copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-12): House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday he is calling on his committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, even as they have yet to prove allegations he directly profited off his son’s foreign business deals. [...] But McCarthy is facing an increasingly impatient right flank among House Republicans. His announcement came just hours before conservative Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz – who has been agitating for the effort to formally launch an impeachment inquiry – brought forward a motion to remove McCarthy as speaker if he does not comply with his list of demands. [...] According to a GOP source, McCarthy’s announcement that he’s "directing committees" to open a formal inquiry means there will be no floor vote to formally authorize the effort – marking a reversal for the House speaker from comments he previously made. McCarthy had been weighing skipping an impeachment inquiry vote – and received criticism from Democrats for being hypocritical, since he once criticized Democrats for contemplating the same – McCarthy then gave a statement to Breitbart vowing to hold a floor vote if they go that route.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-13): WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced Tuesday he is directing the U.S. House to open an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over his family’s business dealings, launching historic proceedings ahead of the 2024 election. [...] The White House and others pointed to McCarthy’s past statements when he insisted a speaker acting unilaterally to launch an impeachment inquiry would have no legitimacy. McCarthy "flipflopped because he doesn’t have support," Sams said. An inquiry is a step toward impeachment, which used to be rare, and McCarthy essentially outlined the potential charges ahead. With Donald Trump now the Republican front-runner to challenge Biden in next year’s election, GOP allies are working to detract attention from the indicted former president’s legal challenges and turn a negative spotlight on Biden.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-18): FACT CHECK: Did Kevin McCarthy Make ‘Several Unproven Claims’ In His Impeachment Inquiry Announcement? [...] NEW: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made several unproven claims Tuesday while announcing the opening of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden [...] The claim that McCarthy made "several unproven claims" though is misleading. CNN’s own fact-check notes that at least three of the claims are true. The CNN article fact-checks six statements made by McCarthy during his announcement.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-01-23): Since winning a difficult battle to become speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy has made public claims that are misleading, lacking any evidence or plain wrong. [...] Schiff said last week in a statement to CNN: "Kevin McCarthy continues to falsely assert I know the Ukraine whistleblower. Let me be clear – I have never met the whistleblower and the only thing I know about their identity is what I have read in press. McCarthy’s real objection is we proved the whistleblower’s claim to be true and impeached Donald Trump for withholding millions from Ukraine to extort its help with his campaign." Schiff also made this comment to The Washington Post, which fact-checked the McCarthy claim last week, and has consistently said the same since late 2019. [...] McCarthy could have fairly repeated Republican criticism of a claim Schiff made in a 2019 television appearance about the committee’s communication with the whistleblower; Schiff said at the time "we have not spoken directly with the whistleblower" even though it soon emerged that the whistleblower had contacted the committee aide before filing the complaint. (A committee spokesperson said at the time that Schiff had been merely trying to say that the committee hadn’t heard actual testimony from the whistleblower, but that Schiff acknowledged his words "should have been more carefully phrased to make that distinction clear.")
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2021-11-20): McCarthy’s speech contained far too many claims for us to try to check all of them; he talked about everything from the war in Afghanistan to the menu at McDonald’s. But here is a look at some of the claims that were inaccurate or lacking key context. [...] Blaming Democrats for high gas prices, McCarthy claimed that they "banned oil and gas." Moments later, he narrowed his claim to make it, "They banned drilling for oil and gas." [...] It’s not clear what McCarthy was even talking about here, and McCarthy’s office didn’t respond to a request for an explanation, but we can still safely say the claim is inaccurate.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-13): Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced on Sept. 12 that he would direct the House to open a formal impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden. [...] In his announcement of the impeachment inquiry, McCarthy made numerous claims about what the House Republicans have discovered about Biden’s activities that he said "warrant[s] further investigation by the House of Representatives." [...] McCarthy didn’t mention it in his remarks announcing the impeachment inquiry, but Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania did at a press conference that day.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-18): FACT CHECK: Did Kevin McCarthy Make ‘Several Unproven Claims’ In His Impeachment Inquiry Announcement?
