Talk about striking out.
Glenn Kessler, who works at The Washington Post as a political fact-checker, took a swipe on Sunday at former President Donald Trump, who had just delivered a stem-winder of a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando, Florida. In his hour-plus address, Trump at one point blasted President Joe Biden for continued school closings.
“Trump complaining about kids not back in schools yet. Who was president a month ago?” Kessler wrote on Twitter.
Trump complaining about kids not back in schools yet. Who was president a month ago?
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) February 28, 2021
The post was retweeted more than 4,000 times.
But, uh, Biden was president a month ago. In fact, he had been president for 40 days when Kessler posted his tweet.
Twitterers teed off, pointing out that a month before Trump’s speech was January 28, eight days after Biden took office.
“Fact check: today is Feb. 28th. a month ago was Jan. 28th. Joe Biden was sworn in to office on Jan. 20th. So, Joe Biden was president a month ago,” wrote one.
Fact check: today is Feb. 28th. a month ago was Jan. 28th. Joe Biden was sworn in to office on Jan. 20th. So, Joe Biden was president a month ago.
✍🏼nominated✍🏼for✍🏼the✍🏼List✍🏼 pic.twitter.com/RSKMCzBnCZ
— Siraj Hashmi in Gitmo (@SirajAHashmi) February 28, 2021
Wrote another: “That would be Joe Biden, Glenn. Need ice for that boomerang hit?”
“Who will fact-check the fact checkers in post-America when there’s only the Official Narrative on social media and everywhere else?” wrote another.
Others hit Biden over the COVID-19 vaccine. “He is also taking credit for the vaccines which were able to hurry up based on 20 years of research into a new way of producing them. It fell in his lap and then he developed no plan to get the vaccine out there to people.”
He is also taking credit for the vaccines which were able to hurry up based on 20 years of research into a new way of producing them. It fell in his lap and then he developed no plan to get the vaccine out there to people
— Michael McAleer (@Michael83695414) February 28, 2021
Another said Biden was president a month ago, but “rather than focus on America’s children he decided to bomb Syria’s children instead!”
Said still another: “The best part about this tweet is this guy is literally a professional ‘fact checker,'” adding a face with tears of joy emoji.
Since last summer, Trump has been calling for schools to reopen. At CPAC, the former president blasted Biden for failing to pressure powerful teachers unions, whose members contribute millions of dollars to, and regularly vote for, Democrats.
“Joe Biden has shamefully betrayed America’s youth and he is cruelly keeping our children locked in their homes, no reason for it whatsoever,” Trump said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that elderly people and those with other health issues are far more vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus than children, and CDC guidelines state that schools can safely reopen without vaccinated teachers, but the Biden administration has so far not demanded their reopening.
Kessler kept track throughout Trump’s term of everything his team deemed “false and misleading statements, arriving at a number of 30,573.
But according to a new report, the Post team won’t be keeping score on Biden.
“Trump’s departure also equals an end to having a false claims project for the current president, as The Post said it does ‘not have plans to launch a Biden database at this time,’” the Daily Caller wrote four days after Biden took office.
“The database of Trump claims was started a month after Trump became president as a way to not overwhelm our fact-checking enterprise, where the core mission is to explain complex policy issues,” director of communications Shani George told the Caller. “While we do not have plans to launch a Biden database at this time, we will continue to dig into the accuracy of statements by political figures of all party affiliations.”
Related: Washington Post ‘Fact Checkers’ Won’t Count False Biden Claims; ‘Assume’ He’ll Be Like Obama