The Washington Post has used a “Pinocchio” rating system for lies that politicians have told for years. The 1 to 4 Pinocchio categories have worked well for the newspaper, but then Donald Trump came along. Now Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post’s resident fact checker, says Trump’s repeated lies have caused them to create a Bottomless Pinocchio. The Post reports:
The bar for the Bottomless Pinocchio is high: The claims must have received three or four Pinocchios from The Fact Checker, and they must have been repeated at least 20 times. Twenty is a sufficiently robust number that there can be no question the politician is aware that his or her facts are wrong. The list of Bottomless Pinocchios will be maintained on its own landing page.
The Fact Checker has not identified statements from any other current elected official who meets the standard other than Trump. In fact, 14 statements made by the president immediately qualify for the list.
The president’s most-repeated falsehoods fall into a handful of broad categories — claiming credit for promises he has not fulfilled; false assertions that provide a rationale for his agenda; and political weaponry against perceived enemies such as Democrats or special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Check out what else Kessler says above and take a look at their full story on Trump’s lies that have earned a distinction no one wants to receive.