Fact Butlers: Townhall Nails PolitiFact for Aping Biden Rapid Response on Gas-Price Gaffe

Every time President Biden says something wacky, “independent facts checkers” are quick to defend him. Spencer Brown of Townhall complained in Friday’s article, “White House sends Fact Checkers to Townhall, in order to quote Biden.”

PolitiFact was quick to follow Team Biden and quote them, crying that there is “missing context” about Biden saying that Americans would “pay their fair part for gas.” That is what does it mean? What does that mean?  a fair price. However, he was unable to comprehend it and mixed liberal metaphors.

BIDEN: We are making great progress. To ensure that the American people pay their fair share of gas, we’ll keep going at it. pic.twitter.com/f41bFtbeEP

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) December 8, 2021

Conservatives laughed at the joke, which is not permitted. One-half hour later White House Rapid Response Director Mike Gwin claimed Townhall was guilty of “lazy, misleading editing.” 

Lazy, deceptive, editing by @townhallcomTo omit the fact that President Obama was not referring to falling gas prices. He actually stated:

“We’re making progress, we’re going to keep at it to ensure American people are paying their fair share for gas **not being gouged for gas**” https://t.co/MEHxU2ecmW pic.twitter.com/pYQYX9vj1v

— Mike Gwin (@MGwin46) December 8, 2021

Anyone who didn’t see Townhall’s clip BEGAN in which Biden was “noting fall gas prices” is guilty of “lazy and deceptive editing”. Gwin, and not Townhall should be fact checked. 

PolitiFact hack Bill McCarthy was quick to jump in and repeat the White House line. 

On social media, conservative media and Republican lawmakers shared a shortened clip that cut out the words, “not being gouged for gas.” In a tweet responding to the viral clip, a White House spokesperson called the omission “deceptive.”

McCarthy insists on the following:

The full context of Biden’s Dec. 8 remarks indicates that he was talking about working to lower the price of gas to a more reasonable amount for Americans, not raise or maintain it….

But conservative media sites, pundits and politicians framed the Democratic president’s words differently on Twitter. They shared a shortened clip from the remarks that cut out Biden’s final words — “not being gouged for gas” — and left a misleading impression.

PolitiFact will edit any conservative tweets to make them “context”, which they can then approve as true — like Biden’s. The social-media platforms then shout “Missing Context!” on conservative posts.

This has no Truth-O-Meter rating, therefore Townhall is not “Mostly False”. PolitiFact’s kneejerk defense of Biden is evident. Spencer Brown got it right. 

Nowhere does PolitiFact dispute what Biden said, because they can’t — it’s on video — nor did they find any editing by Townhall that changed what Biden said. But that didn’t stop them from doing additional damage control for President Biden, claiming that Townhall’s “follow-up tweet wrongly claimed that omitting Biden’s final words did not change the meaning of his sentence.”

What PolitiFact really means is that they have a subjective opinion on what Biden’s statement meant — one that conveniently aligns with the White House — from where PolitiFact apparently takes its orders.This video shows that they aren’t trying to hide their collusion. tweet where a PolitiFact “reporter” shared Gwin’s video showing the supposed “full context” before Townhall had even been notified a fact check was incoming.

It is because of this that we have “Fact Checking the Fact-Checkers”.