Latest Stories By Louis Jacobson

Shortly before the 1980 election, Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan urged voters to ask themselves a simple question that became a bombshell: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” The answer soon became clear that Americans felt they weren’t better off, and Reagan ousted President Jimmy Carter by winning all but […]

In a new campaign ad, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden offers an optimistic, can-do pitch to American voters struggling with the coronavirus and economic insecurity. In the minute-long ad, released Oct. 4, Biden touts a scientific approach to fighting the coronavirus before turning to aid for the economy:  “Joe listened to both small business owners […]

Around every corner, 2020 seems to produce a new surprising crisis. The latest: A president infected with COVID-19, little more than a month before Election Day. Not to mention a president who had been standing feet away from the opposing candidate at a debate just 48 hours before the president’s infection was confirmed. In other […]

The rival camps of President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spent the hours before their first general-election debate sparring over the issue of commercial breaks. “Biden’s handlers have asked for multiple breaks during the debate, which President Trump doesn’t need, so we have rejected that request,” Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told […]

PolitiFact was barely four months old when we published our first fact-check of Joe Biden. It came almost 13 years ago, in mid-October 2007, during the thick of the Democratic presidential primary contest, and it involved a somewhat arcane point on troop withdrawals from Iraq during a debate. Biden, who would drop out of the […]

PolitiFact’s first fact-check Donald Trump was Feb. 14, 2011, for a statement related to the “birther” conspiracy theory, which doubted the American birth of then-president Barack Obama. Birtherism was the issue that effectively turned the real estate developer into a major political figure. Trump focused on Obama’s college years: “The people that went to school […]

The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was always expected to set up a huge political battle over confirming her replacement. With her death coming so close to the election, the process has become even more fraught. Because they control the presidency and the Senate, Republicans have the power to install a successor […]

2020 has been quite a year of history and news: a presidential impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice protests, economic hardship, rampaging wildfires and hurricanes. Now, as the year enters its final months, another potentially seismic moment: a potentially chaotic Election Night that might turn into an Election Week. Some states (though not all) have […]

From an outdoor stage erected in the middle of a baseball field parking lot, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden on Sept. 17 pitched himself to voters as a leader equipped to really look out for American workers. Biden took the spotlight in his birth state of Pennsylvania during a socially distant drive-in town hall event […]

In a speech focused on the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden poured cold water on President Donald Trump’s talk about an imminent vaccine.  “I trust vaccines. I trust scientists. But I don’t trust Donald Trump,” Biden said in his Sept. 16 speech in Delaware, which followed a meeting with […]

President Donald Trump is maintaining his money lead against Democratic nominee Joe Biden, although Biden made up ground on his way to becoming the official nominee. For this, our first update on the presidential money race since July 9, we looked at three sources of funds: dollars raised directly by the campaign; dollars raised by […]

In the days leading up to Kentucky’s June 23 primary, national figures raised alarms about the state’s Election Day voting infrastructure. Celebrities from film director Ava Duvernay to former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams to NBA superstar LeBron James decried the closing of all but one in-person Election Day polling place in each Kentucky county.  […]