Former Washington Put up ‘reality checker’ Glenn Kessler was not too long ago confronted by the impartial journalist Mark Halperin concerning the paper’s biased protection of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.
Kessler is caught like a deer in headlights, struggling to clarify how the Washington Put up didn’t cowl the difficulty pretty. One of the vital superb issues about their alternate is that Kessler inadvertently admits that he and the WaPo had been extra enthusiastic about disproving claims by conservative media than they had been about attending to the reality about Biden.
To Mark Halperin’s credit score, he doesn’t let Kessler off the hook right here in any respect. Make sure to watch the total clip under.
Transcript through Real Clear Politics:
MARK HALPERIN, HOST: Relating to Joe Biden. While you regarded on the query of whether or not the movies being performed largely in conservative media that confirmed obvious cognitive decline of the president, what conclusion did you attain in Reality Checker about these movies?
GLENN KESSLER, FORMER WASHINGTON POST FACT-CHECKER: Effectively, you’re speaking about when he supposedly meandered off to speak to the parachutists? Yeah. In order that reality verify was trying particularly at how that video was being portrayed on information websites.
MARK HALPERIN: Sure, sir.
GLENN KESSLER: And what we did was we went and obtained the total video within the full context, as a result of it regarded like the best way it was reduce, and significantly distributed by the RNC, it regarded like Joe Biden was wandering off and he didn’t present him speaking to parachutists. What we confirmed was that he was speaking to parachutists. And I’ve stated this earlier than, reality checks are a complement to the information protection, not a complement.
Sure, sir. The general context of the Washington Put up protection, we had protection about, you recognize, was he too outdated? We had columnists saying he shouldn’t be working once more.
And that reality was particularly about that video distributed by the RNC.
MARK HALPERIN: Perceive, however the energy of the Pinocchios and the ability of the very fact verify, whenever you write that, folks say that and say, the Washington Put up is saying that that video just isn’t reflective of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. That’s what folks take from that.
Watch all of this:
Dropping quickly: an explosive new @NextUpHalperin.@MarkHalperin interviews with @GlennKesslerWP, former Washington reality checker.
WATCH: Kessler’s gorgeous justification of his Biden “Deepfake” reality verify.
Keep tuned for MUCH extra… pic.twitter.com/Lo78lvWHtI
— Subsequent Up with Mark Halperin (@NextUpHalperin) August 7, 2025
Glenn Kessler recently took a buyout to leave the Washington Post as an alternative of complying with new insurance policies to make the paper extra balanced. He is not going to be missed.

