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13,499 | 2 |
Docs: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker took $1 million from a pro-Putin Ukrainian businessman—last election cycle.
|
May 23, 2017
|
campaign finance;elections
|
tweets
|
Twitter is a messaging service where people often discuss politics. Individual messages are called Tweets.
|
wisconsin
| 2 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 98 | 39 |
a tweet
|
Our rating Tweets made this : "Docs: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker took $1 million from a pro-Putin Ukrainian businessman — last election cycle." The businessman was born in Ukraine, but has long lived in London and New York. His company gave $1.5 million not directly to Walker, but to a super PAC that supported Walker’s run for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. He has ties to Putin, based on his past ownership of a Russian oil company, but whether he is "pro-Putin" is unclear. For a statement that contains an element of but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, our rating is .
|
4,442 | 1 |
Foster children are disproportionately victims of identity theft.
|
September 21, 2011
|
children;consumer safety;families;financial regulation;crime
|
james langevin
|
James Langevin has represented Rhode Island's 2nd Congressional District since 2001. He was elected to the state's Constitutional Convention in 1986. Two years later, he won a seat as a State Representative and went on to become, at age 30, Rhode Island's youngest Secretary of State in 1995.
|
rhode island
| 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
a speech
|
Clearly identity theft is a big problem that often isn't recognized among children. Requiring the state to clear a foster child's credit history before he or she graduates from state custody seems like a good policy. Representative Langevin said, "Foster children are disproportionately victims of identity theft." The concept is apparently widely believed and asserted among child advocates. But no study has directly compared identity theft rates between foster children and other children. The California study is the only one to look at identity theft among foster children and it found a rate of roughly 4 percent. Of the two studies we found that looked at overall childhood rates, one showed a rate of identity theft that was similar to foster children. The second found a rate that was higher than the rate seen in the study of foster children. When Langevin asserts that foster children are disproportionately victims, he's making a based on that is either scant, unreliable, or contradictory. We rate the as . (Get updates from PolitiFactRI on Twitter . To comment or offer your ruling, visit us on our PolitiFact Rhode Island Facebook page.)
|
4,576 | 4 |
More than half of the people on food stamps today are children.
|
November 1, 2011
|
federal budget;poverty
|
marcia fudge
|
Rep. Marcia Fudge, a Democrat from Warrensville Heights, is the congresswoman from Ohio's 11th district. Prior to her election to the House of Representatives, she was mayor of Warrensville Heights.
|
ohio
| 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
an MSNBC interview with Al Sharpton
|
And as mistakes go, this one is pretty small. Roughly half the people on food stamps are children. Fudge described it as more than half based on data that was specific to her district. The actual figure for the national average is 47 percent, a point of clarification. A statement that is accurate but requires additional information or clarification lands one place on the -O-Meter: .
|
6,318 | 3 |
Says Romney and Ryan "both backed proposals that would outlaw abortions even in cases of rape or incest.
|
September 11, 2012
|
abortion;corrections and updates;message machine 2012
|
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 campaign ad
|
Barack Obama said in a television ad that Romney and Ryan Romney "both backed proposals that would outlaw abortions even in cases of rape or incest." That is for Ryan. His opposition to abortion, including in cases of rape and incest, is clear. Romney chose Ryan as his running mate and now Ryan says he’ll follow Romney’s lead. Romney has said he supports an amendment that defines life as beginning at conception. When he said that, there was no specific amendment language for him to consider. The term "life begins at conception" is strongly associated with banning abortion, and in some advocates’ view, without exception for rape and incest. But Romney has distanced himself from formal personhood amendments and he made clear in National Review that he supports exceptions for rape or incest. Still, his words and his choice of Ryan tend to blur the distinctions that he himself would emphasize. We rate the statement .
|
256 | 3 |
You've got a building in the Cayman Islands that supposedly houses 12,000 corporations. That's either the biggest building or the biggest tax scam on record.
|
January 5, 2008
|
taxes
|
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 |
Manchester, N.H
|
According to published financial reports, Coca-Cola alone saved $500-million in U.S. taxes in 2003 through foreign subsidiaries. Its Cayman company controls syrup-producing facilities in Ireland. The subsidiary pays taxes in Ireland at 12.5 percent, still far less than in the United States. So, Obama is right that thousands of corporations, and some do say more than 12,000, are in one building in the Caymans, but he goes too far when he implies it's an illegal scam. We rule his statement .
|
1,339 | 4 |
The Senate-passed health care bill "is identical to the Massachusetts health care plan -- the same thing.
|
January 31, 2010
|
health care;pundits
|
paul krugman
|
Paul Krugman is a columnist for the New York Times and professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008. He describes himself as liberal.
|
national
| 8 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
an interview on ABC's 'This Week'
|
"The Senate probably has more cost containment," said John Holahan, a health expert at the Urban Institute who has studied the Massachusetts plan extensively. "And the financing is different. But the structure is the same." So it seems that there's broad agreement that, despite some operational differences, the broad structure of the Massachusetts health care plan is quite similar to that in the U.S. Senate bill -- certainly more similar than either one is to, say, a single-payer health care plan or even to the current system. Krugman's comparison of the two plans is .
|
4,375 | 1 |
Say the ratio of CEO pay to average worker pay in the U.S. is 475 to 1.
|
October 10, 2011
|
corporations;economy;labor;occupy wall street;workers
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
|
national
| 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
postings on Facebook, blogs, and social-media sites
|
This is a textbook example of how claims can spiral out of control on the Internet. Just as conservatives have circulated unfounded claims about President Barack Obama's birth certificate, liberals are spreading this questionable chart. We don’t doubt the chart’s underlying point that the ratio of CEO pay to worker pay is high in the United States, and is likely higher in our free-wheeling economy than it is in the historically more egalitarian nations of Europe. But in its that the U.S. ratio is 475 to 1, the chart conveys a sense of certitude and statistical precision that simply isn't warranted -- and which is contradicted by the facts. The latest number for the U.S. is 185 to 1 in one study and 325 to 1 in another -- and those numbers were not generated by groups that might have an ideological interest in downplaying the gaps between rich and poor. We rate the on the U.S. ratio .
|
11,469 | 3 |
Texas "had the highest level of turnout than ever before in the primary.
|
March 14, 2016
|
elections
|
greg abbott
|
Greg Abbott won election as governor of Texas in November 2014, carrying 59 percent of the vote. Abbott was re-elected in 2018. Abbott, a former member of the Texas Supreme Court, served three terms as the state's attorney general before being succeeded by Ken Paxton in early 2015.
|
texas
| 15 | 13 | 13 | 19 | 15 | 6 |
speaking to reporters
|
Abbott said Texas "had the highest level of turnout than ever before in the" 2016 "primary." We don’t know if Abbott was tunnel-visioning raw counts of primary voters or if he was fixed on the 19 percent share of registered voters participating in the Republican primary. By both of these metrics, the 2016 turnout set Texas records. However, percentage turnout across both primaries was previously higher in several years including 2008, 1988 and 1972. This gubernatorial statement also failed to acknowledge that Texas remains among the nation’s lowest-turnout states. On balance, we rate this . – The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.
|
19,972 | 1 |
News organizations and sponsors ignored the accomplishments of Kim Rhode, a six-time Olympic medalist, because of her support of the Second Amendment.
|
June 30, 2021
|
sports;facebook fact-checks;guns
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
|
national
| 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a Facebook post
|
A Facebook post claims that Rhode was ignored by news organizations and sponsors because she’s an outspoken supporter of the Second Amendment. There is no to support this. Several prominent news outlets have reported about Rhode’s Olympic accomplishments, as well as her support of gun rights. The sport of shooting often receives less big-name sponsors due to its lack of fanfare, and isn’t about Rhode specifically. She and other shooters have also suggested that the sponsorship issues may be due to an aversion to gun sports. We rate this .
|
19,650 | 5 |
On Virginia's new marijuana law: "You can have up to one pound with only a $25 fine.
|
April 7, 2021
|
criminal justice;drugs
|
kirk cox
|
Del. Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, is the majority leader of Virginia's House of Delegates. He was first elected to the House in 1989.
Cox is a retired government teacher in Chesterfield County public schools.
|
virginia
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
a radio interview
|
Cox says that under Virginia’s new marijuana laws, effective July 1, "You can have up to one pound with only a $25 fine." He’s right and we rate his statement .
|
17,533 | 1 |
Kennedy Center, PBS donated to Democrats after getting COVID-19 stimulus money.
|
April 2, 2020
|
campaign finance;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 shared more than 54,0000 times claimed that the Kennedy Center gave $25 million and the corporation that funds PBS gave $5 million to the Democratic Party after the two entities received millions from a federal stimulus law in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Both nonprofits are barred by law from making political contributions and we found no that they have. We rate the post .
|
6,267 | 3 |
After 30 years of inaction, we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas.
|
September 6, 2012
|
environment;energy
|
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 |
Charlotte, N.C
|
Obama said, "After 30 years of inaction, we raised fuel standards so that by the middle of the next decade, cars and trucks will go twice as far on a gallon of gas." The Obama administration launched new fuel efficiency standards that significantly raise the bar for automakers over the next decade. But the rules, which raise standards from their 1985 levels, grew from a bipartisan law requested and signed by Bush. We’ll give Obama credit for pushing for a long-term agreement with aggressive goals and working with automakers who say they’ll get it done. But he’s on shakier ground when he gives the impression his administration was solely responsible. We rate his .
|
21,805 | 0 |
President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!
