Laughter erupts at hearing after Democrat fires back: Trump ‘has 5 Pinocchios on a daily basis’

Laughter and applause broke out at an impeachment hearing on Wednesday after Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said that President Trump gets “five Pinocchios” daily, a reference to The Washington Post’s fact-checking metric. 

Her comment came after Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) pointed out that Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had received “three Pinocchios” from The Post as the panel questioned U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.  

During his questioning of Sondland, Conaway had entered into the record a Post article that faulted Schiff on his recent comment that whistleblowers have a statutory right to anonymity.

Later, while Speier was discussing whistleblower protections and the Post article, Conaway cut in to say “the end of the article does go through that and also says it’s three Pinocchios.” 

“The president of the United States has five Pinocchios on a daily basis, so let’s not go there,” Speier retorted.

Her comment was met with laughter and applause.

The Post’s fact-checker gave Schiff three out of a possible four Pinocchios after he said Tuesday that the “whistleblower has the right, a statutory right, to anonymity.”

The story said that his claim is really “on the line between Two and Three Pinocchios.”

Speier’s remark also caught attention on Twitter. 

Congresswoman Jackie Speier just opened up a can of whoop-ass in 15 words or less.#ImpeachmentHearing

— Charlotte Clymer️‍ (@cmclymer) November 20, 2019

.⁦@JackieSpeier⁩ has a point: “President Trump has made 13,435 false or misleading claims over 993 days.” That’s a lot of Pinocchios. https://t.co/m4PKqBYhlH

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) November 20, 2019

Jackie Speier was shot five times at Jonestown and played dead for a full day to save her own life, go ahead, try to fuck with her https://t.co/WdLBK5SUPh

— shauna (@goldengateblond) November 20, 2019

Aris Folley contributed.