The Daily Wire and PolitiFact don’t see eye-to-eye on whether a pro-Trump ad is misleading when it shows Joe Biden saying "taxes are going to be raised" if he wins the upcoming election.
“The ad launched on Aug. 4 before getting slapped with a ‘mostly false’ rating by PolitiFact and subsequently blocked by Facebook the next month,” Daily Wire reporter John Bickley wrote.
The ad, by America First Action Super Pac and called “Too Risky,” directly quoted Democratic presidential nominee Biden saying, “If you elect me, your taxes are going to be raised, not cut,” and cautions that the Tax Policy Center admitted Biden’s plan would raise taxes “on all income groups.”
“Was America First actually guilty of pushing a 'mostly false' message in the ad? No,” Bickley wrote, pointing to the “very fact check that resulted in the silencing of the pro-Trump organization.”
The ad can be seen here:
PolitiFact wrote that “the America First Action ad presents that remark out of context,” but then seemed to contradict itself in the same paragraph.
“While some tax experts estimate that Biden’s plan would mean higher taxes on average for all income groups, those increases would be relatively small for all but the biggest earners,” PolitiFact wrote, admitting taxes would be raised under Biden’s plan.
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PolitiFact's Bill McCarthy then explained how the ad was “taken out of context” because it doesn’t show that Biden was speaking with a specific audience member who indicated he had benefited from the GOP-led tax bill that became law during the Trump administration.
“The exchange took place after Biden said, ‘By the way, how many of you did really well with that $1.9 trillion tax cut? Really good shape, right?’ The crowd mostly laughed or groaned, but one member of the audience caught Biden’s attention off camera by signaling that they benefited,” PolitiFact's McCarthy wrote. “Addressing that person directly, Biden said: ‘Well, you did. Well, that’s good. I’m glad to see you’re doing well already. But guess what, if you elect me, your taxes are going to be raised, not cut, if you benefited from that.’”
But the Daily Wire reporter doesn’t think the context makes the ad inaccurate.
“The fact-checker subjectively accuses the PAC of not giving the audience for the 30-second ad enough ‘context’ and giving the wrong ‘impression’ about what Biden meant,” Bickley wrote.
“PolitiFact then assures the reader, the ‘biggest earners’ will be harder hit by Biden’s plan than lower income groups, whose increases ‘would be relatively small,’” Bickley continued. “In other words, PolitiFact uses a Democratic talking point about the rich paying more in an attempt to distract from the fact that the ad’s claim is actually true.”
Bickley wrote that the fact-check made a “flimsy case” and slammed PolitiFact for citing comments from a “Biden campaign official” as evidence that the Democratic nominee’s point was that only wealthy Americans benefited from the GOP tax plan.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
America First’s Facebook page still features an Aug. 4 post including the ad, but now it features a "mostly false" label and links to the PolitiFact piece.
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While the Daily Wire and PolitiFact disagree about whether or not the ad is truthful, America First is taking action.
“America First told The Daily Wire that they are fighting back, with their legal team currently drafting legal letters to both PolitiFact and Factheck.org 'challenging their bogus, politically driven "fact checks," ' ” Bickley wrote.
“We are going to ask them to revise their ratings based on the actual facts... someone needs to fact check the fact checkers,” America First Communications Director Kelly Sadler told The Daily Wire.
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