WaPo 'Fact Checker' Takes Aim at Trump Over Statement on Paper's Correction, It Does Not Go Well

As we reported last night, Donald Trump issued a statement in response to the Washington Post quietly issuing a “correction” of sorts on what they portrayed at the time as a blockbuster story about Trump allegedly demanding a Georgia investigator “find the fraud” that would make her a “national hero.”

“You will notice that establishment media errors, omissions, mistakes, and outright lies always slant one way–against me and against Republicans,” the former president wrote. “This latest media travesty underscores that legacy media outlets should be regarded as political entities–not journalistic enterprises.”

For those who missed it, read Trump’s full statement below:

President Trump releases statement on @washingtonpost:

“While I appreciate the Washington Post’s correction, which immediately makes the Georgia Witch Hunt a non-story, the original story was a Hoax, right from the very beginning.”

FULL STATEMENT: pic.twitter.com/K1JuNhxfzl

— Natalie Harp (@NatalieJHarp) March 15, 2021

Trump’s on-point remarks did not sit well with the Washington Post’s resident “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler, who rushed to the Twitter machine and immediately faceplanted the moment he started typing. Here was his knee-jerk reaction:

The Washington Post’s reporting on Trump’s call to the Georgia Secretary of State –undisputed, as the audio tape was obtained from the start — was the article cited in the impeachment article. Trump naturally pretends otherwise. https://t.co/f0KXSqrJTL

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) March 15, 2021

Except … the fake quote from the Washington Post’s original reporting in January that was supposedly “corroborated” by other sources and news outlets was in the impeachment brief, on page 10:

Glenn, this is the impeachment brief. The fake quote is in it… https://t.co/dCO4saTVAX pic.twitter.com/Wbd8EVVj0q

— Henry Rodgers (@henryrodgersdc) March 15, 2021

The fake quote was also used during the Senate’s impeachment trial:

FLASHBACK: Democrats used the fake Washington Post “find the fraud” quote that was retracted today in the Trump impeachment trial
pic.twitter.com/45G70wLaYf

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 15, 2021

In addition, Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) @RepDean specifically cited the “find the fraud” quote in her oral arguments in front of the Senate. It was fake news. https://t.co/vjDkn8HXij

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) March 15, 2021

By Glenn Kessler’s own standards, he deserves four Pinocchios for his tweet:

pic.twitter.com/2ycvwMycn2

— Sandy 〽️ (@RightGlockMom) March 15, 2021

As I’ve said numerous times before, so-called “fact-checkers” at major media outlets like the WaPo, CNN, and others have done about as much damage to their own profession as national media journalists have over the last decade or so, and that was especially true during the four years Trump was president. Sadly, not only does Kessler appear to be willing to continue that tradition, but instead of being contrite about his paper’s false reporting on a quote that didn’t happen, he’s trying dunks on the public figure who was hurt the most by their journalistic malpractice.

It’s not a good look at all for the news outlet that has “Democracy dies in darkness” on their masthead, but then again most of us have known all along that the paper’s Trump-era declaration about “democracy” was nothing more than shallow virtue signaling, so I guess we shouldn’t expect any better out of Kessler. This is who they are, and no matter how many times they get caught, they will never change.