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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,754 published reviews in this topic

PolitiFactPolitics & government

"Derrick Van Orden is one of the only members of Congress who participated in the deadly January 6th insurrection. He now serves in the building he tried to burn down."

Publisher’s rating: Mostly False

The supplied research from related reporting offers limited evidence about the claim’s Jan. 6 setting. A profile of Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden says he “attended the Jan. 6, 2021, rally before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.” This supports the narrower fact that he was at the rally before the attack; the excerpt does not say that he entered the Capitol, took part in the assault, or tried to burn the building. The research does not substantiate the claim’s further assertions that Van Orden was among the “only” members of Congress who participated in the insurrection or that he now serves in a building he tried to burn down. The excerpt gives no count or comparison of lawmakers’ conduct, and it supplies no evidence about an attempt by Van Orden to set fire to the Capitol. It therefore cannot establish those allegations or the claim’s characterization of his congressional service.