On Jan. 6, 2021, PolitiFact journalists were waiting to fact-check comments from senators and House members as they counted electoral votes and certified Joe Biden as president. Instead we watched, along with everyone else, as rioters overran the U.S. Capitol, fueled by misinformation from then-President Donald Trump and a storm of pro-Trump media.
We’ve spent the past year examining the events of Jan. 6, debunking false claims of election fraud in 2020, and trying to understand how misinformation — much of it spread online — spurred such real-life consequences.
Here is a summary of our coverage since that dramatic day. Links in the story will take you deeper into our stories and fact-checks with fuller explanation and detailed sources.
A day of crisis at the US Capitol, fact-checked: As Jan. 6 unfolded, we tracked many claims about election results and who was to blame for the Capitol siege. Trump was wrong that he had won the election by a landslide; he’d actually lost rather decisively. He also said Vice President Mike Pence had the power to overturn election results; that, too, was False.
There’s no proof antifa stormed the Capitol. Some claimed the riot was driven by left-wing antifa activists in disguise. There was no evidence for this on Jan. 6, and no evidence has been found since. The rumor spread quickly anyway. We dug deeper into claims that specific individuals were antifa activists; they turned out to be Trump supporters. We also found a right-wing echo...
Why it Matters Federal research agencies face mounting pressure to prevent fraud in grant-making, and Congress is moving to hold them accountable. A House subcommittee grant fraud hearing schedule...