Fact-checking the McGovern-Lovvorn Congressional debate

By Brad Petrishen

Posted Oct 24, 2020 

WORCESTER - Longtime U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern and his second-time challenger, Tracy Lovvorn, accused each other of misrepresenting facts and fearmongering during their debate Tuesday evening.

The Telegram & Gazette this week asked both campaigns to provide support or opposition for the factual basis of numerous contested statements made by both candidates.

The T&G then evaluated the information provided in light of public information and reporting to produce the following fact-checks of those statements:

The claim: Lovvorn accused McGovern of sending an email “full of lies” calling her racist, saying she was full of hate, and telling people she was part of a bizarre cult.

The facts: The email did not expressly call Lovvorn racist. It did allege that Lovvorn “wants to help Trump spread his racism.” It accused her of running her Twitter account like Trump - with hatred - and its title intimated she was a supporter of QAnon, which, according to The Associated Press, is a conspiracy theory centered on the belief that Trump is waging a secret campaign against enemies in the “deep state” and a child sex trafficking ring run by satanic pedophiles and cannibals.

Lovvorn, asked by the T&G specifically whether she supported QAnon or not, said she was “QAnon aware,” adding that there were crazy elements to the following, but that some, regarding Jeffrey Epstein, had been “validated.”

The claim: McGovern, in defending his email during the debate, maintained that Lovvorn had, on social media, called Democrats a “disgusting lot,” had accused them of hating the country, had said on Twitter that Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris was only chosen because she was Black, had liked a tweet saying late civil rights icon John Lewis did nothing other than get himself beat up, and accused Black Lives Matter of being a Marxist, terrorist organization.

Lovvorn replied that McGovern was lying about everything, with the exception being that she did call Black Lives Matter a Marxist group.

The facts: Lovvorn’s statement about McGovern lying is not correct. She did make the remarks McGovern alleged, though there is also context to the remarks that is noteworthy.

1. “Disgusting lot” - Lovvorn used the phrase in a tweet in which she criticized Netflix for airing a controversial program, “Cuties,” that opponents argued sexualized children. She criticized Democrats for not speaking out against the show, ending the tweet with “Disgusting lot.”

Lovvorn told the T&G she stands by the comment, saying only one Democrat spoke against the program, despite, she noted, former President Barack Obama having a relationship with the streaming service.

2. “Hates our Country” - Lovvorn used the phrase, “This new dem party hates our Country” when sharing an article about House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The article referenced a comment, widely panned by conservatives, Pelosi made that referred to a peace deal Trump brokered between Israel and the United Arab Emirates as a “distraction” from COVID-19. Lovvorn was far from the only Republican to seize on the remark as evidence that Democrats will oppose anything Trump does.

3. “Skin color and sex” - After Biden selected Harris, Lovvorn tweeted the Harris was only selected “based on skin color and sex. #BackwardsProgress”.

Before Biden selected Harris, his campaign let it be known he would choose a woman, and that he had multiple women of color under consideration. He faced political pressure to appoint a Black woman over the summer.

Citing those facts, Lovvorn defended her tweet, writing, “If Jim has a problem with this being a ‘racist’ statement, he needs to take that up with (Biden) and his party leadership.”

4. “Did nothing other than get beat up” - Lovvorn liked a tweet in which a person wrote that civil rights icon John Lewis “did nothing other than get beat up and throw that experience away” because, they alleged, he failed to decry Black-on-Black violence in Chicago.

Lovvorn defended her “like,” saying she agreed with the person “calling out the hypocrisy and for bringing attention to the severe, ongoing problems experienced in Chicago.” She said she has consistently stated that “for Black Lives to TRULY Matter, ALL Black Lives need to matter.”

Lovvorn also noted that the tweet she “liked” was a response to an original tweet she posted that reads “RIP @RepJohnLewis, Thank you sir.”

Lewis, who promoted nonviolent protest throughout his life, represented Georgia.

5. “TERRORIST organization”- Lovvorn tweeted, in response to people chanting to “burn things down” during racial protests, that Black Lives Matter is a “well funded, organized, Marxist, TERRORIST organization.”

At the debate, Lovvorn said - correctly - that multiple founders of the organization Black Lives Matter were self-described Marxists. She left out her use of the word “terrorist,” a label that some police officers - including the head of the Minneapolis police union - have used to describe the group.

Newsweek reported in 2018 that the FBI had designated “black identity extremists” as a bigger threat than Al Queda and white supremacists. That led to criticism from various groups - including the nation’s largest group of black police leaders - and the FBI stopped using the term “black identity extremists” in 2019, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Multiple fact-checkers, including PolitFact and the Brookings Institution, have labeled the “terrorist” designation false.

FBI Director Christipher Wray,  testifying in front of Congress last month, said his agency “doesn’t really think” of right and left when it comes to violent extremists, which the FBI now lumps together in a group called “racially motivated violent extremists.”

Wray did say that “within the racially-motivated violent extremists bucket, people subscribing to some kind of white supremacist-type ideology is certainly the biggest chunk of that.”

