Washington Post Only Fact Checks Republicans After First Day Of Impeachment Hearings

The Washington Post fact-checked various statements made during the first day of public impeachment hearings Wednesday, but the round-up failed to look into any comments made by Democrats.

The fact-checking article was a round-up of only Republican members of Congress, and the publication declined to include any statements from Democrats. The analysis, published Thursday, is titled “Fact-checking the opening day of the Trump impeachment hearings” and did not specify whether it was only intended for Republicans.

“Here’s a roundup of misleading claims made during the opening day of House impeachment hearings,” the article reads.

WaPo fact checkedRepublican Reps. John Ratcliffe of Texas, Elise Stefanik of New York and Michael Turner of Ohio. Republican Reps. Devin Nunes of California and Jim Jordan of Ohio were also each fact-checked twice. Top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine William B. Taylor Jr. and senior State Department official George P. Kent testified during Wednesday’s impeachment hearing.

One fact check left out of WaPo’s round-up was when Democratic California Rep. Adam Schiff said during opening statements that the White House took an “extraordinary step” by moving the memo of President Donald Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine to a “highly classified server.”

This comment was highlighted by the website Fact Check, who noted that White House National Security Council staffer Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman testified on Oct. 29 that this step was not “unusual.” Vindman added that putting the call into a more secure system could have been justified to avoid leaking information that would hurt relations between the two countries, according to Fact Check.

In another moment, Jordan went after Schiff by saying that his “staff is the only staff of any member of Congress that’s had a chance to talk with” the whistleblower. Schiff replied by saying “that’s a false statement,” adding that he personally doesn’t know the identity of the whistleblower.

However, on Oct. 2, the New York Times reported that Schiff’s team likely knows who the whistleblower is – a point mentioned by Jordan. The whistleblower reportedly reached out to a House staffer, so “it’s reasonable to think his [Schiff’s] team knows” who the person is, Politifact reported.

Despite having numerous opportunities to fact-checkDemocrats statements, WaPo instead stuck with what Republicans said. The publication did the same thing in Julywhen it declined to fact check Democrats during the Mueller hearings.