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-07-25): Speaking to CNN on Tuesday, McCarthy signaled that Republicans have yet to verify the most salacious allegations against Biden, namely that as vice president he engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national in order to benefit his son Hunter Biden’s career, an allegation the White House furiously denies. But he said that launching an impeachment inquiry would unleash the full power of the House to turn over critical information, mirroring an argument advanced by House Democrats when they impeached then-President Donald Trump in 2019. "How do you get to the bottom of the truth? The only way Congress can do that is go to an impeachment inquiry," McCarthy said Tuesday, stopping short of formally moving to open such a probe. [...] During a private leadership meeting on Tuesday, McCarthy stressed the difference between opening an impeachment inquiry and actually voting to impeach someone – an important distinction that could be key to convincing moderates skeptical of impeachment to back a formal inquiry. Still, McCarthy fielded questions from members during the meeting about how this could impact the party’s more vulnerable members.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-01-23): Since winning a difficult battle to become speaker of the House of Representatives, Republican Kevin McCarthy has made public claims that are misleading, lacking any evidence or plain wrong. [...] Schiff said last week in a statement to CNN: "Kevin McCarthy continues to falsely assert I know the Ukraine whistleblower. Let me be clear — I have never met the whistleblower and the only thing I know about their identity is what I have read in press. McCarthy’s real objection is we proved the whistleblower’s claim to be true and impeached Donald Trump for withholding millions from Ukraine to extort its help with his campaign." Schiff also made this comment to The Washington Post, which fact-checked the McCarthy claim last week, and has consistently said the same since late 2019. [...] McCarthy could have fairly repeated Republican criticism of a claim Schiff made in a 2019 television appearance about the committee’s communication with the whistleblower; Schiff said at the time "we have not spoken directly with the whistleblower" even though it soon emerged that the whistleblower had contacted the committee aide before filing the complaint. (A committee spokesperson said at the time that Schiff had been merely trying to say that the committee hadn’t heard actual testimony from the whistleblower, but that Schiff acknowledged his words "should have been more carefully phrased to make that distinction clear.")
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2021-08-25): House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy made at least five false claims during a seven-minute Sunday interview on Fox News. [...] On the Friday before McCarthy made this claim, the price of benchmark Brent crude fell below $66 a barrel. That is less than half of the all-time high of more than $147 a barrel in 2008. Further, Brent crude was well above $66 a barrel at various points in 2018 and 2019 under Trump, briefly exceeding $84. [...] McCarthy claimed that there is now "inflation at a number we have not seen." He then described the Biden era as "Jimmy Carter on steroids."
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-13): House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made several unproven claims Tuesday while announcing the opening of a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. [...] Here’s a breakdown of some of the claims at the heart of the impeachment inquiry that McCarthy referenced on Tuesday. [...] In response to McCarthy launching the impeachment inquiry, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel’s Office, said in a statement to CNN, "House Republicans have been investigating the President for 9 months, and they’ve turned up no evidence of wrongdoing. His own Republican members have said so. He vowed to hold a vote to open impeachment, now he flip flopped because he doesn’t have support. This is extreme politics at its worst."
