What Marjorie Taylor Greene actually said

Misinformation confronts Congress

View this email in your browser  This week:  When conspiracy theories meet Congress … Trump's war record … Why insulin prices are so high … How we made the Biden Promise Tracker … Real-world solutions for online misinformation A weekly note from the editor of    U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., speaks as President Donald Trump listens at a campaign rally in Georgia on Jan. 4, 2021. (AP) What Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has said about election fraud, QAnon and other conspiracy theories One of the newest members of Congress is under intense scrutiny from her own party following her promotion of conspiracy theories and inflammatory comments supporting violence against other lawmakers. Democrats are trying to force recently elected Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., off multiple committees this week, with or without the help of their Republican colleagues. The moves came after a CNN review of comments and posts on Greene's Facebook page showed she suggested executing Democratic politicians in 2018 and 2019.  PolitiFact reviewed that and other allegations of what Greene has said over the years, to independently verify what she has or hasn't said. Our review found the following: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was quick to embrace the "stop the steal" narrative disputing Biden's election victory. She promoted the baseless QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories alleging pedophilia and worse among high-profile leaders and celebrities. She has asserted that some of the worst tragedies in U.S. history, including the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Parkland, were planned.  She has offered up baseless explanations for the murder of a DNC staffer, the cause of California wildfires and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Greene, a business woman who has run a construction company and a CrossFit gym, fired back on Twitter, saying: "The real cancer for the Republican Party is weak Republicans who only know how to lose gracefully." In a statement published Jan. 29, Greene said she would "never back down." Read our full report for more details on her public comments and positions.  — Daniel Funke Share Tweet Forward The Latest from PolitiFact Trump's war record. Donald Trump Jr. said in a tweet recently that his father was the "first president in modern history (who) did not start a new war." We rated this Mostly False. Jimmy Carter did not start any new wars under the definitions put forward by military and foreign policy experts. Also, while Trump did not seek authorization from Congress for use of military force, he did order and oversee new military operations under existing authorizations. That includes counterterrorism raids in the Middle East and Africa. (Read the full check to see the wars associated with presidents between Carter and Trump.) The rap on insulin prices. U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said that insulin prices have dramatically increased because of manufacturer, health plan, and pharmacy business manager practices, or PBMs. PolitiFact Iowa rated his statement True.  Innovations alone aren't enough to justify the extreme increases in price that have raised insulin costs over the years. PBMs, with their complicated discount negotiations; and manufacturers, with their continuing drive to increase earnings, both play a role. So do drug stores and  pharmacies. Discounts don't go to everyone with diabetes, and they vary from vendor to vendor. The U.S. doesn't do this? In a short video on Twitter, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., spoke out against the upcoming impeachment trial for former President Trump: "Only in the Third World do you see this habitual use of prosecutions of former leaders." We rated this False. Developed countries in Europe and Asia have also prosecuted their former leaders in recent years, mainly for corruption. (See examples.) In the U.S., former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., was arrested in 2008 on corruption charges, impeached, removed from office, convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison.  (Trump commuted his sentence.) Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy. We need your help   Yes, I support PolitiFact! Make a tax-deductible donation to make this message go away. What Joe Biden did 1st as president PolitiFact is on YouTube, and our latest report reviews what Joe Biden did during his first week as president. Go to our YouTube page for the video report and to see our other videos. (Yes, that's me in the video.) Ask PolitiFact: Why the 'Biden Promise Tracker'? We recently received this question from a dedicated reader via email: "I have followed Politifact since its very beginning and I am wondering why the promise tracker changed from 'o-meter' to promise tracker? I also wonder if Politifact is tracking ALL of the Biden promises or just the top 100. You tracked all 101 of Trump's and all 535 of Obama's; I hope to see a full accounting of Biden's performance." Here's our answer:  We changed the naming convention of the meter for two reasons. First, we had a hard time saying Biden-O-Meter. It just didn't roll off the tongue the way Obameter and Trump-O-Meter did. Second, we wanted something that was more self-explanatory about what the project was, something that would be search friendly. We liked "Biden Promise Tracker" because it was easy to say and was more descriptive about what the project was. On the number of promises, our thinking has evolved over the years. We tracked every single promise of Obama's that we could find; it ended up being just over 500 promises. We found as the years went on that readers were not very interested in every promise (our online analytics showed they didn't get many clicks), yet we still had to spend a lot of time reporting on them. It didn't seem like a good use of our limited reporting resources. So for the Trump-O-Meter, we narrowed it down to about 100 promises from roughly 250. For Biden, we found roughly 350 promises and similarly narrowed it down to 100.  I agree that a truly exhaustive promise tracking project for every president would be interesting and would certainly serve history! But with limited time and reader interest, we decided to target the Trump-O-Meter and the Biden Promise Tracker more narrowly. Our commitment to following our promise tracking process remains the same:  We define a promise as a prospective statement of an action or outcome that is verifiable.  All of our promises list the source. We rate campaign promises based on verifiable outcomes, not on intentions or effort. Opinion: Online misinformation needs real-world solutions  I've been doing a lot of thinking about misinformation over the past year. I recently wrote an opinion piece for The Poynter Institute about ideas for how we could combat misinformation: "Because the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects most free expression and forbids government censorship, it's tempting to throw up our hands and say there's nothing that can be done. But that is shortsighted. We're at a turning point where we all need to think creatively for new rules of the road for how we communicate, especially on the internet. "As a fact-checker, I have three suggestions for actions that could stop lies without censorship." Read the whole article at Poynter's website to see what I'm suggesting. Do you smell smoke?  Here's your Pants on Fire fact-check of the week:  No, Joe Biden's inauguration was not faked. See what else we've rated Pants on Fire this week.  Have questions or ideas for our coverage? Send me an email at holan@politifact.com. Put "Fact-checking" in the subject line. Thanks for reading! Angie Drobnic Holan  PolitiFact Editor-in-Chief  Send this link to your friends so they can sign up for this email! Copyright © 2021 PolitiFact, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website, attended one of our events, or communicated with us. Our mailing address is: PolitiFact 801 3rd St S 33701 St. Petersburg, FL 33701 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can *update your preferences or *unsubscribe from this list. 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