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20,993 | 1 |
Ottawa may euthanize truckers' pets as punishment.
|
February 20, 2022
|
facebook fact-checks
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a Facebook post
|
A Facebook post said that the city of Ottawa may euthanize the pets of protesters as punishment for participating in the recent truckers’ protest against vaccine mandates. The city did not threaten to kill any pets "as punishment." Ottawa By-law & Regulatory Services did tweet a warning that if protesters were incarcerated, the city would place their pets in protective care for up to eight days. If no arrangements were made to retrieve the animals by then, the pets would be considered "relinquished," it said. Animals taken into the city’s custody are brought to the Ottawa Humane Society, which says it euthanizes animals only if they have serious medical or behavioral issues, the organization’s website said. Only one animal from the protest was brought to the shelter and it was returned to its owner, the shelter said. While it is possible that any animal brought into the shelter may meet the agency’s euthanasia criteria, the shelter’s numbers show such situations are rare. We rate this .
|
105 | 4 |
With the resources it takes to execute just over three months of the Iraq war, we could fully fund the expansion of health care for needy children that Bush vetoed.
|
October 3, 2007
|
health care
|
chris dodd
|
Chris Dodd is a former U.S. senator from Connecticut, having served in that post from 1981-2011. Dodd also ran unsuccessfully for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination and was a member of the U.S. House prior to his service in the Senate. He was born in Connecticut in 1944, graduated from Providence College and earned a law degree from the University of Louisville. Dodd is married to Jackie Marie Clegg. They have two children.
|
national
| 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | null |
Three months of the war would cost $30 billion. The expansion if SCHIP is estimated to cost $35 billion over five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. So, SCHIP costs $5 billion more than three months of the war. To most of us, $5 billion is big bucks. In Washington, it's not.
|
19,817 | 1 |
So the unvaxxed have to wear mask (sic) to protect the vaxxinated.
|
May 22, 2021
|
facebook fact-checks;coronavirus
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a post
|
A Facebook post says, "So the unvaxxed have to wear mask (sic) to protect the vaxxinated." There is no to support the that mask recommendations are for the benefit of the vaccinated. Three-fifths of the total U.S. population is not yet fully vaccinated, and daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. still number in the thousands. Wearing masks helps prevent the spread of COVID-19 among those who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated. We rate this .
|
20,579 | 0 |
A photo shows Kyle Rittenhouse wearing a "Klan outfit.
|
September 6, 2020
|
facebook fact-checks
|
viral image
|
Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine.
| null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 |
a Facebook post
|
He has a series of photos capturing the Ku Klux Klan from 2005 to the present on his site, and the girl appears in another photo from the same event . The photographer sent Snopes a third photo in 2017 when the fact-checking site looked into claims that the child pictured was former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (also not ). Rittenhouse grew up in the suburbs of Chicago , about 600 miles from Arkansas . There is nothing that connects him to this photo. We rate this post .
|
5,145 | 5 |
Says "Rick Santorum supported (Arlen) Specter over conservative candidates twice.
|
February 23, 2012
|
message machine 2012
|
mitt romney
|
Mitt Romney is a U.S. senator from Utah. He ran for president in 2012 as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent President Barack Obama. Prior to that, Romney served one term as governor of Massachusetts, elected to the post in 2002. He was born in 1947 in Michigan, where his father was governor from 1963 to 1969. Romney graduated from Brigham Young University and received both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University. Romney helped found the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984, which launched or rebuilt such companies as Staples and Dominos Pizza. Romney managed the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from 1999-2002. He ran for president in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination. He and his wife, Ann, have five sons, Tagg, Craig, Matt, Ben and Josh.
|
national
| 31 | 33 | 58 | 35 | 32 | 19 |
a campaign ad
|
Romney’s ad says Santorum "supported Specter over conservative candidates twice." It’s that Santorum endorsed his Pennsylvania colleague in 1995 and 2004 over more conservative primary challengers. In the first case, he was repaying Specter’s support for his own Senate candidacy. In the second, he was helping Republicans keep their Senate majority by supporting the candidate the party felt would be more competitive in a general election. The ad’s is accurate. We rate it .
|
10,933 | 2 |
We're losing now over $500 billion a year in terms of imbalance with China.
|
November 10, 2015
|
china;foreign policy;trade
|
donald trump
|
Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.
|
national
| 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 |
Milwaukee, Wis
|
Trump said that "we’re losing now over $500 billion a year in terms of imbalance with China." Last month, Trump said almost $400 billion during a speech in Iowa. He should have stuck to that figure. The 2014 trade deficit totaled $343 billion, and it’s expected to be larger in 2015 but not more than $500 billion. Trump’s rates .
|
7,003 | 4 |
Kewpie burgers are delicious. An Ohio institution. And they'll cost less thanks to John Kasich's tax cut.
|
February 19, 2013
|
food safety;state budget;taxes
|
ohio republican party
|
Statewide organization for Ohio's Republicans.
|
ohio
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
a Tweet
|
So what's the take-away? It is accurate to say that a delicious burger eaten at the iconic Kewpee in Lima would cost 2 cents less under Kasich's tax proposal, leaving all other factors unchanged. Someone eating two burgers a week would save enough in 10 months to buy another burger. The price of take-out burgers would remain the same, however. That’s an important clarification that gives the statement a rating of .
|
9,643 | 3 |
Says U.S. Senate candidate Michelle Nunn was "handpicked" by President Barack Obama
|
October 7, 2014
|
bipartisanship;elections
|
david perdue
|
David Perdue is running in the 2022 Republican primary for governor of Georgia. He was a U.S. Senator from January 2015 to January 2021. He has been the CEO of several businesses and is the cousin of former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue.
|
georgia
| 0 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 4 |
a U.S. Senate debate
|
So, where does that leave us with Perdue’s ? There is strong that Democratic leaders – if not the president himself – made it clear that they preferred Nunn as the party’s nominee in Georgia. But Nunn’s stated opposition to some of Obama’s key policies supports the idea that she would not be a rubber stamp for the president. Perdue has a point about Nunn’s selection by top Democrats. But it needs a lot of additional information to be fully understood. We rate the .
|
18,771 | 4 |
Says Illinois has made a "nation-leading" investment in funding for Census outreach.
|
October 13, 2020
|
census
|
jb pritzker
|
J.B. Pritzker is Illinois' 43rd governor and a former Chicago venture capitalist and entrepreneur.
|
illinois
| 1 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 0 |
a tweet
|
Pritzker said, "Earlier today, my administration announced an additional $1M in funding for Census outreach, on top of our historic & nation-leading $29M investment." While Illinois did not spend the most on Census outreach, it did rank in the top three among all other states. We rate Pritzker’s as . — The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.
|
14,227 | 2 |
In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds and hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield — including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi, who we captured, who we had, who we released.
|
January 30, 2018
|
terrorism
|
donald trump
|
Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.
|
national
| 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 |
the 2018 State of the Union address
|
Trump said, "We have foolishly released hundreds and hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield — including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi." Trump is overstating the number of prisoners released from Guantanamo, who were confirmed of re-engaging in some type of terrorist activity. That number is 122, not "hundreds and hundreds." He is also not entirely right that al-Baghdadi was "released" by the United States. The ISIS leader was was handed over to the Iraqi justice system, which released him some time later. We rate this .
|
21,651 | 1 |
Elon Musk's account "is suspended on Twitter after backing out of $44B deal.
|
July 9, 2022
|
facebook fact-checks
|
viral image
|
Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine.
| null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 |
an Instagram post
|
Musk’s verified Twitter account handle is his name, @elonmusk, and there’s no he was suspended. Musk has been tweeting regularly, including a meme he shared on July 10 mocking Twitter’s legal threats. An account with a similar-looking handle has been suspended: @eIonmusk with a capital "I" instead of a lowercase "l" in Musk’s first name. A suspension notice on the account’s page does not spell out why it was suspended, but Twitter takes action on accounts with and deceptive identities. We rate claims that Musk’s account was suspended .
|
2,468 | 1 |
I've also offered a plan that can help (fix Social Security) that's supported by Robert Reich, secretary of labor previously, in a previous administration.
|
October 6, 2010
|
social security
|
charlie crist
|
Charlie Crist lost the race for Florida governor as the Democratic candidate in 2022. He served as a U.S. congressman from St. Petersburg since 2017 and resigned Aug. 31, 2022 to focus on his campaign. As a Republican, Crist served as governor from 2007 to 2011. Crist left the Republican Party in 2010 to mount a campaign for the U.S. Senate as an independent. Crist lost the race to Marco Rubio. In 2012, he endorsed President Barack Obama and announced that he had registered as a Democrat. He lost his race as a Democratic candidate for governor in 2014.
|
florida
| 15 | 20 | 21 | 20 | 11 | 2 |
an ABC News U.S. Senate debate
|
"I've said we'll have to increase legal immigration in order to secure the Social Security of boomers (otherwise, the ratio of working population to retirees gets too far out of whack), but don't recall saying anything more," Reich wrote to the National Review . In an ABC News debate, Crist said his plan to help preserve Social Security -- to have illegal workers earn a path to citizenship -- was supported by former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich. But Reich hasn't taken a side on that issue. Reich proposes allowing increased legal immigration to add more workers for each retiree, which is different. We rate Crist's .
|
3,396 | 1 |
Libya supplies the oil for China. We get no oil from Libya.
|
April 4, 2011
|
china;energy;foreign policy
|
donald trump
|
Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.
|
national
| 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 |
an interview on Fox News
|
But the data do not support his . Libya is far from being China’s chief supplier. It ranks ninth. The second part of his statement is -- the U.S. does get oil from Libya and the percentage is likely to increase.. On the whole, we rate Trump’s statement .
|
11,521 | 1 |
Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland "voted to uphold" D.C.'s ban on handguns.
|
March 28, 2016
|
supreme court;guns
|
john whitbeck
|
John Whitbeck was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia in 2015. He has a family law practice in Leesburg, Va.
