During yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing on President Biden’s attempt to have OSHA implement a vaccine mandate, some of the more liberal justices, including Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer, made people wonder if they’ve been watching way too much MSNBC and CNN (Sotomayor’s whopper was too big for even Politifact to attempt to defend). Naturally, all that made the Left feel like they had to find a more conservative justice to accuse of uttering a falsehood, and one was initially found in the form of Neil Gorsuch:
Gorsuch: "the flu kills hundreds of thousands of people every year"
NO IT DOES NOT. STOP GETTING YOUR MEDICAL STATS FROM FOX NEWS.
— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) January 7, 2022
Aaron Rupar was also all over it:
The flu kills about 30,000 Americans each year. I'm kinda surprised Gorsuch would broadcast his ignorance like this. I looked this up with help from Google in about 10 seconds. https://t.co/6EC0BMC0yD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 7, 2022
The transcript reads “hundreds of thousands” but it sounds like Gorsuch said “hundreds, thousands”:
Hey geniuses. You are falsely smearing Justice Gorsuch for a TRANSCRIPTION ERROR.
Listen carefully: "Flu kills, I believe, hundreds, thousands of people every year."
Correct and retract your false stories.
At 1:50:00 https://t.co/Pm3wZuB8kz pic.twitter.com/WfD21LrLWH
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 8, 2022
Media using a transcription error as an excuse to smear a conservative justice and ignore insane, over-the-top arrogance flaunted by Sotomayor and Breyer. Shameful, but unsurprising.
Too good to check… Are the fake newsers on TV just not using the clip to keep the lie going?
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 8, 2022
Recommended
Gorsuch actually understated the risk of death from flu and was misquoted by some. Sotomayor got multiple facts cartoonishly wrong and was accurately quoted doing so. These are not equivalent in any way. https://t.co/9BZF33fokN
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) January 8, 2022
Rupar is now uncertain:
Here’s the clip of the remark in question in Gorsuch. I looked it up b/c people are saying there was a transcription error. Listening to it, it’s not clear to me if he claims the flu kills “hundreds, thousands” or “hundreds of thousands” of ppl each year. pic.twitter.com/zTcc8Dy9Cl
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 8, 2022
There’s that “24 hours after the original tweet” kinda-sorta backtrack.
Rupared pic.twitter.com/Ifw6KIkJfT
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) January 8, 2022
One of @brianstelter’s most reliable sources https://t.co/9JgVkYuK55
— a newsman (@a_newsman) January 8, 2022
Aaron is not pure of heart enough to fully hear the silent "of"??? https://t.co/xID2LU9zl2
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 8, 2022
Even Aaron Rupar conceded the audio wasn't clear. Quite an admission from a hack like him.https://t.co/8WcqmCHwfJ
— Tom_B (@Tomblvd) January 8, 2022
This is clearly “hundred, thousands” not “hundreds of thousands”….I wonder if @Twitter will flag this account for false info? https://t.co/C7Pf4BpFWa
— DeLo (@DeLo_77) January 8, 2022
Don’t hold your breath.
***
Related:
For some reason, Elie Mystal and Aaron Rupar didn’t fact-check *all* of the SCOTUS justices today
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