The Patriot Post® · 'Fact-Checking' Trump, Ignoring Biden

As PolitiFact celebrated at length its 1,000th “fact-check” on Donald Trump, it pointed out with glee that its “median rating” on Trump is “false.” Even more mirthful to those who believe they’re serious, PolitiFact claims, “More than 18% of our fact-checks of Trump landed at Pants on Fire, which we define as a statement that is not just false but ridiculous.” By way of comparison, PolitiFact has graded a total of 286 statements from Joe Biden, with just seven qualifying as “Pants on Fire” and roughly 40% graded out as True or Mostly True.

(We’ll pause a moment for your hearty, belly-shaking laughter.)

The caveat is fairly obvious, but Townhall’s Leah Barkoukis breaks things down this way: “Trump’s election claims were the most fact-checked topic, followed by immigration, foreign policy, the economy, homeland security, crime, coronavirus, candidate biography, and healthcare.”

There’s no doubt PolitiFact disagrees with Trump’s take on the 2020 election, despite the fact that more is being revealed about those shenanigans and dirty tricks as time goes on. In that respect, it’s just like the revelations that have debunked those fake Russian election interference stories from 2016. (It’s unclear whether PolitiFact has ever set the record straight on those “Russia, Russia, Russia” claims for which they gave Trump the “Lie of the Year” award in 2017.)

Barkoukis’s fellow Townhall denizen Tim Graham sums it up as well, adding: “Never call PolitiFact an ‘independent fact-checker.’ They are every bit as liberal and biased as their fans in the liberal media.”

Columnist Salena Zito famously observed that Trump’s target audience of everyday citizens takes him seriously but not literally. On the other hand, the press and outlets like PolitiFact have a field day taking Trump literally but not seriously. Power Line’s John Hinderaker gave a good example of this with Trump’s recent statements encouraging fellow NATO nations to pull their weight when it comes to military funding. While Joe Biden blew a gasket calling what Trump said “shameful” and “dangerous,” it was obvious to our NATO allies that Trump was sending the message that they need to spend more on defense to bring themselves up to a standard they agreed to, which is the same consistent message Trump had while in office.

As our Emmy Griffin noted a while back, “The truth is that many of these so-called ‘false claims’ are actually hyperbole or satire, and that’s exactly what has endeared Trump to so many. But the rabidly deranged media cannot take a joke or countenance exaggeration of any sort — perhaps because they assume everyone is as literal and foolish as they are.”

Donald Trump has been in the public spotlight for several decades now, so his pursuit of “the art of the deal” should be a known quantity by now. And he uses the best exaggeration and hyperbole — you know it’s the best. By nature, he’s a braggadocious huckster who became best known for telling people they were fired on national television.

That role helped propel him to the GOP nomination for president not once but twice (barring something unforeseen) because so many people believed that The Swamp really did need to be drained, particularly after the “jobless recovery” from the Great Recession that we endured for eight years. Trump was the leader of the heretofore leaderless populist movement that came out of the political shadows to elect him in 2016.

Does Trump play fast and loose with the facts sometimes? Indeed, he does, and there are many on the conservative and pro-liberty side who facepalm themselves every time he tells one of those egregious whoppers. Why? Because these distractions draw attention away from a solid political philosophy and record as president. Only his handling of a unique situation with COVID — during which he perhaps listened too much to his advisers and not his instincts — took him down. But his successor — who simply makes things up and lies almost reflexively — has brought on several other simultaneous crises that will give Trump a more-than-full plate should he pull a Grover Cleveland and be reelected to a second, non-consecutive term.

It makes you hope that the PolitiFact meter keeps spinning around for another thousand “fact-check” falsehoods because these clowns just make the Leftmedia look foolish. When it comes to Donald Trump, take note of what the man does more than what he says.