Fact Check: No, The Washington Post is not done fact-checking Biden

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The claim: The Washington Post won't fact-check President Joe Biden for the remainder of his presidency

President Joe Biden's first joint address to Congress took place April 28, a speech that was fact-checked during and after by an array of media organizations.

But some on social media ran with a different narrative, claiming the Washington Post was halting its scrutiny of the nation's leader.

An April 28 Facebook post reads, “Washington Post ends fact checking for Biden for the remainder of his presidency," across an image of Biden.

The post has more than 700 shares. USA TODAY reached out to the user for further comment.

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This is a misinterpretation of a recent Post announcement. Biden will not get away from the Post's Pinocchio's, but the fact checks will not be compiled in a database.

Fact-checking will continue

“Here's the Biden database -- which we do not plan to extend beyond 100 days. I have learned my lesson,” reads an April 26 tweet by Glenn Kessler, editor and chief writer for the Post’s Fact Checker.

The tweet came two days before Biden's address to Congress, so it is important to note that their team did fact check the speech.

The Post said it analyzed “every speech, interview, tweet or public statement made by the president” through April 26. Any statement that would receive at least Two Pinocchios – or “half true” – was added to the database.

The Post will continue to fact-check the president, but no database will be maintained, Kessler said on Twitter.

The newspaper took on the task of maintaining a database during the previous presidency in response to unique circumstances. It started as a 100-day project and then turned into a companion project for the current president so a comparison could be made, Shani George, vice president of communications for the Washington Post, told USA TODAY in a statement.

"We are continuing our practice of rigorous, routine fact-checking, which has already identified dozens of false and misleading statements by Biden, and will continue to hold the president accountable for his words," George said.

In the thread, Kessler also detailed the extensive labor it took to maintain the database under former President Donald Trump.

"Maintaining the Trump database over four years required about 400 additional 8-hour days over four years beyond our regular jobs for three people," he wrote.

The Fact Checker’s database of President Trump included 30,573 false and misleading claims, of which 8,859 were made in the last 100 days before the 2020 presidential election.

"Trump at 500 claims/100 days was manageable; 8,000+ was not," Kessler wrote.

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Our rating: False

The claim that the the Post will stop fact-checking Biden for the remainder of his presidency is FALSE, based on our research. Kessler said the team will continue fact-checking President Biden, but no database will be kept given the extensive labor required. The Post team has already published Biden checks after announcing the end of the database.

Our fact checking sources:

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact Check: Joe Biden will still be fact-checked by Washington Post