A California native, Whitbeck got an A.B. degree in politics from Occidental College. He graduated from George Mason University's law school.
|
virginia
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
an email
|
Whitbeck said Garland "voted to uphold" D.C.’s ban on handguns. Garland never heard the case about Washington’s gun law from the bench. It was ruled unconstitutional by a panel of three other judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where Garland serves. Garland voted in favor of having the full court reconsider the case en banc - not an unusual step when a major decision bucks precedent. Randolph, a conservative judge on the appeals court who didn’t sit on the three-member panel, also voted to have the decision reconsidered en banc. It’s simply to say Garland’s vote to reconsider the case is tantamount to a vote to uphold D.C.’s gun restriction or to extrapolate from it the nominee’s position on the case. So we rate Whitbeck’s .
|
18,451 | 1 |
Photo shows Dianne Feinstein "bullying" Lisa Murkowski over "the now empty seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
|
September 21, 2020
|
facebook fact-checks
|
bloggers
|
Blog posting on the Internet
| null | 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 |
a blog post
|
"Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now a reality, but my position has not changed. " The photo in this blog post is authentic, though we don’t know what, exactly, was happening as Feinstein and Murkowski huddled together in 2018. But the post wrongly gives the impression that this is a recent interaction connected to the political fight over whether to fill Ginsburg’s seat on the court before the election. It’s not. We rate this post .
|
20,411 | 0 |
A video shows "the COVID-19 vaccine when it hits your blood.
|
October 16, 2021
|
facebook fact-checks;coronavirus
|
instagram posts
|
Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters.
| null | 3 | 3 | 15 | 51 | 405 | 140 |
an Instagram post
|
No COVID-19 vaccines contain metals . This is the latest in a number of fabricated claims that suggest microscopic views show the vaccines contain problematic substances. The actual ingredients of vaccines are publicly available online thanks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read all about them here . We rate this post !
|
10,596 | 4 |
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
|
August 5, 2015
|
criminal justice;crime
|
jim webb
|
Jim Webb is running for president of the United States in 2016.
Webb, a Democrat, served as a U.S. senator from Virginia in 2007-13. He served as the first Assistant Secreatry of Defense for Reserve Affairs and Secretary of the Navy in the Ronald Reagan administration.
Webb is a 1968 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a Marine Corps infantry officer until 1972 and saw action in the Vietnam War, for which he was awarded the Navy Cross, Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts.
Webb was born in Saint Joseph, Mo. He also has a law degree from Georgetown Law Center, Washington, D.C. He has written fiction and nonfictions books and won an Emmy award for his 1983 PBS coverage of the U.S. Marines in Beirut. He frequently writes opinion columns for many publications.
|
virginia
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
a web post
|
Webb said the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The latest figures from the most comprehensive source show the U.S. is No. 2, behind Seychelles. There are data gaps for some countries, including such as North Korea whose prison figures can’t be verified but are estimated to be very high. That leaves the possibility that the U.S. could fall further down the list. It’s clear that the U.S. has one of the very highest incarceration rates in the world, but Webb’s that it’s the top doesn’t quite check out. We rate his statement .
|
5,030 | 2 |
Three years ago, a newly elected President Obama told America that if Congress approved his plan to borrow nearly a trillion dollars, he would hold unemployment below 8 percent.
|
February 4, 2012
|
stimulus
|
mitt romney
|
Mitt Romney is a U.S. senator from Utah. He ran for president in 2012 as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent President Barack Obama. Prior to that, Romney served one term as governor of Massachusetts, elected to the post in 2002. He was born in 1947 in Michigan, where his father was governor from 1963 to 1969. Romney graduated from Brigham Young University and received both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University. Romney helped found the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984, which launched or rebuilt such companies as Staples and Dominos Pizza. Romney managed the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from 1999-2002. He ran for president in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination. He and his wife, Ann, have five sons, Tagg, Craig, Matt, Ben and Josh.
|
national
| 31 | 33 | 58 | 35 | 32 | 19 |
Las Vegas on Feb. 4, 2012
|
Romney didn't use the word "promise" as Boehner, Cantor and others did when we checked the same previously, but the meaning is the same, that Obama was offering some sort of guarantee the stimulus would keep the unemployment rate below 8 percent. The administration never characterized it that way and included plenty of disclaimers saying the predictions had "significant margins of error" and a higher degree of uncertainty due to a recession that is "unusual both in its fundamental causes and its severity." In short, it was an economic projection with warnings of a high margin for error, not a take-it-to-the-bank pledge of an upper limit on unemployment. Once again, we rate the statement .
|
10,141 | 5 |
Seventy percent of Americans "don't have a college degree.
|
April 5, 2015
|
corrections and updates;education
|
rick santorum
|
Rick Santorum is running for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. He is a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and was a Republican presidential candidate in 2012.
|
national
| 6 | 7 | 14 | 13 | 17 | 5 |
an interview on "Face the Nation."
|
In making the point that Republicans need to reach out to the working class more, Santorum said that 70 percent of Americans don’t have a college degree. We found several measures that are close to the number Santorum cited. Overall, we rate his . Correction, Apr. 14, 2015 : We rated this statement , but due to a production error, we initially published our fact-check with a logo that mistakenly indicated that we had rated it . We have fixed that logo. In addition, we have updated the math from our original version to include people who have a higher degree above a bachelor’s. The new data doesn’t change the rating, which remains .
|
21,082 | 1 |
Ukrainian civilian fleeing Kyiv captures footage of downed Russian tie fighter.
|
March 2, 2022
|
facebook fact-checks;ukraine;russia
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a video
|
One version of the video posted on YouTube is captioned, "Star Wars TIE fighter crashes on a German highway." The video also was mistakenly used by Israel’s Channel 13 news, which said it showed a downed Russian plane. "Viewers see what appears to be the remains of an aircraft on a major highway captured by the dashboard camera of a passerby," Israel Today reported . "But if the clip is slowed down just slightly, it becomes clear that the wreckage is that of an Imperial TIE Fighter, and its crew, two Imperial stormtroopers, are waiting patiently next to it for a ride." We rate the that a Ukrainian civilian captured footage of a downed Russian plane .
|
21,899 | 1 |
Documents prove White House behind entire FBI targeting of Trump. Biden lied.
|
August 24, 2022
|
criminal justice;facebook fact-checks
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
|
national
| 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a Facebook post
|
A Facebook post claimed that "documents prove White House behind entire FBI targeting of Trump. Biden lied." The document at the center of this does no such thing. It shows that the Justice Department reached out to White House Counsel’s Office to request that the National Archives be granted permission to share documents with the FBI. The Presidential Records Act requires that the request be made to the current president to turn over the National Archives documents to anyone. The Justice Department was first notified by the National Archives that the documents contained classified materials in February, which is what launched the investigation, according to a search warrant affidavit. The White House Counsel’s Office approved the FBI’s request for access to the documents in April, after the investigation started. Biden said he had no foreknowledge of the Mar-a-Lago search. This documentation does not dispute that. We rate this .
|
18,052 | 1 |
Bank of America just pledged $1 billion dollars to Black Lives Matter.
|
July 17, 2020
|
race and ethnicity;facebook fact-checks
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a Facebook post
|
Facebook posts that Bank of America pledged to donate $1 billion to the Black Lives Matter movement. This isn’t . Bank of America announced it would donate the funds over the next four years to communities of color and minority-owned businesses that have experienced a greater impact from the COVID-19 health crisis. We rate this .
|
353 | 3 |
I want to freeze interest rates for five years.
|
January 31, 2008
|
economy
|
hillary clinton
|
Hillary Clinton was the 2016 Democratic nominee for president. She served as U.S. Secretary of State during the first four years of the Obama administration. She is formerly a U.S. senator from New York, first elected in 2000. She was a candidate for president in 2008. She previously served as first lady when her husband, Bill Clinton, served two terms as president. She was born in Chicago in 1947, graduated from Wellesley College and earned a law degree at Yale Law School. She and her husband have one daughter.
|
national
| 72 | 76 | 70 | 43 | 31 | 9 |
Los Angeles, Calif
|
They also said that Clinton has offered a frustrating lack of specifics on how she would implement a largely voluntary plan. We agree with Thaler and Woodward that Clinton has omitted details of her plan, most notably at the California debate. Yes, it is easier to say "freeze interest rates" than "freeze interest rates in owner-occupied homes purchased with subprime mortgages." But that doesn't mean the short version is accurate. We find her overly broad synopsis of her plan to be .
|
10,999 | 1 |
59 percent of Americans today believe that Barack Obama is still a Muslim.
|
November 22, 2015
|
candidate biography;race and ethnicity;polls and public opinion;punditfact
|
arsalan iftikhar
|
Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, media commentator and author of the book Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era. He serves as senior editor for the Islamic Monthly magazine. For nearly a decade, he was a regular, on-air, weekly commentator for National Public Radio.
Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, global media commentator and author of the book Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era. He also serves as Senior Editor for The Islamic Monthly magazine.
| null | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
a roundtable discussion on NBC's "Meet the Press"
|
Iftikhar said that "59 percent of Americans today believe that Barack Obama is still a Muslim." He later acknowledged to PolitiFact that he’d meant to say "Republicans" instead of "Americans," a switch that would have made his closer to accurate (though still a bit high according to recent polls). In any case, PolitiFact fact-checks statements as they were made originally and to the widest audience, so we rate the statement .
|
19,658 | 1 |
Very few … if any" states have a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
|
March 7, 2021
|
workers
|
joe manchin
|
Joe Manchin is a U.S. senator from West Virginia. The former governor of West Virginia won a special election in November 2010 to complete the balance of the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s term.
|
west virginia
| 7 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 0 |
remarks on ABC's "This Week"
|
Manchin said that "there’s very few, I would think, if any (states that) are at $7.25" for their minimum wage. In reality, 21 states have a minimum wage that’s equal to the federal minimum wage of $7.25. We rate the statement .
|
11,051 | 5 |
The U.S. "tax rate on successful small businesses is 44.6 percent," while the business tax rate in Canada is 15 percent.
|
November 4, 2015
|
taxes
|
paul ryan
|
U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R.-Wis., became Speaker of the House in 2015 and served until his retirement in January 2019. Ryan was elected to represent southern Wisconsin in Congress in 1998 and for part of his tenure chaired the House Budget Committee. He was Mitt Romney's vice-presidential running mate in the 2012 presidential election. He did not seek re-election in 2018.
|
wisconsin
| 11 | 16 | 24 | 23 | 7 | 5 |
a TV interview
|
That would make the differences even starker." Our rating While arguing for tax reform, Ryan compared the difference in tax rates for small businesses in the United States with the general business tax rate in Canada. He was right on both numbers. Indeed, if he used the small business rate in Canada, the gap would be even larger. We rate his .
|
13,798 | 5 |
Seventy-six percent of the American people support us passing the DREAM Act … with citizenship and legalization as part of it all. … More than 60 percent of Republicans support that.
|
September 18, 2017
|
immigration
|
nancy pelosi
|
Rep. Nancy Pelosi represents a district in California. She served as speaker of the U.S. House January 2019-2021. Formerly the speaker of the House from 2007-11, Pelosi served as the House minority leader from 2003 to 2007 and from 2011 to 2019.
|
california
| 6 | 7 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 4 |
a speech at Sacramento State University
|
Additional surveys show about two-thirds to three-quarters of respondents have backed a path to citizenship for immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally, under certain conditions. Pelosi’s is backed up by the polling. We rate it . – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.
|
19,513 | 1 |
The ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal was a planned or staged event.
|
March 29, 2021
|
facebook fact-checks
|
instagram posts
|
Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters.
| null | 3 | 3 | 15 | 51 | 405 | 140 |
an Instagram post
|
The Evergreen Line released updates as the grounding situation unfolded, and on March 25 said it would "continue to coordinate with the shipowner and Suez Canal Authority to deal with the situation with the utmost urgency, ensuring the resumption of the voyage as soon as possible and to mitigate the effects of the incident. " Crews used tugboats, large-capacity dredgers and high tides to excavate and pull the ship from the canal’s banks. The vessel was freed by around-the-clock digging (workers removed approximately 30,000 cubic meters of sand) and tugs that pushed and pulled it into the middle of the channel. Ever Given’s owner and insurers could face claims for loss of revenue and from other ships whose passage was disrupted, insurers and brokers told Reuters. We rate this post .
|
5,743 | 2 |
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson was "the deciding vote for the health care law.
|
June 6, 2012
|
candidate biography;health care;message machine 2012;voting record
|
60 plus association
|
The 60 Plus Association is a conservative advocacy group for senior citizens, with a "free enterprise, less government, less taxes" approach.
|
florida
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
a television ad
|
The 60 Plus Association says that Florida Sen. Bill Nelson cast the "deciding vote" for health care. The health care law required 60 votes, so Nelson's vote was crucial -- as were the other 59 votes. But describing Nelson as the "deciding vote" suggests he had some extraordinarily powerful role, and that’s not the case. Nelson had cautiously been a supporter for months as he tried to amend the law. We rate this .
|
15,553 | 0 |
In the lame-duck session, "no power was taken away from the governor. Power was not taken away from the attorney general.
|
December 16, 2018
|
elections;legal issues
|
roger roth
|
State Sen. Roger Roth of Appleton. Roth was the winner in the August 9, 2022 primary race for Lt. Gov. He will join gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels on the ticket for the November elections.
|
wisconsin
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
an appearance on "UpFront with Mike Gousha" on WISN-TV
|
Roth said lame-duck laws didn’t take any power away from the incoming governor or attorney general, contradicting even the explanation from other leaders in his party. His camp is promoting a narrow reading of "power," that refers only to the powers laid out in the state constitution. That’s a tremendous stretch that contradicts the dictionary definition. The lame-duck bills transparently limited Evers’ and Kaul’s power on numerous fronts, including appointments, spending and rule-making. Roth’s is not only , it’s . We rate it .
|
19,443 | 5 |
Pot today is not the weed baby boomers were smoking.
|
February 16, 2021
|
drugs;marijuana
|
barbara dittrich
|
Elected to Assembly 2018.
|
wisconsin
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Column
|
In a column, Dittrich said "pot today is not the weed baby boomers were smoking." Research shows that the THC content of marijuana has increased significantly since the 1970s amid shifting trends in the industry and a greater understanding of the cannabis plant. We rate Dittrich’s .
|
1,042 | 4 |
Nearly 46 million Americans don't have health insurance coverage today.
|
August 11, 2009
|
health care
|
barack obama
|
Barack Obama is the former president of the United States. Obama also served as a U.S. senator from Illinois. He was born in 1961 in Hawaii, where his parents met as students at the University of Hawaii. Obama's father is from Kenya and his mother is from Kansas. He graduated from Columbia University and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. Obama previously served in the Illinois state Senate and was an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School. He and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
|
national
| 124 | 165 | 163 | 71 | 71 | 9 |
a town hall meeting
|
If you wanted to look at numbers just for "today," the number would likely be higher, but by how much we can't say. (The Department of Health and Human Services survey found that there were 57.7 million uninsured at some point during the first half of 2008, but we couldn't find a breakout for noncitizens.) So Obama is sloppy by saying it is for "Americans" but not accounting for the noncitizens, which leaves him off by about 22 percent. Yet it's likely his error is counterbalanced to some extent by the large number of people who have lost insurance during the recession. So we rate his statement .
|
8,606 | 2 |
Health insurance and medical costs "are going down because of Obamacare.
|
March 24, 2014
|
elections;health care;punditfact
|
ed schultz
|
Ed Schultz is the host of the Ed Show on MSNBC.
| null | 0 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
a broadcast of "The Ed Show"
|
Schultz said health care costs are going down due to Obamacare. Government data show decreases in January for the price of health insurance and health services. However, those measures can bounce around and if Schultz had looked a few months further back, he would have seen even steeper declines, followed by later increases. Plus, a drop in a price index doesn’t always translate into a lower price for the customer. Most analysts judge health care costs not by prices but overall spending. By that measure, costs continue to rise, albeit slowly. The impact of the Affordable Care Act on containing the cost of health care remains largely unproven. Schultz had some accurate numbers on prices but he was too quick to treat those as changes in costs and the role of the Affordable Care Act is sketchy for the time being. We rate the .
|
9,557 | 2 |
Under Scott Walker's policies, "the typical Wisconsin family has actually seen their real income drop by nearly $3,000 in the last four years.
|
October 10, 2014
|
economy;workers
|
mary burke
|
Burke is a former Trek Bicycle executive and former Wisconsin Commerce Department secretary who announced on Oct. 7, 2013 that she would seek the Democratic nomination for governor in Wisconsin in the fall 2014 election against incument Republican Gov. Scott Walker. She lost to Walker on Nov. 4, 2014. She is a school board member in Madison, Wisconsin.
|
wisconsin
| 2 | 8 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 3 |
a debate
|
The lingering effects of the national recession, Walker’s cuts to public workers’ disposable income, his tax cuts, the below-average pace of job creation, the national economy -- all those factors and more play into fluctuations in income. But in this instance Burke blames Walker for something that largely occurred before his watch, providing a distorted view for voters. Our rating Saying that his approach hasn’t worked, Burke blamed Walker for income losses, saying, "the typical Wisconsin family has actually seen their real income drop by nearly $3,000 in the last four years." While median household income in Wisconsin has fallen $2,743 in four years, most of the drop occurred before Walker took office in 2011, We rate the . To comment on this item, go to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s web page .
|
19,027 | 1 |
21% of people are having serious adverse events from (the Moderna) vaccine.
|
December 6, 2020
|
facebook fact-checks;coronavirus
|
bloggers
|
Blog posting on the Internet
|
national
| 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 |
a video shared on Facebook
|
A video shared on social media says that 21% of people getting the Moderna vaccine had a serious adverse reaction. The actual number is .5%. That was the same level for the placebo group. There is no indication the vaccine caused any of these serious events. We rate this .
|
8,499 | 5 |
For every week that (state lawmakers are) able to cut off our timeline, it saves (Georgia taxpayers) approximately $100,000.
|
January 22, 2014
|
state budget
|
casey cagle
|
Casey Cagle, a Republican, is the lieutenant governor of Georgia
|
georgia
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
an interview
|
To sum up, Cagle said the state could save $100,000 for each week the Legislature can reduce their session schedule. Cagle’s argument is the longer the Legislature is in session, the more it costs Georgia taxpayers. The lieutenant governor’s statement is correct that it costs a good bit of money to operate when the Legislature is in session, if you consider the cost of temporary staff alone. If you consider the regular per diem costs, Cagle’s weekly estimate of $100,000 seems too conservative. We rate his statement .
|
7,897 | 3 |
Violent crime is up since the last year of Sharpe James' administration. This year it's higher. … The unemployment rate is almost 15 percent. The high school dropout rate is over 50 percent.
|
September 23, 2013
|
education;jobs;crime
|
steve lonegan
|
The former mayor of Bogota in Bergen County, Steve Lonegan is the New Jersey director of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy group. Lonegan ran unsuccessfully in 2005 and 2009 for the Republican nomination for governor.
|
new jersey
| 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
an interview on the John Gambling radio show
|
Lonegan said, "Violent crime is up since the last year of Sharpe James’ administration. This year it’s higher. … The unemployment rate is almost 15 percent. The high school dropout rate is over 50 percent." Overall violent crime is up whether measured from 2005 or 2006 to 2012, but the increase is skewed by a sharp uptick in robberies, according to UCR statistics. Violent crime is down in other categories. Unemployment during Booker’s tenure has hovered between 14 percent and 16 percent, but the impact of the recession on those figures can’t be disregarded. Lonegan’s about Newark dropouts is based on students who graduate following a standardized testing route, but that doesn’t consider all of the district’s high schoolers. There are other routes to graduation. Each has a varying degree of accuracy to it, but each also leaves out important details and context. That’s why we rate the overall . To comment on this article, go to NJ.com .
|
8,140 | 5 |
By the time she turns 3 years old, a child born into a low-income home hears 30 million fewer words than a child from a well-off family.
