When is a lie not a lie? When it’s not told by a Republican, apparently. That seems to be the going standard among our current “fact-checking” industry.

As Nick Arama reported, Joe Biden did a town hall with CNN (which is code for tongue bath) last night in which he told several big lies. There was none bigger, though, than him claiming there was no vaccine when he took office (see Biden Makes Wild Claim About Vaccine During CNN Town Hall).

Biden says the COVID vaccine didn't exist when his administration came into office.

Fact check: false. pic.twitter.com/lfo0h5APwc

— Beth Baumann (@eb454) February 17, 2021

No worries, though. The fact-checker guys were on the case. In no time at all, The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler (see Kayleigh McEnany Zings Glenn Kessler) and CNN’s Daniel Dale had their spin up.

Rapid response team activated pic.twitter.com/ociZ64X8lJ

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 17, 2021

Glenn Kessler even did a longer thread in which he explained why he’s such a pretentious hack and refuses to actually fact-check Joe Biden in any real way (ok, I’m editorializing there just a bit).

It gets better! "But did he mean it?" 😂🤡😂🤡https://t.co/C8QhK0xOpZ

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) February 17, 2021

Funny, I don’t remember this “did he mean it” standard being applied to Trump. Nor do I remember the “as long as a lie has a contradiction, it’s not a lie” standard.

So let me get this straight. As long as Biden's lies are backed by contradictions, then they aren't lies? Was this a standard ever applied to any Republican, much less Trump? https://t.co/6UkWkoidjw

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) February 17, 2021

You almost have to admire the mental gymnastics being performed here.

Of course, a real fact-checker would simply, you know, check the facts. Biden’s lie wasn’t a stumble, and it certainly didn’t have anything to do with any stutter (which, oddly enough, almost never shows itself unless the press need an excuse for Biden lying). What the president was trying to do was what Kamala Harris did the day prior (see Kamala Harris Tells a Blatant Lie to Own the Orange Man, but She’s Really Just Scared). He’s trying to paint a false picture that he took office with 1) no plan at all and 2) a shortage of vaccines. Both those assertions are patently false, though Glenn Kessler won’t be caught dead pointing it out.

In reality, even the “well, he just meant there was no stockpile” excuse doesn’t hold water. There were 50 million doses on hand, but why would there be a large stockpile at the federal level anyway when the entire point was to get this brand new vaccine to the state’s immediately? Further, the states did have their own stockpiles and never ran out of vaccine. In other words, there was no shortage, so even the most charitable context placed still ends with Biden’s words being a lie and deliberately misleading. You’d think that’d be relevant to Daniel Dale, but I guess not.

Laughably, Kessler’s stuttering excuse is contradicted by Biden himself.

This is not fact checking. Glenn Kessler is making excuses for Joe Biden that not even Joe Biden himself makes excuses for – per @axios https://t.co/f9wyk5IfPY https://t.co/XUXhwxgXWt pic.twitter.com/dfdzXILRM2

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) February 17, 2021

As a contrast, let’s all remember the fact-checking regime Trump had to live under.

CNN thought it necessary to fact check Trump for saying Paw Patrol had been canceled but when Biden says something that is, in no uncertain terms, not true, all of a sudden things are murkier. pic.twitter.com/qYdXSRnhQJ

— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) February 17, 2021

The fact-checking industry is garbage. That’s not my fault for pointing it out. It’s there fault for operating as absolute hacks who refuse to apply their fact-checking standards with any consistency at all. Biden and his adminstration have lied repeatedly about the condition of the vaccine program upon taking office. This wasn’t a one time slip up, yet Kessler and the like claim there’s no pattern of dishonesty here, therefore they can be lax in trying to “interpret” what Biden said. Well, that’s easy to do when you always refuse to fact-check previous lies, thereby ignoring the actual pattern so you can then claim that no pattern exists. See how the scam works?

Biden objectively lied. Everything else is just excuse making for partisan gain.