Eight of the top 10 most fact-checked politicians by PolitiFact over the past decade are Republicans, according to the site's own records.
The online fact-checking site, a project of the Tampa Bay Times, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary.
While former Democratic President Barack Obama topped the list of most fact-checks by the site, eight of the next nine were Republicans.
PolitiFact's 10 most fact-checked politicians in 10 years. https://t.co/ZG0SgV3voe pic.twitter.com/pbXeXdFKO1
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) August 3, 2017
Not surprisingly, the top four most fact-checked figures were the presidential candidates of the major parties in 2012 and 2016: Obama (630 claims checked as of July 31), President Donald Trump (442), 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton (302), and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney (221).
The next six were all Republicans: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (192), Arizona Sen. John McCain (190), former Texas Gov. and now Secretary of Energy Rick Perry (176), Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (163), Florida Gov. Rick Scott (156), and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (120).
All of those men, except Scott, ran for president in the last three election cycles.
The fact-checking site rates claims by public figures on a scale ranging from "True" to "Pants on Fire," with ratings in-between like "False," "Mostly False," "Half-True," and "Mostly True." It also calls out politicians who flip-flop on issues.
More than 70 percent of Obama and Clinton claims were deemed to be "Half-True" or better.
Classic. Top ten PolitiFact subjects...eight are Republicans, and Obama and Hillary are larded up with "True" and "Mostly True" rulings. https://t.co/g9Usb5UvTw
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) August 7, 2017
PolitiFact has faced charges of bias for its ratings and selections of clips to fact-check. An analysis by the conservative site The Federalist found its rating system to be skewed in favor of finding Democrats more truthful and Republicans more deceitful.
In 2012, the site rated Obama's claim about Obamacare "if you like your health care plan, you will keep your health care plan" as "Half-True." By 2013, however, it had named that same statement its "Lie Of the Year."
PolitiFact earlier this year retracted its "Mostly True" ruling from 2014 for then-Secretary of State John Kerry saying the U.S. had removed "100 percent" of Syria's chemical weapons, after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gassed his own people again.