In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Guardian's headline that Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers falsely claimed to have seen "the dead body of Osama bin Laden with my own eyes" a 1/10 because the paper trail directly contradicts him: in 2011 Rogers said he viewed a photograph, and CNN, Roll Call and Rogers' own 2011 statements confirm he was never at the raid site or in the Situation Room.
The Verdict
Base fact. This headline is the claim tested against the record, and the record wins cleanly: Rogers' own words from 2011, his campaign's own retelling of that night, and independent 2011 news reporting all confirm he saw a photograph, not a body, and was at home in Washington DC, not in Abbottabad or the Situation Room. There is no ambiguity to spin here; the headline states exactly what happened.
What actually happened
In a 23 August fundraising email, Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers appeared to mislead supporters about his past by suggesting that he had played an active role in the killing of Osama bin Laden, writing in bold type that "I saw the dead body of Osama bin Laden with my own eyes, knowing that together, we had delivered justice for America." Rogers was not in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on 1 May 2011 when Bin Laden was killed, nor was he in the White House Situation Room with Obama, Biden and Clinton. Instead, as he told reporters the next day and recounts in his own campaign video, Rogers was at home in Washington DC, where as House Intelligence Committee chair he was informed of the raid in a phone call from CIA director Leon Panetta.
Key facts
- The fundraising email's bolded claim: "I saw the dead body of Osama bin Laden with my own eyes, knowing that together, we had delivered justice for America."
- Days after the raid in 2011, Rogers said the photograph he'd seen made clear Bin Laden was dead, but supported Obama's decision not to release the images publicly.
- A 2011 Roll Call report, corroborated in this search, states Rogers was the first member of Congress on record to view the 15 CIA photographs of the body and told CNN they were "pretty gruesome"; he did not view the body itself.
- Rogers has said he was informed of the raid's outcome via a phone call from CIA director Leon Panetta while at home in Washington DC, not on-site or in the Situation Room.
What to watch for
Watch whether the Rogers campaign issues a clarification distinguishing "saw a photo" from "saw the body" as the story spreads. Also watch how this fits a pattern: Rogers has separately been fact-checked by the New York Times for a false claim that his Senate opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, said America deserved 9/11, a statement actually made by a Piker supporter and later retracted. A second exaggeration in the same campaign week would strengthen, not weaken, the case for scrutiny.
