Top CNN ‘Fact Checker’ Spirals Over White House Website That Destroys Media’s Jan. 6 Narratives

It’s no secret that the truth can hurt. You’d think that if your paid position is a fact-checker, however, it shouldn’t hurt so much.

In fact, if that’s your job title, you should probably start searching around for new positions. If you want to be an outrage-bait artist at CNN, for example, there’s no shortage of people who seem to be making fat rolls off of that. And it helps if you’re applying within the company, too.

I mention this to Daniel Dale, the chief fact-checker at the Anderson Cooper network, who appears to have gone on a one-rage-spiral over the fact that the White House used the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol incursion to tell what really happened that day.

Dale was responding to a post by Steven Cheung, White House director of communications. “Remembering January 6, a date which will live in infamy …” he said, I’m going to assume with a twinge of sarcasm. He then added that if you want to know the truth of events, there was a link on the White House page:

Remembering January 6, a date which will live in infamy…

Want to know the TRUTH? Get all the facts here ⬇️https://t.co/auPPiUFWET

— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) January 6, 2026

And this is somewhat important — since, five years on, we still toss around the term “insurrection” as if a well-oiled machine of MAGA minions came with AR-15s and torches, ready to stop the 2020 election from being certified, all on the orders of President Donald Trump’s speech earlier that day at the Ellipse.

The website lays out what actually happened: Trump gave a speech that began at 12 p.m. and ended at 1:15 p.m., urging his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make their voices heard.”

However, by 1:10 p.m., there were already altercations at the Capitol (timing critical, as it shows these individuals not only were not, but could not be, responding to Trump’s language.)

As the website points out, overmatched Capitol Police escalated a bad situation, which wasn’t entirely their fault; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi admitted she didn’t “pre-position National Guard troops — despite President Trump’s prior authorization and offers of 10,000 troops that were rejected.”

“Video evidence shows officers inexplicably removing barricades, opening Capitol doors, and even waving attendees inside the building — actions that facilitated entry — while simultaneously deploying violent force against others. These inconsistent and provocative tactics turned a peaceful demonstration into chaos,” the website continued.

Four protesters died in the chaos that ensued — including an unarmed woman, Ashli Babbitt, shot by a Capitol Police lieutenant with a problematic job history.

Despite what you may have heard, no — I repeat, no — Capitol Police officers or other law enforcement officials died from injuries sustained in the line of duty inflicted by protesters. But then there was the crackdown, the kangaroo congressional committee, and the ludicrous legal cases.

If Dale wanted to fact-check this, this being his job and all, he could have. Instead, he decided it was high time to let everyone know that this version of Jan. 6 could be dismissed out of hand as “bananas.”

The White House has created a truly bananas up-is-down fake-history web page about what happened on January 6 and in the 2020 election. https://t.co/5fbuge4FsU

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) January 6, 2026

“The White House has created a truly bananas up-is-down fake-history web page about what happened on January 6 and in the 2020 election,” he wrote on X Wednesday afternoon.

If Dale wants to keep wringing his hands like Lady Macbeth at an Inverness Castle sink, by all means, keep at that five-year quest. I, meanwhile, shall remind myself of the late Norm Macdonald’s second-best political tweet, which sums up the events of the day nicely:

I’d rather hold a candlelit vigil to honor this magnificent Norm macdonald post on that day. https://t.co/AA8jJGtSJD pic.twitter.com/Q99escJGGM

— Darryl lee (@DarrylTheDude) January 7, 2026

Here’s the fact-check: A bunch of chaos tourists aided by incompetent planning and impotent law enforcement were unable to stop a minor incursion, which was quickly quelled. Congress was soon back doing what it was there to do, which was to certify the results of a contentious election. They would eventually do so.

No city was burned, like Minneapolis or Kenosha were less than a year prior. The Capitol itself suffered little more damage than a house party thrown by BLM might have incurred. Democracy survived another day, and another 1,828 after that, and will survive hundreds of thousands of more days into the future unless the Democrats decide it’s too inconvenient.

That’s the actual sequence of events, not the “bananas up-is-down fake-history” that our country almost fell five years ago. Thank heavens for the standards for CNN, else Daniel Dale would be checking prices and not facts. Considering how much the truth hurts, however, that might almost be beneficial for the lad.

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