|
December 4, 2013
|
children;corrections and updates;education;income
|
barack obama
|
Barack Obama is the former president of the United States. Obama also served as a U.S. senator from Illinois. He was born in 1961 in Hawaii, where his parents met as students at the University of Hawaii. Obama's father is from Kenya and his mother is from Kansas. He graduated from Columbia University and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. Obama previously served in the Illinois state Senate and was an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School. He and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
|
national
| 124 | 165 | 163 | 71 | 71 | 9 |
a speech
|
Obama said that less-affluent children are behind by the time they start school because they have heard about 30 million fewer words than peers from higher-income families. Experts say studies clearly support Obama’s point. We rate Obama’s statement . Editor's note: This item was edited after initial publication to clarify that researchers studied the word gap of children up to age 3, not age 5.
|
21,165 | 1 |
A photo of President Joe Biden leaving for Europe that the White House tweeted wasn't actually taken on March 23.
|
March 23, 2022
|
facebook fact-checks;ukraine;russia
|
viral image
|
Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine.
| null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 |
an Instagram post
|
Biden was boarding the helicopter on the south side, where southern magnolia trees abut the White House. According to Yale University, the tree is relatively hardy, growing in cold climates like Washington, and "because it can maintain its beautiful leaves year round, it is often planted as an ornamental flowering tree. " Photos of Biden before he left for Europe that day that were taken by news organizations including Getty and Reuters show the trees full of leaves. In this video shared by USA Today, both those trees and bare trees behind the helicopter can be seen. We rate this post .
|
14,557 | 4 |
We have never been paid by the Trump campaign.
|
April 26, 2018
|
campaign finance
|
diamond and silk
|
Diamond and Silk (real names Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson) are Pro-Donald Trump activists.
|
national
| 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
a hearing
|
Pro-Donald Trump activists Diamond and Silk said, "We have never been paid by the Trump campaign." The social media ensemble received $1,274 from the Trump campaign. It was a one-time payment and both parties maintain it was reimbursement for travel expenses. Because reasonable people can disagree about whether reimbursement for travel expenses constitutes "pay" or not, we rate this .
|
7,973 | 1 |
We're second only to Boston in college students per capita.
|
October 1, 2013
|
education
|
chris abele
|
Chris Abele is Milwaukee County Executive, a position he won in an April 2011 special election to finish out the final year of the term of Scott Walker, who was elected governor in November 2010. The election was the first attempt at political office for Abele, a Milwaukee philanthropist and business owner.
The office is nonpartisan, but Abele has indicated he is a Democrat.
|
wisconsin
| 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
a speech
|
Our rating Abele said, "We’re second only to Boston in college students per capita." The county exec relies on decade-and-a-half-old data from a study that is no longer available and, in any event, does not back up his . A second dated study we found from 1996 put Milwaukee at 13th of 50. More recent research ranks the area far from the head of the class. We rate his .
|
21,686 | 4 |
Lee Zeldin "voted for abortion bans even when the mother's health is at risk.
|
June 30, 2022
|
abortion
|
kathy hochul
|
Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is the governor of New York state. She is a former member of Congress.
|
new york
| 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
a campaign advertisement
|
The ban did not allow exceptions for considerations of the long-term health or the mental health of the pregnant person. PolitiFact's ruling on the governor's requires understanding the distinction between the expectant mother's life and her health. Simply put, in this legislation, Zeldin was OK with an exception to the abortion ban if the expectant mother's health problem put her life at risk. He wasn't OK with an exception if the health problem wasn't life threatening. Given that distinction, we rate this .
|
778 | 4 |
Between 40 and 50 percent of tax filers do not owe any income tax.
|
October 12, 2008
|
taxes
|
john mccain
|
John McCain was a U.S. senator from Arizona, a post he held from 1987 to his death in 2018. He previously served two terms in the U.S. House. He was the Republican nominee for president in 2008. McCain was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and spent his career in the military, as his father did. He was a combat pilot in Vietnam who was shot down and spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war. He was born in 1936 in Panama.
|
national
| 37 | 37 | 31 | 32 | 39 | 8 |
a television interview
|
They said that the percent of taxpayers with zero or negative individual income tax liability will be 38 percent in 2009. That's pretty close to 40 percent, the low end of the range McCain said. If McCain had said it was 40 percent, we would have ruled that his statement was , because he would only be two points off. But he also said it could be around 50 percent, and that seems like pushing the envelope a tad too far. So we rate his statement .
|
14,872 | 5 |
In December of 2017, the Prince William board of supervisors had a meeting ... (Corey Stewart) skipped that meeting to go campaign in Alabama for Roy Moore to be a U.S. senator … You haven't disavowed Roy Moore's name yet.
|
July 21, 2018
|
county government;elections;ethics
|
tim kaine
|
Tim Kaine is a U.S. senator representing Virginia, elected to the Senate in 2012. He was the 2016 Democratic nominee for vice president.
Kaine was governor from 2006 to 2010, lieutenant governor from 2002 to 2006, mayor of Richmond from 1998 to 2001, and city councilman of Richmond beginning in 1994. He was also the chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011.
Kaine was born in St. Paul, Minn. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics in 1979 from the University of Missouri, Columbia, and a law degree from Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass., in 1983. He took a year-long break during law school to work with the Jesuit order as a Catholic missionary in Honduras, becoming fluent in Spanish.
|
national
| 14 | 17 | 15 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
a debate
|
Kaine said Stewart skipped a Prince William County board of supervisors meeting to campaign for Moore. Stewart missed a Dec. 12, 2017, meeting at which the board of supervisors voted on a proposal to boost funding for programs meant to cope with the opioid crisis. Instead, he attended a rally for Moore in Alabama because he said it was important to support an "anti-establishment, pro-Trump candidate." Stewart has not disavowed Moore and refused to do so in an interview after the debate. We rate Kaine’s statement .
|
21,727 | 0 |
Ranked choice voting in Alaska is a "total rigged deal.
|
July 9, 2022
|
congress;elections
|
donald trump
|
Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.
|
national
| 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 |
a rally
|
He is using a similar approach here in his efforts to denounce a senator who supported his impeachment after the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. We rate this statement . RELATED : Democracy experts support Alaska’s move to ranked-choice voting. Here’s why RELATED : Trump’s own advisers add to that election wasn’t stolen RELATED : All of our fact-checks about elections
|
16,238 | 1 |
The Nevada Gaming Commission did not find Trump 'trustworthy' enough for a gaming license.
|
June 20, 2019
|
candidate biography;gambling;facebook fact-checks
|
viral image
|
Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine.
| null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 |
a Facebook post
|
"Mr. Trump has never been, and is not presently, a greenmailer or corporate raider," the filings said. In spite of such conflicts, though, we found no that the Nevada Gaming Commission didn’t find Trump "trustworthy" enough for a gaming license, as the Facebook post claims. We searched Nexis news archives for that the commission called Trump untrustworthy and came up empty. Plus, the commission’s chairman told PolitiFact that the allegation is a "viral misconception," and that Trump has been deemed suitable to be involved in gaming in the state. We rate this post .
|
22,572 | 0 |
NASA stopped exploring the ocean.
|
January 23, 2023
|
environment;climate change;space;water;facebook fact-checks
|
instagram posts
|
Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters.
| null | 3 | 3 | 15 | 51 | 405 | 140 |
an Instagram post
|
An Instagram post said: "NASA stopped exploring the ocean." NASA has a number of initiatives for studying oceans, some space-based and some in the ocean depths. We rate the statement !
|
16,188 | 2 |
Says the Central Park Five "admitted their guilt.
|
June 18, 2019
|
civil rights;crime
|
donald trump
|
Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.
|
national
| 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 |
remarks to reporters on the White House South Lawn
|
Trump said that the Central Park Five "admitted their guilt." And he said some of the prosecutors involved "think that the city should never have settled that case." While the five teens did early on admit to participating in an attack, they quickly withdrew those confessions. At best, they admitted their guilt to a limited degree for a brief time. Legal records show that none of them confessed to raping the woman in Central Park. A judge vacated their convictions when the actual rapist confessed and DNA showed his guilt. Trump ignores reams of that now point to the nature of those confessions. Even the prosecutor he cited said she agreed the rape convictions were rightly overturned. We rate this .
|
7,051 | 3 |
Says the Georgia Dome would need up to $350 million in work over the next five to seven years.
|
February 13, 2013
|
infrastructure;sports;taxes
|
kasim reed
|
Kasim Reed is Mayor of Atlanta.
|
georgia
| 5 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
news story
|
Using these figures, the renovation cost would be less than the $200 million public investment into the proposed new stadium deal. The difference lies with which style of renovations is chosen: the exclusive Rolls-Royce level of renovations or the cheaper, base model Honda level of renovations. Reed’s statement is partially accurate but needs a lot of additional information and context. We rated the statement . Staff writer Karishma Mehrotra contributed to this story.
|
25 | 4 |
I'm the first person who really took up the issue of the war. Four years ago I said that there was no proof that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and, actually... did an analysis which disproved the cause for the war.
|
June 19, 2007
|
iraq
|
dennis kucinich
|
Dennis Kucinich is running in the Democratic primary for governor of Ohio in 2018. Kucinich was elected to Congress in 1996. He previously served as a member of the city council and as mayor in Cleveland, the city where he was born in 1946. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from Case Western University. He has been married since 2005 to Elizabeth Harper. He was married twice before and has one child. He withdrew from the presidential race on Jan. 25, 2008.
|
national
| 12 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
Washington, DC
|
But Kucinich earned the title as the leader of the anti-war movement in late August 2002 after holding a widely reported Capitol Hill briefing where he called for more "discussion about why we should not go to war," according to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He then began building a congressional coalition against the war. "Unilateral military action by the United States against Iraq is unjustified, unwarranted and illegal," said Kucinich, according to The Washington Times on Sept. 20, 2002. "The administration has failed to make the case that Iraq poses an imminent or immediate threat to the United States." Kucinich solidified his position as the opposition headmaster Oct. 3, 2002, when he took the floor of the House to present an eight-page, point-by-point analysis refuting the joint resolution on Iraq in the days before the vote.
|
16,566 | 5 |
Millionaires are eligible for food stamps, but "Donald Trump came along and decided to put a stop to it.
