Liberals naturally gravitate to marking the fifth anniversary of the January 6 riot at the Capitol, and that includes the so-called "independent fact checkers." PolitiFact promoted its January 6 category page, which demonstrates their liberal narrative enforcement function. They boasted of more than 100 "fact checks," but the tilt is dramatic.
According to this topic page, there are 44 "checks" of named conservatives or Republicans, compared to just three for Democrats, almost 15 to 1. Of those 44, there were 14 "Pants On Fire" rulings, and only one is not "Mostly False" or worse. In September of 2022, then-Rep Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) drew a "Mostly True" for noting every time a Republican has been elected president over the last few decades, House Democrats have objected to the result.
Five years after the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack, politicians and influencers continue to spread falsehoods about the effort to overthrow the 2020 election. PolitiFact has written more than 100 fact-checks about Jan. 6. Find them here: https://t.co/3scuOHJQVn
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) January 6, 2026
All three Democrat checks were "Mostly False" or "False." That included former Rep. Charlie Crist claiming Ron DeSantis hadn't condemned the riot, and congressional candidate Rebecca Brooks claiming in 2022 that now-Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) "participated" in the riot. (He stood outside.)
There's no check of an actual member of Congress or President Biden or Vice President Harris on this topic page, although PolitiFact repeatedly pounced on anyone suggesting Nancy Pelosi did anything wrong. No member of the Pelosi-Picked Panel on January 6 drew any attention, including the "RINOS," suggesting those hearings were factually perfect.
Months before the committee was born, Liz Cheney drew a "Pants On Fire" rating for suggesting President Biden wasn't pouring much money into "infrastructure." She was considered a real Republican at that time.
There was no "Truth-O-Meter" rating assigned for all the claims that Capitol policeman Brian Sicknick died from "injuries" in the "pro-Trump rampage," since that appeared in The New York Times and was repeated by Anderson Cooper and Rachel Maddow. They noted the medical finding that Sicknick died of two strokes in April 2021, never to return.
Donald Trump was tagged eight times on this curated topic, and Tucker Carlson was attacked five times. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) drew several "Pants On Fire" critiques. Johnson drew one for arguing "To call what happened on January 6 an armed insurrection, I just think is not accurate." Actually, he drew two "liar liar" ratings for that argument. No shots were fired by rioters -- only by the cop fatally shooting Ashli Babbitt.
