The Washington Post fact-checker upgrades Trump's Stormy Daniels payoff tale to a first-ever 'lie' rating

The Washington Post fact checker calls Trump a liar

(Image credit: Screenshot/The Washington Post)

published 23 August 2018

President Trump is officially a liar — according to The Washington Post's stickler-for-words Fact Checker team, headed by Glenn Kessler. Kessler's team has documented 4,229 false or misleading claims Trump has made as president — for an average of 7.6 a day — but despite pressure from Trump's critics, the team "has been hesitant" to accuse Trump of lying, "as it is difficult to document whether the president knows he is not telling the truth," Kessler explained on Wednesday. But with Trump's firm denial of knowledge about his lawyer Michael Cohen's hush payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, "it's now clear that the president's statement was a lie."

You can read Kessler's "definitive story of a Trump lie," including names, dates, and supporting video evidence, at The Washington Post. At CNN on Wednesday night, Chris Cuomo discussed Trump's lie about the Stormy Daniels payment, but he also spent a few minutes debunking Trump's new whopper, that former President Barack Obama "did the same thing." "In fact, he liked this excuse so much — so nice — he used it twice," Cuomo said, calling the charge Trump's "weakest" line of attack yet. But in the end, the main point is Trump's shifting story about paying off Daniels, he said, and "the real problem here is lying." Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.