|
October 2, 2019
|
federal budget;food;poverty;states
|
glenn grothman
|
Republican Glenn Grothman, of the Town of Glenbeulah in Sheboygan County, was first elected to Congress in 2014 after serving 21 years in the Wisconsin Legislature. He represents the 6th Congressional District in east-central Wisconsin that includes all or parts of Ozaukee, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Fond du Lac, Dodge, Winnebago, Columbia, Green Lake, Marquette and Waushara counties.
|
wisconsin
| 8 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 0 |
a newspaper
|
Grothman claimed millionaires are eligible for food stamps, but "Donald Trump came along and decided to put a stop to it." The millionaires may be outliers, but Grothman’s was that they are eligible -- not that they were receiving benefits in high numbers. The proposed rule from Trump’s USDA would bar people in other programs from automatically qualifying for food stamps. It would also require a review of an applicant’s assets -- not just their income. It’s that provision that has, in the past, allowed wealthy individuals to receive the benefits. Wisconsin is among dozens of states that do not do asset checks now. We rate Grothman’s .
|
4,471 | 1 |
GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain called Ron Paul's followers "ignorant.
|
October 11, 2011
|
negative campaigning
|
ron paul
|
Ron Paul, a Texas physician, served two stints in the U.S. House. He also was the Libertarian Party nominee for president in 1988 before later seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2012. He didn't seek re-election to the House in 2012.
|
georgia
| 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 3 |
New Hampshire
|
You could even say that Cain "belittled" Paul’s followers, as the Texan claimed during the debate. But Paul was very specific that one of the "strong terms" Cain used against his backers was the word "ignorant." Paul said he’d produce proof, but neither he nor his supporters have done so. We couldn’t find any, either. Paul earns a .
|
17,698 | 3 |
Speaking about border apprehensions, said "We have some of the best numbers we've ever had. Southern border, the best numbers we've ever had.
|
May 14, 2020
|
immigration;border security;homeland security
|
donald trump
|
Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.
| null | 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 |
an interview with Fox Business
|
Year-to-date apprehension numbers are the lowest the Trump administration has seen so far, but they are not the lowest compared with past administrations. In terms of monthly data, it is not the lowest the Trump administration has seen. Despite the low numbers, experts said it’s important to keep in mind the context: a global pandemic that has caused lockdowns in foreign countries and increased the public health risk of emigrating to the United States. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it .
|
12,780 | 0 |
Wisconsin uses voting machines that are outlawed, they are illegal.
|
November 26, 2016
|
elections;legal issues;technology
|
jill stein
|
Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, is a Massachusetts activist and physician.
|
wisconsin
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
a video
|
. Yes, she was concerned about favoring Democrats, but there were other reasons, too, for not opening an early voting site. ➤ Also was a by comedian Amy Schumer that "anyone who knows you can just" look it up to "see if you voted." Generally speaking, an individual’s voting history is a public record, though how easy it is to access can vary.
|
14,537 | 0 |
Apply Now and Win the Canada Diversity Immigration Visa Lottery (DV-2019) Program | Live and Work in Canada.
|
April 15, 2018
|
immigration;fake news;punditfact
|
bloggers
|
Blog posting on the Internet
| null | 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 |
a blog post
|
The Trump administration has said a man accused of a terrorist attack in New York in October 2017 came to the United States through the diversity visa lottery program. ( Here’s more information about that U.S. program.) Bitcoingrower.life muddles its own information by referencing both the United States and Canada in its post. The post about a Canadian diversity immigration visa lottery is bogus. We rate it !
|
3,462 | 1 |
China holds 26 percent of the U.S. debt.
|
April 16, 2011
|
deficit;federal budget;foreign policy
|
herman cain
|
Herman Cain is an author, columnist and talk radio host. Cain, a former pizza franchise CEO, ran for president as a Republican in 2012.
|
national
| 0 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 3 |
Iowa
|
For example, he could have said "among the foreign holders of U.S. debt, China ranks first and holds 26 percent." But he didn't. Cain said simply that China "is holding 26 percent of our debt." There are a couple ways to consider debt, but using the two most common, Cain is either off by more than double or more than triple. We rate Cain's statement .
|
656 | 3 |
I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' on that Bridge to Nowhere.
|
September 3, 2008
|
federal budget;transportation
|
sarah palin
|
Sarah Palin was the Republican nominee for vice president in 2008. She is also the former governor of Alaska and the author of Going Rogue: An American Life. Sarah Palin's previous experience includes leading the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and serving as the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska.
|
national
| 14 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 21 | 6 |
St. Paul, Minn
|
Today, when Palin says "I told Congress, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' on that Bridge to Nowhere," it implies Congress said, "Here's a check for that bridge" and she responded, "No thanks, that's wasteful spending; here's your money back." That's not what happened. Fact is, Alaska took the bridge money, and then just spent it on other projects. Palin did make the final call to kill plans for the bridge, but by the time she did it was no longer a politically viable project. We rule Palin's is .
|
21,755 | 1 |
A cure for cancer, known as a Rife machine, was found in 1934.
|
July 25, 2022
|
health care;science;facebook fact-checks
|
viral image
|
Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine.
| null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 |
a Facebook post
|
"There is that application of some radio frequencies can have favorable results. However, the human body, or even a cancer cell, is an extremely complicated system," said Ivan Brezovich, one of the study's researchers and professor emeritus at the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Alabama. "There are countless variables that need to be fully explored, such as what frequency or frequencies should be used, when should they be applied, at what intensity, at what body parts, for what types of cancer, etc." Brezovich believes that more research must be done and believes that "patients should not forgo a proven method of treatment until a new modality has been verified in a scientific setting. " A miraculous cure for cancer would be wonderful, but there is not currently that Rife machines are that miracle. We rate this .
|
393 | 1 |
Hillary Clinton's international travels included "no serious diplomacy.
|
March 21, 2008
|
foreign policy
|
dick morris
|
Dick Morris is a former advisor to President Clinton. He is now an ardent Clinton-basher and Fox News contributor.
|
national
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
the "New York Post"
|
One of her earliest trips as first lady was a 1995 visit with Dr. Muhammad Yunus, a microcredit pioneer and founder of the Grameen Bank. Yunus went on to win the Nobel Prize in 2006. Morris' criticism that Clinton's travel was frivolous doesn't match up with what her schedules and news reports show. We found the of the matter to be somewhere between Clinton's bragging and Morris' put-downs. Meanwhile, we find his statement that the trips did not constitute any serious diplomacy to be .
|
3,708 | 3 |
Studies show that people that are on welfare are higher users of drugs than people not on welfare.
|
June 5, 2011
|
drugs;poverty;marijuana
|
rick scott
|
Rick Scott, a wealthy Florida businessman, was first elected Florida's 45th governor on Nov. 2, 2010 and re-elected Nov. 4, 2014. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018 and is running for re-election in 2024.
|
florida
| 15 | 36 | 42 | 42 | 38 | 8 |
an interview on CNN
|
Let's remember what Scott said. He told CNN's T.J. Holmes that, "Studies show that people that are on welfare are higher users of drugs than people not on welfare." Scott's office provided that supports that . Sort of. And opponents provided that refutes Scott's . Sort of. What's obvious is that it's difficult to make broad generalizations about a whole group of people. And it's even more difficult to definitively measure drug use. Scott's statement is at least partially accurate because there are studies showing a higher prevalence of drug use among some welfare recipients. But he also is neglecting research that suggests that drug use among welfare and non-welfare recipients is consistent. We rate this .
|
17,416 | 1 |
This lady here applied sanitizer to her hands/forearms & went to the kitchen to cook. The moment she turned on the gas stove, her hands caught fire due to the alcohol contained in the sanitizer.
|
March 23, 2020
|
public health;facebook fact-checks;coronavirus
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a Facebook post
|
A Facebook post said: "This lady here applied sanitizer to her hands/forearms & went to the kitchen to cook. The moment she turned on the gas stove, her hands caught fire due to the alcohol contained in the sanitizer." We ran reverse image searches and checked news databases, and we found no credible that the incident in question actually took place. Hand sanitizer is flammable, but medical experts told us that the fire risks are low because the alcohol in hand sanitizer evaporates quickly when the product is given enough time to dry. We rate this statement .
|
279 | 1 |
I don't have lobbyists running my campaign.
|
January 17, 2008
|
ethics
|
mitt romney
|
Mitt Romney is a U.S. senator from Utah. He ran for president in 2012 as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent President Barack Obama. Prior to that, Romney served one term as governor of Massachusetts, elected to the post in 2002. He was born in 1947 in Michigan, where his father was governor from 1963 to 1969. Romney graduated from Brigham Young University and received both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University. Romney helped found the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984, which launched or rebuilt such companies as Staples and Dominos Pizza. Romney managed the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from 1999-2002. He ran for president in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination. He and his wife, Ann, have five sons, Tagg, Craig, Matt, Ben and Josh.
|
national
| 31 | 33 | 58 | 35 | 32 | 19 |
Columbia, S.C.
|
• Vin Weber, the Romney campaign's policy chairman, is considered one of Washington's premier lobbyists. He is chief executive of Clark & Weinstock, which has represented Microsoft, Pfizer, Texas Instruments, General Electric and many others. During the standoff in the Staples, Romney said, "I don't have lobbyists at my elbows that are arguing for one industry or another industry." They may not be at his elbows, but his campaign sure looks ankle-deep in them. And so we find his to be .
|
14,944 | 3 |
Says he was "not part of transferring" any priests accused of sexual abuse.
|
August 8, 2018
|
children;legal issues;crime;religion;sexuality
|
matt flynn
|
Milwaukee attorney Matt Flynn announced in October 2017 that he is running for the Democratic nomination for governor of Wisconsin in the 2018 election. A former chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Flynn lost bids for the U.S. Senate in 1986 and 1988 and was defeated in contests for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1978 and 2004.
|
wisconsin
| 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
a candidates forum
|
But it’s also clear Flynn was heavily involved in cases where accused priests were transferred. Our rating Flynn says he was "not part of transferring" any priests accused of sexual abuse. There is no to show that Flynn advised the archdiocese to transfer priests accused of molesting children to different parishes. But Flynn was a top attorney for the archdiocese during a period of years when a number of such transfers were done, and he had at least some involvement with cases in which accused priests were transferred. We rate Flynn’s statement .
