BUSTED: PolitiFact Gets Caught Lying (Again) About Hillary Clinton's Gun Control Record

PolitiFact, a website “that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics,” recently published an article that purported to fact-check one of the NRA’s political mailers regarding Secretary Hillary Clinton’s push for gun confiscation in America.

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Warren Fiske, who wrote the “article,” tried refuting the NRA’s claims by utilizing Secretary Clinton’s entire answer to a question in a New Hampshire town hall meeting. Mrs. Clinton was asked: “Australia managed to take away tens of thousands – millions – of handguns and in one year they were all gone. Can we do that and why? If we can’t, why not?”

Secretary Clinton responded with the following answer:

Now (U.S.) communities have done that; communities have done gun buyback programs. But I think it would be worth considering doing that on the national level if that could be arranged.

Clinton, in her own words, said she would consider a gun buyback program on a national level. Somehow, Fiske took this as the NRA twisting Clinton’s words.

The NRA and other pro-gun groups instantly seized on Clinton’s comment, saying the buyback program Clinton lauded is tantamount to a confiscation program, because it backed many gun owners into a corner: They either could sell their firearms to the government or risk prosecution for keeping them. It was, the NRA says, “an offer gun owners could not refuse.”

Of course the NRA and the gun owners are going to “seize” on Clinton’s comment. Australia’s gun buyback program was not voluntary, as Fiske tries claiming in his so-called “fact checking.” Anyone found to be in possession of an illegal weapon could face 10 years in jail.

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Fiske has been accused of overt political bias before:

Under Fiske’s leadership, the site has faced mounting criticism from the state GOP for perceived bias against Republican Senate candidate George Allen and Gov. Bob McDonnell. In July [2012], the party released a comprehensive study of Politifact VA’s rating system that found that the site targeted Republicans over Democrats by a wide margin and used subjective analysis to give the GOP more false ratings.

“This type of biased reporting is why Americans no longer trust the media. We have Hillary Clinton on video tape answering a direct question about the Australia gun ban and confiscation program saying, ‘it’s worth considering.’ The blatant disregard for the facts in an attempt to help Clinton hide her true agenda is an embarrassment to legitimate journalists,” said NRA Spokesperson Catherine Mortensen.

Here’s what the NRA found when looking into Fiske’s claims:

PolitiFact Claim: “We asked the NRA if it had any other evidence that it believes shows Clinton is open to gun confiscation. A spokeswoman for the gun group’s lobbying arm questioned whether that was “relevant” to our fact-check and didn’t provide an answer.”

Fact: The NRA ad was referring only to Hillary’s comments at the New Hampshire town hall meeting. The NRA made no other claims about any other Hillary comments on the subject. So, to bring in other instances is irrelevant to this factcheck.

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The mailer focused on Clinton’s comments at the New Hampshire town hall. Asking for any other “proof” is irrelevant.

PolitiFact Claim: “…there’s an element of truth to the NRA’s statement, but it ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. That makes it Mostly False.” 

Fact: PolitiFact ignored Hillary Clinton’s actual words when asked a direct question. That question was to determine her opinion on the Australia program. She answered that question saying “…it’s worth considering.” PolitiFact ignores Clinton’s answer to the voter’s question and accepts her staff ‘s clean up spin at face value. 

If Fiske carefully looked at Clinton’s words like he claims he did, he would come to the same conclusion the NRA did: Hillary is for Australia-style gun confiscation. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.

Conclusion: PolitiFact had the relevant information necessary to fact-check the NRA ad. They ignored the facts and instead twisted the information to fit the Hillary campaign’s false narrative about guns. PolitiFact has been co-opted by the mainstream media and is 100 percent biased in this fact-checker on Hillary Clinton’s stated position that Australia-style gun confiscations are “worth considering.”

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Bearing Arms Conclusion: Politifact has a long history of partisan political bias, and serves as little more than apologists for progressive political politics. Warren Fiske is just one bad egg is a thoroughly rotten, and completely partisan propaganda outlet masquerading as a fact-checking service.

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