The Washington Post Fact Checker is constantly slinging its Pinocchios at Donald Trump, calling him out for lying here, there, and everywhere. But when a liberal Democrat presidential aspirant like Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand messes up, curiously, somehow the Pinocchios get stuck and won't come out of the box.
On November 15, Fact Checker Glenn Kessler wrote a piece titled "Gillibrand's cascade of misfired employment statistics. Kessler explained where Gillibrand's stated facts on unemployment were wrong:
The overall unemployment rate was 3.7 percent in October, the lowest since December 1969. Here are the claims Gillibrand made:
-- 8 or 9 percent unemployment in some cities for black women
-- 16 percent unemployment rate for black men
-- 20 percent unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans
The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in October, the unemployment rate was 6.2 percent for African American men and 4.9 percent for African American women.
Gillibrand spokesman Alex Phillips said the senator accidentally dropped a word – “young” – from her prepared remarks and meant to say “young black men” and “young black women.”
Kessler then happily concludes that this would make the figures less wrong. It continued:
As for “young veterans,” BLS data that is not seasonally adjusted shows that for “Gulf War-era II veterans” ages 18 to 24, the unemployment rate in October was 12.6 percent. (Seasonally adjusted data is only available for all Gulf War II veterans, showing a rate of 2.7 percent.)
Here again, Gillibrand got it wrong. Phillips said Gillibrand used 20 percent because “she misspoke the stat off the cuff,” but “her point remains unchanged” that the numbers are unusually high for young veterans.
Kessler then says he doesn't award Pinocchios when a politician "admits error." They're not Lying if they admit error when caught.
Regular readers know that we generally do not award Pinocchios when a politician admits error. We certainly can understand a slip of the tongue, but it is never a clever idea to try to ad-lib a statistic.
Somehow, Gillibrand managed to mangle three statistics in three consecutive sentences before a large audience. If you are trying to make the case that you can provide better economic stewardship, you need to get the numbers right first.
That's your slap on the wrist, Senator. You're still free of anyone saying you earned Pinocchios for mangling the truth.
Kessler gave the same No Pinocchios card for Jimmy Kimmel.
And for Susan Rice on unmasking Trump campaign staffers, when "she appeared to say she knew nothing about a practice that we now know she actively used." That would usually be called lying.
We have rated this Washington Post "fact check" as Half Baked. For similar analyses, please visit our Fact-Checking the Fact-Checkers site.
