Donald Trump flat-out lied to Congress and Americans last night in his talk to Congress and the country. Here are some of the lies, fact-checked immediately after the speech by political commentator Rachel Maddow.
Here is more vetting of Trump’s lies by the New York Times.
Here is more fact-checking of Trump’s lies by CBS News.
More checking of Trump’s lies by ABC News/Politifact.
The Guardian: “Trump’s talk was littered with false claims he’s been corrected on but continued to repeat.”
CD-3 House Rep. Jeff Hurd, who represents western Colorado (Photo: X/Twitter)
Colorado CD-3 House Rep. Jeff Hurd voted for a budget resolution that, if approved in the Senate, will leave Congress no other choice than to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from programs the neediest Americans depend on, including Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP/food assistance benefits), housing assistance and energy programs.
In a seismic shift against Trump’s favorable views of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump’s overt lie that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is “a dictator,” GOP Senators Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) and John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) publicly spoke out against Trump’s views.
Senator Wicker, the Ranking Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told a reporter that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a criminal who is not to be trusted in peace negotiations about Russia’s war on Ukraine.
When asked about the way the U.S. conducted peace negotiations with Russia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and specifically how the U.S. excluded Ukraine and America’s NATO allies from the talks, Senator Wicker said Ukrainians should “definitely” be at the table in any peace negotiations, and European interests should be “considered and carefully weighed.”
When Sen. Wicker was asked if Putin can be trusted in peace negotiations, Wicker answered,
“No. Putin is a war criminal and should be in jail for the rest of his life, if not executed.”
In an incredible statement the equivalent of blaming a rape victim for being raped, Trump blamed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Ukraine itself during talks with Russia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.
Ukrainian authorities were upset over not being included in Tuesday’s talks in Riyadh, but Trump dismissed the country’s concerns, saying Ukraine had “had three years to end the war,” before blaming the start of the conflict on Kyiv.
“You should have never started it,” Trump said, echoing a Kremlin talking point. The Kremlin has previously accused Ukraine of starting the war against Russia.
It is an undisputed fact that Russia invaded Ukraine unprovoked on February 24, 2022, after seizing the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014.
As false information about wildfires in Los Angeles rages online, Mark Zuckerberg is fanning the flames of disinformation.
Last week, the Meta CEO announced that the company would stop fact-checking posts on its social media sites. Meta will move to a community notes model, similar to that used by the X platform, relying on users to flag false claims rather than using professional fact-checkers, such as PolitiFact. While conceding that more “bad stuff” will appear on Meta’s platforms — Facebook, Instagram and Threads — Zuckerberg said the change was necessary to prevent “too much censorship.”
At a time when the World Economic Forum identifies disinformation as the greatest global threat, Zuckerberg is burning down the defense system of a social media company with 3.5 billion users worldwide. What could possibly motivate a move that will certainly lead to more chaos and upheaval in society?
Chart from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
The tax policies that convicted felon and President-elect Donald Trump wants to enact will raise taxes on working-class Americans, like those in Mesa County, while cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans.
Policies that raise taxes on poorer people while disproportionately benefitting wealthier people are called “regressive taxes.” A regressive tax essentially takes the most from people who can least afford it.
“I don’t belong here. I haven’t broken any laws,” says Tina, who continues to do internet shows from Mesa County Jail. (Screenshot: Rumble.com)
If you need some good news at a time when Americans have embraced racism, misogyny, vindictiveness, sexual abuse, large-scale fraud, corruption and grift as acceptable behaviors in their incoming commander-in-chief, here’s it is:
On November 25, 2024, the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission (IEC) voted to resume investigating Tina Peters (pdf) for multiple ethics charges filed against her while she was County Clerk, and not let her off the hook as a result of committing even worse crimes that landed her in prison.
Upset about a problematic microphone at his Friday, Nov. 1 rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Trump went on an extended rant about microphones that included his miming of giving oral sex to another male while standing behind a podium that bore a sign saying “Trump will fix it.” [The BJ part starts at 3:00 into the 4:05 video]
Amendment 79 would put the right to obtain an abortion into Colorado’s Constitution and repeal the existing ban on state and local government funding for abortion, so public employees can use their health insurance for abortion care. Amendment 79 will make it harder for Colorado legislators to pass laws in the future to regulate or restrict abortion in any way.
In 2023 Donald Trump openly bragged about his role in ending federal abortion rights and eliminating the long-held human right American women possessed to make decisions about their own bodies and lives.
