Rem Rieder — an editor at the Washington Post, Miami Herald, American Journalism Review and USA TODAY — looks back at his year of fact-checking in the age of Donald Trump.
Checking the Facts in the World of Trump
No ‘Landslide’ for Biden, Either
Back in 2016, Donald Trump wrongly called his victory a “landslide.” Now, some are taking a page out of Trump’s book to claim Biden won in a landslide. He didn’t, either.
The Facts on Trump’s Post-Election Legal Challenges
For this story, we ignore the tweets and press conferences and look at what the president’s lawyers have been saying in court. Two things stick out: a lack of evidence of voter fraud and a long string of legal defeats and setbacks.
Trump Misinformation on Georgia Ballot Rejections
The percentage of mail-in ballots rejected in Georgia due to signature issues this year was about the same as in the 2016 and 2018 general elections — contrary to a tweet by President Donald Trump.
Loeffler-Warnock Runoff Starts with Attack Ads
About a week after Georgia’s special election headed to a runoff, Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican, and Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, both launched questionable attacks that the other candidate has disputed.
Twisting the Facts on ‘Dirty Money’ in the Georgia Race
Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff’s production company received payments from a Hong Kong media company and Al Jazeera for the rights to air investigative pieces, but a Republican TV ad misleadingly claims Ossoff got cash from “Chinese communists and terrorist sympathizers.”
Opening Ads in the Perdue-Ossoff Runoff
In the first TV ads of the runoff campaign that could help decide the balance of the Senate, Republican Sen. David Perdue warned his opponent would “radically change America,” while Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff accused his opponent of downplaying the coronavirus.
Rand Paul Baselessly Says Only Anti-Trump Protesters Arrested at MAGA March
Sen. Rand Paul claimed without evidence that only counterprotesters were arrested at the Million MAGA March and its tumultuous aftermath, and that they were solely responsible for the outbreaks of violence there.
Ballot ‘Curing’ in Pennsylvania
Counties in Pennsylvania employed inconsistent policies when it came to “curing” ballots — notifying voters of an error in their mail-in ballot so they could fix it. But contrary to claims by the Trump campaign, that inconsistency didn’t fall strictly along party lines.
Trump Tweets Conspiracy Theory About Deleted Votes
In a tweet, President Donald Trump on Nov. 12 pushed the baseless theory that voting systems deleted millions of votes for him and switched thousands of votes cast for him to his Democratic rival, President-elect Joe Biden.