After Thursday’s debate between Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the fact-checkers at PolitiFact and USA Today gave their recaps of both men’s most controversial claims. On the statements the two Facebook partners examined, Trump was rated false 100 percent of the time, while Biden was rated false only 44 percent of the time.
PolitiFact fact-checked Trump 16 total times, giving him a “mostly false” rating three times, a “false” rating on 12 occasions, and one additional “pants on fire” rating.
Some of PolitiFact’s evidence was quite puzzling. For instance, in the portion dealing with Trump attacking Democrats’ radical abortion stance, Trump mentioned Democrats support abortion “in the eighth month, in the ninth month,” which PolitiFact responded to by claiming, “Many of these Democrats have also said they support abortions past this point [24 weeks] if the treating physician deems it necessary.”
PolitiFact didn’t mention it, but some states (Alaska, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont, plus D.C.) also have no limits on abortion, and yet Trump was still slapped with a “false” rating.
As for Biden, PolitiFact gave him five “mostly true," three “half true,” one “mostly false,” and two “false” claims.
PolitiFact punted on Biden bringing up the Charlottesville “fine people” controversy, despite Snopes labeling it false. PolitiFact also declined to issue rulings on “suckers and losers” and Trump’s claim that Biden is incapable of hitting a golf ball 50 yards.
Over at USA Today, not all of the ratings got a neat “true” or “false” label, but a close reading of the list reveals that Trump was given nine false ratings while Biden was given one true, three false, and one mostly false.
Trump’s nine falsehoods do not include him mistakenly referring to his corporate tax cut as a cut from 39 to 21 percent when it was from 35 to 21. USA Today punted on whether Biden’s executive orders have caused a 40 percent decrease in illegal border crossings, whether Trump has ever praised Hitler or had sex with a porn star.
All told, PolitiFact and USA Today rated Trump false 25 times, while rating Biden false only seven. They gave Trump no true ratings, while giving Biden six. There were also three middle ground “half trues” for Biden and none for Trump. And it is not as if Trump did not have true statements. Trump argued NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg praising him, which he did, on CNN no less. He also correctly recalled how former intelligence officials incorrectly claimed Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation, but the fact-checkers couldn’t be bothered to include those claims.
