Latest Stories By Louis Jacobson

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Art for 5 charts wrap

What’s at stake in the midterms: A primer on 8 key issues for 2018

November 5, 2018

Campaign coverage often devolves into horse-race coverage -- who’s up and who’s down. But the way the voters cast their ballots on Nov. 6 will have potentially huge implications on public policy. To help our readers better understand what’s at stake in the substantive policy choices this election season, we’ve put together a series of eight articles that explain the issues by visualizing data through charts and graphs.

Early voting place

PolitiFact readers’ election questions answered

November 2, 2018

Ahead of Election Day, we asked our readers what claims they would like to see checked. Dozens responded to us, from coast to coast, with questions and requests, so we got to work on finding answers.

U.S. deficits and the debt in 5 charts: A 2018 midterm report

November 2, 2018

As the midterm election campaign approaches its climax, the federal deficit has pushed its way back into the political discussion.

Can Donald Trump end birthright citizenship with an executive order? Probably not

October 30, 2018

Just a week before the midterm elections, President Donald Trump emphasized his hard-line stance on restricting immigration. In an interview, he not only took aim at birthright citizenship -- the longstanding policy that virtually anyone born on U.S. soil has citizenship -- but also said he could use an executive order to do it.

The facts on taxes in 5 charts: a 2018 midterm report

October 21, 2018

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 -- the large tax bill passed by the Republican Congress and signed by President Donald Trump -- is not getting mentioned much on the midterm campaign trail, perhaps because the public seems to be lukewarm on whether it was a good idea. But taxes, like death, are among the few certainties in life. So we decided to take a graphical look at both the new tax law and the broader landscape of taxation in the United States.

 

In context: Donald Trump’s $1 million offer to Elizabeth Warren

October 15, 2018

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., punched back at President Donald Trump on Oct. 15 when she released DNA test results showing that she has a Native American ancestor. Trump and Warren had sparred ever since Trump began calling her "Pocahontas" for saying on law school faculty forms that she had Native American ancestry, citing family lore from Oklahoma.

Trump and Lesley Stahl

Fact-checking Donald Trump’s interview on 60 Minutes

October 15, 2018

In an Oct. 14, 2018, interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes, President Donald Trump addressed a wide range of topics. Here’s a rundown of some of the assertions Trump made during the interview with Lesley Stahl.

Fact-checking Donald Trump’s op-ed against Medicare for All in USA Today

October 10, 2018

President Donald Trump brought his battle with Democrats onto politically sacred ground, accusing them of forcing the death of Medicare. Trump moved from 280-character tweets to a 4,900 character op-ed in USA Today to paint a doomsday picture if Medicare for All became the law of the land. With the help of experts, we fact-checked some of his claims.

In Context: Brett Kavanaugh and ‘what goes around comes around’

October 4, 2018

In his historic testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh defiantly accused Democrats and the Clintons of orchestrating a political "hit" to keep Kavanaugh off the country’s highest court. The statement was controversial enough. But some heard Kavanaugh go even further, saying that if confirmed to bench, "what goes around comes around."

The facts on guns in 6 charts: A 2018 midterm report

September 30, 2018

In our politically polarized era, few issues are as polarized as gun policy. As part of our effort to analyze key issues in the 2018 midterm elections through a handful of graphics, here are some of the factors shaping the gun policy debate today.

Fact-checking Donald Trump’s rally in Wheeling, W.Va.

September 30, 2018

For the second time in two months, President Donald Trump traveled to friendly territory in West Virginia to hold one of his signature campaign rallies. At the rally, in Wheeling, W.Va., Trump boosted the candidacy of Patrick Morrisey, who is challenging U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat. Trump repeated many of his favorite applause lines from previous rallies, including praise for the state of the economy and shots at Democrats over immigration policy, gun control, and his tax law. Here are some of the lines from his speech, fact-checked.

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