Former Washington Post ‘fact checker’ Glenn Kessler was recently confronted by the independent journalist Mark Halperin about the paper’s biased coverage of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
Kessler is caught like a deer in headlights, struggling to explain how the Washington Post failed to cover the issue fairly. One of the most amazing things about their exchange is that Kessler inadvertently admits that he and the WaPo were more interested in disproving claims by conservative media than they were about getting to the truth about Biden.
To Mark Halperin’s credit, he does not let Kessler off the hook here at all. Be sure to watch the full clip below.
Transcript via Real Clear Politics:
MARK HALPERIN, HOST: Regarding Joe Biden. When you looked at the question of whether the videos being played largely in conservative media that showed apparent cognitive decline of the president, what conclusion did you reach in Fact Checker about those videos?
GLENN KESSLER, FORMER WASHINGTON POST FACT-CHECKER: Well, you’re talking about when he supposedly meandered off to talk to the parachutists? Yeah. So that fact check was looking specifically at how that video was being portrayed on news sites.
MARK HALPERIN: Yes, sir.
GLENN KESSLER: And what we did was we went and got the full video in the full context, because it looked like the way it was cut, and particularly distributed by the RNC, it looked like Joe Biden was wandering off and he didn’t show him talking to parachutists. What we showed was that he was talking to parachutists. And I’ve said this before, fact checks are a complement to the news coverage, not a supplement.
Yes, sir. The overall context of the Washington Post coverage, we had coverage about, you know, was he too old? We had columnists saying he shouldn’t be running again.
And that fact was specifically about that video distributed by the RNC.
MARK HALPERIN: Understand, but the power of the Pinocchios and the power of the fact check, when you write that, people say that and say, the Washington Post is saying that that video is not reflective of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. That’s what people take from that.
Watch all of this:
Dropping soon: an explosive new @NextUpHalperin.@MarkHalperin interviews with @GlennKesslerWP, former Washington fact checker.
WATCH: Kessler’s stunning justification of his Biden “Deepfake” fact check.
Stay tuned for MUCH more… pic.twitter.com/Lo78lvWHtI
— Next Up with Mark Halperin (@NextUpHalperin) August 7, 2025
Glenn Kessler recently took a buyout to leave the Washington Post instead of complying with new policies to make the paper more balanced. He will not be missed.
Read the full article here