|
August 12, 2022
|
legal issues
|
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 statement to the media
|
Trump said, "President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!" Trump is . News reports starting in 2016 showed that the National Archives and Records Administration would oversee transfer of Obama’s presidential records. The agency announced it would digitize the records and that classified records were sent to a facility in College Park, Maryland. Obama does not have them. We rate this statement ! RELATED : Could Trump argue he declassified the documents found in the Mar-a-Lago search? RELATED : Have people been prosecuted for mishandling White House records? RELATED : Comparing Hillary Clinton’s emails and Donald Trump’s boxes of files RELATED : Can Donald Trump run for president if charged and convicted of removing official records?
|
19,228 | 1 |
Doctor proves masks don't work" by vaping through them.
|
December 31, 2020
|
corrections and updates;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 widely shared Facebook post that includes a video clip claims that a "doctor proves masks don’t work" by showing vapor from an electronic cigarette passing through a mask. Experts say the fact that masks allow e-cigarette vapor to pass through provides no to back the . They say face coverings offer protection against COVID-19 by blocking larger respiratory droplets, as well as aerosols, that can carry the virus and pass between people. The CDC and other public health experts recommend mask wearing. We rate the . UPDATED, Feb. 9, 11 a.m. ET: This story was updated to include additional context on how masks work.
|
6,114 | 5 |
From a standpoint of the county government, neither school system has received an increase in funding over the past six years.
|
July 13, 2012
|
county budget;county government;education;taxes
|
martavius jones
|
A graduate of Memphis Central High and Howard University, Jones is president and financial advisor for Jones Wealth Managament Group. He was a leader in the move to force consolidation with suburban schools by surrendering the Memphis City Schools charter and serves on the county's schools merger Transition Planning Commission.
|
tennessee
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
the Morning."
|
Ritz may well have a point -- schools officials do bemoan the static local funding even while receiving increases from its chief funding source, the state. But Jones is right -- because the county has not increased schools funding since the 2008 fiscal year, this 2013 fiscal year marks a sixth straight year the county has declined to increase its funding of schools. We rule his statement .
|
10,131 | 4 |
Says Indiana Gov. Mike Pence "provides zero state funding for homeless shelters.
|
March 31, 2015
|
housing;state budget;punditfact
|
us uncut
|
US Uncut is an activist group that ties corporate tax avoidance to shortages of funds to pay for social services.
| null | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a Facebook post
|
The activist group US Uncut said Gov. Mike Pence provided zero state funding for homeless shelters. While the state budget and summaries from the experts and staffers we contacted confirmed that, it’s really an approach of the Indiana state government more than that of any particular person. Advocates say the state has never funded homeless shelters, a de facto policy that includes the consent of both the Legislature and former Democratic governors. We rate the .
|
22,960 | 4 |
Texas Republicans just voted to give a Republican appointee the power to single-handedly CANCEL election results in the state's largest Democratic county.
|
May 2, 2023
|
elections
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
|
texas
| 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a Facebook post
|
A Facebook post said "Texas Republicans just voted to give a Republican appointee the power to single-handedly CANCEL election results in the state’s largest Democratic county." The post cites Senate Bill 1993, which directs the secretary of state — who is a Republican appointee — to order a new election if at least 2% of polling places ran out of ballots. The bill passed the state Senate but would apply only to a county with at least 2.7 million voters, which translates to only left-leaning Harris County. But the House has not yet voted on the bill. And the post omits that the legislation was prompted by Election Day ballot shortages in Harris County. We rate this statement . RELATED : All of our fact-checks about Texas
|
3,921 | 4 |
Says for the first time in the history of the United States, the government cut taxes during wartime
|
July 6, 2011
|
afghanistan;bush administration;corrections and updates;iraq;taxes
|
cory booker
|
Cory Booker is a senator from New Jersey. He was first elected to the Senate in 2013, making him the first African-American senator from New Jersey and the first African-American elected to the Senate since Barack Obama in 2004. Booker served as mayor of Newark from 2006 until 2013. He has a bachelor's degree in political science and a master’s degree in sociology from Stanford University, an honors degree in United States history from The Queens College as a Rhodes Scholar and a J.D. from Yale Law School. In 2019, he ran for the Democratic nomination for president and suspended his campaign in January 2020.
|
new jersey
| 10 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
an interview on NPR’s “Tell Me More” with Michel Martin
|
Since the start of the "war of terrorism," taxes have only gone down -- first under Bush, then under Obama. We rate Booker’s statement . To comment on this ruling, go to NJ.com . CORRECTION: This item has been updated to reflect that the economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama included hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks, not hundreds of millions.
|
13,843 | 4 |
The soda tax can make a difference by reducing consumption of unhealthy soda pop and sugary beverages.
|
September 18, 2017
|
health care;medicaid;public health;taxes
|
michael bloomberg
|
Michael Bloomberg was mayor of New York City from 2002 to 2013. The billionaire co-founded Bloomberg LP, a financial information and media company, in 1981. On Nov. 24, 2019, he announced his candidacy for the 2020 Democratic nomination for president and dropped out on March 4, 2020.
|
illinois
| 7 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
a website
|
Bloomberg said Cook County’s sweetened beverage tax can bring health benefits by "reducing consumption of unhealthy soda pop and sugary beverages." Cook County is only the sixth jurisdiction in the U.S. to enact a sweetened drink tax since Berkeley, Calif., enacted the first one in March 2015. That means there’s been very little formal research on their effects, which makes proving or disproving Bloomberg’s difficult. Academic research in Berkeley and on Mexico’s soda tax has shown declines in sales, however. Anecdotal from tax opponents in Illinois appears to show the same here, as does a recent marketing report in Philadelphia. Studies using modeling schemes to project health outcomes based on reduced consumption also tilt in Bloomberg’s favor. Cook County’s soda tax may not survive long enough to become part of the extended field study needed to judge the health effects of similar efforts nationwide. But there’s enough out there to rate Bloomberg’s statement .
|
18,517 | 0 |
Joe Biden's eyes were black during the debate because he was wearing Mojo Vision lenses.
|
September 30, 2020
|
technology;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
|
However, the first version of the lens "will most likely be a base model containing a core set of features for people with vision impairments," according to Fast Company. More importantly for this fact check: the Mojo Vision said they wouldn’t be ready for two to three years. We rate this ! This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here , for more.
|
7,290 | 3 |
Says proponents of a bond package for the Austin school district say the district has the second-lowest bond tax rate "among the Central Texas area school districts.
|
April 28, 2013
|
education;taxes
|
league of women voters of the austin area
|
The League of Women Voters of the Austin Area is a nonpartisan group that doesn't support or oppose any candidate or cause. It publishes voter guides describing ballot issues and presenting information about candidates for elected office.
|
texas
| 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a Voters Guide
|
Bond proponents say the Austin school district has the second-lowest bond tax rate "among the Central Texas area school districts." Austin’s debt or bond rate is lower than the rates in most of about 30 Austin-area districts. But seven districts have lower rates--and while we'd agree these small, rural districts should rarely rate direct comparison to the larger Austin district, they are indisputably in Central Texas. (President Johnson would guffaw at the notion that Johnson City is anywhere else.) We rate this partly accurate as .
|
7,753 | 4 |
Says there's a "100-year-old international norm not to use chemical weapons.
|
September 2, 2013
|
corrections and updates;history;human rights;foreign policy;military
|
debbie wasserman schultz
|
Debbie Wasserman Schultz became the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee in 2011 and resigned in July 2016. The Florida Democrat was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2004 after serving in the state senate. She represents Congressional District 23 in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
|
national
| 6 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 3 |
a CNN interview
|
Wasserman Schultz mentioned on CNN a "100-year-old international norm not to use chemical weapons." An international peace conference at The Hague before World War I did take up the use of chemical weapons, limiting their use between world powers more than 100 years ago. But disagreement about whether their use was humane led the American representative to hold out. Backlash after atrocities during World War I led to even broader international condemnation in 1925, nearly 90 years ago. Yet there weren't votes in the U.S. Senate to ratify that agreement until the 1970s. Now most of the world agrees such weapons ought to be eliminated entirely. But it was a long slog to get there. World powers did reach some international agreement against chemical weapons more than 100 years ago, though the context requires some clarification. We rate Wasserman Schultz’s . CLARIFICATION: This article was updated to reflect that though gas projectiles hadn't been fully developed for practical use at the time of the Hague Declaration, some use of chemicals as weapons predated the 1899 agreement. Also, Syria didn't ratify the Geneva Protocol until 1968.
|
14,470 | 2 |
Paul Ryan has blocked all action to strengthen our gun laws.
|
March 13, 2018
|
government regulation;guns
|
giffords
|
Giffords is a section 501(c)(4) issue advocacy organization, and Giffords PAC is a federal political committee. The organization which fights gun violence is named for former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona. Giffords was originally a registered Republican and later elected as a Democrat. She served in Congress from 2006 to 2012. On Jan. 8, 2011, Giffords was shot while meeting with constituents in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona. The shooter killed six people and wounded 13 others.
|
wisconsin
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
an ad
|
The anti-gun violence political action committee cited a dozen gun-control measures that didn’t get to a vote in the House. So, it’s clear that Ryan did not move to bring those measures to the floor. But that’s not the same as Ryan himself blocking the measures, given that other lawmakers, such as committee chairs, also have such power. Also, a bill that would strengthen background checks did pass the House -- although it also expanded gun rights, by making it legal for licensed concealed carry holders to bring guns across state lines. We rate the statement .
|
8,085 | 5 |
Nearly 20% of our residents" are born abroad.
