How a Hakeem Jeffries quote about ‘maximum warfare’ spread without context
In the wake of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner attack, pundits framed the minority leader’s comment as violent rhetoric, omitting its context
After law enforcement thwarted a potential attack on the White House correspondents’ dinner with President Donald Trump and top leaders, Republican commentators accused Democrats of using violent rhetoric.
A remark by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., popped up repeatedly on TV and online.
“I heard Hakeem Jeffries say this week ‘its maximum warfare all the time,’” CNN conservative pundit Scott Jennings said April 26. “We have a violent streak on the left and a rhetoric problem on the left.”
Related Knowledge Center: Fact-checking and its detractors
Fact-checking has become a familiar tool for political reporters to hold office-holders and candidates accountable. But critics ask if fact-checkers sometimes miss the forest for the trees, and if the practice often struggles with false equivalency the way conventional political coverage does.