Biden and Trump, mano a mano What a year this week has been! At The Fact Checker, we had just finished wading through the debate (more like a radioactive cage match) between President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden when news broke that Trump had caught the novel coronavirus. When it comes to false and misleading claims, Trump is in a league of his own, as we have chronicled for years. But readers may find it useful to compare the two candidates' styles and see how Biden measures up in a hand-to-hand contest. The Democratic nominee twists some facts and misleads at times on health care, the economy and other issues, whereas the Republican president has accumulated more Pinocchios than anyone under the sun. This week's debate, or at least what could be heard through endless interruptions and desperate pleas from moderator Chris Wallace, gave us an opportunity to grade the two candidates. There was so much to go through, it took us two days. We published two fact checks, for a total of 53 claims. (Biden: 7. Trump: 46.) Trump: "Portland, the sheriff just came out today and he said I support President Trump." False. Mike Reese, the sheriff who oversees Portland, tweeted, "As the Multnomah County Sheriff I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him." Biden: "Because he, in fact, already has cost 10 million people their health care that they had from their employers because of his recession, number one." Biden's figure is randomly imprecise. A study from the Urban Institute found that 10 million people would lose their employer-sponsored health care but that many would be able to switch to another form of insurance, leaving a net 3.5 million without coverage. A separate analysis by Avalere Health estimated that 12 million people could lose their insurance by the end of 2020. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. In this corner ... In preparation for the debate, Glenn Kessler took a deep look into Trump's and Biden's handling of the truth — the tale of the tape before a prizefight, so to speak. Biden, with nearly a half century in politics, is prone to exaggeration and occasional loose talk on policy issues. He especially gets in trouble because of his loquacious nature, though he has tried to rein it in this campaign. He often shows an understanding of complex policy issues. But Biden does not always get his numbers right, is prone to garbling or conflating his talking points, revises history to dress up his sore spots and invented a tale of having been arrested in South Africa while trying to visit Nelson Mandela. Biden makes mistakes and tells tall tales, but he often drops them or withdraws them if his error is highlighted in the media. Conclusion: Welterweight or middleweight. Trump, by contrast, is a fountain of falsehood who repeats false claims over and over. When challenged with irrefutable evidence, Trump will ignore it or portray it falsely to insist he is right. He exaggerates just about every number, constantly revises history, frequently promotes conspiracy theories such as the "birther" lie that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, and can be relied on to say polar-opposite things from one day to the next depending on the political needs of the moment. If Trump feels slighted by someone, he often will respond with nasty smears with no basis in fact, something Biden does not do. Conclusion: Heavyweight champion. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @rizzoTK, @mmkelly22, @SarahCahlan) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. You can order our book, "Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth," in paperback, e-book and audiobook via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, independent booksellers or directly from the publisher. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. By Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly ● Read more » | | | | 
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