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WILKES-BARRE &mdash; PolitiFact, a nonpartisan, fact-checking website operated by the nonprofit Poynter Institute for Media Studies, this week issued a statement that Republican Jim Bognet&rsquo;s campaign distorted remarks and sent out a news release in June claiming that his opponent, U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright wants to cut funding for public safety.
				According to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer, &ldquo;a new campaign ad attacking U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright, a Democrat who represents Northeastern Pennsylvania, mentions one of our fact-checks and says PolitiFact concluded that Cartwright wants to cut funding for law enforcement.
				&ldquo;The ad was paid for by the campaign of Cartwright&rsquo;s Republican opponent, Jim Bognet, a consultant and former Trump administration official from Hazleton. The race in the 8th Congressional District is one of Pennsylvania&rsquo;s most hotly contested.&rdquo;
				According to the Inquirer story, &ldquo;fact-checkers wrote that Cartwright wants to defund the police,&rdquo; the ad&rsquo;s narrator says as the PolitiFact logo flashes across the screen, along with text from a published article on July 9 that concludes just the opposite.
				The Inquirer story said earlier this summer, Cartwright told a participant in a virtual listening session that officials in places like Wilkes-Barre, and in Congress, have the power to decide how public funds are spent on police, as they do for any other agency.
				The Inquirer story said the claim was rated &ldquo;false.&rdquo;
				An audio clip of the exchange is available on Rep. Cartwright&rsquo;s Facebook page.
				Bognet campaign responds
				Ian Prior, spokesman for the Bognet campaign, responded:
				&ldquo;Specific to the ad: Matt Cartwright answered &lsquo;absolutely yes&rsquo; when asked if we can cut the funding for the Wilkes-Barre police force, and voted to make it easier to sue individual policemen for acting in good faith reliance on the law. Mr. Cartwright also lied on his financial disclosure, failing to report his private jet and 4th home for multiple years. How can Pennsylvanians trust Matt Cartwright?
				&rdquo;And ultimately all we did was quote from PolitiFact&rsquo;s own reporting. Matt Cartwright&rsquo;s words and actions in favor of defunding the police and attacking the police &mdash; even voting against funding for new police officers &mdash; speak for themselves.&rdquo;
				Here is what Prior said the campaign told PolitiFact:
				&ldquo;What PolitiFact wrote was: &lsquo;Cartwright was asked if it&rsquo;s possible to move money from a municipality&rsquo;s budget for police to another area, and he responded &lsquo;absolutely yes.&rsquo; That is what&rsquo;s on screen in the ad. So PolitiFact wrote that Cartwright wants to defund the police. Thanks for that. It was super helpful for us to make the point that Cartwright wants to defund the police.&rdquo;
				Cartwright campaign statement
				From Cartwright for Congress Communications Director Matt Slavoski:
				&ldquo;The Bognet campaign believes people in our area don&rsquo;t care about facts. That&rsquo;s why they are still pushing this made-up story about Matt Cartwright, even after they got caught making it up.
				&ldquo;Mr. Bognet may not understand us Northeastern Pennsylvanians that well since he left here 20 years ago, but we do care about the truth, and Matt Cartwright knows it. He has spent his entire adult life in this area and raised his kids here. He knows that Northeastern Pennsylvanians don&rsquo;t appreciate those who lie to try and get ahead.
				&ldquo;Here, people work hard to make an honest living and provide for their families. Matt Cartwright has their backs as he works to protect their health care and earned benefits, help families struggling during COVID-19, and lay the foundation for a strong, inclusive economic recovery.&rdquo;

PoliitiFact calls Bognet ad ‘false;’ campaigns respond