The WaPo's Fact Checker gives Rep. Jayapal a very kind Pinocchio rating on her totally bogus Hyde amendment claim

Greg P. | 10:20 AM on October 06, 2021

The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” took a look at Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s claim that the “Hyde amendment is something that the majority of the country does not support”. . .

New #FactChecker –> Jayapal’s claim that ‘the majority of the country’ supports federal funding of abortion https://t.co/jyayS4rmDw

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) October 6, 2021

. . .and only gave it Two Pinocchios:

Jayapal gets the Pinocchio treatment for arguing “the majority of the country supports taxpayer funded abortion.”

Unfortunate that they only awarded 2 Pinocchio’s — even after explaining that the only polling backing Jayapal’s line was nonsense data.https://t.co/y9oLeKYAXB

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 6, 2021

Here’s the tortured logic behind his ruling:

We’re often wary of polls commissioned by advocacy groups. In this case, Jayapal is relying on a poll done for a group that wants more public funding of abortions. The outcome of polls often depends greatly on the framing of questions.

But there has been little high-quality independent polling on this issue and it’s possible that attitudes are shifting. The Ipsos poll from this year asked a straightforward question that resulted in a finding that a slight majority of Americans supported Medicaid funding of abortions — in other words, the end of the Hyde amendment.

That result has to be balanced against the many other polls that reached a different conclusion, suggesting the answer is not as clear-cut as Jayapal asserts. She earns Two Pinocchios.

Maybe Kessler should check with Marist? Because what they found is VERY “clear-cut”:

If they checked in with Marist, who has tracked opinions on this issue for YEARS, they’d find pretty solid evidence the public opposes taxpayer funded abortion when it’s not a push poll. https://t.co/okrnCRco7a pic.twitter.com/HJZjjME5R9

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) October 6, 2021

It really was a “stretch”:

Remarkable effort to stretch this for Jayapal's benefit: a single outlier poll result must be "balanced" against "many other polls" "suggesting" "not as clear-cut"… 😐 https://t.co/pxwrNNa0sr pic.twitter.com/XswmMP2D87

— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) October 6, 2021

Yep: