It is of little surprise that last week’s joint session speech by President Trump would generate hyperactive reactions in the press. The fact-checking battalions were dutifully sent out in force to counter the content in that address. If only they could grasp the definition of that first word in their title; “fact” appears to be a very fluid term for the folks charged with their delivery.
At CNN they had to issue a wholesale correction on the item surrounding “transgendered mice” in university studies. At Politifact they ran a fact-check on the speech and managed to expose itself in the manner it differed when it covered Joe Biden’s SOTU speeches. While Trump incurred a number of “False” ratings, Biden suffered none, as euphemisms (points were exaggerated, a touch too broad) were applied. The best was rating one comment not as “Mostly False,” but “Partially True.”
Possibly showing the worst response was Glenn Kessler, the resident ‘viscount of verite’ at The Washington Post. Glenn delivered a lengthy list of dozens of deviations from the truth, as he rules on the comments from the president. The interpretational methods and complete speculation relied upon most of the time is almost impressive, as Kessler contorts reality in order to deliver harsh judgments.
To reiterate (mostly for Glenn’s sake), fact-checks are positioned as the definitive final word on issues and comments. Many of these are not the case. So…we are forced to issue the needed corrections of these “corrections.”
“We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country 2,700 to 525.” –MISLEADING METRICS
Glenn disputes that Trump’s 1.5% margin in the popular vote was significant. Trump was entirely accurate on the county counts, but Kessler tries to say this does not count because the population of so many counties was meager and Harris nearly matched his returns in the popular vote. He also has to ignore Trump taking all the swing states, increasing his 2020 returns in 49 states, and overwhelming Harris in the Electoral College.
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“Illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded.” – THIS IS FALSE
This is more a case of selective measurement. Since the Immigration Service began measuring monthly border crossings we have seen the lowest number on a monthly basis. Kessler reverts back in history to get lower annual totals and then divides by 12 to get lower averages.
“Hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them...were released into our country.” - THIS IS FALSE
Here he lapses into the pedantic argument that immigrants have no impact on crime rates. We have covered how many illegals are released, not charged or arrested, and frequently criminals are not having their immigration status recorded. But as Glenn says, “There is little evidence that immigrants — or even undocumented immigrants — cause more crime” he willfully ignores one harsh reality. By violating our border laws, 100% of illegal immigrants have caused crime.
“I withdrew from the unfair Paris climate accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars.” – THIS IS FALSE
Laughably this is called inaccurate because Glenn tried to include mitigating financial benefits that he cannot itemize. Even if you want to include “possible” benefits,” it still means the country would have paid the initial cost.
“We ended the last administration’s insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our autoworkers and companies from economic destruction.” – THIS IS FALSE
The reliance here is on veiled language applied by Biden. It was not an electric vehicle “mandate” only because he imposed strict emissions standards on gas-powered vehicles, which would force automakers to create more EV vehicles to meet that regulation.
“I have directed that for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated. … In that first term, we set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations like no other president had done before.” – APPEARS TO BE FALSE
Glenn strains to find a falsehood here, while admitting he has no proof. “Trump’s claim of the most or biggest regulation cuts cannot be easily verified. There is no reliable metric on which to judge this claim.”
Yet judge, he still tries to do.
“We’ve ended weaponized government where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent like me.” -- NO EVIDENCE
We have covered the empty claim Kessler makes here - “There is no evidence that Biden directed the Justice Department or local prosecutors to pursue the four criminal cases against Trump.”
Only problem: If this journalist dared do the research he would find the White House connected in four of Trump’s indictments.
“The appalling waste we have already identified … we found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.” – NOT PROVEN
It has been proven, and more is being found almost daily. This echoes the desperation seen from the press when they claimed there was no evidence the Hunter Biden laptop was not proven, and therefore they did not dare investigate if there was any proof.
[Kessler then began haggling over individual examples of wasteful spending.]
“… $45 million for diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships in Burma …” – THIS IS FALSE
Glenn disputes if it was a DEI scholarship - but confirms we did pay for the scholarships, which was the questionable aspect. He presumes, not proves, it was mistakenly identified as DEI.
“… $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique …” – NOT A SCAM
Kessler admits we did pay for these circumcisions. He also says these were voluntary procedures, which does nothing to legitimize why the U.S. is spending on this.
“… $20 million for the Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East. It’s a program. $20 million for a program …” – THIS IS FALSE
This one is a head shaker. The issue is there is in fact an Arab variation of “Sesame Street,” called “Ahlam SimSim,” but USAID money did not go to this children’s program.
Instead, that same dollar amount went to another program for local children’s programming, that has the exact same Ahlam Simsim name. So…this is still called false.
“… $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City …” NOT ACCURATE
Are we paying to house illegal immigrants? Yes. Are they being placed in hotel rooms in New York City? Yes. Okay, so what does Glenn find issue with here? Well, though he never said so in the speech, Glenn says in the past Trump has described these as “luxury hotel rooms.” It is said that we are paying only $156 a night for these rooms, and in New York this would be classified as a mid-range price, not a luxury rate. Seriously.
“We have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work.” – THIS IS FALSE
Glenn attempts a math dodge here, but gets graded with an INCOMPLETE. This comment concerned the remote workers fighting to be returned to offices. Kessler states that of the government workforce only 10% are working remotely. Even if we remove US Postal workers and military members, you are left with over 2.37 million government positions. Ten percent of that figure will give you...wait for it... “hundreds of thousands” of employees working from home.
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This is what we are dealing with when the media outlets try to claim they are the final word on the facts and deliver alleged corrections on the White House or comments by Republicans. The desperation in reinterpreting reality and the truth is what requires the fact-checking process.
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