I’ve never been a fan of live fact-checking during a political debate, as I think viewers are watching to learn from the candidates and not from the journalists. There’s also too much of risk of an incorrect fact check, such as during the 2012 debate.... Romney was called out for saying something that turned out to be true. That said, @DavidMuir and @LinseyDavis last night did a good job. Their fact checks were spare but appropriate and accurate — intended as a clarification for viewers. Let’s review:

Serious question: What if the Biden administration ignored the debt ceiling and just kept paying bills if it's not raised? That's presumably a violation of the law, but what are the consequences? A lawsuit by House Republicans that takes years to litigate? Something else? A smart person writes: "Once debt limit hits, Treasury runs out of dollars on a day-to-day basis and can’t pay bills because there are no dollars left in the Treasury to pay bills. And Treasury can’t print money - the Federal Reserve prints the money."

This ridiculous false claim has been debunked over and over, and yet of course Trump keeps saying it. washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…

Eye-opening and riveting story on @RepDLesko's hidden past via @ronaldjhansen in the Arizona Republic. Unfortunately behind a paywall but here are some highlights. azcentral.com/in-depth/news/… Lesko's public story is she was a victim pf physical and mental abuse. "The fuller story reveals a decade spent alongside a career criminal, with their lives cycling between temporary comfort in a new location to a hasty exit ahead of creditors or police."....

Tucker Carlson did another Ukrainian biolabs segment last night, featured a Daily Mail reporter who breathlessly reported “revelations” that had been completely debunked in my fact check that very morning. … washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/… The Daily Mail relied on Hunter Biden laptop emails but apparently did no reporting beyond that. Here are the facts: Hunter was not involved in raising money for Metabiota. He wasn’t even on the investment committee that was tasked with deciding to invest….

This is a good example of how just relying on emails without doing additional reporting can get you in trouble. My article was about the investment in Metabiota. These emails are about something else, not RTSP or RSTP 1. Follow along….

https://twitter.com/Cam_Cawthorne/status/1508807295509094409

RSTP, LLC. made an investment in 2012 in Counsyl Series B. RSPP II Alpha Partners LLC and RSTP II Bravo Partners LLC made an investment in 2014 in Counsyl Series D. They were active until the sale of Counsyl to Myriad in May of 2018. For instance: crunchbase.com/funding_round/… …

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed last week Hunter Biden “funded” bioweapons labs in Ukraine. Nothing could be further from the truth, but right-leaning outlets amplified the story by citing emails found on Hunter’s laptop. Here’s the truth….washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/… Metabiota, the firm at the center of conspiracy theories, was briefly of interest to tech investors because it had an interesting pitch — its researchers around the world had insights that could be used to write insurance policies to hedge against global pandemics…

I have new details on the suspicious voting behavior by Mark Meadows and his wife Debra in 2020 — as Meadows echoed Trump’s wild claims of potential voter fraud….. washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/… The couple owned a condo in Alexandria. But from 2018-2020 they listed as their voting address a house where Meadows’s mother lived. Then the mother moved out of state, he put it up for sale and sold it in March 2020, after the 2020 GOP primary…..

Curious how today's 141-5 vote condemning the invasion of Ukraine ranks in terms of being lopsided. 141 votes is much higher than some others I have quickly found. UNGA voted 108 to 9 against the invasion of Grenada, 128-9 against Trump's recognition of Jerusalem. Anyone know? ah, a bunch of resolutions against Israel have been pretty lopsided. Here are a few in 2020: unwatch.org/2020-2021-un-g…

Great job alert! @washingtonpost is hiring reporters in Arizona, Georgia and "upper Midwest" to cover the democracy beat -- the administration of elections, while tracking legislative and legal battles over voting rules. Don't be shy, apply! Deadline is March 7. application for Georgia here: washpost.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/washingtonpost…

