At the end of July, Washington Post “fact-checker” Glenn Kessler announced he was taking a buyout and leaving the outlet after 27 years. 

He wasn’t the only one.

The Washington Post had just concluded a round of buyouts, targeting the most senior staffers. The Post, which has struggled financially in recent years, has had multiple iterations of what it calls the Voluntary Separation Program (VSP). But as Kessler noted shedding light on what led to his departure, this was going to be the “last buyout,” according to what a senior editor told him, and that any necessary staff reductions in the future would be layoffs. 

Too bad, so sad, and I don’t think any of them will be missed. 

My colleague Brad Slager wrote a great piece on the Kessler departure and the issues with his body of work. 

Journalist Mark Halperin put Kessler on the spot on his show “Next Up with Mark Halperin,” grilling him over his coverage, and that of the Washington Post, on Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. It didn’t go well for Kessler.

Dropping soon: an explosive new @NextUpHalperin.@MarkHalperin interviews with @GlennKesslerWP, former Washington fact checker.

WATCH: Kessler’s stunning justification of his Biden “Deepfake” fact check.

Stay tuned for MUCH more… pic.twitter.com/Lo78lvWHtI

— Next Up with Mark Halperin (@NextUpHalperin) August 7, 2025

Kessler spoke about the video that some in the media termed a “deep fake” about Biden supposedly wandering off when he was with European leaders. 

And what we did was we went and got the full video in the full context, because it looked like the way it was cut, and particularly distributed by the RNC, it looked like Joe Biden was wandering off and it didn’t show him talking to parachuters. What we showed was that he was talking to parachuters. And I’ve said this before, fact checks are a complement to the news coverage, not a supplement.

Of course, the problem was Biden wasn’t supposed to be wandering off to talk to the parachutists – he was supposed to be with the leaders. Not to mention, all of Biden’s many other issues he had in public view over his time occupying the office. 

Halperin cut down Kessler’s justification, saying what people take away is that the Washington Post is saying the video is not reflective of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. 

Halperin then asked Kessler how he would rate the job the Washington Post did on the story of Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. The answer from Kessler is something else:

There was a lot of effort to produce a story that would look very carefully at what seemed to be a cognitive decline. It never came together because we couldn’t get enough people on the record.

It just never came together, oh well, so sorry. Is he serious? What about the evidence of their own eyes and issue after issue with Biden in public? 

Halperin went there, bringing up Biden trying to talk to the dead member of Congress. 

What kind of sourcing did you need to say Joe Biden was suffering cognitive decline? Did you see him trailing off regularly? What kind of sourcing was needed?

Then he nuked him, saying the problem was the message he was sending by concentrating on one aspect of the one video, 

You are saying in that column to any normal reader, the Washington Post is saying the chatter of that cognitive decline is made up.

Between all the “hems and haws,” that was an extremely uncomfortable effort at justification. 

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