PolitiFact editor: We chose Trump’s ‘Lie of the Year’ because of how often he repeated it

The editor of PolitiFact on Sunday explained that the fact-checking website chose President Trump’s claim that Russia didn’t interfere in the 2016 presidential election as its “Lie of the Year” because he repeated it so frequently.

“What we’re saying is this Russian interference definitely happened and President Trump has said several times that it hasn’t,” PolitiFact editor Angie Holan said on CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

“Well it has,” she continued. “And it really goes to the heart of American democracy and our elections and how we decide who do we pick to be our leaders in Congress and the White House.”

The fact-checking website earlier this month declared Trump’s repeated claim its “Lie of the Year” for 2017, noting that despite “a mountain of evidence” that Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election, Trump continues to insist otherwise.

As special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin has ramped up, the president and his lawyers have repeatedly said that there was “no collusion.”

A recent CNN poll found more Americans approve of Mueller’s handling of the investigation than of Trump’s.

In addition to Mueller’s probe, multiple congressional committees are conducting investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election.