- The Washington Times - Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump called PolitiFact a “very dishonest group” after the fact-checking group labeled a series of “campaign misstatements” from the billionaire businessman as the 2015 “Lie of the Year.”

“PolitiFact is a group that if I said something right down the middle they are always going to be negative,” Mr. Trump told ABC News Monday. “They are leaning in a certain direction, and no matter what you do with them, I mean they are a very dishonest group in my opinion.”

The group said they’ve labeled 76 percent of Mr. Trump’s statements “mostly false,” “false,” or “pants on fire” out of 77 statements checked.

As one example, they cited Mr. Trump’s claim that “thousands and thousands” of people in New Jersey were cheering as the World Trade Center came down on Sept. 11, 2001, which earned him a “pants on fire” rating.

In 2014, the site chose exaggerations about Ebola as its lie of the year, and in 2013, it gave the award to President Obama for his claim that if people liked their health care plan they could keep it under Obamacare.

• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.

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