There are three major categories of facts. Real facts represent reality. Legal facts are used to decide legal cases, and may bear a resemblance to real facts. Political facts serve partisan interests, and range from half-truths to fantasy.
The FBI director’s testimony on July 25, 2024, that “there’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear,” provoked a bitter denunciation from a House Speaker who wants Trump to look heroic (story here).
In other words, Trump was hit by a bullet because he needs it to be a bullet, and whether it was actually a bullet or flying glass is immaterial. (The FBI now says it was a bullet, but that’s beside the point, which is that Speaker Johnson demanded it be a bullet.)
Another famous political fact is Trump’s 2020 “stolen election” claim. Republican leaders know it’s b.s., but play along because it serves their partisan interests. This being an election year, you’ll also hear political facts like these:
- Harris will raise the Social Security retirement age
- Harris will legalize abortions up to and even after birth
- Harris will ban red meat to stop climate change
- Harris orchestrated the legal cases against him
- Harris was border czar, but never went to the border
- Harris allowed 20 million migrants into the country
- Fentanyl coming through the border kills 300,000 people a year
- Harris is against the Jewish people (note: her husband is Jewish)
- Harris failed law school and the bar exam
All are Trump talking points (or just Trump talking) and, as you’d expect from him, all are false (see story here). But they fulfill a campaign need, so they’re “facts” to Republican eyes and ears. In the real world of political make-believe, that’s just how things work.