More from @GlennKesslerWP

Glenn Kessler

@GlennKesslerWP

1 Mar

A mysterious claim by Trump with no apparent basis in fact. You would think this might have been offered as an impeachment defense? There would be a paper trail? He wouldn't have been giddy over what was happening? Remember: he just makes stuff up. foxnews.com/politics/trump…

addendum: VF reported on Jan. 22: the president, Miller recalled, asked how many troops the Pentagon planned to turn out the following day. “We’re like, ‘We’re going to provide any National Guard support that the District requests,’” Miller responded. ....

“And [Trump] goes, ‘You’re going to need 10,000 people.’ No, I’m not talking bullshit. He said that. And we’re like, ‘Maybe. But you know, someone’s going to have to ask for it.’” vanityfair.com/news/2021/01/e…

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Glenn Kessler

@GlennKesslerWP

17 Feb

Here’s a guide for ex-Trump officials for how to tell whether a politician might be telling a deliberate lie or just had a verbal stumble. They were quick to declare Biden was a deliberate “liar” last night on vaccine development. So here we go…1/6

Biden said on CNN: “it’s one thing to have the vaccine, which we didn’t have when we came into office, but a vaccinator — how do you get the vaccine into someone’s arm?” Yep, that’s wrong. Sounds bad. But did he mean it?...

A) Did he say something different elsewhere in the town hall? Yes, just minutes before: “We came into office, there was only 50 million doses that were available.” That’s a clue he knows the vaccine was created when he became president.

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Glenn Kessler

@GlennKesslerWP

30 Jan

https://twitter.com/whcos/status/1355552423939612677

This is a refreshing attitude. I also appreciate the Biden WH’s quick response to fact-checking questions.

https://twitter.com/whcos/status/1355552423939612677

I have to laugh at the folks who think we are no longer fact checking Biden. For the record, in the past week we have awarded 4 Pinocchios to Biden --> washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…

and also Pinocchios to John Kerry --> washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…

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Glenn Kessler

@GlennKesslerWP

26 Jan

@redsteeze

We welcome all suggestions for fact checks. Some of our fans on the right (we see you @redsteeze @FDRLST) have been urging fact checks of “Biden lies” and so we thought we’d take an opportunity to explains what we think makes for a good fact check….

The best fact checks are pinned on a number, uttered by a politician. We then use that number to dig into policy issues. The last president was rather loquacious, speaking or tweeting without any prior fact checking, and much of it was not worth detailed fact checking….

We rarely fact check statements by PR people like Press Secretaries. We only did that once or twice during Trump and Obama. We have a high bar for such statements because we prefer to pin the Pinocchios on a policy-maker and hold her or her accountable for their words….

Read 7 tweets

Glenn Kessler

@GlennKesslerWP

14 Jan

In the wake of the Jan. 6 electoral college count in Congress, I read "Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876," by the late chief justice William Rehnquist. A terrific, insightful history. I was curious because ... amazon.com/gp/product/037…

...Ted Cruz offered a 1876 commission as a possible compromise. And he was a Rehnquist clerk. But if you read this book, you see how crazy and cynical this proposal was. Is it possible Cruz never read this book? Or he did and just decided to ignore its lessons? ....

Moreover, Rehnquist makes clear that the vice president has literally no role but to announce the results for the individual states. So, again, the lie that Pence could have in some way blocked Biden's election is again exposed, in a well-explained history....

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