ClaimsNate Silver

“If the GOP takes over the House next year one thing you can be pretty sure of is COVID panels/investigations.”

Nate Silver, writing on X 30 June 2022 Post by @NateSilver538 on X, 2022-06-30 (X)

Prediction AI policy and governance Political

If Republicans take control of the House in 2023, they are pretty likely to hold COVID panels or investigations.

Resolved true The record shows it happened or was so.

Prediction: Statements about events outside the person's control, checked once they fell due: did they come true?

What would count as true or false

This is conditional on Republicans holding a House majority in the 118th Congress, which convened in January 2023. If they did not, the claim cannot be resolved. If they did: True: during 2023, the House or a House committee or subcommittee set up a COVID-focused panel, or held hearings or opened formal investigations into COVID-19 (for example its origins, the federal pandemic response, or officials' conduct). Mostly true: COVID investigations or hearings happened but began only in late 2023, or happened only as a minor part of other committees' work rather than as a dedicated panel or investigation. Mostly false: only isolated letters or requests were sent, with no hearings or formal investigation in 2023. False: there was no COVID-related panel, hearing or investigation in the House during 2023.

Set before the research began.

Evidence (4)

  1. E1 “Investigating the Proximal Origin of a Cover Up” | Committee Repository | U.S. House of Representatives Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives · 11 July 2023

    “Hearing: “Investigating the Proximal Origin of a Cover Up” " Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic "”

  2. E2 Wenstrup: We Will Deliver Facts from the COVID-19 Pandemic Response to the American People - United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · 2 October 2023

    “laying out the areas of investigation, including the origins of COVID-19, the impacts of government lockdowns, school closures, and vaccine mandates.”

  3. E3 Coronavirus Roundup: Changes at the CDC; the Republicans on the COVID Panel Government Executive · 27 January 2023

    “The House panel that will look into the origins of the coronavirus and investigate the federal government’s response to the pandemic, among other areas desired by Republicans, will be led by Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio.”

  4. E4 United States House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic - Wikipedia Wikipedia

    “On January 24, 2023, Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that the subcommittee would be chaired by Representative Brad Wenstrup.”

Reasoning

The evidence shows a Republican-led House in 2023: Speaker Kevin McCarthy chose Rep. Brad Wenstrup to chair the new COVID subcommittee in January 2023 (E4), so the condition is met. That subcommittee was set up to investigate the origins of COVID and the federal response (E3). The House Clerk's records show a hearing titled "Investigating the Proximal Origin of a Cover Up" held on 2023-07-11 by the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (E1). The Oversight Committee also described the panel's areas of investigation in October 2023 (E2). A dedicated COVID panel and hearings during 2023 meet the criteria for true.

Cite this claim

Nate Silver, “If Republicans take control of the House in 2023, they are pretty likely to hold COVID panels or investigations.” (said 30 June 2022). Verdict: resolved true. Reliability API, claim c_7d4aa3107a27, method 0.1.0+28da144b, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_7d4aa3107a27

This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.

Reply to this claim

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All of them

Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.