|
November 8, 2013
|
immigration;city government;families;race and ethnicity;population
|
city of austin
|
Austin, the capital of Texas, is a city in Central Texas.
|
texas
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
a press release
|
A City of Austin official said, "Nearly 20 percent of our residents" are born abroad. Such residents made up 19.3 percent of the city’s population in the 2007-11 period covered by a federal survey. We rate the statement as . – 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.
|
15,065 | 0 |
White House 'Resistance' mole a fake – NY Times admits they were trolled
|
September 7, 2018
|
fake news;facebook fact-checks
|
bloggers
|
Blog posting on the Internet
| null | 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 |
a blog post
|
The New York Times does not have an editor with that name. While the America’s Last Line of Defense websites call themselves satire , TheLibertyNews.us did not include a disclaimer on its home page or on the story. We’ve fact-checked other stories featuring Art Tubolls — recently he’s appeared as Michael Jordan’s spokesman and as the CEO of Comedy Central. He’s neither, and he’s not the author of the op-ed, either. We rate this !
|
4,019 | 1 |
Says opponent David Dewhurst is a "career politician.
|
July 19, 2011
|
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 |
a campaign statement
|
Of Dewhurst, McCarty said a dozen years in politics "for somebody that age doesn’t strike me as your typical career politician." In contrast, he said, a Dewhurst predecessor as lieutenant governor, Bob Bullock, started in politics as a young man and was absolutely a career politician. Our take: Dewhurst may be into his second (or third or fourth) career. But he’s held office less than a third of his adult life. We rate Leppert’s statement .
|
12,562 | 1 |
Says allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances on a female sheriff's deputy "were found by two separate judges to not have merit.
|
August 22, 2016
|
legal issues
|
scott jones
|
Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones is the Republican challenger in California's 7th District Congressional race.
|
california
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
a radio interview
|
Republican congressional candidate Scott Jones recently claimed that allegations he made unwanted sexual advances on a young, female sheriff’s deputy "were found by two separate judges to not have merit." News coverage, including a Sacramento Bee fact check, found the allegations by the deputy never advanced to trial for procedural reasons. It also found there’s no in the court record that a judgement was made on the merits of the claims. A spokesman for the Jones campaign acknowledged that no judge has ever stated in court that the claims had no merit. Without any to point to, Jones and his campaign ask the public to make a leap of faith about the candidate’s , and interpret what the judges might have been thinking. We can’t make that assumption. We rate Jones’ statement . – The statement is not accurate. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/df361b33-c638-481c-9e11-a3976a2bce3a
|
8,288 | 1 |
In 1916, the U.S. government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees would need to be cut down.
|
January 16, 2014
|
drugs;marijuana
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
|
national
| 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a graphic on the Internet
|
The Facebook post said that "in 1916, the U.S. government predicted that by the 1940s all paper would come from hemp and that no more trees would need to be cut down." The most plausible source for this -- Bulletin 404 -- is silent on this , and neither our own research nor any of the dozen experts we asked was able to come up with a definitive source. As with all claims of this type, it’s impossible to prove a negative, so we are willing to re-rate this if credible emerges. However, our best efforts have turned up nothing more than a puff of smoke. Since the is unsupported, we rate it .
|
9,944 | 2 |
92 million Americans aren't working.
|
February 8, 2015
|
economy;jobs
|
ted cruz
|
Ted Cruz is a U.S. Senator from Texas, first elected in 2012. Cruz also was a candidate for president of the United States in 2016. He is the former solicitor general for the state of Texas, previously serving as the director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a domestic policy advisor on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign, according to his campaign biography.
|
national
| 8 | 22 | 21 | 48 | 47 | 11 |
an interview on CNN's "State of the Union"
|
Cruz said that "92 million Americans aren't working." Once you strip out senior citizens and school-age Americans, the number is less than half that. The statement contains some element of but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, so we rate it . UPDATED, Feb. 11, 2015 : After this fact-check was published, Cruz’s office got back to PolitiFact with sourcing for the statistic. The statistic, they said, came from the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- Table A-1 , for the total civilian, non-institutionalized population not in labor force, seasonally adjusted, for January 2015. The total for that month was 92.5 million. Spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said that Cruz was "relying on objective federal labor statistics" in making his statement. However, our fact-check didn’t question the veracity of the BLS statistics – only their relevance to Cruz’s point. We continue to believe the statistic includes Americans too young and too old to be expected to work, and we stand by our rating of .
|
22,071 | 3 |
Val Demings "voted to allow transgender youth sports and teaching radical gender identity without parental consent.
|
September 14, 2022
|
children;education;sports;ad watch
|
marco rubio
|
Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, was a candidate for president of the United States in 2016 and then dropped out and won re-election to the Senate. He was first elected to the Senate in 2010 and took office Jan. 5, 2011. Rubio served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008 and is a former Speaker of the Florida House. He served on the West Miami City Commission from 1998 to 2000. He is from Miami and holds a law degree from the University of Miami.
|
florida
| 21 | 38 | 35 | 41 | 30 | 5 |
an ad
|
Rubio said Demings "voted to allow transgender youth sports and teaching radical gender identity without parental consent." Demings supported the Equality Act, which would have allowed students nationwide to compete on sports teams based on their gender identity rather than their sex asssigned at birth. The majority of states allow transgender athletes to play college and high school sports. The Equality Act did not address school curriculum. We rate Rubio’s statement . RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 election campaigns RELATED: Marco Rubio’s PolitiFact file RELATED: Val Demings’ PolitiFact file
|
10,094 | 2 |
Obama has been sending taxpayer dollars, at least $350,000 to fund anti-Likud, anti-Netanyahu groups in Israel for (the) election.
|
March 16, 2015
|
israel;foreign policy;punditfact
|
bloggers
|
Blog posting on the Internet
| null | 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 |
a blog post
|
A conservative blog claimed, "Obama has been sending taxpayer dollars, at least $350,000 to fund anti-Likud, anti Netanyahu groups in Israel for tomorrow’s election." First, there is the matter of the dollar amount. If any U.S. money was used to mobilize anti-Likud voters, it would have been in Israel. A more accurate figure would be $233,500. Next, there is a matter of the blog’s tense. "Has been sending" says the action is continuing. In this case, the money stopped flowing in 2014, before elections were called in Israel. Finally, the allegation that the money was spent to fund anti-Likud, anti-Netanyahu groups in Israel for the election is based on speculation. Yes, Obama sent money to OneVoice, a group that promoted a two-state solution. And yes that group partnered with a different group V15 that wanted Netanyahu defeated. But there is no paper trail that the money given to OneVoice was spent on an electoral ground game. It would be naive to ignore that OneVoice’s policy positions mesh well with V15’s voter mobilization, but that’s different from saying that American taxpayer dollars were spent by V15. That may change as more comes to light. PunditFact’s rulings are based on when a statement was made and on the information available at that time. This rates .
|
19,920 | 1 |
The Second Amendment, from the day it was passed, limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own.
|
June 23, 2021
|
history;guns
|
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.
|
national
| 25 | 64 | 65 | 52 | 55 | 7 |
a White House announcement
|
Biden said that from the start, the Second Amendment "limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own." The Second Amendment limited government power, not the rights of individuals. Laws at the time that limited firearm ownership were primarily racist, aimed at controlling Black people and Native Americans. Broadly, gun regulation came decades after passage of the Second Amendment when gun technology changed. The first national gun regulation law did not rely on the Second Amendment. We rate Biden’s .
|
16,975 | 0 |
Says a video shows the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant.
|
January 26, 2020
|
transportation;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
|
and it was real low. I saw it falling and spluttering. But it was hard to make out, as it was so foggy," he said. According to the Times, the helicopter vanished into a cloud of fog and there was a boom. We rate this video .
|
6,763 | 1 |
Says Texas economy is about 30 percent larger than Australia's.
|
November 23, 2012
|
economy;states
|
larry kilgore
|
Since 2004, Larry Kilgore of Arlington has run as a pro-secession candidate for Texas offices including governor and U.S. senator.
|
texas
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
a New York Times news story
|
Kilgore said Texas’ economy is 30 percent larger than Australia’s, but that was based on mismatched, outdated figures. We rate his statement as .
|
14,472 | 4 |
There are only 18 minutes of total action in an average baseball game.
|
April 5, 2018
|
baseball;punditfact
|
snapple
|
Snapple is a national company that sells iced-tea-based beverages.
| null | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a bottle cap
|
The Snapple cap said, "There are only 18 minutes of total action in an average baseball game." One credible study found just shy of 18 minutes of action, while another study was close, finding 14 minutes. That said, the number of stopwatched games is low due to the difficulty of the task -- only a half-dozen or so that we could find -- meaning that it’s hard to rule out a skewed statistical sample. So we’ll be cautious and rate the statement .
|
12,477 | 1 |
10 cents on the dollar from the Clinton Foundation goes to charitable causes.
|
October 4, 2016
|
candidate biography
|
mike pence
|
Mike Pence is the former vice president of the United States. A Republican, Pence was elected governor of Indiana in 2012. Pence previously served for 12 years as a congressman from Indiana representing the Sixth Congressional District; he was first elected in 2000. During his time in the U.S. House of Represenatives, he served as House Republican Conference chairman and chairman of the House Republican Study Committee. Pence was born in Columbus, Ind. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1981 from Hanover College and a law degree in 1986 from Indiana University. After accepting Donald Trump's offer to be running mate, Pence ended his 2016 campaign to be re-elected as Indiana governor.