|
4,412 | 1 |
Says he's "never asked for more" than inflationary budget increases in his 10 budgets as Milwaukee County sheriff
|
September 30, 2011
|
county budget;criminal justice
|
david a. clarke jr.
|
David A. Clarke Jr. served as Milwaukee County sheriff from 2002 to 2017.
|
wisconsin
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2 |
a radio interview
|
What’s more, if we looked at every department that way, tens of millions of dollars in county tax dollars would magically disappear from the books -- but not from that tax bill in your mailbox. Our conclusion Clarke says he "never asked for more" than inflationary budget increases in his 10 budgets as Milwaukee County sheriff. It’s if you overlook the massive fringe benefit increases that have pushed up county costs, frustrating Clarke and every other department head who cut back only to see costs rise. But the bottom line is, Clarke’s redefinition of his budget requests is unofficial and not recorded in county records. We rate his statement .
|
21,046 | 3 |
There are now zero students, staff or anyone "related to the school system" in Union County" hospitalized with COVID-19, despite harsh criticism of school COVID policy.
|
February 17, 2022
|
coronavirus
|
david willis
|
David Willis represents Union County in the North Carolina state House of Representatives.
|
north carolina
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a speech
|
Willis said that, despite criticism of the Union County school board, none of its employees and no one "related to" the school system was hospitalized with COVID-19. The school system told PolitiFact that no employees were hospitalized with COVID-19 the day Willis spoke. But its spokeswoman said the district doesn’t track the health status of people who work with schools but aren’t school system employees. It’s also for Willis to suggest that the school district’s lack of hospitalizations on a particular day demonstrates that criticism of the school leaders is unwarranted. Willis’ statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. That’s our definition of .
|
14,784 | 0 |
Says Wisconsin "hadn't been won by a Republican since Dwight D. Eisenhower, in 1952. And I won Wisconsin. … Ronald Reagan, remember, Wisconsin was the state that Ronald Reagan did not win.
|
June 28, 2018
|
elections;voting record
|
donald trump
|
Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.
|
wisconsin
| 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 |
a public forum
|
and that "Wisconsin was the state that Ronald Reagan did not win." Election records show that Trump is on both counts. Very . The president might want to find another applause line for Wisconsin, because Republican candidates not named Trump won the state six times since Eisenhower’s 1952 win. We rate his .
|
3,087 | 1 |
Limiting labor negotiations to only wages is "how it is for the most part in the private sector.
|
February 13, 2011
|
labor;state budget
|
alberta darling
|
Wisconsin state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, served in the state Assembly from 1990 to 1992 and has served in the state Senate since 1992. She survived a recall election in August 2011 by defeating state Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay).
|
wisconsin
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
an appearance on a TV interview program
|
It’s not just money, it’s the workplace." Let’s return to Darling’s statement. In arguing public employee unions ought to be treated more like their their private sector counterparts, she said "for the most part" private contract talks are limited to wages. However, the National Labor Relations Act make it clear: Private employers with unions are not only allowed to bargain on many other issues -- that law requires the subjects be about far more than just wages. We rate her statement .
|
5,931 | 5 |
Over the last six months, President Barack Obama has golfed 10 times and held 106 fundraisers, but his jobs council has never met.
|
July 19, 2012
|
campaign finance;economy;jobs;message machine 2012;sports
|
republican national committee
|
The Republican National Committee is the national arm of the Republican Party.
|
national
| 4 | 5 | 12 | 9 | 8 | 2 |
a web video
|
The RNC said that over the last six months, Obama has golfed 10 times and held 106 fundraisers even as his jobs council didn’t meet once. The RNC’s tally is on target. We rate the statement .
|
7,396 | 5 |
Says, "Oregon has the third largest class size in the nation.
|
May 17, 2013
|
children;education
|
oregon pta
|
The Oregon PTA is the largest network of parents in Oregon.
|
oregon
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a newsletter
|
Oregon fared poorly in the federal ranking. In the 2008-09 school year, the state had the fifth-largest student-teacher ratio. That ranking rose to third in 2009-10 and dropped back to fourth in the 2010-11 school year. So overall, three data sets produced very similar results about Oregon’s student-teacher ratios, all of which say the state has one of the highest student-teacher ratios in the United States. We rate the statement .
|
11,392 | 4 |
When Honduran children came into this country, "Secretary Clinton said send them back.
|
March 9, 2016
|
immigration
|
bernie sanders
|
Bernie Sanders is a senator from Vermont. Sanders was first elected to the Senate in 2007 and was re-elected in 2012 and 2018. The senator also ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016, losing the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton. From 1991 until 2007, he was the representative of Vermont’s At-Large District of the House of Representatives. Sanders was the mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago. In 2019, he announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for president and dropped out in April 2020.
|
national
| 21 | 62 | 48 | 26 | 18 | 0 |
the Democratic debate at Miami Dade College
|
Sanders said that when undocumented children were streaming across the border, Clinton said, send them back. That is a bit of an oversimplification. Clinton did not say they should be sent back no matter what. She set the condition that the government should first identify responsible adults to care for them. However, she expressed a preference that as many as possible be sent back. That message was part of the administration’s policy to discourage more young people from attempting the trip. We rate this statement .
|
12,818 | 4 |
California is once again the sixth-largest economy in the world. If you add the GDP's of Washington and Oregon, California would surpass the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world.
|
December 8, 2016
|
economy;elections;the 2018 california governor's race
|
antonio villaraigosa
|
Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, is a candidate for California governor, former mayor of Los Angeles and former state Assembly speaker.
|
california
| 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
an op-ed
|
Antonio Villaraigosa recently said: "California is once again the sixth-largest economy in the world. If you add the GDP’s of Washington and Oregon, California would surpass the United Kingdom to become the fifth-largest economy in the world." We rated the first portion of this in a separate fact check in July. We crunched the numbers on the second part of Villaraigosa’s , about a combined and hypothetical California-Oregon-Washington economy. At $3.1 trillion, it would surpass the United Kingdom’s $2.8 trillion GDP and would rank fifth in the world. It’s important to note that some economists factor in cost-of-living when assessing a state’s or country’s GDP. Expenses are high in all three states, which means this mega-economy could be knocked down a few spots in the rankings. The former mayor’s statement needs this clarification. Overall, we rate Villaraigosa’s . – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/5b83a74d-fde6-48d9-9c72-c93824f92b4e
|
15,540 | 2 |
Says former North Carolina elections board chairman "tried to drag a cancer-stricken woman out of her hospital bed to testify at her son's hearing on the first day of early voting over a bogus complaint that the board hadn't even fully investigated.
|
December 19, 2018
|
elections
|
phil berger
|
Phil Berger is a Republican from Eden and the president pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate.
|
north carolina
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
a press release
|
Berger said Penry "tried to drag a cancer-stricken woman out of her hospital bed to testify at her son’s hearing on the first day of early voting over a bogus complaint that the Board hadn’t even fully investigated." He appears to have a point about the hearing being scheduled before the investigation was complete. However, Berger grossly Penry’s request of Hise’s mother (the "cancer-stricken woman") and downplays Hise’s violations. We rate this . This story was produced by the North Carolina Fact-Checking Project, a partnership of McClatchy Carolinas, the Duke University Reporters’ Lab and PolitiFact. The NC Local News Lab Fund and the International Center for Journalists provide support for the project, which shares fact-checks with newsrooms statewide.
|
14,735 | 4 |
Trump approval rating better than Obama and Reagan at same point in their presidencies.
|
June 9, 2018
|
fake news;polls and public opinion;punditfact
|
the gateway pundit
|
The Gateway Pundit is a conservative website.
| null | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 15 | 3 |
a headline
|
The Gateway Pundit said, "Trump approval rating better than Obama and Reagan at same point in their presidencies." The story cited a Fox News poll in early June that found Trump’s approval rating at 45 percent and a Rasmussen poll showing Obama was at 46 percent at the same point in his presidency. An NBC/ Wall Street Journal poll found that Trump’s approval was 44 percent in early June, matching the results for Reagan (in June 1982) and Obama (in June 2010). These poll results show that Trump, Obama and Reagan had similar polling results for early June in the second year of their presidencies. These results are a snapshot in time, and other polling results show warning signs for Republicans headed into the midterms. That said, the numbers cited are correct. We rate this .
|
16,814 | 1 |
An old image shows a drug store with a marijuana leaf sign.
|
December 15, 2019
|
fake news;history;facebook fact-checks;marijuana
|
viral image
|
Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine.
| null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 |
a Facebook post
|
(Marijuana is the mixture of dried, shredded flowers and leaves that comes from the hemp plant.) Domestic production flourished until after the Civil War, when imports and other domestic materials replaced hemp for many purposes. In the late 19th century, marijuana became a popular ingredient in many medicinal products and was sold openly in public pharmacies." Nevertheless, this photo does not appear to be authentic. We rate it .
|
18,911 | 0 |
Smartmatic and Dominion systems ... were built to do this very thing, for changing the results of elections.
|
November 16, 2020
|
elections
|
sidney powell
|
Sidney Powell is a former federal prosecutor and attorney. She has represented former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and served on Donald Trump's legal team.
|
national
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
an interview with Mark Levin
|
An independent audit of Dominion voting machines in Georgia affirmed that finding. "There is no that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised," the statement says. "While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too." Powell’s is and . We rate it !
|
16,230 | 4 |
No, that's a mischaracterization of my thinking.
|
June 28, 2019
|
guns
|
bernie sanders
|
Bernie Sanders is a senator from Vermont. Sanders was first elected to the Senate in 2007 and was re-elected in 2012 and 2018. The senator also ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016, losing the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton. From 1991 until 2007, he was the representative of Vermont’s At-Large District of the House of Representatives. Sanders was the mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago. In 2019, he announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for president and dropped out in April 2020.
