WaPo gives McAuliffe 3 'Pinocchios' for misleading ad on Youngkin after PolitiFact waters down own fact-check

The Washington Post gave Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe "three Pinocchios" for what it describes as a "misleading" attack ad against his GOP rival Glenn Youngkin after PolitiFact Virginia appeared to water down its criticism of the former governor in its own fact-check. 

The Post's fact-check on Friday examined a McAuliffe ad that spliced comments Youngkin made while leading a 2017 panel discussion that the former governor participated in. 

The ad presents the remarks as if Youngkin is a "big fan" of McAuliffe's leadership with comments like, "Here, we have 1 out of 50 states that’s doing very well, and particularly in the Commonwealth of Virginia," "If you want to put a new plant down, that’s the place to put it" and "Governor, I’m going to come back to the role you played in developing Virginia’s economy. How do you do it?"

Washington Post journalist Adriana Usero pointed out such editing tactics were used in a "misleading way."

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"The ad seeks to portray Youngkin as two-faced, decrying in the campaign that "our commonwealth is in the ditch" while actually praising McAuliffe years before the investment guru decided to enter politics," Usero wrote. "While the McAuliffe campaign can point to moments when Youngkin approved of the economy under the current Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, the ad relies on selective editing to suggest Youngkin was equally praiseworthy of McAuliffe, who served as governor from 2014 to 2018."

Usero called out the ad for splicing a sentence together from Youngkin's comments that were given roughly 30 minutes apart in order to sound favorable to McAulliffe. 

"In response to our concerns about the editing, a McAuliffe campaign aide insisted there was no attempt to deceive and that the two quotes in the original video make the same point that Virginia’s economy was growing," Usero wrote. "He argued that Youngkin choose to make a positive statement about Virginia’s economy and that was properly reflected in the ad."

Regarding the paper's iconic "Pinocchio Test," Usero concluded that McAuliffe's ad was "missing context" and and that it used Youngkin's comments to make the "misleadingly claim" that he was favorable to the Democratic governor, resulting in "three Pinocchios" for the McAuliffe campaign. 

Meanwhile, NPR's Virginia affiliate VPM came to a similar conclusion when it initially published a fact-check from Politifact Virginia similarly calling out the "misleading" attack ad. 

"In assessing Youngkin’s comments, it’s also important to consider his role as moderator and McAuliffe’s role as a panelist. Moderators are typically neutral and polite to panelists. If Youngkin had problems with McAuliffe’s economic policies in 2017, this seminar may not have an appropriate place to air them," PolitiFact Virginia editor Warren Fiske wrote. "So, contrary to McAuliffe’s assertion, Youngkin’s 2017 words do not prove he was a ‘big fan’ of the former governor’s economic policies, or that his current criticism of McAuliffe’s stewardship is a flip flop."

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The report, which had the headline, "McAuliffe Misleadingly Claims Youngkin Praised Him," was taken down on Tuesday by VPM.

"We've retracted a politifact piece on a McAuliffe campaign ad due to a substantial omission in our reporting. We apologize for our error and will publish a retraction notice on the VPM site," VPM explained on Twitter.

On Wednesday, VPM republished Politifact Virginia's report with the new headline, "The Story Behind a McAuliffe Ad Touting Youngkin Praise," which notably scrubbed the "misleading" descriptor of the ad.

The report also included a "correction."

"When PolitiFact Virginia initially published this report on June 29, we failed to include comments Youngkin made outside of a U.S. Export-Import Bank conference that were on similar topics, because in our reporting process, we failed to reach out to the McAuliffe campaign," the correction read. "This goes against our reporting standards, which require us to contact political campaigns that we write about. We’ve corrected that omission in this report and apologize for the error."

Bizarrely, though, the updated report included comments made by Youngkin in 2019 and 2020 that praised Virginia's economy that were allegedly provided to VPM by the McAuliffe campaign that have nothing to do with the ad in question. The McAuliffe campaign similarly provided the comments to The Washington Post.

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In his revised conclusion, Fiske wrote, "The bottom line: Contrary to McAuliffe’s ad assertion, Youngkin’s 2017 words do not prove he was a "big fan" of the former governor’s economic policies. But his 2019 words suggest some good things have happened in Virginia over the last eight years - although he did not credit McAuliffe or Northam." 

Matt Wolking, the Youngkin campaign's communications director, took a swipe at the so-called "retracted" fact-check that still concluded that the McAuliffe ad "edits and alters" Youngkin's remarks. 

"[Twenty-four] hours later, PolitiFact still concludes that Terry McAuliffe's campaign deceptively edited video to mislead voters," Wolking tweeted. 

VPM nor Fiske responded to Fox News' requests for comment.