|
national
| 5 | 7 | 21 | 12 | 25 | 2 |
the vice presidential debate
|
Pence said 10 cents on every dollar from the Clinton Foundation goes to charitable causes. While it’s that the foundation gives away in grants a small fraction of its resources, about 87 percent of its expenses go toward services it provides directly. A leading expert in the finances of philanthropies, Mittendorf, says that while the Clinton Foundation calls itself a foundation, it operates like a public charity. Mittendorf cautioned that while the dollar amounts are clear and verified, that is no guarantee that the programs are effective and efficient. However, that is not the criticism Pence raised. We rate this . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/bf107795-1430-4e2d-be85-14f85d34477a
|
309 | 3 |
(Romney's) record was that he raised taxes by $730-million.
|
January 30, 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 |
Simi Valley, Calif
|
That puts the total at $637-million. Other estimates on the fees — $500-million, according to the Cato Institute — would put the total well above $730-million. The elimination of corporate tax "loopholes" clearly resulted in some businesses paying more taxes and to those businesses, fair or not, it sure must have felt like a tax increase. As for fees, it's nearly impossible to measure with precision how much of the increases were appropriate or simply a revenue-generating measure. We rate the .
|
19,747 | 1 |
Says Don Lemon's show has been canceled and he is leaving CNN.
|
May 16, 2021
|
facebook fact-checks
|
youtube videos
|
Videos uploaded to YouTube.
| null | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 19 | 10 |
a YouTube video
|
Social media posts that Don Lemon’s CNN show was canceled and that he is leaving CNN. After a seven-year run, Lemon’s show, "CNN Tonight with Don Lemon," was renamed, not canceled, and Lemon confirmed that he isn’t leaving the network. He was broadcasting again the following week. We rate this .
|
8,603 | 5 |
Georgia has recovered more than $60 million that was lost to Medicaid fraud
|
March 20, 2014
|
medicaid
|
edward lindsey
|
Ed Lindsey, a Republican, was a candidate for the U.S. House 11th District seat in Georgia.
|
georgia
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
press release
|
What’s generally considered the most credible look at the issue came from the respected Institute of Medicine in 2012. The institute’s analysis of 2009 data found that the nation spends $2.6 trillion each year on health care -- including Medicaid and Medicare -- and likely loses $75 billion a year to fraud. Our conclusion: Georgia has submitted documentation to the feds that it has recovered $159.4 million lost to Medicaid fraud in three years in both federal and state money. Lindsey was very conservative in saying the amount recouped was "more than $60 million." We rate Lindsey’s statement .
|
16,583 | 1 |
Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania actually in the latest jobs data have lost jobs, not gained them.
|
October 15, 2019
|
economy;jobs;pennsylvania
|
julián castro
|
Julián Castro is a former U.S. secretary of Housing & Urban Development. He was the youngest member of Barack Obama’s cabinet, serving from 2014 to 2017. Just before he became secretary of HUD, he was the mayor of San Antonio, elected in 2009. Castro received a bachelor’s degree in political science and communications from Stanford University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. In 2019, he announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for president and dropped out on Jan. 2, 2020.
|
national
| 6 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
a debate
|
Castro said, "Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania actually in the latest jobs data have lost jobs." Official government figures show that each state gained jobs between July 2019 and August 2019, the latest month-over-month period available. To arrive at his job-loss figure, Castro cherry-picked a time period that he didn’t mention in his remarks — a time period that ignores the existence of the most current data. His assertion that employment levels have been crumbling in these states is belied by data showing that each state has seen job gains both in the past year and since Trump took office. We rate the statement .
|
22,574 | 2 |
Joe Biden's war on American energy caused this crisis and his only response has been to drain our strategic petroleum reserve to its lowest level since 1983.
|
January 12, 2023
|
gas prices
|
richard hudson
|
Richard Hudson is a Republican Congressman representing North Carolina's 8th District.
|
north carolina
| 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
a tweet
|
Referring to the U.S. fuel situation, Hudson said Biden "caused this crisis and his only response has been to drain our strategic petroleum reserve to its lowest level since 1983." Hudson is right that the Biden administration ordered oil released from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve, and that the stock is at its lowest level in 40 years. However, it’s to say that Biden alone caused an energy crisis or to suggest that the administration has done nothing to address oil and gas prices. We rate Hudson’s tweet .
|
9,322 | 1 |
Says Rick Scott has "teamed up with a felon convicted of running a Ponzi scheme to smear Charlie Crist.
|
August 17, 2014
|
campaign finance;crime
|
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 |
a TV ad
|
Crist’s TV ad says Rick Scott has "teamed up with a felon convicted of running a Ponzi scheme to smear Charlie Crist with attacks." This ad is vague and confusing. Scott hasn’t teamed up with Ponzi schemer Rothstein -- he was arrested in December 2009 and Scott entered his first race for governor in April 2010. The only kind of teaming up that happened is that the Republican Party of Florida made a TV ad attacking Crist for his connections to Rothstein in an ad that PolitiFact Florida rated . Teaming up implies that Scott and Rothstein are in cahoots, and we’re not aware of any that they crossed paths. When Scott announced his first campaign in April 2010, Rothstein had already been arrested and was awaiting sentencing. We rate this .
|
19,302 | 5 |
There is a direct connection between discriminatory policies within the USDA and the enormous land loss we have seen among Black farmers over the past century.
|
February 9, 2021
|
civil rights;economy;legal issues;race and ethnicity
|
cory booker
|
Cory Booker is a senator from New Jersey. He was first elected to the Senate in 2013, making him the first African-American senator from New Jersey and the first African-American elected to the Senate since Barack Obama in 2004. Booker served as mayor of Newark from 2006 until 2013. He has a bachelor's degree in political science and a master’s degree in sociology from Stanford University, an honors degree in United States history from The Queens College as a Rhodes Scholar and a J.D. from Yale Law School. In 2019, he ran for the Democratic nomination for president and suspended his campaign in January 2020.
| null | 10 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
a statement
|
A distrust of the legal system has contributed to farms being transferred from one generation to the other without a will, said a post from the Heirs’ Property Retention Coalition, formed in 2006 to help low-income African Americans deal with issues related to heirs’ property. Booker said, "there is a direct connection between discriminatory policies within the USDA and the enormous land loss we have seen among Black farmers over the past century." Booker’s is supported by findings in USDA reports, legal settlements between the department and Black farmers and expert opinion. Booker’s is accurate. We rate it .
|
14,951 | 4 |
Says Rick Scott "cut $700 million from water management.
|
August 5, 2018
|
environment;state budget;water
|
florida democratic party
|
the Florida affiliate of the Democratic Party.
|
florida
| 4 | 7 | 10 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
a tweet
|
The Florida Democratic Party tweeted that Scott "cut $700 million from water management." The budgets of Florida’s five water management districts were collectively cut by over $700 million about a year into Scott’s first term. Since the governor has the final say over the water management districts’ budgets, the tweet is largely accurate. However, in the years since 2012, the districts’ budgets have started to rise again. The overall budget of the five districts is no longer $700 million less than the pre-Scott budget. We rate this statement .
|
13,769 | 5 |
No court has held (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) unconstitutional.
|
September 6, 2017
|
immigration;homeland security
|
eric schneiderman
|
Eric Schneiderman is the state Attorney General of New York. He is a Democrat and former member of the State Senate.
|
national
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
an interview on The Rachel Maddow Show
|
Schneiderman said, "No court has held (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) unconstitutional." While there is debate on the constitutionality of DACA, that has not been determined by courts. We rate Schneiderman’s statement .
|
7,548 | 2 |
Most Americans want "traditional marriage," as defined by the Defense of Marriage Act.
|
June 27, 2013
|
families;lgbtq
|
bill johnson
|
Bill Johnson is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Ohio's 6th Congressional District. His district covers all or part of 12 counties from Mahoning County in Eastern Ohio and stretching along the Ohio River to the southernmost part of the state.
|
ohio
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
a news release
|
Still, attitudes are a-changin’, to borrow a Bob Dylan line from another era of social shifts. Johnson would have been correct in 2004 and 2006, when voters throughout the country passed state constitutional bans on gay marriage. But in 2013, his statement has only an element of . It is dated. His rates .
|
10,969 | 1 |
Drinking champagne could help prevent Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia.
|
November 9, 2015
|
alcohol;health care;medicare
|
viral media reports
|
this is for facebook post and twitter feeds
|
georgia
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
print
|
Social media recently resurrected an old study Stories were posted suggesting that drinking champagne could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. The study is from 2013, not new, as some posts suggested. It was based on testing in a small group of rats, which the National Health Service in Britain says would need to be repeated in a larger sample. And it still might not have any implications in humans. To imply otherwise is very . We rate the statement .
|
6,071 | 1 |
Says library district would come "at no direct cost to the city budget.
|
July 25, 2012
|
city budget;county budget
|
multnomah county library foundation
|
"The Library Foundation mobilizes private support to enhance Multnomah County Library’s leadership and innovation, helping the library address emerging community needs."
|
oregon
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
a newsletter
|
Still, there doesn’t seem to be any debate that, with things as they are now, the city will ultimately have less money to work with should a library district pass. In the original e-mail, the Library Foundation asserted that the district would come at "no direct cost" to the city budget. It’s , the city would not have to pay for the library directly, but a district would mean the city has $7 million less to work with. The comment was clarified, but it still left many with the impression. We find this statement .
|
4,465 | 3 |
During Sherrod Brown's past decade as a D.C. politician, more than one out of every four jobs that has left America, left from Ohio. ... Sherrod Brown will own these horrendous Ohio job numbers next year.
