Washington Post runs ‘fact check’ questioning Tim Scott’s family history in Jim Crow South

“My grandfather ‘suffered the indignity of being forced out of school as a third-grader to pick cotton and never learned to read or write. … Our family went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime,” Scott said during last year’s Republican National Convention.

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That quote and others prompted the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler to investigate Scott’s lineage and declare that “our research reveals a more complex story than what Scott tells audiences.”

In the article, Kessler explains his findings from census information and talking to experts in an attempt to determine just how difficult life was for Scott’s family in the Jim Crow South. He spoke with a professor, who called it “definitely unusual” that Scott’s family owned a large farm at one point.

The nearly 2,000-word fact check concludes with the author declining to rate Scott’s story with the “Pinocchio” system and has called into question the article’s purpose for some. Kessler told the Washington Examiner that “if you are a regular reader, you would know that” fact checks without a rating are not uncommon, “especially when we delve into historical/family background questions like this.”

“Scott tells a tidy story packaged for political consumption, but a close look shows how some of his family’s early and improbable success gets flattened and written out of his biography,” Kessler concludes, suggesting that Scott’s family had a rosier life experience than the senator says. “Against heavy odds, Scott’s ancestors amassed relatively large areas of farmland, a mark of distinction in the Black community at the time. Scott, moreover, does not mention that his grandfather worked on his father’s farm — a farm that was expanded through land acquisitions even during the Great Depression, when many other Black farmers were forced out of business.”

Kessler added, “Scott’s ‘cotton to Congress’ line is missing some nuance, but we are not going to rate his statements. To some extent, Scott may be relying on the memories of his grandfather, not a detailed examination of records.”

The piece was widely criticized by conservatives on Twitter who questioned Kessler’s motives for the fact check the same week it was announced that Scott will be delivering the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?” Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway tweeted to Kessler. “Stop posting your racist crap, Glenn. This is disgusting.”

“So you actually think you can tweet your way out of this?!?!?!” Newsbusters managing editor Curtis Houck tweeted. “The more you tweet, the more you show your true colors and your lack of character. Lecturing a black person about their privilege despite you being from the Shell oil family? #ComeOnMan”

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“Glenn Kessler’s ‘fact check’ of whether Tim Scott’s grandfather *really* picked cotton is the most cringe inducing thing I have seen in an American newspaper in many years,” journalist Matthew Walther tweeted.

Scott’s office declined to comment when contacted by the Washington Examiner.