Where are the fact-checkers? Biden lies and claims Capitol Hill protesters killed 5 cops

Politifact and Snopes.com have not yet weighed in on a casual, massive lie uttered on March 2 by Joe Biden in front of both an audience and cameras: That five police officers were killed by protesters during the Jan. 6, 2021 election protest in Washington.

That a supposed sitting president could push such an obvious and inflammatory untruth offers a testament to just how genuine a president he is.

While wrapping up remarks on infrastructure at the University of Wisconsin-Superior, Biden suggested that the incident that has come to be called the Capitol riot is what inspired Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine.

According to The New York Post, Biden was abrupt and sure of himself when he blurted: “Vladimir Putin was counting on being able to split up the United States. Look, how would you feel if you saw crowds storm and break down the doors of the British Parliament and kill five cops, injure 145 — or the German Bundestag or the Italian Parliament?

“I think you’d wonder. That’s what the rest of the world saw. It’s not who we are. And now we’re proving under pressure that we are not that country. We’re united.”

Four officers have committed suicide since Jan.6, 2021. One died of a stroke the following day. None were “killed.” The only person literally “killed” on Jan. 6 was an unarmed Trump supporter shot in the neck by a trigger-happy, black Capitol Police officer.

“[Putin] did what he did because he thought he could split NATO, split Europe and split the United States. We’re going to demonstrate to the whole world no one can split this country,” Biden said in Wisconsin.

Except that Biden had boorishly split the country already by blaming the Ukraine war on his political opponents: everyday people who came to Washington D.C. to protest an obviously corrupt government and its obviously corrupt agencies.

Republicans have been speculating that Putin took Biden’s chaotic August withdrawal from Afghanistan as a sign of weakness.

“Look, I think the precipitous withdrawal from Afghanistan was a message to people like Putin that America was rethinking our forward-leaning position in the world, and I don’t think if we’d [not] cut and run in Afghanistan, Putin would have tried this at all,” said Sen. Mitch McConnell.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted last week, “Vladimir Putin is the same person he was during our administration. The only thing that has changed is American leadership.”