Politics

Politifact Has Been Inconsistent In A Manner Which Favors Democrats

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Alex Pfeiffer White House Correspondent
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Politifact has had two sets of standards for Republican and Democratic candidates on whether votes on non-binding budget resolutions mean something, a bias which has ended up benefiting Democrats.

Politifact is an outfit of the Tampa Bay Times and describes itself as a fact-checking website. On Monday, the site said, “Republican Party of Florida Facebook post misses the mark in Clinton attack.” It marked the post as “mostly false.” The GOP in Florida was attacking Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over a vote for a senate resolution which would raise taxes on individuals earning $41,500 a year.

Clinton voted for a senate resolution in 2008 which included this tax increase, but as the resolution was non-binding and instead set a framework, Politifact sees the vote as holding no importance. The site said, “[l]iterally speaking, Clinton’s vote did nothing.”

A week earlier, though, Politifact said it was “accurate” to say Republican North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr supported a tax decrease for the wealthy. The GOP has pointed out that Burr’s votes for non-binding senate resolutions. “To be clear, this is an apples to apples comparison: both individuals cast votes on non-binding budget resolutions, and both outlined changes to existing tax rates. Yet one was essentially called true, while the other rated false – and the only difference was their respective party affiliations,” GOP research director Raj Shah wrote.

In 2012, Politifact had a similar performance. That year, they rated “half true” a claim by President Barack Obama that House Speaker Paul Ryan’s budget would cut Pell Grants for millions of college students. Those budgets were also non-binding resolutions, the claim though was not rated “mostly false.”