Donald Trump began his political career with demands to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate, based on the false claim that the he had been born outside of the United States. In other words, a lie. 

The former president concluded his term in office with an even bigger lie, namely that the 2020 election was rigged. 

In between, Trump fibbed thousands of times about things big and small. And keeping track of these mistruths and exaggerations were political fact-checkers, journalists whose job it is to call out not only Donald Trump’s lies – but the lies all politicians tell. 

Glenn Kessler has been the chief writer and editor of the Fact Checker column for The Washington Post since 2011. In it he examines the “truth behind the rhetoric.”

Kessler joined Diane to talk about how his job has changed since Donald Trump entered politics and the challenges of covering the 2024 presidential election.