Factcheck

PolitiFact National names lies about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and its significance as the Lie of the Year.

U.S. Rep. Mary Miller from downstate Illinois compared the group of migrants heading north from the southern Mexico city of Tapachula to the population of Minneapolis, which has 430,000 residents. At most, it is 1% of that.

State Sen. Terri Bryant said three-quarters of Republicans in Illinois have been vaccinated against COVID-19. That figure is out of line with national surveys and suggests that Republicans are outpacing the state’s overall vaccination rate despite higher vaccination rates in blue counties than red ones.

The congressman mislabeled Chicago’s 1995 heat wave as the nation’s deadliest “single-day, non-war” pre-9/11 disaster and said the city is “now expecting” temperatures that high every summer. That ignores some critical facts.

Ella French’s brother and Chicago Police Supt. David Brown have both said claims circulating online that French had a child and recently returned from maternity leave are inaccurate.

During a GOP press conference ahead of a House probe into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Illinois claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in charge of all actions taken by Capitol security leadership that day. That’s highly misleading.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he wasn’t considering using American Rescue Plan Act dollars to address a major deficit in the state’s unemployment insurance fund because federal rules prohibit it. His office told us he misspoke.

The state created a program to provide healthcare benefits to noncitizens at least 55 years old who are ineligible for Medicaid. But despite assertions from Republican state Sen. Terri Bryant, those individuals must meet the same income criteria as qualifying citizens.

While jury trials were postponed until late March this year, the court system has continued its other operations during the pandemic, contrary to what Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot claimed.