House

Dems introduce bill condemning ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’

Getty Images

A group of House Democrats is turning to legislation to call out President Trump and his White House for their history of false statements and disregarding the truth.

Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) introduced a resolution that calls for “opposing fake news and alternative facts.” Democratic Reps. Ted Lieu (Calif.) and John Lewis (Ga.) signed on as co-sponsors.

If adopted, the resolution would put the House on record as stating, “the United States should continue being a democracy, not an autocracy.”

{mosads}The measure establishes the sense of the House that “the president must immediately acknowledge his support of the First Amendment and express his support for United States democracy” and “White House spokespersons should not issue fake news.”

“White House spokespersons who offer alternative or inaccurate facts should retract their statements immediately,” it adds.

The resolution cites Trump and press secretary Sean Spicer’s attempts to inflate the crowd size counts at the inauguration despite photos showing otherwise; White House counselor Kellyanne Conway citing a nonexistent “Bowling Green massacre” to justify Trump’s initial travel ban; and Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that he lost the popular vote because of illegal voting.

Conway coined the term “alternative facts” while trying to defend Spicer’s attempts to claim Trump’s inauguration had a larger crowd than it actually did.

“The most recent ‘fake news’ the American people are receiving have come from the president himself and his spokespersons,” the resolution states. 

The measure is not expected to move forward in the GOP-controlled House.

Trump has called mainstream media outlets “fake news” and “the enemy of the American people” while asserting he is a huge supporter of the First Amendment.

On Monday, Trump tweeted from his official White House account that reporters were being “rude” to his spokespeople. His tweet came after Conway had appeared on morning television to defend her claims about surveillance of Trump Tower, which she implied could have been accomplished through TVs or microwaves

Trump has not provided any evidence for his accusation that former President Barack Obama ordered a wiretapping of Trump Tower during the 2016 campaign. An Obama spokesman has strongly denied the allegation.

“It is amazing how rude much of the media is to my very hard working representatives. Be nice, you will do much better!” Trump tweeted from the @POTUS account.

Tags Barack Obama

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

See all Hill.TV See all Video

Most Popular

Load more

Video

See all Video