Louis Jacobson | PolitiFact
Louis Jacobson has been with PolitiFact since 2009, currently as chief correspondent. Previously, he served as senior correspondent and deputy editor. Before joining PolitiFact, he worked as a deputy editor of Roll Call and as founding editor of its legislative wire service, CongressNow. Earlier, he spent more than a decade covering politics, policy, Congress and lobbying for National Journal magazine. He is senior author of the 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024 editions of The Almanac of American Politics. He also contributed to the 2000 and 2004 editions of the Almanac. Since 2004, Jacobson has been writing a column on politics in the states, which has run in Roll Call, Stateline.org, Governing, and the Cook Political Report. He now divides the column between Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics and U.S. News and World Report. Earlier in his career, he wrote on science for the Economist, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Science magazine. He received the Weidenbaum Center Award for Evidence-Based Journalism from Washington University in St. Louis in 2014, and in 2016 and 2022, the Society of American Business Editors and Writers gave him a Best in Business award for his economics coverage. Jacobson has been teaching at West Virginia University's Reed College of Media since August 2018, showing WVU students how to produce fact-checks for PolitiFact West Virginia. He has also been serving as a visiting scholar at St. Bonaventure University's Jandoli School of Communication since April 2020, teaching students how to produce fact-checks for PolitiFact New York.
-
Whether counting from the beginning of former President Joe Biden’s term or from June 2022, when U.S. employment returned to its prepandemic level, the number of full-time jobs increased on Biden’s watch. -
On Jan. 3, the new Congress — the 119th — officially began its duties. Once Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, Republicans will have unified control of government. But particularly in the House, the margin will be close. -
Legal experts say it’s possible, but they add that the quest to overturn birthright citizenship would face high hurdles, even for a Supreme Court that has sided with Trump on other issues. -
Trump’s campaign promises included adding a 10% to 20% tariff on all nondomestic goods sold in America, a 60% tariff on goods from China and reciprocal tariffs on nations that impose tariffs on the U.S. Then, on Nov. 25, Trump promised new 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada. -
During the 2024 campaign, Trump has said inconsistent things about his plan for the Affordable Care Act if he wins the presidency. But he’s wrong to say that he’s never "mentioned" wanting to scuttle the law. He did so in 2016 as a candidate. -
Vice President Kamala Harris has not proposed raising Social Security taxes for older Americans. Rather, she has proposed lifting the payroll income tax cap beyond which the government stops taxing workers. -
In his bid to regain the White House, former President Donald Trump has hammered away at the Biden-Harris administration for its inflation record. -
The presidential candidates are heavily courting Latino voters in 2024. Historically, they have backed Democrats, though that differs by place of ancestry. Could this year be different? Some polls show Latino support for Biden as low as 40%. -
What would happen if either Joe Biden or Donald Trump, for whatever reason, is unable to run as the nominee? Politifact looks at a rundown of several scenarios. -
Looking at the duration of Joe Biden’s presidency and using the standard measures for comparing inflation and wages, inflation has increased 19.3% since January 2021 while wages have risen 16.1%. -
Donald Trump was president when Black poverty and unemployment reached record lows. owever, Trump leaves out that his opponent, President Joe Biden, saw both of those record lows surpassed on his watch. -
In a 12-minute address at Hillsborough Community College, Biden warned of "extreme" laws that restrict abortion access, and he blamed Trump, his predecessor and presumptive 2024 rival, for making those policies possible.
