‘NFL or NBA’ video presents fake Congress crime stats

A viral video claiming to current statistics about poor conduct by members of Congress has racked up hundreds of thousands of views throughout TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

In the video, a preacher rattles off an inventory of crimes and monetary failures, at first telling his viewers these are what number of athletes in both the NBA or NFL have dedicated these acts.

“Thirty-six have been accused of spousal abuse,” he says. “Seven have been arrested for fraud. Nineteen have been accused of writing bad checks. One-hundred seventeen have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least two businesses. Three have done time for assault. Seventy-one, I repeat 71, cannot get a credit card due to their bad credit. Fourteen have been arrested on drug-related charges. Eight have been arrested for shoplifting. Twenty-one currently are defendants in lawsuits and 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year.”

He asks his viewers to guess whether or not he’s speaking about skilled soccer or basketball gamers, then shocks them by saying really, he’s speaking about members of Congress.

But VERIFY viewers wished to know: is there any credibility to this video and the statistics talked about in it?

Are the statistics about alleged conduct by members of Congress, referenced on this viral video, true?

No, the statistics aren’t true. They originated from a 1999 weblog publish that supplied no supporting proof.

The video extensively circulating now on social media – which exhibits a preacher named Mark Bailey – was recorded more than a decade ago, in 2012.

But the statistics Bailey references are even older. They originated in 1999, in a blog post on the web site Capitol Hill Blue.

The weblog’s nameless creator claimed the statistics had been compiled by way of “research” carried out by the workers, however didn’t present any proof, and names just a few of the a whole lot of Congress members they’re accusing.

The statistics don’t have any factual foundation. Much of the information the creator claims to have discovered by means of “public records, past newspaper articles, civil court cases and criminal records” (none of which they link to) couldn’t be obtained and not using a subpoena.

Nonetheless, the statistics unfold quickly, at first within the type of chain emails, which typically barely tweaked the particular numbers used.

One such electronic mail ultimately made its method to Bailey. In the viral video, he says he was forwarded the listing by his son.

The electronic mail chains have been repeatedly debunked by fact-checkers; we discovered articles about them printed in 2000, 2009, and 2014.

Bailey has said he has not repeated the listing since his 2012 speech, and doesn’t plan to sooner or later given the statistics have been debunked.

Capitol Hill Blue itself ultimately removed the stats from its article, then later deleted the post altogether, the Internet Archive exhibits.

Members of Congress have been convicted of crimes earlier than, however there was no proof for the sweeping claims made in 1999, and there’s no proof for them in 2023.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.