FACT CHECKS This series will focus upon fact checks done by recognized and reputable sources Washington Post Mar. 2. 2021 “I requested … I definitely gave the number of 10,000 National Guardsmen, and [said] I think you should have 10,000 of the National Guard ready. They took that number. From what I understand, they gave it to the people at the Capitol, which is controlled by Pelosi. And I heard they rejected it because they didn’t think it would look good. So, you know, that was a big mistake.” —Former president Donald Trump, in an interview with Steve Hilton of Fox News, Feb. 28, 2021 We’re going to try to have a high bar for fact checks of former president Donald Trump. His speech Sunday to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was mostly a replay of false claims he has said many times before, all documented in our Trump claims database. So we took a pass on that. But this is something new. Trump’s claim generated a lot of attention in right-leaning circles, especially after Fox News headlined its story: “Trump says he requested 10K National Guard troops at Capitol on day of riot.” A large majority of senators — even those who did not vote to convict him at his impeachment trial — regard Trump as responsible for the riot and believe he failed to act decisively as the violence unfolded. So it would be significant if Trump actually requested the dispatch of National Guard troops at the Capitol — especially if, as Trump suggests, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) then blocked that deployment. But it did not happen. Indeed, the official Defense Department planning and execution memo on the Jan. 6 events also makes no mention of any such discussion. Instead, it notes the possible activation of 340 National Guard troops to assist the District government with traffic control. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said officials checked the records after Trump’s remarks. “We have no record of such an order being given,” he told The Fact Checker. Like many of Trump’s falsehoods, there’s a seed of reality here. But then the former president nurtures it into a bush of fictions as part of his continuing effort to evade responsibility for how his own actions led to the Capitol Hill riot. He earns Four Pinocchios. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/02/trump-falsely-claims-he-requested-10000-troops-rejected-by-pelosi/?utm_campaign=wp_fact_checker&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_fact

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