The Senate Majority PAC is distorting the facts to rake the Koch Brothers over the coals, according to Glenn Kessler, author of The Fact Checker column in the The Washington Post.
Kessler, who rates the truth of political claims with one to four Pinocchios, says he's doled out four Pinocchios to three ads released by the PAC, which is affiliated with Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada.
"They often involve attacks on the Koch brothers," Kessler told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV, referring to conservative billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch, who support various political causes.
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"The most recent one was particularly odd because they were suggesting that a Republican candidate was in the pocket of the Koch brothers.
"Their exhibit for that was this flood insurance bill that the Koch brothers were trying to kill.
"But the lead sponsor of the bill the Koch brothers were trying to kill was actually this Republican congressman, Bill Cassidy. So it was just very odd. I don't know how you could put an ad out like that."
Kessler issued a three-Pinocchio rating to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, who has claimed there was no "targeting" of tea party groups seeking tax-exempt status, just the use of "inappropriate data."
"It was kind of strange wordsmithing, because he was trying to kind of claim that he had never used the term, the IRS has never used the term," Kessler said.
"In fact, I pointed out that he had actually used the [phrase] 'targeting' in his confirmation hearings. His predecessor in a report had used the phrase 'targeting' as well as the IG.
"So it just struck me as – when you've got three examples of the word targeting being used and he's kind of sitting there saying it's never being used, it seems worthy of three Pinocchios."
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