Glenn Kessler

Washington, D.C.

The Fact Checker Education: Brown University, B.A. in history; Columbia University, M.A. in international affairs Glenn Kessler has been editor and chief writer of The Fact Checker since 2011. In a journalism career spanning more than three decades, Kessler has covered foreign policy, economic policy, the White House, Congress, politics, airline safety and Wall Street. He was The Washington Post’s chief State Department reporter for nine years, traveling around the world with three secretaries of state. Before that, he covered tax and budget policy for The Washington Post and also served as the newspaper’s national business editor. Kessler appears frequently on television and has lectured widely on U.S. foreign policy. He joined the Post in 1998 from Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in spot reporting. Honors & Awards:

Honorable Mention, Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting, 2019
Media Literate Media award (for The Fact Checker), National Association for Media Literacy Education, 2015
Premier Award, Aviation/Space Writers Association
Investigative Reporting award, Society of the Silurians

Professional Affiliations: member, Council on Foreign Relations; advisory board, International Fact-Checking Network; Board of Editors, Brown Alumni Monthly

Books by Glenn Kessler:
Donald Trump and His Assault on Truth: The President's Falsehoods, Misleading Claims and Flat-Out Lies
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The Confidante: Condoleezza Rice and the Creation of the Bush Legacy
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Latest from Glenn Kessler

Fact Checker
Analysis

Biden’s claim that gun owners support his gun-control proposals

The president asserted that a majority of gun owners supported enhanced background checks and an assault-weapons ban. He was half right.

Apr 19, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

A pair of misleading GOP attacks on Biden’s infrastructure plan

Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) have offered dubious claims and faulty numbers to attack Biden’s infrastructure plan.

Apr 14, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

Biden’s claim that the ‘average rapist rapes about six times’

The president cites a statistic derived from a two-decade-old study that has come under attack by other experts on sexual assault.

Apr 12, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

Fact-checking Biden’s remarks on guns

The president pushed the envelope with some of the statements he made on guns in the Rose Garden.

Apr 9, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

Biden says suicides are up because of covid. That may not have happened.

New data suggests suicides fell in 2020, but overdoses and other “deaths of despair” are up during the pandemic.

Apr 7, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

Biden’s pitch that the economy ‘will create 19 million jobs’ if infrastructure is passed

The president used finely-tuned language that sometimes leaves the wrong impression -- and which other administration officials have bungled.

Apr 6, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

President Biden, recidivist

Over and over, notwithstanding fact checks, President Biden has repeated these three false or misleading claims

Apr 2, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

The bogus claim that Democrats seek to register ‘illegal aliens’ to vote

A Heritage Action attack ad make the hyperbolic claim that Democrats crafted an elections bill to enlist voter registration of undocumented immigrants

Mar 31, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

Biden falsely claims the new Georgia law ‘ends voting hours early’

The president jabs a section of the new Georgia law as “outrageous,” but that provision actually expanded early voting for many residents in the state.

Mar 30, 2021

Fact Checker
Analysis

No, Delaware doesn’t specifically prohibit food or water at the polls like Georgia

A top Georgia election official suggested that Delaware has the same sort of election law as Georgia. But that talking point falls short.

Mar 29, 2021

About Glenn Kessler

Glenn Kessler has been editor and chief writer of The Fact Checker since 2011. In a journalism career spanning more than three decades, Kessler has covered foreign policy, economic policy, the White House, Congress, politics, airline safety and Wall Street. He was The Washington Post’s chief State Department reporter for nine years, traveling around the world with three secretaries of state. Before that, he covered tax and budget policy for The Washington Post and also served as the newspaper’s national business editor. Kessler appears frequently on television and has lectured widely on U.S. foreign policy. He joined the Post in 1998 from Newsday, where he was part of two reporting teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in spot reporting.