By: Becket Adams – nationalreview.com – December 22, 2024

The only thing worse than a villain is an unrepentant one.

PolitiFact’s attempt to present the Trump-Vance Springfield pet-eating story as 2024’s chief fabrication is absurd on its face.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for instance, is one such case — not just because of the railroading it gave Richard Jewell when it falsely reported he was the perpetrator behind the 1996 Olympics bombing but also because it refuses to apologize for the role it played in ruining his life.

Similarly, what’s worse than PolitiFact’s being a willing participant in the conspiracy to hide President Joe Biden’s mental and physical decline is its sleazy attempt last week to absolve itself of any wrongdoing.

I’m referring to PolitiFact’s publication of a 3,500-plus-word article last week, in which it awarded its “lie of the year” to Donald Trump and JD Vance’s claim that migrants in Ohio were eating dogs and cats.

What a remarkable assertion by the alleged fact-checker, especially considering that 2024 was also the year of “Joe Biden is sharp as a tack.”

You won’t catch me defending Trump and Vance on the pets claim. That’s not the aim of this article. Instead, the aim is to approach this matter seriously and objectively. Let’s consider consequences and scope, and let’s assess qualitatively.

If we examine the significant, consequential lies of the year, the claim that Joe Biden was “sharp as a tack” stands out as the most egregious and serious. It ranks among the worst lies of the decade and is arguably one of the worst falsehoods perpetrated by any White House. The assertion that “Joe Biden is sharp as a tack” represented a widespread conspiracy of deception across the media and government. This lie relied on dozens, if not hundreds, of willing participants inside and outside the White House. An army of White House staffers, activists, Biden loyalists, politicos, and legislators participated, along with several journalists, pundits, and commentators, many of whom have exclusive access to the president.

Casual observers recognized Biden’s frailty from the start. Yet indignant news organizations insisted these observers were either liars or gullible, the dupes of “cheap fakes.”

My colleague Jim Geraghty remembers the headlines and news blurbs:

• NBC News, October 26, 2023: “Republicans float a quiet conspiracy theory that Biden won’t be on the ballot.”
• The Los Angeles Times, February 13, 2024: “Anyone hoping California Gov. Gavin Newsom or some other Democrat will take Joe Biden’s place on the 2024 presidential ballot is likely to be disappointed. Despite renewed anxiety over the president’s age — 81 — party officials and pollsters say swapping him out is a bad idea, and nearly impossible without his sign-off.”
• NPR, April 7, 2024:”Yes, Biden is really running in November. But a lot of voters say they doubt it.”
• The New York Times, July 12, 2024: “For years, far-right commentators have floated a conspiracy theory that Democratic Party elites were secretly plotting to replace President Biden on the ticket — a switcheroo that could give the party an advantage in November.”

PolitiFact was no exception; it played a significant role in dismissing video and photographic evidence of Biden’s decline by repeating the White House line that such proof was merely a “cheap fake.”

“‘Cheap fakes’: Viral videos keep clipping Biden’s words out of context,” read a PolitiFact headline published on Feb. 14, 2022.

A separate PolitiFact “fact-check” published in June 2024 declared, “Donald Trump’s supporters have pushed deceptively edited videos of President Joe Biden to cast doubt on his mental and physical fitness. Now, the two campaigns are putting their own political spin on the definition of ‘cheap fake’ videos.”

The article reports, “These videos, called cheap fakes, have become a common tactic to undermine Biden’s fitness for office as the 81-year-old seeks reelection. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is 78.”

As an example of a “cheap fake,” the article specifically mentions a video from a 2024 fundraising event in Los Angeles featuring George Clooney, where Biden needed assistance exiting the stage. The footage depicts Biden freezing up, which prompted former president Barack Obama to guide the current commander-in-chief away from the stage, leading him by the hand as one might do with a child. But don’t worry, PolitiFact reassured readers at the time, the video is merely a “cheap fake.”

Clooney later wrote an opinion article revealing that the L.A. fundraising event — the “cheap fake” event — was when he realized Biden was no longer mentally or physically capable of serving in office.

The White House and the national press tried to conceal Biden’s decline. They failed only because Biden himself exposed the extent of his infirmities during a disastrous June presidential debate. It’s no thanks to our “Fourth Estate,” including PolitiFact, that the public knows what it knows now about the Biden Potemkin presidency, in which lackeys and stooges propped up a decrepit, frail old man to make it seem as if he were still “sharp,” in charge, and as energetic as ever.

And though the lie fell apart, that doesn’t mean it was trivial. On the contrary.

To see this article in its entirety and to subscribe to others like it, please choose to read more.

Source: The Joe Biden Cover-Up Was Obviously the ‘Lie of the Year’ | National Review