McCarthy Lies Repeatedly In His Fox News Interview

It looks like Donald Trump has created a template for other Republicans to follow. They don't even bother with telling the truth anymore, but tell whatever lies they think will fool people into supporting them. A good example is Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. In a recent interview on Fox News, he told five lies in a seven minute period. And these weren't little white lies. They were huge and outrageous lies!

Here, from CNN.com, are the lies he told followed by the truth:

1. Trying to liken President Joe Biden's tenure to the 1970s era of former President Jimmy Carter, which was beset by inflation and oil-related challenges, McCarthy claimed that oil prices are now "the highest that we have seen." 

Facts First: McCarthy was wrong. Oil prices under Biden are not even close to the highest we have ever seen. Crude prices peaked in 2008 under Republican President George W. Bush -- more than double their level at the time McCarthy's interview aired Sunday. Crude prices were also higher at various points under Republican President Donald Trump than they were on Sunday.

2. 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."

Facts First: McCarthy was wrong again. While inflation was at a 13-year high in June and July, at a seasonally adjusted 5.3% on a year-over-year basis, it is not even close to the highest we have ever seen and not even close to the level of the late Carter era. Inflation was more than twice as high in every month of 1980 than it was in June and July of this year; its 1980 peak was 14.6%.

3. Speaking about congressional Democrats, McCarthy asked, "Why aren't they protecting the border from those 5,000 prisoners who have just left Afghanistan and -- have the hope of coming across our borders?"

Facts First: There is no basis for McCarthy's claim that 5,000 former prisoners have "just left Afghanistan" with the hope of coming to the US. And McCarthy neglected to mention that it was President Donald Trump's own 2020 deal with the Taliban -- a deal McCarthy had positive words about at the time -- in which the US agreed to let up to 5,000 Afghan prisoners go free.

4. After Bartiromo pressed McCarthy about making sure future elections are free and fair, and mentioned states that are changing their voting laws, McCarthy said, "We have watched state after state where Democrats have left the state. That is where the real difficulty lies. But now we have got them back into Texas."

Facts First: It's not true that Democrats have left "state after state" to prevent Republicans from passing changes to voting laws. Texas is the only state whose Democratic legislators left the state under Biden or Trump to deny Republicans the minimum attendance needed to pass elections legislation.

5. McCarthy said Democrats' new elections bill "would ban ID voting." (McCarthy was more explicit on Twitter on Tuesday, tweeting that the Democratic agenda is to "ban voter ID in every state.")

Facts First: It's not true that Democrats' elections bill would ban voter ID. Specifically, the Democratic bill would not prohibit states from having voter identification laws and would not prohibit states from checking the IDs of in-person voters. Rather, it would require states to give voters an alternative to showing the ID the states normally demand -- specifically, to allow voters who do not show that ID to instead submit signed statements under penalty of perjury attesting to their identity and eligibility to vote.