Politifact, an organization that claims to be an accurate purveyor of fact-checking media outlets and public figures, awarded its “Lie of the Year” to now-President-elect Donald Trump.
The left-leaning org said the designation was justified over Trump’s claim in September that Haitian immigrants were eating dogs — a report that gained some traction for a while online and in which his running mate, Vice President-elect JD Vance, said some of his Ohio constituents had contacted his office about the matter.
Meanwhile, the people surrounding Joe Biden repeatedly insisted throughout his term in office — and certainly during the past year — that his mental status was good while the president himself went back on his promise that he wouldn’t pardon his son, Hunter Biden.
“In a year of inflammatory rhetoric and shocking moments, one repeated falsehood resonated with both PolitiFact journalists and readers as the most significant falsehood of 2024,” said PolitiFact, a project of the Poynter Institute.
The Washington Times noted that commentators on social media have since taken issue with PolitiFact’s selection with responses such as “Lie of the year: Joe Biden is fine,” “You guys really are hopelessly partisan,” and “Politifact is not a credible source of information and no one should take them seriously.”
“Saying Biden was FINE was the Lie of the Year,” the conservative Media Research Center said on X.
The center offered a contrasting perspective, awarding its 2024 Brian Stelter Award for the Worst Quote of the Year to MSNBC Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough for his defense of Biden’s fitness for office.
“This version of Biden intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second. And I’ve known him for years,” Scarborough told viewers on March 6. Some three months later, Biden would perform horribly against Trump in their sole debate, providing stumbling, confused answers to questions before dropping his reelection bid within a few weeks.
MRC President Brent Bozell said that in a “media landscape full of Biden excuse-makers, Scarborough’s sycophancy stood out.”
“Back in March when it was apparent to everybody that Joe Biden was losing it, here comes Joe Scarborough to not only reject those claims but boldly boast that Biden was quote ‘intellectually’ and ‘analytically’ the sharpest he’s ever been,” Bozell said in a statement. “Four months later his own party dumped him.”
Tim Graham, executive editor of MRC NewsBusters, said the Trump “they’re eating the cats” line was “an unproven accusation in a highly watched presidential debate,” but that “everything in the ‘fact-checking’ racket is about target selection.”
“Republicans are ‘fact-checked’ more and get harsher ratings for dishonesty,” Graham told the Times. “Trump has been tagged as ‘Pants On Fire’ by PolitiFact 204 times, and Kamala Harris has zero in her entire career.”
The “Biden is fine” narrative pushed by the White House, Democrats and media figures also failed to make PolitiFact’s list of top 10 “lies” for 2024.
The pet-eating comment received 54% of the vote. In second place, with 17%, was another Trump remark about the Biden administration diverting funding from disaster relief to illegal immigrants. Biden finished third with 6% for claiming he wouldn’t pardon his son for gun and tax convictions, yet did so on December 1.
Not surprisingly, Trump has been awarded the ‘Lie of the Year’ designation multiple times by Politifact since the organization began the tradition in 2009.
“PolitiFact has also singled out Donald Trump for ‘Lie of the Year’ in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021,” Graham said. “No Democrat has been tagged with this dishonor since Trump arrived on the scene.”
In 2013, President Barack Obama won the dubious honor for memorably saying, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” under the Affordable Care Act.
Biden, meanwhile, has a well-documented history of lying about his life and his political career, yet has never received the nod.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
