Newt Gingrich Can't Handle The Truth

Former Congressman Newt Gingrich, who is widely rumored to be at least considering a run for President has released a new web advertisement attacking the Immigration legislation currently being discussed in the House and Senate. Mr. Gingrich begins the ad by stating:

Mohamed Atta, and several other 9/11 hijackers were in the United States illegally.

Photographs of Mr. Atta and other hijackers appear with ILLEGALLY slanted across the screen in large red type.

While dramatic, Mr. Gingrich's assertion is false. According to the 9/11 Commission Report all of the 9/11 hijackers entered the United States by negotiating the legal process for doing so. From the commission's Staff Statement No. 1:

As we know from the sizable illegal traffic across our land borders, a terrorist could
attempt to bypass legal procedures and enter the United States surreptitiously. None of
the 9/11 attackers entered or tried to enter our country this way.

As Where's the Outrage points out this information is easily accessible and it is difficult to believe that Mr. Gingrich would be unaware that his statement is less than truthful.

Initial media coverage of Mr. Gingrich's new video has been spotty to say the least. ABC's Political Radar Blog gets the story correct under the headline - Gingrich Rewrites 9/11 History in Immigration Ad. CBS mentions the video and the fact that it is "not entirely accurate" in its Pure Horse Race Blog, readers must follow a link to the ABC posting in order to have the inaccuracies revealed. The AP fails to mention that Mr. Gingrich begins with a lie, despite describing his opening remarks.

Politicians will continue to make misleading and false statements as the Presidential Race stretches out over the coming year; it will be of the utmost importance that the media report on the veracity of those statements instead of passing them along as the truth.