|
September 28, 2011
|
economy;jobs
|
josh mandel
|
Josh Mandel, a Republican from Lyndhurst, is a Marine veteran who served two tours in Iraq. He served as Ohio treasurer from 2011 to 2019. Before that, he was a state representative from the 17th Ohio House District. He unsuccessfully challenged Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in the 2012 US Senate race. Mandel is running for the GOP nomination for an Ohio U.S. Senate seat in 2022.
|
texas
| 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
a news release
|
BLS data shows that Ohio lost 190,900 of those jobs cited by Aquilino when Brown was a Democrat in a Republican Congress, affording him almost no power. Aquilino backs up the by listing recent laws or policies supported by Brown in the Senate. Yet the effects of most of those policies, whether negative or positive, are yet to come. The , while accurate on the aggregate job losses, leaves out a considerable amount of information -- veering in large part toward -- when saying Brown owns these horrendous numbers. That renders the in its entirety .
|
13,840 | 0 |
Says a photograph shows Seattle Seahawks player Michael Bennett burning the United States flag.
|
September 28, 2017
|
fake news;punditfact
|
vets for trump
|
The Facebook page for www.veteransfordonaldtrump.com.
| null | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
a Facebook post
|
Trump’s feud has led to other claims beyond this one. We previously checked claims that the NFL fined Steelers players $1 million each and that Fox Sports refused to broadcast games " until players respect the flag ." We rated both ! That’s the only thing burning about this , too. For taking an old photo and grossly misrepresenting its content, we rate it !
|
9,774 | 3 |
Site selectors who decide where businesses expand or relocate shun closed shop states like Wisconsin in favor of Right to Work states like Iowa, Indiana and Michigan.
|
December 8, 2014
|
workers
|
wisconsin manufacturers and commerce
|
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce is Wisconsin's largest business group. It says its members include large and small manufacturers, service companies, local chambers of commerce and specialized trade associations. WMC is also a lobbying organization and often gets involved in state political races.
|
wisconsin
| 0 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
an opinion piece
|
"When asked what one thing state government can do to improve Wisconsin’s business climate, 35 percent said reduce taxes, 15 percent said become a Right to Work state and 14 percent said reform employment laws, like harmonizing the state and federal versions of family medical leave," a WMC news release noted. Our rating Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce said: "Site selectors who decide where businesses expand or relocate shun closed shop states like Wisconsin in favor of Right to Work states like Iowa, Indiana and Michigan." There’s anecdotal that some firms screen out states without right to work laws when seeking to expand, and surveys of site selectors say this issue is important. But its far down the list of top concerns for many site selectors, suggesting that "shun" is too strong a term. We rate the .
|
13,483 | 2 |
A national paid leave program "would potentially put into the economy $21 billion dollars annually.
|
May 16, 2017
|
economy;labor;women
|
kirsten gillibrand
|
Kirsten Gillibrand is a senator from New York. Gillibrand was appointed as senator in 2009 to fill Hillary Clinton’s vacated seat, as Clinton became U.S. Secretary of State under Barack Obama. Gillibrand won a special election in 2010 to retain her senate seat and won re-elections in 2012 and 2018. From 2007 to 2009, she served as the representative of New York’s 20th Congressional District. Gillibrand received a bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies from Dartmouth College and a J.D. from UCLA School of Law. In 2019, she ran for the Democratic nomination for president and dropped out in August.
|
new york
| 4 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 |
a speech at a conference
|
Gllibrand said a national paid leave program "would potentially put into the economy $21 billion dollars annually." Researchers say workers would receive at least $20.6 billion in paid leave. But Gillibrand’s ignores the money that would be taken out of the economy to pay for it. The program would be adding money to the same pot it’s being taken from. Her contains an element of but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it .
|
4,006 | 3 |
Recently we have seen our government debt grow by $3.4 trillion during the first 29 months of the Obama administration -- the equivalent of about $4 billion per day.
|
July 17, 2011
|
deficit
|
leonard lance
|
Leonard Lance is a Republican congressman representing New Jersey's 7th district.
|
new jersey
| 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a column
|
Let’s review. Lance correctly stated that government debt held by the public grew by $3.4 trillion during Obama’s tenure. But experts said that while Obama can be blamed for some of that increase, he isn’t responsible for it all. We rate Lance’s statement . To comment on this ruling, go to NJ.com .
|
15,271 | 5 |
Thousands of folks are opening West Virginia E-ZPass accounts.
|
August 27, 2018
|
transportation
|
jim justice
|
Jim Justice is the Republican governor of West Virginia. A businessman, Justice was originally elected as a Democrat.
|
west virginia
| 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
a tweet
|
Justice tweeted that "thousands of folks are opening West Virginia E-ZPass accounts." The E-ZPass authority reported 13,630 new accounts between August 1 and October 15. Prorated to the period covered by Justice’s tweet, that works out to about 5,000, which meets the definition of "thousands." We rate the statement .
|
12,653 | 1 |
When Trump wanted to turn a taxpayer-owned building into an $800 a night hotel, (Congressman Jeff Denham, R-CA) helped broker the deal and bragged about it.
|
October 4, 2016
|
elections
|
dccc
|
Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
|
california
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
a campaign TV advertisement
|
The DCCC advertisement greatly Denham’s role in the process and falsely describes him as helping "broker" the deal. We rate the . – The statement is not accurate. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/64c2aefc-6a2b-4b4d-8e91-5c0c8d0a7b60
|
4,526 | 3 |
Because of Barack Obama the mission in Iraq ended.
|
November 3, 2011
|
iraq
|
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 campaign ad
|
The Obama campaign ad (the original one) said "Because of Barack Obama the mission in Iraq ended." It’s that the president held steadfast to his promises of ordering military leaders to end the war, halting combat operations and finally bringing the remaining troops home. But those benchmarks were put in place by a previous president. Obama, when he took office, could have steered the operation in a different direction, amping up the military force in Iraq or pledging a long-term presence there. But he adhered to the blueprint, including trying to extend the withdrawal deadline. Only when that failed because of the immunity question did Obama announce -- and take credit for -- the full withdrawal. It was a savvy political move maybe, but not a totally forthright statement. Also, the U.S. mission in Iraq will be continued to a large extent by contractors and diplomats. Therefore, we rate it .
|
8,939 | 4 |
In the 1950s and 1960s, "the minimum wage was such that it would lift you out of poverty.
|
May 1, 2014
|
economy;history;income;poverty;welfare
|
jack reed
|
Jack Reed, a former attorney and army officer, is Rhode Island's senior. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 until 1996, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
|
rhode island
| 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate
|
Sen. Jack Reed, lobbying for an increase in the minimum wage, said that in the 1950s and 1960s, "the minimum wage was such that it would lift you out of poverty." We found that during that period, the minimum wage always generated enough income to keep an individual out of poverty. But when it comes to making enough money to support a family -- and Reed made several references to families -- that wasn't always during those two decades. Based on federal data, the minimum wage didn't become high enough to support a two-person family until about 1956 and it wasn't consistently high enough to lift a family of three until 1967. It never covered a family of four, regarded as a typical family size in that era. One might assume that Reed was talking about families, but the statement we're checking isn't specific. Because that statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information, we rate it . (If you have a you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, email us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.)
|
3,730 | 4 |
An iron ore mine in northern Wisconsin could operate for 100 years and generate billion of dollars in economic activity.
|
June 12, 2011
|
jobs
|
wisconsin manufacturers and commerce
|
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce is Wisconsin's largest business group. It says its members include large and small manufacturers, service companies, local chambers of commerce and specialized trade associations. WMC is also a lobbying organization and often gets involved in state political races.
|
wisconsin
| 0 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
a radio ad
|
In short, it’s a complete guess. It’s no surprise the state’s largest business group wants to put the best possible spin on a project that will generate heated debate. Surely, the mine could generate an economic boon to numerous parts of the state. But the leaves out some critical information -- the permits, details of the legislation, and assumptions of the market for steel decades in the future -- as it makes a sweeping about jobs and longevity. We rate the .
|
3,564 | 5 |
The substitute budget now adds in tax breaks and tax deductions for those who buy these prisons.
|
May 2, 2011
|
state budget
|
matt lundy
|
Matt Lundy is a member of the Ohio House of Representatives from the 57th District, which includes a portion of Lorain County.
|
ohio
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a news conference
|
Lundy is correct that the the substitute budget includes tax breaks and tax deductions for those who buy the prisons. There would be no sales tax on the purchase and there are other exclusions for income and commercial taxes. The administration is demanding that local property taxes absolutely be paid, which could yield significant revenue to local governments and schools. And Lundy is correct that the tax breaks and deductions in the budget bill were added in by the House. On the -O-Meter, we rate Lundy’s comment as .
|
18,350 | 1 |
Olive Garden employees are allowed to wear Black Lives Matter masks "but NOT the American flag.
|
August 28, 2020
|
race and ethnicity;patriotism;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
|
"I saw this post on someone’s FB page, is it ?" the person asked . "That is not ," Olive Garden replied on Sept. 10. "Team members may wear either if they choose to do so. " We rate this .
|
2,172 | 3 |
The states that actually have lots of teachers in teacher unions tend to be the states that have done the best in terms of academic success in this country.
|
August 29, 2010
|
education;this week - abc news
|
randi weingarten
|
Randi Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers.
|
national
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
ABC's "This Week"
|
We agree. Weingarten's that states that have lots of teachers in teacher unions tend to be the states that have done the best in terms of academic success is perhaps technically correct -- at least by some measures. But the empirical scientific research on this subject is -- in the words of Burroughs -- "limited, ambiguous and incomplete." Further, there is even less to support the implication that strong unionization is the cause for one state performing better than another. And so we rate Weingarten's .