|
vermont
| 21 | 62 | 48 | 26 | 18 | 0 |
Miami, Florida
|
"On the other hand, there are some federal issues that go beyond what states do," the Vermont senator added about the federal role in regulating firearms. We reached out to Heintz to get his take on whether Maddow was mischaracterizing the 2013 interview with Sanders. "I think our 2013 interview with Sen. Sanders stands on its own and I think last night’s debate stands on its own," Heintz said. "Both are available online and I encourage people to watch and listen and draw their own conclusions."
|
18,477 | 4 |
Says Amy Coney Barrett "has a written track record, disagreeing adamantly with the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the ACA. In fact, she publicly criticized Chief Justice Roberts' opinion upholding the law eight years ago.
|
September 27, 2020
|
health care;supreme court
|
joe biden
|
Joe Biden is the president of the United States. A Democrat, Biden served as a Delaware senator from 1973 (elected at the age of 29) until 2009. During his time in the Senate, he served as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, chair of the International Narcotics Control Caucus and chair of the Judiciary Committee. He subsequently served as Barack Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2016. Biden launched unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 1988 and 2008. He received a degree in history and political science from the University of Delaware and his J.D. from Syracuse School of Law.
| null | 25 | 64 | 65 | 52 | 55 | 7 |
a speech
|
Biden said that Barrett "has a written track record, disagreeing adamantly with the Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the ACA. In fact, she publicly criticized Chief Justice Roberts’ opinion upholding the law eight years ago." The track record we found is not very lengthy, and it is more academic than "adamant." But it is there, and it strongly suggests Barrett would have sided with Scalia over Roberts in finding the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional. We rate the statement .
|
8,038 | 4 |
We have created new jobs here in Cranston -- more than 1,000.
|
November 4, 2013
|
city government;corporations;economy;jobs;government regulation;regulation;small business;workers
|
allan fung
|
Allan Fung has been mayor of Cranston, R.I. since Jan. 5, 2009. In 2014 he made an unsuccessful run for governor as a Republican. He received his law degree from Suffolk University, worked as a prosecutor for the state attorney general's office, served as a lobbyist for MetLife and served two terms on the Cranston City Council, beginning in 2002. In his 2012 reelection bid, he was unopposed.
|
rhode island
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
a campaign speech
|
Allan Fung said his administration created more than 1,000 new jobs in the city. The city quickly produced a list of companies and an estimate of new jobs. When we spot-checked the list, business owners confirmed that they had received help from the city and the number of jobs was close to the city's tally. Although the shows that Fung's administration deserves credit for helping them along, it was the businesses themselves that actually created the jobs. And all of this occurred as part of the recovery from a major recession. Because the statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information, we rate it . (If you have a you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, e-mail us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.)
|
4,653 | 1 |
For the past eight years, Gov. Carcieri and Mrs. Carcieri would host the lighting of the State House Christmas tree.
|
November 29, 2011
|
religion
|
john depetro
|
John DePetro is a talk-show host on WPRO.
|
rhode island
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
a talk-show discussion
|
Talk-radio host John DePetro stated, "For the past eight years Gov. Carcieri and Mrs. Carcieri would host the lighting of the State House Christmas tree" -- emphasizing the words "Christmas tree" -- to criticize Chafee's reference to "holiday tree." Certainly the Carcieri administration wasn't reluctant to use the term "Christmas tree." But we found more than a few exceptions that used the term "holiday tree" -- just as Chafee has -- and the word "Christmas" was noticeably absent. We rule DePetro's statement . (Get updates from PolitiFactRI on Twitter . To comment or offer your ruling, visit us on our PolitiFact Rhode Island Facebook page.)
|
10,187 | 5 |
The fastest-growing part of the Pentagon's budget are health care expenses.
|
April 2, 2015
|
health care;military
|
evan bayh
|
Evan Bayh, a Democrat from Indiana, served two terms as governor (1989-1997) and two terms as U.S. senator (1999-2011), He is now a partner at McGuireWoods Consulting as well as a political commentator, a senior advisor at Apollo Global Management in New York, and a member of the advisory board of the Central Intelligence Agency.
|
new hampshire
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Concord, N.H
|
Bayh said that "the fastest-growing part of the Pentagon’s budget are health care expenses." There’s little debate that generous military health care benefits are taking up an ever-increasing share of the Pentagon’s budget. While other parts of the budget have spiked, that’s in the past. We rate the statement .
|
3,529 | 2 |
Says one of Austin City Council Member Randi Shade's biggest contributors is the lobbyist for the Formula 1 racetrack planned outside Austin.
|
May 2, 2011
|
city budget;city government;ethics
|
kathie tovo
|
Kathie Tovo, who initially won election to the Austin City Council in 2011, won election to the District 9 single-member council district in 2014. Tovo is a former member of the city planning commission and former vice president of the Austin Neighborhoods Council, her campaign biography says.
|
texas
| 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
campaign mailers
|
The next-most-successful single bundler raised about $6,300, less than half Armbrust’s haul for Shade. Armbrust’s bundling is surely appreciated by the incumbent and signals the firm’s lawyers, including Suttle, want her to win a second term. But Tovo overshoots when she spears the racetrack lobbyist. Other members of his law firm are responsible for sending far more money Shade’s way. We rate the .
|
14,172 | 1 |
Almost half of all vehicles stolen in Texas each year had keys left inside.
|
December 27, 2017
|
crime;transportation
|
robert chody
|
Robert Chody won election as Williamson County sheriff in 2016.
|
texas
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
a tweet
|
Chody said that almost half of all vehicles stolen in Texas each year have the keys left inside. Surely some instances of keys left in stolen vehicles go unreported. Yet we identified no statewide data supporting this "almost half" assessment while our calculations rooted in a national group’s research indicate that less than 1 in 10 reported Texas vehicle thefts from 2013 through 2015 involved keys left in vehicles. We rate this . – The statement is not accurate. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.
|
18,138 | 1 |
Children are "almost immune from this disease.
|
August 5, 2020
|
coronavirus
|
donald trump
|
Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.
| null | 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 |
a Fox and Friends interview
|
Trump said "children are almost immune from this disease." The White House cited a statement by the CDC director in support of schools reopening and a doctor who noted that kids rarely get severe cases, but that doesn’t mean that children are immune to COVID-19. It’s to state that children are "almost immune" as we have seen cases spread at an overnight camp in the U.S. and at some schools, including in Israel. We rate this statement .
|
17,280 | 1 |
A post comparing two construction workers — "Joe legal" and "Jose illegal" — says "Jose" pays no taxes yet gets free medical care, food stamps, welfare, and 'head of the class' priority for his children in applying for college.
|
July 14, 2018
|
immigration;education;health care;race and ethnicity;poverty;workers;facebook fact-checks
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
posts on the Internet
|
The Facebook post compared two construction workers — "Joe legal" and "Jose illegal" — and said "Jose" pays no taxes yet gets free medical care, food stamps, welfare, and "head of the class" priority for his children in applying for college. The post ignores that many undocumented immigrants do, in fact, pay income taxes, payroll taxes, and state and local taxes. It also ignores that most undocumented immigrants cannot legally federal benefits, such as food stamps and welfare. Finally, experts said there’s no way an undocumented immigrant would get placed at the head of the line for college admissions or financial aid compared with U.S. citizens and even legal immigrants. We rate the statement .
|
5,358 | 1 |
Says Obama health reform law denies millions "access to affordable insurance.
|
March 27, 2012
|
health care;workers
|
eric hovde
|
Eric Hovde, a hedge fund manager and businessman from Madison, entered politics by running for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in 2012. He finished second in the GOP primary.
|
wisconsin
| 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
a blog post
|
In the scenarios he cites, it is the employer who would be deciding to drop the employer-sponsored plan. Our rating Hovde said Obama’s health care reform law denies "millions of Americans access to affordable" health insurance. Once the law takes full effect, some employers are expected to stop providing health insurance to their employees. But that's not the same as the law denying people access to affordable health insurance, particularly since other options for obtaining such insurance will be available. We rate Hovde’s .
|
5,677 | 3 |
The federal government "reviewed and verified" his administration's numbers showing Wisconsin added 23,608 jobs in 2011.
|
May 31, 2012
|
economy;jobs
|
scott walker
|
Scott Walker, a Republican, is the former governor of Wisconsin. He was first elected in November 2010. He survived a recall election in 2012, defeating Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett after igniting controversy with a bill curtailing public-employee union collective-bargaining rights. He won re-election to a four-year term in November 2014 and was a 2016 presidential candidate before dropping out in September of 2015. He was defeated by Tony Evers in the 2018 gubernatorial election. Walker is a former Milwaukee County executive and former member of the state Assembly.
|
wisconsin
| 26 | 45 | 39 | 40 | 44 | 11 |
a debate
|
Wisconsin, by contrast, put its numbers out -- and Walker immediately put them in campaign TV ads -- before BLS had verified them. Our rating Walker said the federal government had signed off on the positive jobs numbers and provided some information that supports Walker’s . But his statement leaves out the fact federal officials publicly will not verify the numbers, and the fact that the emails released do not contain any numbers, let alone the ones cited. Those missing, important details land his at . (You can comment on this item on the Journal Sentinel's website ).
|
6,785 | 5 |
Says "10 days after Hurricane Katrina, this chamber passed two separate bills amounting to $60 billion. It has been nearly two months since we had Superstorm Sandy, and nothing has passed.
|
December 27, 2012
|
natural disasters ;weather
|
robert menendez
|
Robert Menendez, a Democrat, has been serving as one of New Jersey's U.S. Senators since January 2006. Menendez previously served as a member of the House of Representatives.
|
new jersey
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
a speech on the Senate floor
|
In a Dec. 27 speech on the Senate floor, Menendez said that "10 days after Hurricane Katrina, this chamber passed two separate bills amounting to $60 billion. It has been nearly two months since we had Superstorm Sandy, and nothing has passed." The senator’s is on the mark. Within 10 days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana in August 2005, Congress approved two separate bills providing a total of $62.3 billion in disaster relief funding. The Senate on Dec. 28 approved a $60.4 billion aid package for Hurricane Sandy, but the House has delayed action on the emergency funding. We rate the statement . To comment on this ruling, go to NJ.com .
