Republicans held the Senate and the House of Representatives during the 2016 election cycle.

Posted by Bannon`s War Room, Oct 7, 2026Checked Nov 2, 2026

Polygraph verdictTrue

Sources: 5 support1 context
Said: 1 time·
Confidence: 92%

Bannon`s War RoomOct 7, 2026

Multiple tier1 sources, including BBC, AP, CBS and CNN, report that Republicans retained control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives after the November 2016 elections. The post's framing that Republicans 'took' the Senate and 'held and built on' the House is a loose description of the same outcome, and the claim faithfully matches the passage.

What was said

… Gavin Newsom told you specifically what their plan is to end the Trump presidency, just like on that weekend. They feared Trump. They wanted to end the presidency before it started, and this was the Republicans, Mitch McConnell, by the way. We took the Senate, which Mitch couldn't do on his own, and obviously held and built on the House, so we had all, we had, uh, all three co-equal branches, and we stopped the presidency of Hillary Clinton. Do you understand how far gone with Merrick Garland or somebody even more radical in the Supreme Court, and her picking a couple other choices, the country would be over? And she stays up every night, and it burns in her soul. …

Bannon`s War Room · Oct 7, 2026· from the transcriptPost →

What we found

Supports. BBC's 2016 US election results report Republicans holding 52 Senate seats and 241 House seats, and state that the Republican Party retained control of both chambers.[2]

Supports. CBS News reports Republicans kept their House majority and 'swept to control of both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue' in 2016, with the GOP retaining a large House majority.[3]

Supports. CNN and Vox both report on November 8–9, 2016 that Republicans kept control of the House and Senate, with Pat Toomey's win in Pennsylvania ending Democratic hopes of a Senate majority.[4][5]

Supports. AP reports that the December 2016 Louisiana runoff cemented Republican control of the Senate at 52-48, and that the GOP held the House seats in the state's delegation that were undecided.[1]

Context. The post's phrase 'we took the Senate' is best read as the Republicans retaining a majority they already held, since Republicans had 54 seats before Election Day per the IBTimes and Vox sources; this does not change the core assertion that they held both chambers.[5][6]