CNN’s fact-check reporter Daniel Dale on Thursday thoroughly debunked one of Donald Trump’s latest wild claims, slamming it as “absolute bonkers nonsense” and “insane.”
Trump that day had falsely claimed to reporters that the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and storming of the U.S. Capitol was caused by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
“That’s an insane statement. That’s beyond fact-check false,” Dale said. “That is completely deranged.”
“This was a mob of pro-Trump supporters called to town, urged to be wild by Trump himself,” he went on. “Nancy Pelosi tried to protect the Capitol, tried to summon National Guard troops. Completely, absolute bonkers nonsense.”
Dale also dismissed Trump’s claim that “no guns” were there.
“There were, in fact, guns,” Dale noted. “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.”
Dale then named some of the people who were sentenced to prison for carrying firearms on Jan. 6. “This idea that’s taken hold in parts of the right, fueled by Trump, that there were no guns that day ― completely not true,” he said.
