Rep. Mike Walt (R-FL) took no prisoners going on CNN to shred the network’s notoriously unreliable and shoddy fact-checker Daniel Dale, who said the Republican congressman’s electric tank remarks were “pure fiction” at the Republican National Convention, which wrapped on Thursday (via HuffPo):
Rep. Mike Waltz’s (R-Fla.) claim that Biden is focused on electrifying tanks is “pure fiction,” Dale said. “Various speakers depicted a country with rampant crime and violence without acknowledging that violent crime is now lower than it was during Donald Trump’s last year in office,” he added.
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) July 18, 2024
Rep. Waltz went back on CNN, brought the facts, and embarrassed the network’s fact-checking department for being nothing more than Democratic Party operatives. The Florida Republican said that there was no way Dale could have analyzed the U.S. Army’s budget in the timeframe, which ended with him smearing the congressman as a liar. Waltz rightly shredded Dale for misleading the public (via Daily Wire):
This is how it's done! @michaelgwaltz fact checking the fake facts checker at CNN. And brilliantly done with a smile on his face and passion in his voice.
— L A R R Y (@LarryOConnor) July 19, 2024
Hey @ddale8, where's Rep. Waltz's apology? pic.twitter.com/bSRrXEZI4z
Waltz pushed back first in a post on X, sharing an article from Inside Defense with the comment, “‘The Army intends to field all-electric tanks by 2050, a top service energy and environment official told Inside Defense.’ You can retract your ‘fact-check’ from TV last night on my speech.”
Waltz took it a step further during a follow-up appearance on CNN, where he argued that Dale should not have delivered a fact-check on national television if he did not have all of the facts himself.
Waltz brought Dale into the conversation, prompting his interviewer to read back what he’d said about Biden “focusing on building electric tanks” and noting that it appeared to come from an Army climate strategy plan that mentioned going electric with tactical vehicles.
“Wrong,” Waltz cut him off, citing a Bloomberg report and testimony from the Secretary of the Army — along with a budget report indicating that funding was being set aside for development — and argued that Dale should sit down with some of the same people he had if he really wanted the facts.
The interviewer tried to object, saying that Dale would probably be happy to speak with anyone — but Waltz pointed out that he should have done so before he called into question the “credibility” of a sitting member of Congress on live television.
Nicely done, congressman.
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