PolitiFact Uses Double Standard On Experts To Benefit Elizabeth Warren
21st March 2026
When a military expert’s opinion is different than a politician’s, how are fact-checkers like PolitiFact supposed to adjudicate the politician’s claim? If a Friday article by Zoe Weyand is anything to go by, the answer is not at all, or at least if the politician is Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. However, Weyand’s standard for giving Warren a “true” rating for a recent claim she made about President Trump is different than the one PolitiFact has traditionally applied to Republicans.
Warren claimed that Trump has dropped more bombs on more countries than any president in the modern era, which was defined as since 9/11. In the “If your time is short” summary, Weyand wrote, “From the start of his first term to now, Trump has authorized military strikes in 10 countries, more than any other president in the 21st century. He has also authorized a higher number of military strikes than any other modern president.”
However, she also observed how “An expert said the use of ground troops is a better way to analyze military activity. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush deployed a far greater number of American troops during their tenures.”
That expert was Mark Cancian, who Weyand described as “a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Defense and Security Department.” Cancian’s opinion that ground forces are a better way to measure military activity did not dissuade Weyand from giving Warren a straight-up true rating, but historically, Republicans have not been given that benefit.