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I never once asked that (Megyn Kelly) be removed" as a debate moderator.

January 28, 2016

candidate biography;debates

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

an interview on CNN

Trump said, "I never once asked that (Megyn Kelly) be removed" as a debate moderator. This statement greatly downplays Trump’s comments ahead of the debate, even if his absence really had more to do with a mocking Fox News release in the end. Trump mused about skipping the debate because of Kelly for a couple days before that news release. He went so far as to say Kelly "should not be allowed" to moderate, that she "should recuse herself," and she "shouldn’t be in the debate." We rate Trump’s . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/01d87b8c-fc53-4442-ab4a-fa192a82d35f

We have over 25 million people who live in Texas and less than 2 percent of them have" concealed handgun licenses.

February 22, 2011

guns

jeff wentworth

Jeff Wentworth, a state senator from San Antonio, lost his bid for the 2012 Republican nomination for the seat.

texas

a TV interview

We also wondered whether other states had a similarly low percentage of concealed handgun-license holders. According to a fact-sheet posted on the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action’s website in April, 40 states have laws allowing individuals to carry handguns, with Florida issuing more carry permits than any other state — 1.7 million. That’s about 9 percent of Florida’s 18.5 million-large population, according to a 2009 estimate by the Census Bureau. So, 1.8 percent of the Texas population is licensed to carry a concealed handgun. We rate Wentworth’s statement as .

The Russians are violating all of the rules, treaties, understandings that they committed to that actually kept the peace in Europe for nearly 70 years.

November 13, 2019

foreign policy;military;nuclear

william taylor

Ambassador William Taylor is the top American diplomat in Ukraine. A career diplomat and U.S. Army veteran, he has worked in every presidential administration of both parties since 1985.

national

impeachment inquiry testimony

Taylor said, "The Russians are violating all of the rules, treaties, understandings that they committed to that actually kept the peace in Europe for nearly 70 years." Experts told us that "all" is an exaggeration, but that Russia has violated numerous treaties and agreements, including by its invasion and armed aggressions against parts of Ukraine. We rate the statement . 

A McDonald's restaurant in Elkton, Md., was permanently closed "due to a sex trafficking investigation.

April 26, 2021

facebook fact-checks

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

a Facebook post

"It has been brought to our attention of a fictitious Town of Elkton MD Facebook page circulating a story regarding the closure of the McDonald’s Restaurant located at Routes 213/40," the post said. "We thank everyone for their calls and concerns regarding this account and have made the appropriate notifications to FB. "  No one answered when we called the McDonald’s but the location appears on the company’s website and it’s possible to order delivery from that restaurant.  We rate this !

Abortion pills are dangerous and "1 in 5 women will suffer a complication.

March 27, 2023

abortion;public health;facebook fact-checks

alliance defending freedom

Alliance Defending Freedom is a conservative Christian legal organization.

national

a Facebook post

A video from Alliance Defending Freedom claimed abortion pills are dangerous and that "1 in 5 women will have a complication." The statistic appears to be based on a flawed study that experts said misclassified complications. The study’s lead author said the misconstrues the research. More than 100 studies spanning multiple decades have found that medication abortion is safe and effective. We rate this . RELATED: The top claims about abortion, fact-checked

Says Nancy Pelosi "made millions in coronavirus insider trading.

April 2, 2020

financial regulation;government regulation;facebook fact-checks

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

california

a Facebook post

An article widely shared on Facebook claimed Nancy Pelosi "made millions in coronavirus insider trading" over the course of 10 weeks. Her husband, Paul Pelosi, used call options to purchase Amazon stock, and investment that gained about $1.1 million in 10 weeks. The gain on his Facebook investment was about $100,000. But those are paper gains, not actual earnings. Moreover, Paul Pelosi made his purchase roughly two weeks before House members were briefed about the coronavirus outbreak. Lacking any that Nancy Pelosi received inside information about the coronavirus prior to Jan. 29, we rate the statement .

The Baucus health care bill "would drastically restrict the use of flexible spending accounts (FSAs) in order to help pay for health care reform.

October 14, 2009

taxes

save flexible spending plans

Save Flexible Spending Plans is an advocacy organization that opposes restrictions on flexible spending accounts in health care reform efforts. It is sponsored by the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation, a group that promotes the accounts.

national

a news release

Getting back to our statement, the organization Save Flexible Spending Plans said the Senate Finance Committee "would drastically restrict the use of flexible spending accounts (FSAs) in order to help pay for health care reform." Yes, it would restrict them, but even Save Flexible Spending Plans says the new restriction would affect only "one in five" beneficiaries. So this means by the group's own accounting that 80 percent of the people with FSAs would not be affected. That hardly seems drastic. We rate the group's statement .

They were "never my comments" that a woman can't get pregnant from rape.

October 20, 2022

abortion;crime

yesli vega

Yesli Vega, a Prince William County supervisor, is the 2022 Republican nominee for Virginia's 7th Congressional District Seat. She is running against incumbent Democrat Abigail Spanburger. Vega was born in Houston to Salvadoran immigrants and reared in Northern Virginia. She is a graduate of American Military University and worked stints as a law enforcement officer in Virginia with the Alexandia and Manassas Park police departments. She's currently a supervisor and auxillary sheriff in the Prince William County Sheriff's Office. Vega was elected to Prince William County's Board of Supervisors in 2018.  

virginia

an interview

Vega said "those were never my comments," when a TV reporter recently asked her whether she believes a woman can’t get pregnant from rape. She was referring to taped comments she made in the spring when an unknown woman questioned Vega about her abortion views. Vega didn’t say a woman can’t get pregnant from rape. To the contrary, she said during her 11-year career in law enforcement, she knew of one instance where that occurred. But there’s more to this story. Vega also suggested to the unknown woman that women might be less likely to get pregnant from rape "because it's not something that's happening organically. You're forcing it." Such claims have been disproven by research and denounced by medical experts. Vega parsed a reporter’s question and gave a answer. We rate her denial .

Virginia man arrested for having Minecraft worlds that were exact replicas of classified U.S. military bases.

October 28, 2021

fake news;facebook fact-checks

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

a post

(Read more about our partnership with Facebook .) Krakow, who is a reporter at the Anchorage Daily News, wrote on Twitter that the article is fabricated and she did not author it. David Hulen, the editor of the newspaper, told Reuters that the newspaper never wrote or published the article. The image of the article previously has appeared on iFunny.com, where users share memes. We rate this ! 

Before we even passed health care, 4 millions kids got health insurance that didn't have it before, through the Children's Health Insurance Program.

October 27, 2010

families;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

an interview on "The Daily Show."

They show, as we would expect, only a modest increase in the program's enrollment. In ruling on our statement, Obama is correct to credit for signing the Children's Health Insurance Program into law after Bush had vetoed it. But he was exaggerating by using the 4 million estimate prematurely. It will take awhile for the program to reach its projected enrollment. So we rate his statement .

President Obama is shrinking our military.

February 4, 2012

federal budget;military

mitt romney

Mitt Romney is a U.S. senator from Utah. He ran for president in 2012 as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent President Barack Obama. Prior to that, Romney served one term as governor of Massachusetts, elected to the post in 2002. He was born in 1947 in Michigan, where his father was governor from 1963 to 1969. Romney graduated from Brigham Young University and received both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University. Romney helped found the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984, which launched or rebuilt such companies as Staples and Dominos Pizza. Romney managed the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from 1999-2002. He ran for president in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination. He and his wife, Ann, have five sons, Tagg, Craig, Matt, Ben and Josh.

national

Las Vegas, Nev

Romney is right that the military is "shrinking," partly due to a winding down of overseas wars and partly due to congressionally enacted budget limits. But to say, as Romney did, that this is being done by Obama -- without acknowledging Republican actions -- ignores what really happened. A majority of House and Senate Republicans voted for the initial caps in the Budget Control Act, and the supercommittee was evenly divided between the parties, meaning that its failure was bipartisan. So we rate Romney’s statement .

Barack Obama "openly supported (opposition leader) Raila Odinga during his visit to Africa in 2006.

August 1, 2008

foreign policy

jerome r. corsi

Jerome R. Corsi is the author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality. He is a senior staff writer for the conservative news Web site WorldNetDaily.com. In 2004, he co-authored a book attacking Democratic nominee John Kerry, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.

national

his book <i>The Obama Nation</i>.

Instead of opening businesses and engaging in commerce, people come to rely on patronage and payback as a means of advancing. Instead of unifying the country to move forward on solving problems, it divides neighbor from neighbor." Corsi states that Obama "openly supported" Raila Odinga. We found public statements from Obama during the trip saying the exact opposite. We found no other to support Corsi's statement, so we rate his statement .

Obama's approval numbers 'are in the low 40s.'

August 15, 2010

pundits;this week - abc news

matthew dowd

Matthew Dowd is an author and MSNBC analyst. In 2021, he briefly ran for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor of Texas. He served as chief political strategist to Republican President George W. Bush.

national

a roundtable discussion on ABC's "This Week with Christiane Amanpour''

And among the 16 polls from the month prior to the show, the average was, once again, 45 percent. So over the course of the last month, Obama's approval rating in independent, traditional-format polls has consistently averaged approximately 45 percent -- that is, in the mid 40s, rather than the low 40s. However, the two most recent polls -- showing Obama's approval at 42 percent and 43 percent -- are smack in the middle of the low 40s. Whether these poll results are blips or the start of a new downward trend remains to be seen. For now, we'll give Dowd the benefit of the doubt and rate his statement .

Police say thousands of people witnessed a "demonic portal opening above White House.

July 11, 2023

facebook fact-checks

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

a Facebook post

Eventually, the video’s host refers to a December blog post about conservative political consultant Roger Stone claiming that a demonic portal had opened above the White House "around the time the Bidens moved in. "  Stone said he asked a friend who is a police officer in Arlington, Virginia, to investigate the supposed portal and received confirmation that "there’s definitely something there" and that "other people were photographing it." PolitiFact asked a spokesperson for the Arlington County Police Department in Virginia whether the agency had received thousands, or any, reports that a demonic portal had opened above the White House. "We have not received any reports of that nature," spokesperson Ashley Savage said.  We rate this .  

Under Gov. John Kasich's budget proposal, "the top one percent in Ohio will pay $10,000 less in income tax each year, but Ohio's working and middle class families will pay more.

February 19, 2013

state budget;taxes

dan ramos

Dan Ramos is member of the Ohio House of Representatives, elected in 2010 to represent the 56th District. This is his first public office. A Lorain native, Ramos is a graduate of Lorain Admiral King High School and The Ohio State University.

ohio

a news release

The numbers are credible, but Ramos’s statement implies that every working and middle-class family would pay more under the reform. According to the ITEP numbers, 20 percent of Ohioans earn between $51,000 and $78,000 per year, and would begin to see an average yearly savings of about $75. The line between middle- and upper-class incomes is up for debate – not one to be defined absolutely by PolitiFact Ohio – but it’s safe to say that a yearly income of $51,000 is a far cry from upper-class.     Ramos was correct in describing the tax benefit to Ohioans with the highest incomes, but he wrongly implied that all working and middle-class families would take a hit under Kasich’s plan. For that, we rate his statement .

Says he "will protect your guaranteed benefits" in Medicare while "Mitt Romney would take away Medicare as guaranteed benefits.

September 12, 2012

health care;medicare;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

a campaign commercial

In the ad, Obama said he "will protect your guaranteed benefits" in Medicare, while "Mitt Romney would take away Medicare as guaranteed benefits." Obama when he refers to "guaranteed" Medicare benefits under today’s system. Currently, Medicare does "guarantee" a form of health coverage for seniors and, in the shorter term, guarantees specific benefits. But Medicare doesn’t cover everything, and Congress and the president can change what is covered, and will be forced to do so when fiscal pressures hit. Meanwhile, it’s plausible that the Romney plan could provide less of a "guarantee" than Medicare currently does, but we found sharp disagreement between supporters and opponents of Romney’s Medicare plan on that point. This disagreement is hard to resolve given the shortage of information Romney has so far provided. On balance, we rate the .

Says fluid milk production limitations mean grocery stores are short on milk even as farmers are dumping it

April 3, 2020

economy;coronavirus

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

wisconsin

a Facebook post

That is a factor, but it over-simplifies the situation a bit. Disappearing markets for cheese, butter and other dairy products in restaurants play a critical role in the suddenly changing dairy economy as well, experts say. Milk is being dumped not just because it can’t be bottled in the proper way, but because the overall demand for all dairy products is down. And because the forms of butter and cheese needed have changed with people largely confined to their homes. We rate this . 

There would be tens of thousands of jobs created" if President Barack Obama approved the Keystone XL pipeline.

November 6, 2014

environment;jobs;punditfact

anna kooiman

Anna Kooiman is a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend.

a segment on "Fox & Friends"

Kooiman said the Keystone XL pipeline would create "tens of thousands of jobs." A State Department review found the project could support -- not create -- 42,100 jobs. But that number needs considerable explanation and does not amount to tens of thousands of full-time jobs in the most common sense of employment. The figure represents the project’s estimated direct, indirect and induced jobs over two years of construction, and all but 50 are temporary. The State Department and TransCanada have different ways of accounting for jobs needed for the building phase, but neither estimate is in the tens of thousands. And some of the remaining indirect and induced jobs supported by subcontractors and employee spending may already exist, so that’s not exactly jobs creation as much as jobs enhancement. Kooiman’s is based on a seed of but lacks critical information. We rate it .

California Gov. Gavin Newsom "just let 76,000 inmates out of jail.

May 4, 2021

criminal justice;elections;crime

john cox

John Cox is a Republican businessman who lives in San Diego County. He is a candidate in the 2021 election to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He ran and lost in the 2018 race for California governor.

california

a campaign press conference

"  That’s just .  The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation expanded a good behavior and rehabilitation program that will make 76,000 inmates eligible for somewhat shorter sentences. The agency made this move without much public notice, but did so using authority granted under voter-approved Proposition 57.  No one has been released under the expanded program and officials estimate it will be months or years before that happens.  We rate Cox’s statement as .   – The statement is not accurate.

Lindsay Parkhurst wants to take away programs like Social Security and Medicare that seniors have earned throughout their lifetimes.

September 21, 2016

medicare;social security

katherine cloonen

State Rep. Katherine Cloonen, D-Kankakee, represents the 79th District. She has served in the General Assembly since January 2013. 

illinois

a campaign ad

In a campaign ad posted on Facebook, Cloonen said, "Lindsay Parkhurst wants to take away programs like Social Security and Medicare that seniors have earned throughout their lifetimes." With Social Security and Medicare being federal programs, state lawmakers have no say in setting benefit levels for these programs. Additionally, Parkhurst has not previously held elected office and therefore has no public voting record on Social Security or Medicare. Nor has she talked about her position on Medicare or Social Security benefits in her campaign. Ironically, Parkhurst is a defense attorney whose law firm has helped clients obtain Social Security disability benefits. She believes both Social Security and Medicare are part of a contract the federal government must honor. Cloonen’s campaign did not respond to multiple emails and messages for comment, and the articles cited in the ad contain no mention of Parkhurst. There is no to back Cloonen’s , nor can we find any statement or action by Parkhurst that would have, even indirectly, elicited it. We rate Cloonen’s . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/487f0897-a88a-4c8f-a8c5-4d5464447785

Says a video shows Joe Biden boasted in 2006 "about voting for '700 miles of fence'" and "talking about immigration in some entirely different ways than he does today.

January 20, 2021

immigration;candidate biography

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

a Facebook post

A Facebook post says that a video shows Biden boasted in 2006 "about voting for ‘700 miles of fence’" and "talking about immigration in some entirely different ways than he does today." In the 2006 video clip, Biden did talk about voting for a 700-mile fence. He said he made the vote mainly to fight drug trafficking, not illegal immigration, but the 2006 Secure Fence Act was squarely aimed at stemming illegal immigration along the southern border. Biden in 2006 supported a variety of measures to fight illegal immigration much as he does today, including addressing root causes that lead people to flee their homes south of the U.S.-Mexico border for the United States. In that respect, Biden’s position is not so different. The post is partially accurate but leaves out important details — our definition of .

El Paso is the "safest city in the state of Texas, safest city in the United States.

March 31, 2017

city government;crime

beto o'rourke

Beto O’Rourke is a former representative of Texas’s 16th Congressional District. He represented the district from 2013 until 2019, when he gave up his seat to run a senate campaign against incumbent Ted Cruz, which O’Rourke lost. He received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Columbia University. In 2019, he ran for the Democratic nomination for president.

texas

a U.S. Senate campaign speech

O’Rourke said El Paso is the "safest city in the state of Texas, safest city in the United States." This declaration ties to disputed CQ Press rankings, rooted in FBI-published statistics, that appear annually despite the FBI’s advice against using its data to compare communities. The cited rankings also didn't consider every Texas burg nor did they account for differences in population density. We rate O’Rourke’s . – 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.

Says "Portland has higher standards than feds on allowed police use of force.

September 25, 2012

city government

sam adams

Sam Adams is the mayor of Portland. Before that he was a city commissioner and , for 11 years, was chief of staff to then-Mayor Vera Katz.

oregon

a tweet

But the policy also adds these two pieces of direction: 1) "It is the policy of the Bureau to accomplish its mission as effectively as possible with as little reliance on force as practical." 2) "The Bureau expects members to develop and display, over the course of their practice of law enforcement, the skills and abilities that allow them to regularly resolve confrontations without resorting to the higher levels of allowable force." Yin described this text as more "aspirational text, rather than any sort of legal requirement" but said he felt the mayor’s characterization was accurate. We agree with Yin. We rate this .

Says Sen. Bill Nelson is a socialist.

September 19, 2018

congress;government regulation;taxes

rick scott

Rick Scott, a wealthy Florida businessman, was first elected Florida's 45th governor on Nov. 2, 2010 and re-elected Nov. 4, 2014. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018 and is running for re-election in 2024.

florida

a campaign appearance

Scott’s description of Nelson as a "socialist" is an red scare tactic. The definition of socialism is a government takeover of production, and Nelson hasn’t called for that. Scott’s campaign pointed to Nelson’s support for Gillum, the Democrat running to the left of Nelson in the governor’s race. While Nelson has shown enthusiasm for Gillum, they are not lockstep on all issues. Gillum has called for abolishing ICE and Medicare for All, and Nelson has said he does not agree. Nelson’s criticism of the Republican tax bill isn’t the same as calling for higher taxes in general. And supporting an expansion of Medicaid is not the same as calling for government-run health care. We rate this .

One would have to go back more than a century to find a scenario where a president's nominee for the Supreme Court was confirmed by the opposition party in the Senate when the vacancy occurred during an election year.

February 22, 2016

supreme court

jeff flake

Jeff Flake, a Republican, represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate. He was elected to the Senate in 2012, after serving in the U.S. House.

arizona

a statement

Flake said, "One would have to go back more than a century to find a scenario where a president’s nominee for the Supreme Court was confirmed by the opposition party in the Senate when the vacancy occurred during an election year." He’s right. Flake’s carefully crafted statement rules out potential exceptions, such as Justice Kennedy’s 1988 election year confirmation, but 1987 nomination, or the 1950s case with President Eisenhower and a Democratic Senate in adjournment when a Supreme Court vacancy came up a month before the November election. This seems to be because a vacancy just hasn’t happened to occur under these circumstances. We rate Flake’s as .

In 2010, Betty Sutton "voted to destroy Medicare.

July 30, 2012

health care;medicare

national republican congressional committee

National Republican Congressional Committee

ohio

a news release

In fairness, both parties play this game. Sutton falsely accused her Republican opponent, Rep. Jim Renacci, of voting to "end Medicare" because he supported Republican budgets that would privatize the program and provide vouchers. PolitiFact Ohio gave Sutton a on the -O-Meter for making the . That doesn’t make the GOP against her any more accurate. On the -O-Meter, the NRCC rates .

Exporters are using a federal loophole to "deceptively sell products made from cat and dog fur" to U.S. consumers.

July 28, 2010

trade

hank johnson

Hank Johnson, a Democrat, represents Georgia's 4th Congressional District

georgia

a statement

The resolution unanimously passed the House of Representatives on July 28. Johnson was one of 170 sponsors. It has not gone before the U.S. Senate. Johnson's comments caught us off-guard, but the issue of cats and dogs being used as fur and their inhumane treatment is a problem. We rate his statement on the issue as .

Says murder is the chief cause of death for pregnant women.

December 6, 2011

crime;women

kyleen wright

Kyleen Wright, the mother of four boys, says that she is a past president of Greater Tarrant Right to Life. She calls the Texans for Life Coalition the largest pro-life group in the state.

texas

a Twitter message

For such women in 2008, the latest year of available data, homicide ranked behind motor vehicle accidents, poisonings, malignant tumors, suicides, poisonings and heart disease among causes of death, our check of a CDC database indicates. We’re ready to rule. The Palladino study, suggesting more pregnant and postpartum women die from murder than any single medical complication, gives Wright’s an element of . But murder trails medical complications combined as a cause of death and it’s also behind vehicle wrecks. Wright’s statement is .

Every family health insurance policy has "a $900 hidden tax" to subsidize health care costs of the uninsured.

April 29, 2008

health care

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

South Bend, Ind

“Or some woman... that just gets diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis." “I don’t mind doing it,” O’Reilly said. Clinton’s point was that, to an extent, family health policy holders already are shouldering some of the burden for the uninsured. There may be some debate about whether the number is exactly $900 a year, as she stated, but several health policy experts agreed that she’s at least close. We rate her statement .  

Says if Congress doesn't avoid the sequester, "tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids.

February 19, 2013

bipartisanship;children;congress;corrections and updates;debt;deficit;families;federal budget

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

Washington, D.C

The president warned that if Congress didn’t take action, "tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find child care for their kids." The sequester does hit two big programs that affect parents’ child care or their need for it — a subsidy program and the early childhood education program Head Start. The government estimates up to 100,000 kids would be affected. But neither the White House nor HHS has provided sufficient to establish the number of kids whose parents would need to find other child care. Parents might be able to keep their subsidized child care with lower subsidies or higher co-pays. In the case of Head Start, it’s not clear how many of the affected kids would lose spots in the types of programs that might leave their parents in a child-care lurch. Between the two, "tens of thousands" is plausible, but unproven. We rate the .  

The State Capitol Police "recommended" banning guns at the Capitol.

January 10, 2020

public safety;guns

virginia house democratic caucus

The House Democratic Caucus consists of the 32 Democrats in the 100-member Virginia House of Delegates. Its chairman is Del. Scott Surovell, D-Fairfax.

virginia

a committee meeting

House Democratic leaders (Filler-Corn, Herring and Simon) said four times they were imposing a gun ban at the Capitol at the "recommendation" of the Capitol Police. But Pike, the chief of the Capitol Police, says the Democrats had decided among themselves there would be a gun ban and approached him afterwards to work out the details. He declined to tell reporters if he thinks thinks the ban is a good idea, citing the nonpartisan nature of his agency and its role to enforce legislative rules.  Democrats have not disputed Pike’s account. We rate the statements by the House leaders .  

The No. 1 cause of death for African-American males 15-34 is murder.

August 24, 2014

criminal justice;crime;punditfact

juan williams

Juan Williams is a Fox pundit.

comments on Fox News Sunday

Williams said that the No. 1 cause of death for black men 15-34 years old is murder. CDC data supports the . Out of all causes of death, homicide claimed about 40 percent of black lives between 15 and 34 years. This was significantly higher than the national average for males of that age group, and all other racial groups. We rate Williams' .

The Ukrainian government just indicted the Burisma gas company & named Hunter Biden for accepting millions of dollars from a slush fund.

November 20, 2019

criminal justice;impeachment;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.

a Facebook post

Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who researches kleptocracy in Russia, told NBC that the lawmakers pushing new allegations at the press conference — Oleksandr Dubinsky and Andriy Derkach — are "professional disinformers. "  "This is generally known in Ukraine," he said, "this is not outstanding news. Anybody who’s anybody knows about these two. They are not credible. "  We rate these Facebook posts .

Muslims "attempted to establish the first Islamic Sharia court inside the United States in the town of Irving, Texas.

June 29, 2015

legal issues;religion

chain email

Chain emails circulate on the Internet, usually anonymously, making a variety of political claims.

texas

a chain email

The chain email said Muslims "attempted to establish the first Islamic Sharia court inside the United States in the town of Irving, Texas." Not so; news stories and the Islamic Tribunal website indicate a few Muslim individuals teamed up to offer Sharia-governed, non-binding mediation services in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including in Irving, with the declared intent of complying with state and federal laws. We spotted no of residents trying to open a Sharia court with all the powers that word implies. We judge this . – The statement is not accurate. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.

Says Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell voted for a toll lane on MoPac.

April 16, 2012

transportation

brigid shea

Brigid Shea, a former member of the Austin City Council, won election as the Precinct 2 member of the Travis County Commissioners Court in 2014. She earlier helped found Save Our Springs, a group devoted to protecting Barton Springs.

texas

an Austin mayoral debate on KXAN-TV

During the debate, Shea responded to Leffingwell’s description of the plan to add a managed lane to each side of a stretch of MoPac by calling it a toll lane and saying Leffingwell had voted for it in a transportation plan. Our conclusion is that except for a select few kinds of motorists, drivers who use the new lanes would have to pay varying tolls. And Leffingwell voted for this approach thrice. Shea did not say MoPac would be entirely tolled. Her comment had the context already given at the debate by the mayor. We rate her .

Says Tommy Tuberville "quit on his players" all four times that he was a college football coach.

October 1, 2020

candidate biography;sports

doug jones

Doug Jones is the Democratic nominee in the U.S. Senate special election in Alabama.

an ad

Jones claimed Tuberville "quit on his players" all four times that he was a college football coach, suggesting he betrayed the players. But the circumstances of his departures are not that cut and dried. Tuberville shocked players and university administrators when he abruptly quit Mississippi and Texas Tech in order to take new coaching jobs. But he resigned from Auburn and Cincinnati after disappointing seasons that led the schools to look for new coaches.  We rate the . This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here for more.

Abraham Lincoln "visited and some say even danced in (the Ohio Senate) chamber.

January 7, 2013

history

keith faber

State Rep. Keith Faber is running for state auditor in 2018. His hometown is Celina, in western Ohio.

ohio

the Ohio Senate

But we know that Lincoln visited the Statehouse on several occasions, and that he attended receptions and a ball. And Faber left himself room to two-step by phrasing the about dancing as "some say." Some do say, and not without justification, that he danced there. He didn’t dance with Kate Chase, which is a bit of lore that Faber wisely left out of his opening day remarks. On the -O-Meter, Faber’s rates .

First, he said he would take all of our troops out in six months, and now he acknowledges it would take a year.

October 12, 2007

iraq

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

In a Richardson campaign video, a narrator says Richardson's time frame to withdraw troops is "as quickly as they can safely exit the country." His web site -- www.getourtroopsout.com – emphasizes withdrawal in a matter of months, citing several past examples of large troop movements that have occurred in "as little as three months" or "in just a few months." It may be strategically smart of Richardson to drop the controversial six-months number that distracts from his main argument of a fast withdrawal. But we can't find any examples of Richardson "acknowledging" a year-long withdrawl time-frame either. We rate Biden's charge .

Silicon Valley Bank "donated $73M to 'BLM Movement'

March 15, 2023

financial regulation;race and ethnicity

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

a headline shared on Facebook

Facebook posts claimed Silicon Valley Bank "donated $73M to 'BLM Movement.'" The stemmed from a database kept by the Claremont Institute. It showed that since 2020, Silicon Valley Bank had donated or pledged to donate more than $70 million to causes "related" to the Black Lives Matter movement. The institute defined "related causes" as "organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLM’s agenda." Black Lives Matter is not one entity with a set agenda; it is a decentralized international activist movement with no formal hierarchy. A close look at the Claremont list shows that Silicon Valley Bank’s charitable contributions went primarily to groups and initiatives with no clear association to the Black Lives Matter movement. We rate this . RELATED: Was Silicon Valley Bank demise caused by Trump easing regulation, 'woke' efforts, or something else?

Says Michele Bachmann said, "The Chinese built a Great Wall 5,000 years ago. You don't see any illegal Mexicans in China.

August 17, 2015

immigration;punditfact

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

a meme

A meme says that Bachmann said, "The Chinese built a Great Wall 5,000 years ago. You don't see any illegal Mexicans in China." We found no that Bachmann ever said this, and her spokeswoman said she did not, in fact, say it. The meme seems to have satirical origins but is now being passed off as fact. We rate the statement !

Barack Obama "rejects everyone white, including his mother and his grandparents.

August 1, 2008

candidate biography

jerome r. corsi

Jerome R. Corsi is the author of The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality. He is a senior staff writer for the conservative news Web site WorldNetDaily.com. In 2004, he co-authored a book attacking Democratic nominee John Kerry, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry.

national

his book <i>The Obama Nation</i>.

It's also worth noting that photographs document the Obama wedding and Obama's maternal grandparents visiting him at college. In August 2008, Obama took a weeklong break from the campaign to visit his maternal grandmother at her home in Hawaii. To conclude that Obama "rejects everyone white, including his mother and his grandparents," Corsi has to significantly read against the memoir's stated meaning. We find factual also contradicts this statement, indicating that Obama maintained lifelong relations with his white relatives. We rate Corsi's statement !

40,000 rejected vote by mail ballots in DeKalb County need to be cured by Friday or they will be tossed.

November 4, 2020

elections

tweets

Twitter is a messaging service where people often discuss politics. Individual messages are called Tweets.

georgia

a post

Every legal vote will be counted." The tweet is . We rate it . This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here , for more.

Says Barack Obama was silent on Iran "when the students took to the streets in Tehran and the people there protested, (and) the Green Revolution occurred.

October 22, 2012

debates;foreign policy

mitt romney

Mitt Romney is a U.S. senator from Utah. He ran for president in 2012 as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent President Barack Obama. Prior to that, Romney served one term as governor of Massachusetts, elected to the post in 2002. He was born in 1947 in Michigan, where his father was governor from 1963 to 1969. Romney graduated from Brigham Young University and received both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University. Romney helped found the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984, which launched or rebuilt such companies as Staples and Dominos Pizza. Romney managed the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from 1999-2002. He ran for president in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination. He and his wife, Ann, have five sons, Tagg, Craig, Matt, Ben and Josh.

national

a foreign policy debate

Romney said that Obama was silent "when the students took to the streets in Tehran and the people there protested, the Green Revolution occurred." Romney was referring to the aftermath of the June 13, 2009, re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which led to massive protests. Two days later on June 15, in response to a question at a press conference, Obama said he was "deeply troubled" by the violence, and that it would be for him to remain silent. Obama made similar remarks the next day. On June 20, he issued a statement specifically calling on the Iranian government to stop the violence, and on June 23 he condemned the government for its response. Obama was criticized for showing a muted response in the days following the start of the protests. But it is an exaggeration to say that Obama was "silent." We rate this .

In Florida children are required to take their first standardized test within 30 days of beginning kindergarten and Gov. DeSantis wants to extend that requirement to preschoolers.

January 13, 2020

education

bernie sanders

Bernie Sanders is a senator from Vermont. Sanders was first elected to the Senate in 2007 and was re-elected in 2012 and 2018. The senator also ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016, losing the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton. From 1991 until 2007, he was the representative of Vermont’s At-Large District of the House of Representatives. Sanders was the mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago. In 2019, he announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for president and dropped out in April 2020.

florida

a Sun Sentinel op ed

Sanders said, "But in Florida children are required to take their first standardized test within 30 days of beginning kindergarten and Gov. DeSantis wants to extend that requirement to preschoolers." Kindergarten students do take a standardized screening test during the first 30 days. We didn’t find any that DeSantis wants to extend such a test to preschoolers (and we’ll note they are already tested).  The DeSantis administration called for an "accountability measure for all our school readiness programs" after a report showed 41% of VPK students were not prepared for kindergarten. But he has not been specific, and we haven’t found that it will include new testing for VPK students in the first 30 days. We rate this statement .

Baltimore spends the third highest per capita on its public schools.

May 3, 2015

education;punditfact

chris wallace

Chris Wallace is the host of "Fox News Sunday."

a broadcast of "Fox News Sunday"

Wallace said that Baltimore ranks third in per capita school spending.  That's only if you look at the 100 largest school districts. Among the top 500, Baltimore ranks 20th. Among school districts with at least 5,000 students, Baltimore ranks 160th in spending. Wallace's is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half .

Seventy-five percent of the young adults in this country are not mentally or physically fit to serve.

February 25, 2014

military

bing west

Bing West is a Marine veteran of the Vietnam War and a former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs in the Reagan administration. He is the author of numerous books on military affairs.

rhode island

a radio interview

Bing West said 75 percent of young adults in the United States were physically or mentally unfit to serve in the military. The Defense Department and a non-governmental organization have both done research that support his . We find the statement   . (Comment on this ruling on providencejournal.com. If you have a you'd like us to check, send it to [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.)

Joe Biden is proposing that any family who tries to pass a business or a farm down to their son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter are going to pay a huge new tax.

May 2, 2021

taxes

chris christie

Chris Christie announced June 6, 2023 that he is running for the Republican nomination for president. Christie was the governor of New Jersey and a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016. As governor, Christie won office in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014. Prior to that, he was U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 2002 to 2008. 

remarks on ABC's "This Week"

Christie said, "Joe Biden is proposing that any family who tries to pass a business or a farm down to their son or daughter or grandson or granddaughter are going to pay a huge new tax." Biden is proposing a series of new taxes that could hit large inheritances in a significant way. But Christie is to frame these as hitting "any family" passing down a business within the family. The White House says it will explicitly rule out this possibility when the formal legislation is written. But even if such protections aren’t enacted, the increased taxation would target only a small number of very wealthy families, since few businesses and farms have unrealized capital gains of $1 million or more. We rate his statement .

Says he's a "retired U.S. Navy officer.

February 14, 2018

candidate biography;military

george p. bush

George Prescott Bush, formerly a corporate lawyer, won election as Texas land commissioner in 2014. He's renominated to seek a second term in 2018.

texas

a mailer pointed out by challenger Jerry Patterson

In a voter mailer, Bush says he’s a "retired U.S. Navy officer." Bush served nearly a decade as an officer in the Navy Reserve. But that doesn’t make him a retired officer, we find. At minimum, Bush would need to have served longer to call himself that. We rate this self-description . – The statement is not accurate. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.

Obamacare "was the Republican plan in the early '90s.

November 12, 2013

health care;punditfact

ellen qualls

Ellen Qualls is a Democratic strategist and former adviser to Nancy Pelosi. She previsouly worked as a television reporter in Virginia.

comments on Fox News Channel

Qualls said the Affordable Care Act "was the Republican plan in the '90s." The bill she had in mind did have a strong roster of Republicans behind it, and it did share many major features with the Affordable Care Act. There were some significant differences but in a side-by-side comparison, the similarities dominate. However, to call it the Republican plan, as though a majority of Republicans endorsed it, goes too far. The House Republicans took a different path, and there was opposition from more hard-line members of the Republican coalition. It is telling that the Chafee bill never became a full blown bill and never came up for a vote. We rate the statement .

Never once did they (House Republicans) actually cut spending or reduce the state budget. Even when they cut taxes in 2005, they increased spending.  They never paid for their tax cuts.

September 22, 2010

state budget;taxes

armond budish

Rep. Armond Budish, a Democrat from Beachwood, Ohio, formerly was speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. Be became the minority leader in 2011 after Republicans regained control of the House in the 2010 elections.

ohio

a news conference

Still, the impact in 2007 of the tax cuts was fairly light compared to the impact that had been projected for the current budget -- $4.2 billion. But when lawmakers adopted  Strickland’s proposal to push back the final year of the income tax cuts that pushed back some of the effect. The state actually ended up with $3.4 billion less to spend in the current budget than if the tax changes of 2005 never happened. So let’s get to the grading card and see what we got:       Budish’s statement is largely accurate but needs additional information to see the full picture. That’s why we rate Budish’s statement as .

An anti-vaccine activist documented intimidation tactics used against her the day before she was killed.

October 17, 2022

facebook fact-checks

viral image

Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine.

an Instagram post

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Office also ruled that Vaughan wasn’t killed. She died of natural causes, according to findings from its death investigation that were made public in February 2021. The investigation included an autopsy, in-depth toxicology screening, interviews and a medical record review, the office said in a statement posted on its website. The cause of death was a bilateral pulmonary thromboembolism, a blockage in one of the pulmonary arteries in the lungs that in most cases is caused by a blood clot, according to the Mayo Clinic . We rate claims that this video shows Vaughan documenting intimidation against her the day before she was killed .

Says Florida's economy "is largely propped up on low-wage work.

September 30, 2018

economy

andrew gillum

Andrew Gillum won the Florida primary for governor in August 2018 and lost the November election to Ron DeSantis. He is a former mayor of Tallahassee and member of the Tallahassee city commission.

florida

an interview

Gillum said that Florida’s economy was propped up on low-wage jobs. We found that some of Florida’s job growth has been in low-wage jobs, and that the median wage level is the lowest in 11 years. However, there has been job growth in higher-paying jobs as well, and Florida is ranked 26th in low-wage jobs compared to other states. Gillum has a point but additional context is needed. We rate this .

CDC COVID-19 survival rates" are 99.997% for people ages 0 to 19, 99.98% for people ages 20 to 49, 99.5% for people ages 50 to 69, and 94.6% for people over 70.

December 16, 2020

public health;facebook fact-checks;coronavirus

tweets

Twitter is a messaging service where people often discuss politics. Individual messages are called Tweets.

a Facebook post

A tweet said "CDC COVID-19 survival rates" are 99.997% for people ages 0 to 19, 99.98% for people ages 20 to 49, 99.5% for people ages 50 to 69, and 94.6% for people over 70. The CDC has not released survival rates, and it doesn’t have the data to do so. It’s not clear where the tweet’s numbers came from, but they correspond with figures listed as part of CDC "planning scenarios" used for planning a pandemic response. We rate this post .

Most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for benefits, nor for pay.

February 27, 2011

labor;state budget

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.

national

an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press'

Said Owley: "We bargain every kind of working condition imaginable." Bottom line, negotiations over working conditions are important, and so Walker's larger point -- that he is asking for  "something less restrictive than what the federal government has" -- is debatable. But in saying that most federal workers don't have collective bargaining rights to benefits and pay, though, Walker is accurate. Although there are some federal workers who have collective bargaining rights for benefits and pay, "most" do not. And so we rate his comment .

A few months ago when you were asked what's the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia.

October 22, 2012

corrections and updates;debates;foreign policy

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

a presidential debate

    In the debate, Obama said Romney called Russia "the biggest geopolitical threat facing America." Actually, Romney has twice drawn the distinction between his concerns about Iran and Russia. He has called Russia the biggest geopolitical foe or enemy for the U.S., but he has said the biggest threat is Iran. We rate Obama’s statement .  

Today Russia holds many of our most precious national security satellites at risk before they ever get off the ground.

January 27, 2016

space

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. 

arizona

a committee hearing

McCain said, "Today Russia holds many of our most precious national security satellites at risk before they ever get off the ground." That’s correct, though the level to which that represents a risk, as McCain said, is somewhat unknown. Russia did at one point threaten to stop exporting the Russian-made engines fueling the U.S. satellite program. But it didn’t follow through. The U.S. government’s goal is to eventually end this dependence on Russian-made engines, but, for now, that is not the case. McCain’s statement is accurate but needs additional information. We rate it .

Says he was endorsed by the Valley News newspaper.

February 3, 2016

elections

bernie sanders

Bernie Sanders is a senator from Vermont. Sanders was first elected to the Senate in 2007 and was re-elected in 2012 and 2018. The senator also ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2016, losing the Democratic primary to Hillary Clinton. From 1991 until 2007, he was the representative of Vermont’s At-Large District of the House of Representatives. Sanders was the mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Chicago. In 2019, he announced he was running for the Democratic nomination for president and dropped out in April 2020.

new hampshire

a campaign ad

A Bernie Sanders political ad said he had been endorsed by the Valley News newspaper and implied he had been endorsed by The Telegraph of Nashua. While each paper published laudatory editorials about the Vermont senator, neither one has so far offered him an official endorsement. In the context of an ad titled "Endorsed," full of unions and other organizations that have in fact endorsed Sanders, the spotlighting of quotes from New Hampshire newspapers would suggest that the papers had made the same decision. The campaign’s decision to alter the ad improves its technical accuracy, but the impression remains. We rate the ad’s .

Newgard owed more than $13,000 for unpaid taxes on his $1 million Milwaukie apartment complex.

