ANN ALTHOUSE FACT CHECKS “FACT-CHECKER” GLENN KESSLER’S “FACT CHECK” OF TRUMP’S COMMENT ABOUT FEDERAL WORKERS NOT COMING IN:

There are 2 problems with this fact check.

First, the numbers Kessler gives do not undermine the assertion that there are hundreds of thousands who don’t come into work. There are something like 2.1 million federal employees (if you leave out the military and the postal service). Even if we restrict ourselves to the 10% who work only from home, there are over 200,000. If you add in the people who telework most of the time, that’s another 400,000+. Kessler makes it look as though his numbers are powerful, but they support Trump!

Second — and harder to notice — there’s a quibble about the meaning of “not… showing up to work.”

Trump is using the expression to mean not coming into the workplace. Kessler may want to argue for the industriousness of the workers: They’re showing up to work at home! Fine, make your argument for respecting working from home. But don’t use the “false” rating for this semantics disagreement. Clearly call attention to it for exactly what it is, and don’t mix it up with those numbers you’re bandying about. It has nothing to do with the numbers!

It all makes sense when you realize that Kessler’s job is to cover for what Democrats say and give media folks an excuse to discount what Republicans say.