|
8,233 | 2 |
The Obama administration offered "no magic number" of people that needed to sign up for health care on the marketplaces.
|
January 5, 2014
|
health care
|
gene sperling
|
Gene Sperling is the director of the National Economic Council for President Barack Obama.
|
national
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press"
|
Sperling denied the administration had a "magic number" for how many people it wanted to see enrolled through the exchanges for health insurance coverage. No one knows how many people need to sign up to make the health care law work. And Sperling has a point that the mix of individuals signing up is likely more important than the raw number. But the Obama administration has used a number -- 7 million by March -- in the past. There’s no denying that. We rate this .
|
5,410 | 5 |
Says opponent Ted Cruz has not led businesses.
|
April 13, 2012
|
candidate biography
|
tom leppert
|
Tom Leppert, who unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2012, served as mayor of Dallas from June 2007 to early 2011. He previously worked in business, also serving as CEO of The Turner Corporation, the nation's largest general building company, according to the biographical material on his campaign website.
|
texas
| 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Dallas
|
He earlier was "an associate deputy attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice," according to the entry, after serving as "domestic policy advisor on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign. "In addition, Ted clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the U.S. Supreme Court," the entry says. We asked Cruz’s campaign if Leppert’s about his not leading any businesses holds up. Spokesman James Bernsen pointed to Cruz’s campaign biography. We rate Leppert’s as .
|
1,906 | 3 |
Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis wrongly takes credit for small-business program
|
June 23, 2010
|
candidate biography;small business
|
leonidas raptakis
|
Leonidas "Lou" Raptakis has served as a state senator since 1996, representing Coventry and several surrounding communities, and regained his seat in 2013. Prior to that, he was a member of the House of Representatives for four years. He was a candidate for secretary of state in 2010. He is the owner of Venus Pizza in Coventry.
|
rhode island
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
announcing his campaign for secretary of state
|
It is clear to us that Mollis did not give his predecessors appropriate credit for coming up with the ideas he is finally now making happen. And Raptakis was right to pick up on that. Had he focused only on that discrepancy and not on Matt Brown's and Jim Langevin's so-called accomplishments, his statement would have more credibility. But he didn't. That's why we're calling it .
|
16,127 | 4 |
The vast majority of Americans believe that climate change is real and we need to do something about it.
|
May 30, 2019
|
climate change
|
michael bennet
|
Michael Bennet is a senator from Colorado, appointed in January 2009 by former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter to fill a vacated Senate seat. Bennet successfully ran for his first full term in 2010 and was re-elected in 2016. He received a degree in history from Wesleyan University and his J.D. from Yale Law School. In 2019, he announced he is running for the Democratic nomination for president.
|
national
| 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a CNN town hall
|
Bennet said that "the vast majority of Americans believe that climate change is real and we need to do something about it." The polls we reviewed show that the majority of Americans do think the effects of climate change are currently taking place and that they are concerned about it. While one poll found that less than half of Americans believe Congress and Trump should make it a top priority, other polls show that when questioned about specific policies to address global warming, a majority of Americans say they support action. We rate Bennet’s .
|
20,503 | 0 |
Elon Musk to donate $250 billion for reparations to African Americans in U.S.
|
November 4, 2021
|
facebook fact-checks
|
instagram posts
|
Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters.
| null | 3 | 3 | 15 | 51 | 405 | 140 |
a post
|
The Viral Cocaine story includes fabricated quotes that are attributed to people including "Dragon Master Adolph White of the North Carolina Chapter of the Klu Klux Klan," and "Antwan Morehouse of the Atlanta Division of the newly reformed Black Panther Party." We could not locate any record of real people with those names or titles. The story also falsely states that Musk is worth nearly $1 trillion. He is worth $306.4 billion as of Nov. 2, according to Forbes. We rate this !
|
10,493 | 5 |
In New Orleans, nearly 100 percent of our kids are in charter schools.
|
July 15, 2015
|
education;natural disasters
|
bobby jindal
|
Bobby Jindal is the governor of Louisiana and a candidate for president in 2016. He was elected to his first term in 2007. Prior to that, he served as a congressman from 2004 to 2008, representing the suburban areas north of New Orleans.
|
national
| 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
comments on "Fox News Sunday"
|
Jindal said that "in New Orleans, nearly 100 percent of our kids are in charter schools." As of the 2013-14 school year, 91 percent of student in New Orleans go to charter schools. However, the high percentage is a reflection of the fact that the majority of schools in New Orleans are charter schools. Most of them were established after public schools within "in crisis" school districts (read New Orleans Public Schools) were handed over to the state-controlled RSD in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Over the years, these schools were converted to charter schools. Jindal’s statement is accurate. We rate it .
|
16,693 | 5 |
If we make no changes over the next 10 years, Americans will reach into their pockets and pay out about $11 trillion on insurance premiums, copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses.
|
November 4, 2019
|
health care;health check
|
elizabeth warren
|
Elizabeth Warren is a senator from Massachusetts. Warren was elected to the Senate in 2012 and was re-elected in 2018 and is running for re-election in 2024. Warren received a bachelor’s degree in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Houston and a J.D. from Rutgers Law School. In 2019, she announced her race for the Democratic nomination for president and dropped out March 5, 2020.
| null | 8 | 11 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
an Instagram post
|
It’s just a question of how much taxes have to go up to pay for that." In her explanation of how she would structure and finance Medicare for All, Warren highlighted what Americans currently pay for "insurance premiums, copays, deductibles and uncovered medical expenses." The $11 trillion figure is staggering — and it checks out. Whether and how to address that issue is fiercely controversial, but on this particular stat, Warren’s statement is accurate. We rate it .
|
18,797 | 1 |
If Biden wins the election, there are people out there planning on mass murdering poc and lbgtq+ people. Please stay inside during the election and a few days after.
|
November 2, 2020
|
facebook fact-checks
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
|
national
| 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a series of images and screenshots
|
A series of social media posts that Trump supporters and right-wing groups are "planning on mass murdering poc and lgbtq+ people" if Biden wins the election. There is no to support that. The appears to be a viral social media rumor, and experts say they show hallmarks of being part of a campaign to suppress the vote. While law enforcement agencies nationwide are bracing for post-election unrest, we could find no credible threats of "mass murder." Without additional , the is . We rate it . This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here , for more.
|
8,731 | 3 |
Atlanta is the No. 1 trading point for sexual slavery in America. Between 100 and 200 girls are sold into slavery in Atlanta every month.
|
April 6, 2014
|
children
|
jimmy carter
|
Jimmy Carter was elected president of the United States in 1976 and served one term. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. The native of Plains, Georgia was submarine commander, peanut farmer, state senator and Georgia governor.
|
georgia
| 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
interview while promoting book
|
You could look deeper into two of those accounts or read the report itself though, and see that it was an overreach. Both the media outlets and the former president could have done a better job. Part of Carter’s statement accurately quotes the estimates that are out there on the girls involved. The part about Atlanta being "the No. 1 trading point for sexual slavery in America" is off base. Overall, we rate Carter’s two-part statement .
|
3,417 | 4 |
For every [coyote] they kill, the population will replace and usually multiply.
|
April 8, 2011
|
environment
|
online petition
|
Stop the Mass Killings of Coyotes is an online petition circulated on Rhode Island's Aquidneck Island. It follows approval by the Middletown Town Council to authorize a hunter to kill coyotes, following complaints from residents.
|
rhode island
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
an online petition
|
"This is just a short-term solution for a couple of individual coyotes," Mitchell said. Knowlton, the Utah expert, said local reduction programs can provide temporary relief from coyote problems. But, in general, wildlife advocates and scientific studies maintain that coyotes are such prolific breeders that trying to lower their numbers by killing them is ineffective. So it appears the petition, apart from the "mass killing" falsehood, wasn’t feeding us a pack of lies after all. We rate the about coyotes replenishing their numbers .
|
2,140 | 1 |
Paul Broun Jr. sides with sexual deviants to support sale of 'crush videos.'
|
July 22, 2010
|
voting record
|
russell edwards
|
Russell Edwards is a Democrat running for Georgia's 10th Congressional District
|
georgia
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
his campaign Web site
|
Broun did vote against the resolution, but he articulated reasons that fall well within his political ideals and record. Whether those reasons trump pragmatic concerns about how best to crack down on distribution of the videos is another question. We had a problem with Edwards saying that Broun "supports" the sale of the videos, particularly since Broun condemned them. Voting against the resolution on constitutional grounds is not the same as supporting the sale of deviant material. We rate Edwards' statement about Broun's vote on HR 5566 as .
|
5,237 | 2 |
Says David Rivera "allowed House Republican leaders to strip key provisions from the STOCK Act" that would crack down on insider trading by members of Congress.
|
February 15, 2012
|
candidate biography;ethics
|
luis garcia
|
State Rep. Luis Garcia, D-Miami Beach, is running for Congress against U.S. Rep. David Rivera in 2012.
|
florida
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
a campaign press release
|
Garcia claimed that "Congressman David Rivera allowed House Republican leaders to strip key provisions from the STOCK Act that would crack down on corruption of public officials and on those who peddle political inside information for profit." It’s that Rivera voted for a version of the bill that removed provisions related to corruption of public officials and on political intelligence consultants. But Garcia doesn’t offer any that Rivera "allowed" it to happen other than voting for it. The statement makes it sound like Rivera had some sort of powerful role in making the legislation coming to pass. Actually, Rivera himself is under investigation -- and not exactly the guy House leaders would turn to when crafting legislation about ethics. We rate this .
|
1,543 | 1 |
Early census returns are showing that conservatives have been measurably less likely than liberals to return their census forms.
|
April 1, 2010
|
census
|
patrick mchenry
|
Patrick McHenry is a U.S. representative from North Carolina.
|
national
| 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
an op ed article
|
And while decidedly conservative Texas has lagged behind the national average, there are lots of red states performing above the national average as well. A spokeswoman from McHenry's office told us he was just trying to be proactive and encourage all Americans to be counted. It's hard to find fault with that. Still, we just don't find any that his premise that conservatives have been less likely to return their census forms than liberals is . We rule McHenry's statement .
|
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