Former WaPo ‘fact checker’ excoriated over coverage of Biden’s cognitive decline

Former Washington Post ‘fact checker’ Glenn Kessler offered up what independent journalist Mark Halperin called a “stunning justification” of his response to videos exposing former President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline.

Halperin shared a clip from his Next Up show, where he asked Kessler, “What conclusion did you reach in Fact Checker about those videos?”

“Well, you’re talking about when he supposedly meandered off to talk to the parachutists? So, that Fact Check was looking specifically at how that video was being portrayed on news sites,” Kessler said.

Dropping soon: an explosive new @NextUpHalperin.@MarkHalperin interviews with @GlennKesslerWP, former Washington fact checker.

WATCH: Kessler’s stunning justification of his Biden “Deepfake” fact check.

Stay tuned for MUCH more… pic.twitter.com/Lo78lvWHtI

— Next Up with Mark Halperin (@NextUpHalperin) August 7, 2025

“And what we did was we went and got the full video in the full context, because it looked like, the way it was cut and particularly distributed by the RNC, it looked like Joe Biden was wandering off and it didn’t show him talking to parachutists,” he added, claiming that fact checks “are a complement to the news coverage, not a supplement.”

He pointed to the overall context of the Washington Post coverage, but stressed that the fact check “was specifically about that video distributed by the RNC.”

“Understand, but the power of the Pinocchios and the power of the fact check, when you write that, people say that and say, the Washington Post is saying that that video is not reflective of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline,” Halperin replied. “That’s what people take from that… You know the power that you had in that job.”

He then asked Kessler how he would rate the job The Washington Post did in covering Joe Biden’s cognitive decline?

“I would say, so there was a lot of effort to produce a story that would look at very carefully at what seemed to be a cognitive decline. It never came together because we couldn’t get enough people on the record,” Kessler said.

Halperin shot back, “Glenn, Glenn, do you know the moment where Joe Biden spoke to a dead Congresswoman at a public event? Are you familiar with that moment? Okay. What kind of sourcing did you need to say Joe Biden was suffering cognitive decline? Did you see him trailing off regularly? What kind of sourcing was needed?”

“I, you know, I can’t get too deep in the weeds of what happened at my former newsroom,” his guest dodged.

When pressed, Kessler played dumb, “I’m telling you, there was a lot of effort to produce the story, you know, that you are asking for, and it didn’t come together. That is my understanding. I was not in the meetings.”

He spoke about how “in retrospect, one could say, God, that was a real missed opportunity,” but Halperin tore into him for his deception.

“When you write a column that says the RNC is producing misleading video because Joe Biden wandered off and talked to paratroopers, that is taking the credibility and power of you, the fact checker column and the Washington Post and saying, in effect, not this one little thing is wrong, but, oh, let’s remind you that he talked to a dead congresswoman,” Halperin said. “You are saying in that column to any normal reader, the Washington Post is saying the chatter of that cognitive decline is made up.”

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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.

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