|
18,956 | 1 |
Masks will kill quite a few people, it's well known that they reduce blood oxygen levels and those with respiratory and cardiac disorders will die.
|
November 30, 2020
|
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
|
Public health experts say it is not that masks reduce blood oxygen levels. The CDC says that people with underlying medical conditions should still wear masks. The post is not factual. We rate it . RELATED : There’s no that wearing standard masks is harmful to your health
|
9,419 | 3 |
Says opponent Mary Burke says she "supports Obamacare unequivocally and wants to expand it.
|
September 18, 2014
|
federal budget;health care;medicaid
|
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 TV ad
|
Walker provided no that Burke has expressed unequivocal support for the Affordable Care Act, and we are not aware of any. At the same time, Burke does back the law and she supports expanding it through making more people eligible for Medicaid. Walker’s statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it . To comment on this item, go to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's web page .
|
11,920 | 2 |
Thanks to (North Carolina's) governor and the legislature, the average teacher salary can barely support a family.
|
June 22, 2016
|
education;families;state budget;workers
|
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.
|
north carolina
| 72 | 76 | 70 | 43 | 31 | 9 |
Raleigh, NC
|
Clinton said the average North Carolina teacher’s salary "can support a family" and placed the blame squarely on Gov. Pat McCrory and Republican legislators. The average teacher salary of just less than $48,000 is higher than what most households around the state make per year. Yet it’s also right around what’s considered the bare minimum "living wage" for a couple with two kids. Clinton, however, muddles the political blame. Average teacher pay did hit its lowest point when Republicans controlled both the governor’s office and General Assembly. Yet the only actual salary cuts happened under Democratic control. And more recently, Republicans have raised teacher pay almost back to pre-recession levels. We rate this . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/af0c5cf5-08de-414b-8ccd-705444c458a8
|
6,689 | 1 |
Wisconsin is the only state that allows parents or guardians to purchase alcohol for their children – regardless of whether that child is seven or 20 years old – at bars and restaurants.
|
November 12, 2012
|
alcohol;public health
|
health first wisconsin
|
In 2011, SmokeFree Wisconsin became Health First Wisconsin. The non-profit organization works to promote nutrition and physical activity, curb tobacco use and prevent alcohol abuse in Wisconsin. The organization continues to work on tobacco prevention and control efforts under the SmokeFree Wisconsin coalition.
|
wisconsin
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
a news release
|
But it doesn’t stand alone. Our rating A health advocacy group pushing to tighten up drinking laws said Wisconsin is "the only state that allows parents or guardians to purchase alcohol for their children – regardless of whether that child is seven or 20 years old – at bars and restaurants." We found less than a handful of states that allow that, but a few others do. So Wisconsin’s law is not unique. We rate the group’s statement .
|
11,589 | 0 |
Statistics show "you are about nine times more likely to be assaulted by a taxi driver" in Austin than a driver for a ride-hailing service.
|
April 10, 2016
|
crime;transportation
|
ellen troxclair
|
Ellen Troxclair, elected in 2014 to represent a Southwest Austin district on the Austin City Council, says she otherwise volunteers in the community and manages a real estate management business.
|
texas
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
a voter forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Austin Area
|
Troxclair said statistics show "you are about nine times more likely to be assaulted by a taxi driver" in Austin than a driver for a ride-hailing service. This shakes out to dividing oranges into apples and getting grapefruits--a notion. Vital data, at the least about the number and length of trips by taxi cabs or ride-hailed vehicles, remains to be seen, making it impossible to definitively say which type of driver or ride more likely risks an assault. It's also worth mention that the chances of assault in either seem very low. This leaves the "nine times" statement and . ! – The statement is not accurate and makes a . Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.
|
10,399 | 2 |
This type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency.
|
June 18, 2015
|
corrections and updates;criminal justice;crime;guns
|
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 |
remarks at the White House
|
Obama said after the church shootings in Charleston that "this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency." The data shows that it clearly happens in other countries, and in at least three of them, there’s that the rate of killings in mass-shooting events occurred at a higher per-capita rate than in the United States between 2000 and 2014. The only partial support for Obama’s is that the per-capita gun-incident fatality rate in the United States does rank in the top one-third of the list of 11 countries studied. On balance, we rate the . EDITOR’S NOTE , June 22, 2015: We heard from several of you regarding Obama's use of the word "frequency," and that frequency could refer to the incidents of mass shootings, not deaths as we examined. Looking at Obama's by incident, the United States has a higher rate of incidents than Finland, Norway and Switzerland. We agree that there is no preferred comparison and each is valid , and we've changed some language in this article to reflect that. We also agree that China has a larger population than the United States, a fact we weren't initially clear about but have since fixed. That said, we are sticking with our rating of , in large measure because of Obama's that "this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries." That is . We know some of you will disagree, and we'll be sure to air out some of your objections in our next reader mailbag.
|
21,900 | 1 |
The public health order Title 42 is "the last tool Border Patrol has to stop the overwhelming flood of illegal immigrants pouring into our country.
|
August 8, 2022
|
immigration;border security;elections;homeland security
|
adam laxalt
|
Adam Laxalt is the 2022 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Nevada. He served as Nevada's attorney general from 2014 to 2018 and ran for governor in 2018. He is the grandson of Paul Laxalt, a prominent Nevada governor and senator.
|
nevada
| 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
a statement
|
That is . Title 42 is not an immigration enforcement tool, despite it in effect limiting entries into the United States during the pandemic. Immigration law had been codified and enforced by Border Patrol agents for decades before the public health policy was invoked in March 2020. Expedited removals, physical barriers and legal consequences for repeated crossers remain available to prevent illegal immigration into the United States. We rate this .
|
20,032 | 1 |
The coronavirus can't be so dangerous because there are no biohazard bins for COVID-19 masks and gloves.
|
July 11, 2020
|
public health;public safety;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
|
The coronavirus spreads almost exclusively through respiratory droplets carried through the air. It does not live or spread on surfaces, so masks and gloves used by the general public to protect against COVID-19 infection aren’t considered medical waste that requires special handling. Health experts say it’s safe to throw away disposable masks used to guard against infection. Gloves are not needed unless a person is cleaning or caring for someone who is sick, and they can be thrown away afterward. We rate this .
|
6,362 | 4 |
Bill Nelson voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor, "who signed a Supreme Court opinion saying Americans do not have an individual right to own firearms.
|
September 4, 2012
|
supreme court;guns
|
national rifle association
|
An advocacy group that fights restrictions on the right to bear arms.
|
florida
| 1 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 4 |
an anti-Nelson mailer
|
The NRA is correct in saying Nelson voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. And many experts see the group’s assertion that she signed an opinion "saying Americans do not have an individual right to own firearms" as fair. We heard lots of agreement from experts about this characterization, though two advocates of gun control said it is over-simplified. Gun-control supporters in particular told us the opinion she signed is not as "anti-gun" as the mailer would have readers believe. What's missing from this attack is the context that Nelson voted to confirm Sotomayor before she signed the opinion in McDonald. That context slightly dulls the connection between Nelson and Sotomayor's position. Overall, we rate this .
|
16,511 | 1 |
Says police are warning shoppers to use wipes to clean their carts over deadly risk of fentanyl residue.
|
May 15, 2019
|
drugs;public health;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 viral Facebook post says police are warning shoppers to use wipes to clean their cart handles to mitigate the risk of overdosing on fentanyl residue. The risk of overdosing from fentanyl residue via the skin is unlikely, medical experts say. As well, the rumor went viral after being mistakenly shared by a police department, which has since apologized and deleted the post. This is not accurate. We rate it .
|
3,893 | 5 |
Fifty-one percent -- that is, a majority of American households -- paid no income tax in 2009. Zero. Zip. Nada.
|
July 7, 2011
|
taxes
|
john cornyn
|
John Cornyn is a U.S. senator from Texas, former Texas attorney general and former justice on the Texas Supreme Court. He earlier served as a Bexar County state district judge.
|
national
| 11 | 4 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 1 |
a Senate floor speech
|
In other words, scoring points on tax policy depends on how you frame the issue. So where does this leave us? A full understanding of U.S. tax policy requires a lot of additional context that Cornyn didn’t supply. Still, at PolitiFact, words matter, and on the specific point Cornyn was making -- that a majority of American households paid no income tax in 2009 -- he not only accurately cited a credible study but also took care to cite a specific year and to explain that he only meant to refer to federal income taxes. So we rate Cornyn’s statement .
|
7,190 | 5 |
Says "A baby in Coos County is two times as likely to be born to a mother who is someone who used tobacco during her pregnancy as is the average baby born in Oregon or the U.S.
|
April 4, 2013
|
county government;public health;taxes
|
caddy mckeown
|
Rep. Caddy McKeown is a Democrat from Coos Bay. She represents House District 9.
|
oregon
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a House floor speech
|
Still, the average is backed up by a hefty Oregon Health Authority document, which reports prenatal tobacco use across the country went from 13.6 percent in 1996 to 10.7 percent in 2005. In Oregon, the percentage of women smoking during pregnancy also dropped during that period, from 17.8 percent to 12.4 percent. The ruling: We can say with certainty that babies born in Coos County are twice as likely to have mothers who smoked during pregnancy than the average baby in Oregon. That also looks to be the case using older or incomplete national averages. We rate the statement .
|
19,413 | 5 |
86% of Americans and 82% of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check.
|
January 22, 2021
|
guns
|
beth wessel-kroeschell
|
Iowa State Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeshell is a Democrat who represents Ames.
|
iowa
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
public comments
|
Wessell-Kroeschell wrote, "86% of Americans and 82% of gun owners support requiring all gun buyers to pass a background check ." The 2019 study she cited in her article compares with both national and Iowa poll results. National polls generally align with her statistic, with an EveryTown for Gun Safety Action Fund-SurveyUSA poll showing 92 percent of Iowa gun owners supported background checks on handguns. The more recent 2020 poll of Iowa voters by the Giffords center showed 79 percent of survey respondents supporting universal background checks. While the numbers aren’t exactly the same in each poll, they show a consistent story of Iowans favoring background checks for gun purchases when surveyed in multiple polls. We rate her as .
|
2,471 | 1 |
Says Kurt Schrader "cast the deciding vote that failed to extend tax cuts for Oregon's middle-class families and small businesses.
|
October 8, 2010
|
taxes
|
scott bruun
|
Scott Bruun is an Oregon state representative running for the 5th Congressional District seat.
See his profile in The Oregonian's Your Government page.
|
oregon
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
an e-mail
|
But that’s not right. Congress is expected to pick the issue up once it reconvenes. There’s been no decision for or against the extension, but, generally, most everybody seems to agree that some piece of the tax cuts will be extended. Bruun is clearly trying to equate a vote for adjournment with a vote not to extend tax cuts, and that’s just not the case. PolitiFact Oregon dubs this . Comment on this item.
|
5,641 | 3 |
Says he "restored prayer and the pledge in our schools.
|
May 9, 2012
|
education;religion
|
jeff wentworth
|
Jeff Wentworth, a state senator from San Antonio, lost his bid for the 2012 Republican nomination for the seat.
|
texas
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
a TV ad
|
Wentworth authored a measure mandating a daily chance for students to pray, though school-led or organized prayers like the ones of his youth remain unconstitutional. Also, Texas lawmakers affirmed the right of students to pray or meditate on their own nearly a decade earlier. Aside from requiring students to be quiet for a minute, the Wentworth-originated law resulted in students reciting the pledge, as his ad says, though it seems like that had was already occurring in some schools. Finally, Wentworth did not personally achieve the touted changes, though he was a key advocate. We rate his .
|
10,626 | 4 |
A "majority in every state favors path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
|
August 6, 2015
|
immigration
|
democratic party of wisconsin
|
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin focuses on advancing state Democratic candidates and related issues.
|
wisconsin
| 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 7 |
a tweet
|
Our rating A "majority in every state favors path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants," the Wisconsin Democratic Party tweeted. There’s recent backing from a respected and independent opinion research outfit for the state-by-state . We found one instance of a contradictory result in a somewhat similarly worded question, and small sample sizes in some states are pretty small. So the finding is not airtight. We rate the .
|
10,166 | 1 |
U.S. police killed more people in just one month than the U.K.'s did in over a century.
|
April 4, 2015
|
punditfact;guns
|
addicting information
|
Addicting Information is a liberal blog.
| null | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
an infographic on the Addicting Info website
|
Addicting Information said that "U.S. police killed more people in just one month than the U.K.’s did in over a century." This comparison was based on an incomplete Wikipedia list. While hard figures for the number of police-related deaths in the United Kingdom over more than a century are impossible to come by, our research shows the comparison is . It’s certainly unproven. That makes it deeply flawed, which means it’s .
|
4,643 | 3 |
In Chile "they have 72 percent of the GDP in savings.
|
November 22, 2011
|
social security
|
newt gingrich
|
Newt Gingrich is a political adviser and author. A former Georgia congressman, Gingrich served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Gingrich sought the GOP nomination for president in 2012.
|
national
| 7 | 11 | 21 | 17 | 15 | 12 |
Washington, D.C
|
Gingrich said that in Chile "they have 72 percent of the GDP in savings." The number is basically right, but Gingrich erred in how he described the statistic. On balance, we rate his statement .
|
6,679 | 5 |
Three thousand felons voted in Rhode Island in 2008.
|
November 13, 2012
|
civil rights;criminal justice;elections;public safety
|
carolyn medeiros
|
Carolyn Mederios is executive director of the Alliance for Safe Communities, a nonprofit Rhode Island organization that monitors criminal justice issues and acts as an advocate for victims of crimes.
|
rhode island
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
a radio interview
|
Medeiros said 3,001 felons voted in Rhode Island in 2008. She accurately cited a number compiled by OpenDoors, which helps released inmates register and kept track of how many voted in 2008. We find her statement . Note: In the beginning of her talk-show appearance, Medeiros said there were "17,606 re-enfranchised voters … that have begun voting since the 2008 election," mixing the numbers of felons eligible to register to vote with those who actually voted. But as she worked through her presentation, she cited the correct number. (To suggest a statement for fact-checking, e-mail us at [email protected] Follow us on Twitter: @politifactri. And comment on our rulings on our PolitiFact Rhode Island Facebook page.)
|
21,116 | 1 |
A video shows "massive explosion as Ukraine destroyed 280 Russian tanks to pieces using U.S. Javelin missiles.
|
March 12, 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
|
After the opening scene of the Facebook video, at the 9-second mark, one person with a Javelin and a man holding binoculars are shown. It’s an image that was first published in an Oct. 17, 2021, story about the Donbass region of Ukraine. The rest of the Facebook video appears to be a mishmash of footage from other sources. For example, at the 2:31 mark, the image that’s used also appeared in a March 8 video about Ukraine by NBC News, at the 29-second mark. We rate the that a video shows a massive explosion as Ukraine destroyed Russian tanks with U.S. Javelin missiles .
|
12,614 | 5 |
We're already bombing seven countries.
|
October 17, 2016
|
afghanistan;history;iraq;foreign policy;military;terrorism
|
jill stein
|
Dr. Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential nominee in 2012 and 2016, is a Massachusetts activist and physician.
|
texas
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Austin
|
Stein said: "We’re already bombing seven countries." We identified seven countries lately bombed by the U.S.: Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Libya. We rate the . – 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.
|
14,261 | 0 |
First NFL team declares bankruptcy over kneeling thugs.
|
February 2, 2018
|
fake news;race and ethnicity;sports;punditfact
|
bloggers
|
Blog posting on the Internet
| null | 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 |
a headline
|
Khan had donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration but has also criticized Trump’s attempt to ban immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries. We emailed the Jaguars’ public relations office and did not get a reply. The protests by NFL players have fueled multiple news stories including that a flight crew took a knee and stranded the New Orleans Saints on an airport runway, and that the NFL fined Pittsburgh Steelers $1 million each for skipping national anthem and that Fox Sports cancelled NFL broadcasts . All of those stories rated , and in this case the that the Jaguars declared bankruptcy over "kneeling thugs" is also made up. We rate this story posted by various bloggers !
|
5,883 | 4 |
Says recent studies indicate that nationally, only 8 percent of white voting-age citizens but 25 percent of African-American voting-age citizens lack government-issued photo IDs.
|
July 10, 2012
|
civil rights;elections;legal issues
|
eric holder
|
Eric H. Holder Jr. was the Attorney General of the United States 2009-2015.
|
texas
| 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Houston
|
Holder’s figures appear to trace to a single national survey taken about six years ago though, far as we can tell, unchallenged since. Other collections of data do not touch on exactly the same points, but most indicate that African Americans are less likely than whites to hold varied kinds of government-issued IDs, with percentages of blacks without such IDs ranging from nearly 4 percent to more than 26 percent and percentages of whites having such an ID ranging from 1 percent to nearly 14 percent. We rate Holder’s as .
|
20,865 | 4 |
Clarence Thomas is about to become the only member of the current Supreme Court who was nominated by a president of one party and confirmed by a Senate controlled by the other party.
|
January 30, 2022
|
congress;supreme court
|
chuck todd
|
Chuck Todd is a political analyst and reporter for NBC and MSNBC.
| null | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
remarks on NBC's "Meet the Press"
|
Todd said, "Clarence Thomas is about to become the only member of the current Supreme Court who was nominated by a president of one party and confirmed by a Senate controlled by the other party." Thomas is the only current member of the Supreme Court to be nominated by a president of one party and confirmed by a Senate of the other. All told, 12 of the 15 successful nominees since 1980 have been nominated by a president of one party and confirmed by a Senate of the same party. However, Todd’s phrasing suggests that Thomas’ status as the only justice confirmed by the opposite party would be new, when it’s actually the case now. We rate the statement .
|
2,096 | 3 |
Since the president became the president, we have lost 3.3 million jobs in the private sector. But you know who's done OK and who's not complaining today? The public sector. We've gained 590,000 public sector jobs.
|
July 6, 2010
|
economy;federal budget
|
steve latourette
|
Steve LaTourette, a Republican, is a former member of the House of Representatives from Ohio's 14th Congressional District. He served from 1995 to 2013.
|
ohio
| 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a speech
|
The distinction for the census is crucial here because it was LaTourette who said that "as a result" of stimulating the economy, the public sector gained 590,000 jobs. The government gained the jobs, but the stimulus had little to do with it. The hiring was planned before Obama became president, as were the rapid-fire census terminations occurring now . By saying there was a cause and effect, LaTourette went off the mark, but he was accurate with his private-sector number, so we rate his . Comment on this item .
|
775 | 5 |
Medicare spends "$15-billion a year on subsidies to insurance companies.