After the 2022 Dobbs decision by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Christian nationalist majority ended Americans’ federally-guaranteed right to access abortion, Colorado’s legislature enacted a state law to protect people’s right to abortion. But since legislators can amend or repeal existing state laws, Coloradans can easily lose this right again if Republicans gain a majority in the state legislature.
Amendment 79 makes it far more difficult to eliminate the right to abortion, because only a majority of state voters can amend the state’s constitution. Thus Amendment 79 will help preserve Coloradans’ freedom to make their own personal health care decisions regarding abortion and keep the government from interfering in such decisions.
Fox News helped spread the lie being promoted by former President Trump and MAGA extremists that Venezuelan gangs were “taking over Colorado”
You’ve probably been hearing nonstop from conservative media and MAGA Republicans, including Donald Trump, that Aurora has been “taken over” by Venezuelan gangs. You might be confused why this information continues to spread even though it has repeatedly¹ been² proven³ false. You might also be wondering what the truth is – the actual ground truth stripped of the politics.
I wouldn’t blame you. This whole thing has been a confusing mess with plenty of misinformation. So let’s look at the facts without the games.
Mesa County’s die-hard, Trump-loving Republicans probably won’t want to hear this, but Donald Trump admitted in a September 3, 2024 interview with Lex Fridman that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden “by a whisker.” The full interview of Trump is 1 hour and 4 minutes long. The admission that he lost the 2020 election starts at 10:41 in the interview.
And this is not the only time Trump has admitted this, either.
During a visit to the southern border in Arizona last August, he acknowledged that he lost the election, saying he “came up a little short.”
Trump’s admissions come after years in which he relentlessly lied to his supporters by claiming he was robbed of victory in the 2020 election due to widespread voter fraud, a claim that he’s never proven. Despite this, millions of Americans believed him.
Tina Peters at her trial in Mesa County
Following are the findings of the jury returned at 5:20 p.m. this afternoon in the criminal case of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters:
Count 1 – Attempt to influence a public servant – Jesse Romero (employee of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office) – GUILTY
Count 2 – Attempt to influence a public servant – David Underwood (employee of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office) – GUILTY
Count 3 – Conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, April 23-May 18, 2021 – NOT GUILTY
Count 4 – Attempt to influence a public servant – Danny Casias (employee of the Colorado Secretary of State’s office) – GUILTY
Count 5 – Criminal impersonation May 23-27, 2021 – NOT GUILTY
Count 6 – Conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation – May 23-27, 2021 – GUILTY
Count 7 – Identity theft – NOT GUILTY
Count 8 – First degree official misconduct – guilty on all options on interrogatories
Count 9 – Violation of Duty – GUILTY
Count 10 – Failure to comply with requirements of the Secretary of State’s office – GUILTY with all interrogatories proven beyond a reasonable doubt
Peters’ sentencing is scheduled for October 3, 2024, at 9:00 a.m.
The stakes couldn’t be higher for the entire country, as Trump supporters have created comprehensive plan to curtail American freedoms, impose Christian ideals on all citizens and end human and civil rights as we’ve known them in America if Trump re-takes the presidency in the November general election.
…courtesy of the TheSystemMechanic on You Tube.
Stephen D. Daniels, new Chair of the Mesa County Board of Public Health, violated Colorado Title 25 by giving control over the health department’s budget to the elected county commissioners. No provision in the state public health law permits that.
When the Mesa County Commissioners had the Board of Health (BOH) sign their new Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA), the commissioners, County Attorney Todd Starr and all 7 members of the new BOH all either knowingly or unknowingly violated Colorado Revised Statute Title 25, Article 1, Part 5(k).
For those who are wondering when Tina Peters’ next appearances in court will be on her various cases, above is her current Mesa County court docket for the next 6 months.
Truth & Liberty Coalition fliers seek to influence the local school board election by focusing on right wing culture war issues. The fliers were placed at La Milpa Tortilleria on 30 Road.
High-quality, multi-colored, bilingual fliers created by the front range Christian dominionist group Truth & Liberty Coalition are showing up at businesses around town. The fliers use right wing culture war rhetoric targeting gay and transgender students in an attempt to influence the outcome of the November 7 District 51 School Board election. The fliers appear to endorse CynDee Skalla, Jessica Hearns and Barbara Evanson.
The fliers were found at La Milpa Tortilla Factory in Grand Junction and are bilingual in English and Spanish.
When their behaviors as elected officials are compared, Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland and former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters have more in common than people may realize:
