DC comms, ex-Hill. Freelance commentary writer. Words: @nytimes @NRO @washingtonpost @foxnews @FDRLST etc. Views my own. Keeper of receipts. Maker of
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After last night’s debate, I thought it was time to fact check the factcheckers.
There were a lot of bad claims - and more “facts” that went unchecked. I dive into them below.
First, the “fact checks” that weren’t.
1. Trump xenophobia comment from Biden
Claim: Biden called Trump xenophobic for his travel ban.
Check: False from @nytimes, @washingtonpost & @CNN
Truth: Biden *replied* to a tweet from President Trump about the ban. This is cut & dry.pic.twitter.com/hZNjRNisaX
2. Biden & the Green New Deal
Claim: Trump alleged that Biden supports the GND
Check: False from @washingtonpost
Truth: Biden’s own website endorses the plan, as @guypbenson & others point out, and it pulls heavily from the GND (as @abcnews’s fact check makes clear).pic.twitter.com/KtYV5I13Qs
(Also worth pointing out that Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, is a cosponsors of and frequent advocate for the Green New Deal.)pic.twitter.com/N8IjD2zTCC
3. Trump & forest management
Claim: Trump said forest management is helping drive wildfires in CA & beyond.
Check: False by @washingtonpost
Truth: As @NPR & others have pointed out, a lack of good forest management is a major contributing factor to the fires.pic.twitter.com/cQQqQ6nket
4. Spying on the Trump campaign
Claim: Trump’s campaign was spied on in 2016.
Check: False by @CNN
Truth: Despite the consistent framing of ‘Spygate’ as a “conspiracy,” an FBI agent pleaded guilty to forging documents to spy on the Trump campaign.pic.twitter.com/h3mAGwxx30
And by “consistent” I mean everyone has talked about this issue in this way. Full thread here:https://twitter.com/DrewHolden360/status/1295359227981189121 …
THREAD pic.twitter.com/cEg4AvvHQl5. Biden & Rioters
Claim: Biden refused to condemn looting/riots
Check: False by @CNN
Truth: Biden failed to address the rioting for months - including at the DNC - and only addressed it when polling flipped, as @baseballcrank has pointed out: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nationalreview.com/corner/what-joe-biden-gets-away-with-not-saying-and-why/amp/ …pic.twitter.com/I1it8eVedJ
6. Slowest economic recovery
Claim: The economic recovery under Obama/Biden was the slowest in American history.
Check: ‘Misleading’ by @nytimes
Truth: This is just bizarre. NYT even confirms that the recovery was, statistically, the slowest, then tried to muddy the waters.pic.twitter.com/kng3TznE6h
7. No left-wing violence
Claim: Trump alleged that violent riots are driven by left-wing groups, such as Antifa.
Check: “Misleading” by @nytimes
Truth: Beyond the obvious images and video of Antifa et al, recent research also makes Trump’s point clear: https://ncri.io/reports/network-enabled-anarchy/ …pic.twitter.com/Llryb9mVyt
Even more egregious were the checks that no one seemed interested in doing. This is a long list. 1. We’ll start with the one most likely to trigger a lawsuit: Biden’s allegation - without evidence - that Kyle Rittenhouse is a white supremacist. Entirely baseless.pic.twitter.com/8tvYaYfv7y
2. Trump & Wuhan.
Biden alleged that Trump made no effort to gain information about conditions in Wuhan following the coronavirus outbreak, out of deference to Xi.
Contemporaneous reporting from @nytimes, @abcnews & others details that he did (and even criticized him for it).pic.twitter.com/TU2N8eLH0J
3. The ‘both sides’ slander
Biden & Wallace alleged that Trump called white supremacists “very fine people” in Charlottesville.
As has been pointed out repeatedly by RCP, @RubinReport & others, this isn’t true. Trump immediately went on to condemn white supremacists by name.pic.twitter.com/crSaLalkFb
4. SCOTUS confirmations During the debate Biden insisted that the Senate should wait to hear the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. No one - other than the Trump Campaign - has called out that, in 2016, Biden castigated Senate Rs for exactly what he’s encouraging Senate Ds to do.pic.twitter.com/qODqhTmQBQ
5. Hunter Biden There were some fact checks on specifics around Hunter, and while we should all have more charity toward someone battling addiction, it’s patently false to suggest, as Biden did, that Hunter didn’t do anything wrong. (Cont.)pic.twitter.com/KfDHYz17fv
There was a full investigation by a Senate committee that unearthed plenty of bad, potentially illegal behavior from Hunter where he traded in on his family name to derive financial benefit from hostile foreign governments. Even @CNN’s @JohnKingCNN said so.
That’s wrong.pic.twitter.com/bWOg16hori
6. Efficacy of masks
I’ve had to repeat myself, over and over, on this one. Biden alleged that Trump didn’t do enough early on to support mask wearing.
The reality is that we had no idea whether masks would help. Here’s @CNN in March. @drsanjaygupta even did a thread.pic.twitter.com/MkvnSl1Ygf
Full thread on the rewriting of history related to masks for those interested.https://twitter.com/DrewHolden360/status/1282356452716433412 …
THREAD7. Russian bounties on US servicemembers.
As I’ve reiterated time and again, there’s no evidence to suggest that the Russians placed bounties on American military personnel. A recent report from the regional command found zero evidence to support this claim. Here from @NBCNews.pic.twitter.com/18b4n96BMf
8. The existence of antifa. Last night, Biden said that antifa wasn’t an organization, but an “idea.” This is absurd, and plenty of reporting and other monitoring has indicated that the group exists and is active and organized, including the ADL.https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/who-are-antifa …
When fact checks become an opportunity not to observe what is true but to push a narrative, not only do they lose their value, they do more damage by hiding behind a veneer of objectivity to push commentary. It misleads the American people and creates an inaccurate narrative.
It should go without saying but...that’s really bad. More than anywhere else, the real danger of having an overwhelmingly left-leaning news media is that it gives rise to this type of “fact-checking” and “media analysis” through a partisan lens.
We can’t hope to heal this country unless we’re all agreeing to the same set of facts. Last night proved, yet again, that we’ve got a long way to go to get there.
When these get attention folks often ask but I don’t have anything to sell/subscribe to. But with winter approaching, its a really difficult time for a lot of food banks. If you’re in the DC area, I’ve always found Capital Area Food Bank does a great job.https://www.capitalareafoodbank.org
And I am now losing retweets on this thread, thanks @Twitter
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