|
October 15, 2008
|
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 |
Hempstead, N.Y
|
The programs tend to have a lower co-payment for prescription drugs and premiums for medical services. "Does some of that stick to their (insurance company) fingers, of course," Antos said. It's Obama's interpretation when he calls the added payments for MA programs insurance company "subsidies" or "giveaways." But Obama is on solid ground when he estimates that the government spends about $15-billion a year extra on the private MA program than on traditional Medicare, particularly as we move forward in coming years. And so we rate his statement .
|
157 | 3 |
My husband has not withheld a single document.
|
November 4, 2007
|
legal issues
|
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 |
Clinton, Iowa
|
To withhold a document, Bill Clinton would have to assert that a document falls under one of those protected categories. However, the former president can take as long as he wishes to review the records, and there's nothing to stop him or his designee from being especially slow about reviewing documents he'd rather not see made public. Even if you don't presume such cynical motives, it's that President Clinton could be making documents available more quickly by speeding up his own review. We're withholding a despite Clinton's technical accuracy because most people who hear her statement will take it to mean the former president isn't holding documents back that could be released, and that's not the whole story. We rate it .
|
1,707 | 2 |
Mexican government officials "hand out brochures showing individuals how they can avoid our Border Patrol, how they can get into our country.
|
May 20, 2010
|
immigration
|
lamar smith
|
Lamar Smith is a Republican congressman from a San Antonio-based district in Texas. He became chairman of the House Judiciary Committee in January 2011.
|
texas
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
an interview with the Fox News Network
|
We found no to support that statement. Also, the congressman's description of the "Guia del Migrante Mexicano" -- that it tells how to avoid the Border Patrol -- was . While two illustrations appear to show migrants in flight from law officers, the text does not contain information on how to avoid law enforcement while crossing over. In fact, it advises cooperation if apprehended. We rate Smith's statement as .
|
13,205 | 2 |
Florida Sheriff: Blacks should learn to act like white people in order to stay alive.
|
April 26, 2015
|
crime;race and ethnicity
|
bloggers
|
Blog posting on the Internet
|
florida
| 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 |
posts on social media
|
A headline that appeared on many websites quoted a Florida sheriff as saying "blacks should learn to act like white people in order to stay alive." The articles include video clips of Escambia Sheriff David Morgan giving a Rotary Club address about black-on-white crime and the local outrage over the shooting of a black man by two white police officers. The stories use real quotes from Morgan, but not the one given most prominence in the headline. We listened to the clips and did not hear Morgan make that particular statement. We rate this .
|
11,319 | 4 |
Malawi has just 300 doctors for 16 million people.
|
February 2, 2016
|
global news service;public health
|
actionaid uk
|
ActionAid UK advocates to reduce poverty and injustice worldwide.
| null | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a tweet
|
ActionAid UK said that Malawi has 300 doctors to treat 16 million people. A current estimate puts that figure closer to 600. And as experts note, the statistic overlooks the clinical officers and medical assistant who play at least as important a role as physicians, especially in Malawi’s rural areas. That said, relative to the size of the population, Malawi suffers from a critical shortage of health care workers -- of any sort. The numbers ActionAid offered might not be perfect. But the broader point the group is making is largely accurate. We rate this .
|
12,375 | 3 |
Says "Marco Rubio wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare because he said they're bankrupting our country.
|
September 14, 2016
|
medicare;social security
|
senate majority pac
|
Senate Majority PAC is a super PAC that works to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate.
|
florida
| 0 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
a TV ad
|
TV ads say that Marco Rubio "wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare because he said they’re bankrupting our country." Rubio has repeatedly said since 2010 that those programs will bankrupt the United States. His plan to raise the retirement age would amount to a cut for those recipients. He supported the Ryan budgets that included reductions in future Medicare spending. The ad omits that his proposals to change Social Security would not affect current retirees or people nearing retirement. We rate this . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/d762ddfa-11ce-492e-a130-d0cff8b7438e
|
7,734 | 4 |
We are about halfway" to the president's goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions and "about half of that is because of the substitution of natural gas for coal in the power sector.
|
August 26, 2013
|
environment;energy
|
ernest moniz
|
Ernest Moniz served in as the associate director for Science in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of President Bill Clinton from 1995 to 1997 and in the U.S. Department of Energy, serving as Under Secretary of Energy, from 1997 to 2001. He joined the faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973, serving as Head of the Department of Physics from 1991 to 1995 and as director of the Bates Linear Accelerator Center. He also co-chairs the MIT research council.
|
national
| 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a question and answer session at Columbia University
|
Moniz said the country is "about halfway" toward the president’s goal of a 17 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to 2005 levels. In terms of carbon dioxide, Moniz is correct, but when looking at all greenhouse gases, data from the EPA suggests the country has a little more progress to make. We rate the statement .
|
21,761 | 1 |
The Atlantic published a story titled "Quiet Courage of Biden's Negative Growth Economy
|
July 30, 2022
|
economy;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
|
A Facebook post shared a fabricated screenshot meant to look like a real article from The Atlantic praising President Biden following news that the United States economy had shrunk. A spokesperson for The Atlantic confirmed the image is a and said the publication does not employ anyone using the name featured in the screenshot, although a person with a similar name is employed as a contributing writer. We rate this .
|
22,740 | 0 |
The White House Visitor Center is displaying a photo of a fake President Joe Biden.
|
March 6, 2023
|
facebook fact-checks
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
a Facebook post
|
But it is the same guy, just 11 years apart. Another image in the post shows a photo of Biden below a portrait of former Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. It appears to come from the White House Visitor Center’s display of presidential portraits, though the White House Historical Association didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s questions about this post. The photo in question is Biden’s official presidential portrait . We rate claims that the White House Visitor Center is displaying a photo of a Biden !
|
7,484 | 5 |
We have one of the most expensive General Assemblies, per capita, in the entire country.
|
June 7, 2013
|
state budget;states;taxes
|
john loughlin
|
John Loughlin is state representative from Tiverton who ran an unsuccessful 2010 campaign for Congress in Rhode Island's 1st District. He owns a television, radio and film production company and served 26 years in the military, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve in 2006. He is married with two daughters.
|
rhode island
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
an appearance on WPRO
|
John Loughlin said Rhode Island has "one of the most expensive General Assemblies, per capita, in the entire country." The National Conference of State Legislatures has consistently ranked Rhode Island as second or third in the United States. The amount paid to run the legislature -- more than $27 million in the 2011 fiscal year -- translates to $26.00 per resident. Even if you remove more than $7 million in expenses that, according to House Speaker Gordon Fox's office, aren't usually in a legislative budget, Rhode Island's ranking only drops to about fifth. Because that still makes Rhode Island's legislative budget "one of the most expensive," we rate Loughlin's statement as . (If you have a you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, e-mail us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.)
|
17,115 | 1 |
Says the United Nations plans to "implant everyone with a biometric ID.
|
February 20, 2020
|
fake news;privacy issues;facebook fact-checks
|
bloggers
|
Blog posting on the Internet
| null | 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 |
a story
|
Since then, biometric technology has been developed to help identify refugee populations (though there have been some concerns about the practice). But the that the UN is planning to implant the world’s population with a microchip ID is far off. We found no mention of implanted microchips in the UN’s goals. Even if UN-backed biometric technology is aimed to expand beyond refugee and immigrant populations, this theory is based on speculation and overblows the facts. We rate it .
|
12,192 | 5 |
Overdosing is now the number one accidental killer in our Commonwealth.
|
August 11, 2016
|
drugs
|
josh shapiro
|
Current Montgomery County Commissioner running for Attorney General of Pennsylvania.
|
pennsylvania
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
a platform on his campaign website
|
Attorney General candidate Josh Shapiro wrote in his campaign platform for fighting the opioid epidemic in Pennsylvania that "Overdosing is now the number one accidental killer in our Commonwealth." Data from The Department of Health, the Center for Disease Control and the several other independent reports shows that overdosing has surpassed car crashes and other accidental causes as the leading accidental cause of death in Pennsylvania. We rate the .
|
13,907 | 3 |
In 2016, there were 5,570 people in Wisconsin "who committed crimes on probation and they were not revoked.
|
October 12, 2017
|
criminal justice;crime
|
leah vukmir
|
Republican Leah Vukmir was elected to the Wisconsin state Senate in 2010, representing a suburban Milwaukee district. She served in the state Assembly from 2002 to 2008. She lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 2018.
|
wisconsin
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 |
an interview
|
Her is partially on target, but goes too far. The 5,570 figure is a state Department of Corrections estimate, not an actual count. And, importantly, it is for the number of people charged with a crime, not convicted. We rate her statement . div class='artembed'>
|
19,785 | 2 |
Gas prices highest in a decade. Worst jobs report in 2 decades. Highest inflation in 3 decades. Highest increase in illegal immigration in 4 decades.
|
May 17, 2021
|
immigration;corrections and updates;economy;gas prices;facebook fact-checks
|
facebook posts
|
Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 |
social media posts
|
The post said, "Gas prices highest in a decade. Worst jobs report in 2 decades. Highest inflation in 3 decades. Highest increase in illegal immigration in 4 decades." Prices for gasoline and for consumer products more generally are indeed spiking as a result of the post-pandemic economic recovery, but not at the historical levels cited in the post. While the April 2021 jobs report was disappointing compared to advance projections, it’s far from the worst ever. By one metric, the immigration is plausible, though final numbers won’t be known until this fall. We rate the statement . RELATED : No, it isn’t clear that unemployment checks are the main reason jobs go unfilled CORRECTION, May 27, 2021 : The text has been updated to correct the figure for jobs lost in April 2020, from 20,000 to 20 million. The 20 million figure only strengthens the argument that April 2021 didn’t see the "worst jobs report in 2 decades." The rating remains the same.
|
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