The Washington Post is ending its presidential fact-check database just 100 days into President Joe Biden’s administration after four years of rigorously investigating former President Donald Trump.
“We’ve been comparing Biden (67 false or misleading claims) to Trump’s first 100 days (511 claims.)” Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler tweeted Tuesday. “But past is no prologue. In the last 100 days before the 2020 election, we counted 8,859 claims made by Trump. It was a wild ride.”
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“Here’s the Biden database — which we do not plan to extend beyond 100 days. I have learned my lesson,” Kessler added.
Here’s the Biden database — which we do not plan to extend beyond 100 days. I have learned my lesson. https://t.co/qK42PRlnrS
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) April 27, 2021
Kessler elaborated that “learned my lesson” means that “who knows what the next four years will bring. We have fact-checked Biden rigorously and will continue to do so. Trump at 500 claims/100 days was manageable; 8,000+ was not.”
Kessler then suggested that continuing the Biden fact check database would be too much work.
“Maintaining the Trump database over four years required about 400 additional 8-hour days over four years beyond our regular jobs for three people,” Kessler wrote. “Biden is off to a relatively slow start but who knows what will happen. We will keep doing fact checks, just not a database.”
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Kessler also complimented Biden yesterday, writing that Trump “swamped” the public with false claims for four years compared to the current president, who “has offered a return to a more typical pattern when it comes to a commander in chief and his relationship with the facts — one that features frequent spin and obfuscation or exaggeration, with the occasional canard.”
The announcement comes days after the paper was widely criticized by conservatives over a fact check analysis of Republican Sen. Tim Scott’s family history in the Jim Crow south.
The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.
