Fact check: Trump makes false claims about crime, January 6 and the economy in GOP speech

Kraig Pakulski 0 180 Article rating: No rating

By Daniel Dale, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump abandoned his teleprompter in favor of impromptu musings in a speech at a retreat for House Republicans on Tuesday. And those ad-libbed Trump comments were filled with false claims.

Trump littered his meandering address with at least 18 inaccurate statements, most of which have been previously debunked. Here is a fact check of some of his assertions; this is not intended as a comprehensive list of falsehoods.

Crime

Murder in Washington, DC: Trump touted last year’s federal takeover of law enforcement in Washington, DC, and he falsely claimed the capital hasn’t had a single murder “in seven months,” though he did note the deadly attack that killed a member of the National Guard in November. In fact, there have been dozens of additional murders in Washington, DC, in the last seven months, as police statistics and Washington Post tracking show – including some in the last two weeks. Local police announced last week that a man was shot dead on December 31, another man died December 28 after being shot days prior, and a third man had been shot dead on December 27.

Where the capital ranks on crime: Trump also falsely claimed, “Washington, DC, is now the safest city in the country.” Crime data expert Jeff Asher told CNN in a text on Tuesday: “That’s obviously not true.” It’s not yet clear where the capital currently ranks compared to every other US city, since crime data takes time to trickle in from around the country, but it is abundantly clear that it’s far from the number-one safest. Asher said: “For example, DC has seen a large drop in shootings over the last two years, including potentially a further drop since mid-August, but there have still been over 100 people shot there in the last 4.5 months.”

The January 6 attack on the Capitol

The Jan. 6 committee and Trump’s speech: On the fifth anniversary of a pro-Trump mob storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump falsely claimed that the House of Representatives select committee that investigated the attack “didn’t report” that, in his speech at a Washington rally prior to the riot, he had urged people to go to the Capitol “peacefully and patriotically.” In fact, the committee explicitly mentioned the “peacefully and patriotically” comment in its official final report — but correctly noted that this remark was at odds with much of the rest of Trump’s largely combative speech. The report said: “President Trump used the phrase scripted for him by his White House speechwriters, ‘peacefully and patriotically’ once, about 20 minutes into his speech. Then he spent the next 50-or-so minutes amping up his crowd with lies about the election, attacking his own Vice President and Republican Members of Congress, and exhorting the crowd to fight.”

Pelosi and Jan. 6: Trump falsely claimed that Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who was House speaker at the time of the riot, “was offered 10,000 soldiers, National Guard soldiers, whatever you want – ‘No, I don’t want them.’” He added: “Nancy got caught when her d

SLO County Supervisors Begins New Year with Newly Reorganized Board Leadership

Kraig Pakulski 0 156 Article rating: No rating
SLO County Supervisors
Dave Alley/KEYT

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) - The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors began the new year Tuesday morning by officially appointing a new chairperson for the 2026 term.

At the top of the meeting, District 3 Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg, who has held the position of board chair over the past year, gave way to District 4 Supervisor Supervisor Jimmy Paulding.

"Today we had the reorganization of the chairmanship and the vice chair," said Ortiz-Legg. "This is a transition that we've done. It's a peaceful transition. It's a rotational amongst all five members. We get to be chairperson at one point in time, and the way that we've done it is that we've kind of gone down line one, two, three, four or five."

Next in line for the board chair for 2026 was District 4, meaning Paulding will hold the position for the next year, while District 2 Supervisor Bruce Gibson will become the vice chair.

"I'm grateful for the honor and the privilege of serving as the chair of the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors," said Paulding. "My focus is simple, clear direction, steady leadership, and making sure county government works best for the people we serve."

Ortiz-Legg explained board chair is much more than a symbolic position and the person who has the seat plays a vital role in the operation of the county government.

"The position of board chair is basically you get to oversee the agenda that the board is discussing every week when we meet," said Ortiz-Legg. "The board chair runs the meetings, gets to have the privilege of deciding the time allotment for the different subjects. Also, the board chair gets to decide what is actually on the agenda, so if there's something that they don't really want to have on the agenda, it doesn't go on the agenda, so it can be a powerful tool should one decide to use that power."

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