he is more likely than the GOP to side with Big Oil — which has given Republicans $188 million since 1990. McConnell and Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) each claimed that Barton's comments are not the Republican position, but the 114-member Republican Study Committee has expressed similar concerns. Elsewhere, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) proved that she doesn't understand the basics of cap-and-trade by calling that system of economic incentives a "command-and-control type of system."
June 18, 2010 4:09 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. McConnell Lies: Citizens United Was The "First Case" Kagan "Ever Argued In Any Court"
May 25, 2010 2:27 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. McConnell Slams Medicare Brochure As "Propaganda"
May 17, 2010 10:07 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - May 16, 2010
On Sunday's political talk shows, Republicans echoed the fierce, false criticisms of Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan that we heard throughout last week. Newt Gingrich claimed that Kagan is "anti-military." Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) parroted Gingrich's lie that the military's prohibition on homosexuals began under President Clinton. And Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) claimed that Kagan wants the government to ban books. Meanwhile, Gingrich advanced false narratives about health care reform and President Obama's attitude toward free enterprise, and Sen. McConnell attacked the Recovery Act.
May 11, 2010 6:30 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Top Republicans Hypocritically Target Solicitor General Kagan's Experience
Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, Jeff Sessions, and John Cornyn have all criticized President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, for her lack of experience as a judge. However, in 2005, all three Republican leaders touted President Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers, who also lacked both judicial experience and Kagan's impressive credentials.
May 10, 2010 5:24 pm ET filed under Blog
GOP Will Treat Solicitor General Kagan Like Justice Sotomayor
May 10, 2010 4:33 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. McConnell Builds Case For Republicans To Flip On SCOTUS Nominee
May 04, 2010 6:08 pm ET filed under Blog
Banking Industry Lobbyists Fear Wall Street Reform
April 26, 2010 10:17 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - April 25, 2010
Guests on Sunday's political shows spent most of their time trying to forecast the future of immigration reform, Wall Street reform and the Supreme Court. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell just couldn't help himself, though. On Fox News Sunday, the Kentucky senator repeated the falsehood that the Wall Street reform bill contains a "bailout fund."
April 21, 2010 9:57 am ET filed under Fact Check
PolitiFact.com Smacks Down Sen. McConnell: "Bank Bailouts Not In Bill"
Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact.com analyzed comments by Sen. Mitch McConnell claiming that the Senate's Wall Street reform bill "actually guarantees future bailouts of Wall Street banks." The site concluded, "McConnell is using seriously overheated rhetoric. Nothing in the bill 'guarantees' future bailouts of Wall Street banks. We rate his statement False."
April 19, 2010 5:53 pm ET filed under Video
Sen. McConnell Doubles Down, Sticks With Permanent Bailout Lie
April 19, 2010 10:52 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - April 18, 2010
On Sunday's political talk shows, the economy was front and center -- along with plenty of false and misleading statements. On Fox News Sunday, Sen. John McCain claimed that taxes have gone up in the past year. On Face the Nation, Sen. Scott Brown claimed that no one has talked about job creation since he was sworn in -- right after he talked up the jobs bill he voted for way back in February. And Sen. Mitch McConnell used an appearance on State of the Union to reassert falsely that the financial reform bill will bail out Wall Street. Sen. Marsha Blackburn echoed that falsehood on Meet the Press.
April 15, 2010 4:28 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. Dodd Calls Out Republican Misinformation On Financial Reform
April 15, 2010 10:21 am ET filed under Blog
Rep. Pence Calls Wall Street Reform A "Bailout" Five Times In One Interview
April 13, 2010 3:47 pm ET filed under Blog
Poll: Barely 1/4 Of Voters Approve Of GOP
April 13, 2010 12:53 pm ET filed under Fact Check
After Meeting With Bankers, Sen. McConnell Attacks Wall Street Reform
A day after FoxBusiness.com reported that Sen. Mitch McConnell met with 25 Wall Street executives and hedge fund managers, McConnell took to the Senate floor to spout false attacks on Democratic efforts to hold those bankers accountable.
March 29, 2010 5:36 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Sen. McConnell Wrongly Claimed Americans Supported Repealing Health Care Reform
In the Weekly Republican Address that aired on March 27, 2010, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell inaccurately stated "Americans really want" to repeal health care reform. In reality, 50% of Americans oppose repealing the bill and 27% believe the bill "did not go far enough."
March 08, 2010 9:17 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - March 7, 2010
On yesterday's political talk shows, Republican members of Congress used their time in the spotlight to blandly reiterate the weak GOP talking points on a variety of issues. Senators McConnell and Hatch, however, went even further and made outrageously false claims about Democratic health care reform legislation.
February 25, 2010 3:16 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Even Before Summit, Republicans Declared It A Failure
Today the president is hosting a bipartisan, bicameral health care summit at the Blair House in hopes of finding the common ground between Republicans and Democrats. Yet even before the summit had started, Republicans were publicly deriding it as a useless photo-op.
February 25, 2010 10:38 am ET filed under Fact Check
Health Care Reform Summit: The GOP "Away Team"
The GOP Summit "Away Team" will have a rocky landing at President Obama's bipartisan summit on health care reform. These 18 members of Congress have made no secret of their staunch opposition to health care reform - no matter how much their constituents support it or how it would benefit their districts.
February 11, 2010 2:36 pm ET filed under Blog
FLASHBACK: Republicans Touted Terror Convictions Under President Bush
February 10, 2010 10:58 am ET filed under Fact Check
Sen. McConnell Misleads On The Recovery Act
On February 9, 2010, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) told reporters that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act "wasn't a job generator." In reality, the Recovery act created up to 1.6 million jobs and kept 6 million Americans out of poverty last year, including an estimated 102,000 in McConnell's home state of Kentucky.
February 04, 2010 6:03 pm ET filed under Blog
Sen. McConnell Still Shamelessly Playing Politics With Terrorism