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-12): On Tuesday morning, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) announced that he was authorizing an impeachment inquiry into President Biden. [...] What’s important about McCarthy’s claim is that it transfers the credibility of the informant to the allegation, which isn’t warranted. The informant was conveying to the bureau a conversation they had with Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. In the interview, transcribed in the released document, the informant states that Zlochevsky might simply be blowing hot air and that they, the informant, had no way of knowing that such a bribe occurred. In fact, at another point, Zlochevsky denied any interaction with Joe Biden. [...] After eight months in the majority in the House, though, Republican investigators have not been able to substantiate most of the allegations above, much less prove them. McCarthy’s willingness to overstate the scale, extent and importance of what his allies have uncovered would seem to bode poorly for the reliability and credibility of the impeachment inquiry he has now approved.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2024-03-25): At every turn, Johnson assured me that he would "follow the Constitution," no matter what Trump or anyone else demanded. Yet in Johnson’s hands the Constitution’s dictates always appear to coincide with his politics. Reparations violated the Constitution. The Freedom Caucus’s obstructionism violated the intentions of the Founders. The Democrat-led impeachments of Trump were an attack on "the Constitutional order." The Supreme Court, in Moore v. Harper, misread the Constitution. But the Republican inquiry into impeaching Biden was a solemn constitutional "duty," as was the impeachment of Mayorkas. Johnson even invoked his authority as a constitutional expert during the competition to succeed McCarthy. Some Republicans proposed fully empowering Patrick McHenry, a popular lawmaker who, after McCarthy’s ouster, had become the interim Speaker. Such a move could have blocked Johnson’s path. Several people present at internal meetings told me that Johnson had brought up convoluted arguments about the constitutional role of the Senate president pro tempore to object—regretfully—that empowering an interim Speaker would be unconstitutional.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-07-31): Some Republicans have denounced their colleagues’ push to impeach Biden, as the effort risks possible hypocrisy claims since the GOP widely criticized Trump’s two impeachments. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) accused McCarthy of engaging in "impeachment theater," in an interview with CNN, telling host Dana Bash he believes McCarthy is floating the impeachment inquiry to placate Republican lawmakers who believe the government spending cuts he agreed to with Biden during the debt ceiling negotiations did not go far enough. Some Republican senators have also suggested the impeachment talk is a distraction from other issues, including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who told reporters she wants the Senate and the House to focus on Congress’ annual defense spending bill that’s currently being negotiated in both chambers. McCarthy watered down the statements he made to Hannity in the wake of the criticism, telling reporters Tuesday "I wasn’t announcing it" and noting the House investigations into Biden’s conduct are ongoing.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2019-12-18): In fact, how it even began to look even further was, on September 24, the Speaker announced an impeachment inquiry even before seeing the call transcript that we are going to hear so much about today. [...] Trump. Prior to the start of this inquiry, Speaker Pelosi claimed that the impeachment must be compelling, overwhelming, and bipartisan. The impeachment inquiry was announced less than 3 months ago, and what we know is that the process has been fast, faulty, and flawed. [...] If the House impeaches here, Madam Speaker, it will create exactly the type of risk the Framers cautioned us to avoid: It will mean that divided government can imperil a democratically elected President based on unproven allegations and innuendo in the absence of direct testimony.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2024-02-26): House Republicans, from left, Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Jason Smith make a statement to reporters about their impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 5, 2023. (AP) [...] When Republicans announced a formal impeachment inquiry into Biden in September, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy listed Smirnov’s claims among the "serious and credible allegations" against Biden. [...] After Smirnov’s indictment, Comer said in a statement to PolitiFact that the impeachment inquiry "is not reliant" on Smirnov’s claims. Jordan also walked back his earlier statement.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2020-12-07): Claims, Wash. Post (Nov. 10, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/ [...] Unsubstantiated Claims on Confidence in Elections, https://cpb-us- e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.dartmouth.edu/dist/5/2293/files/2021/03/voter- fraud.pdf?_sm_au_=iHV4TH4F6TNDzFH7FcVTvKQkcK8MG.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-28): Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy walks back into his office after announcing an impeachment inquiry against U.S. President Joe Biden to members of the news media at the U.S. Capitol on September 12, 2023 in Washington, DC. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced September 12 he is calling on his committees to open a formal impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, even as they have yet to prove allegations he directly profited off his son’s foreign business deals. [...] But Biden’s advisers believe the inquiry announced by McCarthy could be used to their advantage if Republicans are viewed as overstepping in their claims or shirking their governing responsibilities, according to officials who laid out their plans.