Media

Washington Post Fact Checks Only Republicans During Mueller Hearings

(BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images)

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
Font Size:

The Washington Post conducted a fact check on claims made during the Mueller hearings Wednesday, but declined to review a single statement made by a Democrat.

Instead, the article, titled “Fact-checking lawmakers’ claims during the Mueller hearings,” focused solely on statements made by Republican lawmakers during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s marathon testimony in front of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees.

WaPo fact checked the following Republicans: Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson, Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert, Florida Rep. Greg Steube, and California Rep. Tom McClintock.

The article declined to fact check any Democrats during the hearing, despite there being a wealth of material.

For example, one of the biggest bombshell claims during the House Judiciary hearing was made by California Rep. Ted Lieu, who asserted that Mueller did not charge President Donald Trump with a crime because of an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinion stating that a sitting president cannot be indicted. (RELATED: Mueller Starts House Intel Hearing By Correcting Major Bombshell)

Mueller initially agreed with Lieu, but later corrected himself, explaining, “That is not the correct way to say it.”

“As we say in the report, and as I said in the opening, we did not reach a determination as to whether the president committed a crime,” Mueller said.

Mueller also pushed back on New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries’ characterization of the report’s findings on obstruction of justice, stating that he doesn’t “subscribe to the way that you analyzed that.”

Lieu also attempted to reach a conclusion on whether or not the president obstructed justice – something Mueller specifically declined to do in his report — prompting a clarification from the special counsel.

“Based on the evidence we heard today, I think a reasonable person can conclude three crimes of obstruction of justice by the president occurred,” Lieu said.

Mueller replied, “Going through the elements with you does not meant that I subscribe to what you’re trying to prove through those elements.”

Finally, Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell claimed that three Trump campaign officials actively sought electoral help from Russia, to which Mueller declared, “I can’t accept that characterization.”

None of those statements, which were directly challenged by Mueller as straying from the facts laid out in the report, made their way into WaPo’s comprehensive fact check.