You know, in order to get the media and/or their fact-checking divisions to do their jobs in holding a Democrat’s feet to the fire, Republicans practically have to promise their firstborn child – and even then there are no guarantees.
During the Trump years, fact-checking organizations solidified themselves as little more than obedient mouthpieces for Democrats, an extension of their liberally biased colleagues in the mainstream press. This was perhaps exemplified most often by CNN fact checker Daniel Dale, who once infamously declared during a 2020 CNN town hall featuring Joe Biden that Biden was fact-checking Donald Trump in real-time by stringing together a few coherent sentences consecutively.
I kid you not:
Biden is implicitly fact checking Trump by…uttering many consecutive coherent sentences, which Trump has repeatedly said Biden cannot do. https://t.co/LzS2Bx7ioq
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 18, 2020
SEE ALSO: CNN’s Daniel Dale Sounds the Final Death Knell for Fact-Checking
Fact-checking as an industry has, unsurprisingly, gotten far worse since then, with the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler, for instance, proudly declaring about three months after Joe Biden was sworn in that, unlike with former President Donald Trump, they would not be keeping a running database of Biden’s falsehoods after the first 100 days of his presidency:
Here’s the Biden database — which we do not plan to extend beyond 100 days. I have learned my lesson. https://t.co/qK42PRlnrS
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) April 27, 2021
So it is with all of that in mind that we turn to a more recent (and laughable) instance of a media outlet rushing to conduct a fact check, except this one was from a different CNNer – and the target was Trump’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH).
Before we get to the fact check, let’s take a look at what Vance said that prompted it.
On Tuesday, Vance was in Kenosha, Wisconsin to talk about crime and public safety. During a presser where he was flanked by law enforcement officers, Vance quipped that maybe the reason Democrats held their convention in Chicago was so that Walz, who has been accused by some veterans including Vance of stolen valor, could credibly claim that he “visited a combat zone.”
“My little theory about why they decided to have the convention in Chicago is that Tim Walz has been going around saying that he served in war, and maybe they did it in Chicago so that he could actually accurately say he visited a combat zone,” Vance stated to chuckles from some in the crowd.
Watch:
JD VANCE: They held the convention in Chicago so that Tim Walz could accurately say that he’s been in a war zone. pic.twitter.com/nLRNV7dBDx
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 20, 2024
Obviously, it was a joke, right? I mean there isn’t anyone out there who thinks the DNC was organized in the one and a half weeks after Kamala Harris named Walz as her vice presidential running mate, right?
Apparently at least one CNN reporter wanted to set the record straight. Alayna Treene, who is covering the Trump-Vance campaign, weighed in with this tweet just in case:
Vance in WI says his “little theory” about why Democrats chose to host their convention in Chicago is “so that [Walz] could actually, accurately say that he went, he visited a combat zone”
Democrats selected Chicago in April 2023 — long before Biden even considered dropping out
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) August 20, 2024
Wow, really? Thanks bunches, because who woulda thought?
https://t.co/juQZqy4WPY pic.twitter.com/tB2vDMttK5
— EducatëdHillbilly™ (@RobProvince) August 21, 2024
https://t.co/zvhtpGTiTD pic.twitter.com/uZn8GVYBoT
— F-15 Owners Club President (@WarDamnGunners) August 21, 2024
The journos are so dumb and broken they’re now fact-checking obvious jokes. https://t.co/QiR34h3vkD
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) August 21, 2024
Vance even weighed in with a simple “lmao.”
And not to be the bearer of bad news, but over the next three months, it’s going to get even more cringe. So, as Joe Biden would say, gird your loins.
Related: JD Vance Tears Into Andy Beshear Over ‘Disgusting’ Rape Comment About Family