In-Box: Three great foreign postings opening up soon at @washingtonpost: West Africa bureau chief, to be based in Dakar, Senegal (strong French language skills required); Nairobi bureau chief, to be based in Kenya; Southeast Asia bureau chief, most likely based in Bangkok. .... application to West Africa here: washpost.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/washingtonpost…

There’s a saying in journalism that the only dumb question is one not asked. I don’t normally do media criticism but I want help non-journalists understand why a potentially good scoop by the Washington Free Beacon could have been made better with an extra question asked….. The reporter got an on-the-record statement from an agency spox that danced around the question of whether grants would be given for safe smoking kits that include crack pipes. The next logical step was to specifically ask if pipes were included….

Trump today claimed the Clintons "took large amounts of furniture out of the White House." That's right -- but they returned 28K after a series of stories in The Washington Post by the late George Lardner Jr., a brilliant reporter, exposed it. Here's how it played out.... First, Clinton reported that he had retained $190,027 worth of gifts that he had received. .... washingtonpost.com/archive/politi…

It's time for the Pinocchios of the Year! Trump's continuing 2020 election lies and falsehoods about the Jan. 6 attack top the list.....washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/… ...Biden's claim about the Georgia election law and what we call his "Flights of Fancy" are also featured ... washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…

This is detailed at length in Robert Caro's Pulitzer Prize-winning book on Robert Moses, "The Power Broker." See especially pages 318-319: "He began to limit access by buses; he instructed Shapiro to build the bridges across his new parkways low -- too low for buses to pass."...

https://twitter.com/Crypsis12/status/1457803984127737860

..."Bus trips therefore had to be made on local roads, making the trips discouraging long and arduous. For Negroes, who he considered inherently 'dirty,' there were further measures. Buses needed permits to enter state parks; buses chartered by Negro groups ...."

The new C-SPAN poll of presidential historians is out! Always interesting to see how reputations rise and fall. In two decades, Ike shot up from #9 to #5 and stays there. Obama moves into the top ten. .... Meanwhile, Woodrow Wilson has fallen from #6 to #13, and Polk had also dropped from #12 to #18. Bill Clinton had moved up from #21 in 2000 to #15 in 2017, but now slips back to #19. ....

A few days ago I tweeted about the bravery of an aunt and uncle who saved two Jewish children during World War II. Not every heroic act in the war had a happy ending. My father and aunt’s cousin, Johan Herman “Jan” Kessler, a son of my great-Uncle, was in the Dutch resistance…. He was carrying documents when caught by the Germans. This is an account of his torture and death at the hands of the Nazis, from Jan Braakman’s “The War in the Corner” (2010). It’s difficult to read…

My Tante (Aunt) Bep, my father’s sister, passed away in 2015 at 97, having lived a remarkable life. Newly married when Holland was occupied by the Nazis in World War II, she and my Uncle Bob decided in 1942 to hide two Jewish children from transport to the Nazi death camps... She wrote a short history for family members. There was a constant threat of exposure. The German once came to the house to round up young men for the factories in Germany…

I joke that I belong to the Washington Post book of month club but lately it's been the book of week. Here are the great books I've read in recent weeks by @frankelglenn @ktumulty @JobyWarrick @michaeldobbs @blaineharden Film, politics, national security, history..take your pick amazon.com/Shooting-Midni…

This new complaint seeking an ethics investigation of McCarthy's housing arrangement with Frank Luntz draws heavily on information contained in three of our fact checks...

https://twitter.com/GlennKesslerWP/status/1395588440142622721

1. McCarthy's "room" that he rented was in a 7,000-square foot penthouse apartment. washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/…

There are usually two sides to every story. My friend @emilymiller has written a remarkable account of her public “firing” at the FDA last year. It’s a story of spin and betrayal and offers real insight in how Washington works…. …Emily writes that she had nothing to do with FDA chief Stephen Hahn’s very public mistake at a White House news briefing, repeated by President Trump. But he needed a sacrificial lamb to distract from the PR disaster…