AP FACT CHECK: Putin's twisted tale on rival; Biden GOP jab

AP FACT CHECK: Putin's twisted tale on rival; Biden GOP jab

SeattlePI.com

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin faulted his imprisoned political rival for leaving Russia without legal permission, omitting the vital detail that the departure was, literally, an unconscious decision: Alexei Navalny was in a coma.

After meeting President Joe Biden in Geneva, Putin also weighed in on U.S. affairs in distorted ways as he tried to equate the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol with his political opposition at home and argued against the evidence that the United States is a more pernicious source of cyberattacks than his country.

Biden overstated the tribulations of his stateside political opponents. Republicans are not a “vastly diminished" party, as he contended in trying to assure the Group of Seven major industrial nations and NATO allies that his policies won't be shredded by the next election.

A look at the veracity of some statements from Biden's week of diplomacy and his return to the domestic fray:

POLITICS

BIDEN: “I think it’s appropriate to say that the Republican Party is vastly diminished in numbers." — news conference Monday, when asked how he reassures allies that the U.S. will be a reliable partner in future years given former President Donald Trump’s enduring influence over the GOP.

THE FACTS: No, the Republican Party hasn't withered. Everywhere you look — the Senate, the House, governor's offices, statehouses, the 2020 election results — it's potent.

Biden correctly pointed out fractures in the GOP leadership and ranks brought on by Trump's refusal to concede his presidential election defeat and his stoking of the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Biden's observation that “the Trump wing of the party is the bulk of the party” also may be true in terms of who exerts the most influence at the moment.

But the GOP is...

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