The New York Times (NYT) somehow managed to mangle multiple attempts to “fact check” of the Republican debate.
When businessman Vivek Ramaswamy claimed that “transgenderism, especially in kids, is a mental health disorder,” the Times rated his claim “false,” arguing that “being transgender is not a mental health disorder.”
“Many transgender people experience gender dysphoria, or psychological distress as a result of the incongruence between their sex and their gender identity,” the “fact check” continues. “Gender dysphoria is a diagnosis in the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and can be given to children, adolescents or adults.”
In layman’s terms, the Times wants readers to believe that these confused individuals are actually not mentally ill, despite being diagnosed with a recognized mental disorder.
The Times was also up in arms over former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s claim that “Joe Biden hides in his basement.”
“This is false,” the Times claimed. “Republicans repeatedly use this phrase as a way of suggesting that President Biden is afraid of being in pubic. It is a snarky reference to some campaigning that he did from his Delaware home during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. In fact, Mr. Biden travels frequently around the country and around the world. This year, he has traveled to Ukraine, Poland, Mexico, Germany, Canada, Ireland, Britain, Japan, Lithuania, Finland, India and Vietnam.”
Biden was mocked throughout the 2020 election cycle for rarely making public appearances and basically running his campaign from home. Democratic operative Joe Trippi told the Washington Examiner in 2020 that “Biden’s style, his strengths, are better, are more effective in environments that aren’t rallies. The fact that he’s not going to have to operate in that environment probably benefits him.”
Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said at the time that Biden was “fine in the basement” and could still win without leaving the house.
The Times even took the time to let us know that Christie was referring to Biden’s wife, Jill, who is a professor, when he said the president is “sleeping with a member of the teachers’ union.” (RELATED: Former Senior Biden Advisor Says Biden Campaign Has To ‘Run A Very Different Campaign Than 2020’ To Win)
Thank. God.
Then there were the more ‘mild’ “fact-checks.”
DeSantis said during the debate that the Biden administration has “sent money to pay bureaucrats’ pensions and salaries and funding small businesses halfway around the world” in Ukraine.
SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 27: Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis talks to reporters in the spin room at the FOX Business Republican Primary Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on September 27, 2023 in Simi Valley, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The NYT argued the claim “requires context,” despite CBS News reporting the U.S. government has purchased seeds and fertilizer for Ukrainian farmers while also paying the salaries of 57,000 Ukrainian first responders.
The Times did not attempt to actually refute DeSantis’ claim, but instead tried to justify the funding.
“Ukraine’s government uses that money to fund basic operations like schools, hospitals and firefighting. It also goes to prop up the country’s economy, which contracted by about 30 percent last year after Russia’s invasion,” the Times wrote. “The overall goal is to prevent an economic and social collapse that could quickly lead to military defeat. Ukraine cannot survive on its own without economic aid.”
The Times also “fact-checked” Pence’s claim about the U.S. achieving “energy independence” under former President Donald Trump.
The Times labeled the statement “misleading,” arguing that “‘energy independence’ is a political phrase” but that “it is accurate that the milestone” to which Pence referred — a situation in which the U.S. exports more energy than it imports — “was hit in 2019 under the Trump administration.”
What would we have done without the journalists of the Times?