Asked specifically about Black Lives Matter, he replied, “We don’t characterize them one way or the other.”

The claim: Lovvorn said the Green New Deal referenced cows and hamburgers, which McGovern said was not true.

The facts: The text of the act doesn’t specifically reference cows or hamburgers. As Lovvorn pointed out, architects of the bill have discussed issues regarding emissions from cows, but that did not translate into language about cows in the bill, though there is language about emissions from agriculture. 

The claim: Lovvorn said McGovern votes with Pelosi 99% of the time.

The facts: This is true, according to ProPublica.

The claim: Lovvorn said the U.S. has met the conditions of the Paris climate agreement despite its withdrawal.

The facts: NPR, The Washington Post and a Pultizer-prize-winning climate news nonprofit have all reported this year that the country is not on track to meet the Paris agreement, largely as a result of Trump’s policies.

The claim: McGovern criticized Senate leader Mitch McConnell for leaving the Heroes Act, which would provide coronavirus relief, “collecting dust” on his desk for the last six months. Lovvorn said the bill, along with a second iteration, were in fact unrealistic Democrat wish lists, that would, among other things, implement the Green New Deal, eliminate voter ID provisions for federal elections and result in violent criminals being released from prison.

The facts: While the Heroes Act has been collecting dust for months, it’s been widely reported as dead on arrival for being too partisan.

As McGovern referenced Tuesday, a scaled-back second version of the bill passed in September, but it did so only by seven votes, with 18 Democrats, many saying it was still too partisan, voting nay.

Reporting from USA Today confirms Lovvorn’s statement about the bill seeking to eliminate voter ID provisions in federal elections.

Reporting from PolitiFact also confirms a statement Lovvorn made about immigrants in the country illegally receiving money as a result of the bill (as long as they pay taxes).

With respect to releasing prisoners, the bill itself says only nonviolent prisoners could be eligible for release because of COVID-19 concerns. The issue is often subjective, as many in law enforcement argue such orders end up releasing people who are, in fact, violent.

Lovvorn’s claim about the Green New Deal did not appear to be substantiated by media reports of the legislation, and she did not provide any evidence for it.

The claim: Lovvorn said just 5% of the U.S. population accounts for half of the nation’s health-care costs.

The facts: This is true, both candidates agree. The candidates disagree - as do many experts - about the efficacy of the Affordable Care Act.

The claim: Lovvorn said the state, in allowing people to request ballots online, isn’t requiring them to submit signatures, and can have the ballots sent wherever they choose.

The facts: This is true, though state officials Friday said the online system is arguably better when it comes to detecting fraud than the traditional mail-in route.

Debra O’Malley, spokesperson for Secretary of State William Galvin, noted Friday that IP addresses can be tracked for these applications, which can aid in prosecution if fraud was suspected.

O’Malley said the state has not received reports of any abuse of the system. People are still required to sign ballots they requested online, and clerks have been advised to check those signatures against the most recent signature on file - often a voter registration, O’Malley said.

For mail-in ballots that were requested by mail, the ballot signatures are checked against the signatures used on the mail-in ballot application, which does require a signature.

Republicans in Massachusetts and nationwide say they believe mail-in voting is rife for fraud. Many fact-checkers say this is false, though other outlets, such as The Atlantic, have opined that the possibility of mistakes and logistical errors could be concerning in a close election.

As McGovern noted at the debate, a voter fraud commission Trump created after his election was disbanded after it reportedly found no evidence. The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., this summer opined that the benefits of mail-in voting outweigh the risks.

The claim: Lovvorn said McGovern, who pledged to stress bipartisanship when he took over as chairman of the powerful House Committee on Rules, has instead allowed the “least number of minority amendments ever in Congress.”

The facts: A chart Lovvorn provided the T&G, put together by the Washington, D.C. Bipartisan Policy Center, reports that 18 percent of amendments McGovern’s committee has allowed in the 116th Congress have been from Republicans - the lowest such minority amendment rate in the last decade.

McGovern’s campaign said that, since that time, there have been more Republican amendments brought to the floor, including on the National Defense Authorization Act, that have boosted the percentage to 38 percent - higher, they said, than the percentage of Democratic amendments Republicans allowed in the last Congress.

McGovern said their internal numbers differ from those reported by the Center. The T&G was not able to independently verify either the Center’s figures or those from McGovern prior to deadline.

The data Lovvorn provided dated to 2009, meaning it would be impossible to verify from that set whether McGovern had made the least amount of amendments “ever” in Congress.

On the topic of bipartisanship, McGovern’s camp noted that 14 of the 36 bills and resolutions he introduced this Congress have Republican co-sponsors - the most of any Massachusetts representative.

A bipartisan index put together by Georgetown University and the nonprofit Lugar Center ranked McGovern 113 out of 437 U.S. representatives when it comes to bipartisanship (with 1 being the most bipartisan) for 2019.

Seth Moulton (88) was the only Massachusetts representative to score higher.