Washington Post Glenn Kessler, a fact-checker, displayed his top 10 most popular articles for the year today on CNN. Surprisingly, the president who makes frequent gaffes only earned one place on this list. The surprising result surprised even the journalist, who famously left President Biden’s falsehood database.
You can find more information here Neue Day, guest host John Avlon welcomed Kessler for this “thankless job,” before discussing the most popular fact check of the year with Post readers, “debunking the claim that the Taliban had seized $85 billion” dollars of U.S. weapons.”
Avlon scoffed at this “partisan stat” from the right. Kessler We tried to minimize the reality that millions of dollars worth of weapons were still in Afghanistan following President Biden’s catastrophic evacuation.
So that is the $85 billion figure. Technically, it is 83. It was all that money allocated to Afghan security forces. Only 75 billion dollars got to Afghanistan, and less than 30% went to weapons. So you can see already way lower than $85 billion, you’re in the $20 billion dollar range, and a lot of those weapons, that’s a figure over 20, 25 — 20–20 years, so uh, the actual number of weapons that were abandoned, most of which before the army left they disabled is much, much smaller.
And this was supposed to make Biden’s Afghanistan debacle look better?
Kessler also fact checked Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert over an exaggerated personal story about why she open carries and dunked on Republican Congressman Jim Jordan for saying Nancy Pelosi denied a request for National Guard presence prior to January 6 by the Capitol Police when he could find no evidence to support this. According to The Post likes to go after Republicans’ tall tales but avoids Democrats’ fake stories like the plague.
That is why, President Biden who has a history of lying, gaffes and deceit, was only able to secure one spot in the top 10.
AVLON: For sure. And I want to go– to point out it is not just Republicans telling tall tales all the time. Biden falsely claimed that Georgia’s new voting restrictions had ended early voting hours. This was not true.
KESSLER: No. KESSLER: No. The law didn’t impact voting hours on election day. He repeated this three times and it was not something we were able to understand.
Hmm, maybe because Biden kept hearing this lie on CNN?
Kessler faked shock that his Biden fact-checks didn’t appeal to the Post’s far left readers. “Interestingly, we fact checked Joe Biden more than any other politician or person this past year, but fact checks about Biden don’t initially get the eyeballs you would expect,”He shrugged. Avlon seemed unbothered by it as well, quipping, “Well, maybe a volume issue as well.” But in 2019, CNN was enthralled by Kessler giving President Trump tens of thousands of fact checks.
While Biden got one fact check from Kessler, the journalist actually defended Biden twice in this top ten list: on the Afghanistan pullout, and a “viral” tweet that was only up for a few hours misquoting Biden. He continues to follow his partisan trend.
Fact checking was done on the Wuhan laboratory leak theory being the source of COVID-19. Kessler didn’t blame CNN, his paper, or CNN. The New York TimesThis theory was dismissed by Ted Cruz and Senator Tom Cotton as fringe conspiracies.
CNN also missed Kessler defending Anthony Fauci in two separate segments, despite criticisms about the NIH’s payment for Wuhan gain of function research.
CNN and Washington Post’s slanted fact-checking was sponsored by Whole Foods. Contact them via the Conservatives Fight Back link.
Take a look at the transcript:
CNN Neue Day
12/28/2021
JOHN ALON: Fact check can be difficult. It’s still a job that someone has to do. The political landscape in 2021 has provided a seemingly endless supply of work for journalists like the Washington Post’s Glen Kessler, who’s tasked with setting the record straight and doling out the Pinocchios. To discuss some of the most entertaining fact checks from the last year, he joins us. Glen, we are glad to have you.
WASHINGTON POINT FACT-CHECKER GLENN KESSLER: It’s a pleasure to be there.
AVLON This one is easy.
KESSLER, Right. So that was $85 billion. Technically, it was 83. This number represented all the money that was appropriated for Afghan security forces. Only 75 billion went to Afghanistan, and less than 30% was used for weapons. So you can see already way lower than $85 billion, you’re in the $20 billion dollar range, and a lot of those weapons, that’s a figure over 20, 25 — 20–20 years, so uh, the actual number of weapons that were abandoned, most of which before the army left they disabled is much, much smaller.
It is important to note that this fact can disrupt the party stat.
You also dealt with the popular lab leak theory regarding the origins the coronavirus. Initial resistance was strong, but evidence began to come in which prompted serious investigation. That is no conspiracy theory. Let’s go through this.
KESSLER: Right. KESSLER: Right. This fact-check helped the readers to understand the evolution of the scientific consensus over the past two years.
AVLON The third fact you need to check is the one about Lauren Boebert from Colorado, who claimed that she was behind the political story. She claimed that she allowed her staff to have guns because a man had been killed in her restaurant. Glen Glen: But wait!
KESSLER: Right, yeah. KESSLER: Yes. I got coroner’s and police reports. But what really happened? A man was involved in a suspected drug deal at her restaurant. He then collapsed and ran away. This had nothing whatsoever to do with murder. According to her, it was a fight. It took place in a faraway area from her restaurant. Within a few days, however, it became clear that the victim had taken a high dose of drugs. This story was convenient to her politically and helped her explain why she entered politics. However, it was far from truth.
AVLON: For sure. And I want to go– to point out it is not just Republicans telling tall tales all the time. Biden falsely claimed that Georgia’s new voting restrictions had ended early voting hours. This was not true.
KESSLER: No. KESSLER: No. The law didn’t impact voting hours on election day. We could not understand why he repeated it three times. It is interesting that we have fact checked Joe Biden far more than any other politician and person in the past year. But, fact checks on Biden do not initially bring you as much attention as you might expect.
AVLON : It could also be a volume issue. Let me quickly get to number 5, because January 6th is around. Jim Jordan claimed that Nancy Pelosi had denied the request to the National Guard to provide reinforcements for Capitol Police. What’s the truth about that?
KESSLER : That is not true. Here’s an example of Republicans trying to change January 6th into something else. Pelosi would be a person they blame. This was Jim Jordan’s tweet. We looked into the matter and found that there has been a lot of testimony. There is no supporting evidence.
AVLON – Thank you Glenn Kessler. Wrapping up 2021. Here’s to 2022, I know there’ll be more fact-checks ahead.
This post was last modified on December 28, 2021 5:53 pm
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