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-07): The current onslaught from Trump coincides with a broader effort, as House Republicans have supplied a steady drumbeat of disclosures about Hunter Biden, with hard-liners pushing Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) toward opening an impeachment inquiry against the president, though they have not specified what it would focus on. Some House Republicans acknowledge the current evidence doesn’t implicate the elder Biden.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-13): McCarthy argued that the impeachment inquiry was the "logical" next step amid Republican claims – so far unproven – that Biden was enriched by his son Hunter’s business ventures when he was vice president. Impeachment did seem to be a logical next step – but less from an evidentiary perspective than a political one, with the effort pushed by hardline Republicans, including many members who voted not to certify Biden’s 2020 victory. The House GOP majority, which has remained in thrall to Trump, now serves as an arm of his bid to win back the White House next year. [...] McCarthy did not cite any evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden when he made the announcement of an impeachment inquiry. And he did not put the decision to a vote of the full House – as he once said he would and for which he once criticized then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi for not doing – amid signs that more moderate Republicans critical to his hopes of keeping the majority fear they could pay a price for the move in 2024. [...] In justifying his decision, McCarthy argued that an impeachment inquiry could unlock investigative powers not available to his majority in the normal course of business. But it is not clear that this is true. And absent stronger evidence of presidential wrongdoing at the outset, it’s harder for him to rebut accusations that he’s a weak speaker acting to save his own political skin. His tenure so far has been a procession of concessions to hardline "Make America Great Again" conservatives as he struggles to govern – and the impeachment bid seems to fit this pattern.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-01-18): McCarthy’s beef with Schiff is even weaker. He claims that Schiff "lied to the American public" about whether he knew the whistleblower who triggered the impeachment investigation into whether President Donald Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to launch an investigation of Joe Biden in exchange for a promised White House meeting and delivery of U.S. military aid. [...] "Kevin McCarthy continues to falsely assert I know the Ukraine whistleblower," Schiff said in a statement to The Fact Checker. "Let me be clear — I have never met the whistleblower and the only thing I know about their identity is what I have read in press. McCarthy’s real objection is we proved the whistleblower’s claim to be true and impeached Donald Trump for withholding millions from Ukraine to extort its help with his campaign." Schiff added: "It is predictable and sad that McCarthy has to smear other members of the House to retain the support of his QAnon conference members. The Intelligence Committee membership is too serious a business to be the subject of partisan slander — we have important work to do to keep the country safe and it’s a shame that means so little to the new speaker." McCarthy further has claimed that Schiff put the country "through an impeachment that he knew was a lie." We’re not sure what he means by that. One can argue — as Republicans often did — that the transcript of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky showed that the president did not flatly suggest a quid pro quo.
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-13): House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday ordered an impeachment inquiry into the president’s alleged involvement in his son Hunter Biden’s business deals in countries such as China and Ukraine. [...] House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry Tuesday into President Biden — turbocharging congressional power to acquire documents and testimony about Biden’s role in his family’s foreign business dealings while he was vice president. [...] However, in his announcement opening the impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, McCarthy asserted: "Eyewitnesses have testified that the president joined on multiple phone calls and had multiple interactions. Dinners resulted in cars and millions of dollars into his sons and his son’s business partners."
Claim: CNN published an article claiming Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy made "several unproven claims" in his impeachment inquiry announcement. (CNN, 2023-09-13)
Evidence (2023-09-13): The way these things generally work is that enough members of a party ultimately fall in line, for fear of embarrassing their leadership and party. But members like the 18 House Republicans in districts Biden won in 2020 have their own careers to think about. And it’s not clear McCarthy even had the votes for an inquiry; he promised less than two weeks ago that the House would vote on one, but then flip-flopped on Tuesday and launched it unilaterally. [...] He told Forbes in an interview published Monday that he is "not seeing facts or evidence at this point" that would warrant an impeachment inquiry, calling it "premature." He also told The Washington Post in July that the House should instead focus on things like appropriations bills. [...] But then McCarthy did arguably launch into "impeachment activity" via the inquiry. And Hill indicated Tuesday that he supported the inquiry.