The Virginia governor’s race has been neck and neck, according to the polls — and the Pinocchio count. This election cycle, we’ve awarded Pinocchios to both candidates six times each. Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former governor seeking his job back, ended up with an average Pinocchio rating of 3.5. But his Republican rival, former equity investor Glenn Youngkin, was not far behind with an average rating of 3.2 Pinocchios.
Given staff and time constraints — and the need to keep fact-checking statements made by President Biden and leaders in both political parties — we obviously could not vet every possible claim made by the candidates in the Virginia race. There’s at least one fact check we wished we had done, but there are many more that we are sure we missed.
As a reader guide, here’s a summary of our fact checks with links to the full columns in the headlines, in the order in which they appeared.
As the campaign started, McAuliffe touted his economic record by frequently claiming that he inherited the largest budget deficit in Virginia’s history from his GOP predecessor. Not only was that a false claim, but it has been fact-checked three times in 2015 and 2019. McAuliffe earned Four Pinocchios.
The McAuliffe campaign posted a video that claimed that before Youngkin entered politics “he was a big fan of Terry McAuliffe and his record as governor.”
But when we examined the source material, a somewhat dry April 2017 panel discussion, it turned out the campaign had snipped...
OAKLAND, Calif. — Hobby Lobby dodged unjust enrichment, but not false advertising, claims brought by consumers who say the company’s “limited time” sales are misleading because the discounted items...