One reason the "independent" site PolitiFact leans strongly to the left is its audience. It relies on tips from its fans to select many of its fact checks, and so when PolitiFact tweeted today a reminder to look at its Readers Poll for the 2019 Lie of the Year, the readers overwhelmingly favored fact checks of President Trump and his team.
Almost 88 percent of the votes went to three Trump claims (and one by trade official Peter Navarro):
1. "There has never been, ever before, an administration that’s been so open and transparent." — Donald Trump on May 20, 2019, in remarks at the White House — Pants on Fire — 53.46%
2. "The first so-called second hand information ‘Whistleblower’ got my phone conversation almost completely wrong." — Donald Trump on Oct. 5, 2019, to reporters — Pants on Fire — 16.33%
3. Originally "almost all models predicted" Dorian would hit Alabama.— Donald Trump on Sept. 4, 2019, in a tweet — Pants on Fire — 10.14%
4. U.S. tariffs on China are "not hurting anybody" in the United States. — White House official Peter Navarro on Aug. 18, 2019, in an interview — Pants on Fire — 7.64%
The first Democrat claim came in far behind, like Beto O'Rourke in a presidential poll, with a teensy two percent:
7. Between 27,000 and 200,000 Wisconsinites were "turned away" from the polls in 2016 due to lack of proper identification. — Hillary Clinton on Sept. 17, 2019, in a speech — Pants on Fire — 2.29%
The other two Democrat suggestions drew less that one percent:
9. "The vast majority" of San Francisco’s homeless people "also come in from — and we know this — from Texas. Just (an) interesting fact." — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on June 23, 2019, in an interview — Pants on Fire — 0.76%....
11. "Remember after the shooting in Las Vegas, (President Donald Trump) said, ‘Yeah, yeah, we’re going to ban the bump stocks.’ Did he ban the bump stocks? No." — Kirsten Gillibrand on June 2, 2019, in a town hall — Pants on Fire — 0.51%
Conclusion: This site is run by liberals, and read by liberals. But the liberal media use it to pretend its "independent fact-checking." Don't buy that.