September 20, 2012

message machine 2012;taxes

future pac (oregon house democrats)

Future PAC is the campaign committee for Oregon House Democrats.

oregon

a campaign ad

A $300,000 rental property doesn’t have the same ring as a $1 million one. Late Wednesday House Democrats shared a new version of the ad. There is no mention of the value of the property and no image of one either. We like how quickly Democrats work. We still rate the statement .

Says Donald Trump contradicted his own administration when he said the decision to allow blueprints for 3D-printed guns to be distributed "doesn't seem to make much sense.

July 31, 2018

foreign policy;trade;punditfact;guns

bloggers

Blog posting on the Internet

a blog post

A headline suggested that the government settlement that would have made 3D-printable guns available for download was actually a Trump administration decision, and that Trump said that didn't "make much sense." We could not independently determine the extent of Trump’s involvement, although Sanders said the president was not afforded the opportunity to approve of the settlement decision. But the State Department under Trump did initiate the settlement after previously taking steps to clear a path for it. However, the Obama administration’s export control reform made those steps possible, and it is not far-fetched to consider the Trump administration’s move a continuation of that initiative. We rate this statement .

As a result of National Rifle Association and other private-sector (safety-education) programs, fatal firearms accidents are at the lowest level in 100 years.

January 30, 2013

crime;guns

wayne lapierre

Wayne LaPierre is executive vice president of the National Rifle Association.

national

testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee

    LaPierre was very close to being right about his carefully framed statistic: Despite significant population growth, unintentional firearms deaths fell to a 106-year low in 2009 before tracking up slightly in 2010. But while LaPierre is probably right that NRA-sponsored safety programs played a role in this decline, improvements in trauma care -- something LaPierre didn’t cite -- likely played as big a role as well, if not a bigger role. On balance, we rate the .

Casualties and deaths are at (their) lowest point since literally the beginning" of the war.

June 2, 2008

iraq

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

Nashville, Tenn

Iraq Coalition Casualty Count's total was 506, which exceeded the number of Iraqi deaths in both March and April of 2005 (the site does not have monthly statistics prior to 2005). No U.S. government agency tracks Iraqi deaths, Melnyk said. So by any reasonable measure, McCain was to say casualties were at their lowest point since the beginning of the war. But he was right to make that about U.S. military deaths. We rate his .

Americans "would run out of avocados in three weeks" if imports from Mexico were stopped due to a border closure.

April 1, 2019

agriculture;immigration;food

bloggers

Blog posting on the Internet

california

news articles and blogs

Experts agreed the Mexican inventory would run out within weeks. It’s possible, however, that price spikes would dampen demand for avocados and that customers willing to pay a hefty price would still find the celebrated fruit. We rate the .   – The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. Click here for  more  on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.

Since Sherrod Brown and the Democrats "rammed" the economic stimulus bill through, "Ohio's unemployment rate has risen to 9.6 percent, above the national average.

February 17, 2011

federal budget;jobs;stimulus

national republican senatorial committee

The National Republican Senatorial Committee helps elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate.

ohio

a news release

With the brief exception of last November, you’d have to go back to 2002 to find a time when Ohio didn’t lag the nation in employment. And it ignores that Ohio’s unemployment rate has fallen for nine straight months. Context is important here because numbers can be cherry-picked too easily. And these facts are important for a listener to put the statement in proper context. That’s why we say the NRSC’s is .

In Cuyahoga County ... 56 percent of weekend voters in 2008 were African American while adult African Americans comprise 28 percent of the county population.

August 24, 2012

elections

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

a news release

Keeter noted that 2008 exit polling data in Ohio found that 16 percent of those who voted early - either by mail or in-person - were black voters, while 9 percent of in-person voters were black. "African-Americans statewide do appear to have made heavier use of early voting, but the exit poll did not ask how a vote was cast, so we can’t be sure that this pattern is a result of EIP voting," said an email from Keeter. Robbins research, though, was able to break out the EIP population. Fudge drew her statistics, which she cited accurately, from a research study that stated that 56 percent of the 2008 Cuyahoga county voters voted who cast ballots on weekends before the election were African American and that 28 percent of the county’s voting age population is African American. On the -O-Meter, Fudge’s rates .

When President, then candidate, Obama was asked to disclose some of his donors because there was suspicion of their being the foreign source of money into his campaign, they refused to do it.

October 24, 2010

campaign finance;transparency

michael steele

Michael Steele is the chairman of the Republican National Committee. He was formerly the lieutenant governor of Maryland, serving from 2003 to 2007.

national

an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press"

The campaign had names, and in most cases assurances from the donors, that they were American citizens. The allegation in the Washington Post story was that the campaign's vetting of foreign donations was not stringent enough up front. There was no issue of the Obama campaign willfully refusing to disclose the names of foreign donors. In fact, it was the disclosure of those names that allowed AP reporters to discover some of the donations were improper.   And so we rate Steele's comment .

Says Rick Perry recently said he "wanted another (Texas) business tax.

October 19, 2010

state budget;taxes

kathie glass

Kathie Glass, a Georgia native, was the 2010 Libertarian candidate for governor. She moved to Texas on July 7, 1977 and got involved in the Libertarian Party in 1978, according to her campaign website. She ran for attorney general of Texas in 1982.

texas

a debate

He should have been there" at the debate. She was referring to Perry's refusal to join any debate with White unless White released additional tax returns. Our conclusion is that Glass's statement greatly distorts the Chronicle story which--if Perry had called for a new tax--would have landed on the front page. In fact, we smell smoke. !

An average of nearly 5,000 Missourians were contracting COVID every day in November.

March 22, 2021

coronavirus

missouri house democratic caucus

The Missouri House Democratic Caucus consists of Democratic legislators in the Misouri state House.

missouri

a tweet

The Missouri House Democratic Caucus said that "an average of nearly 5,000 Missourians were contracting COVID every day in November."  This is an exaggeration. November was Missouri’s peak in COVID-19 cases, and daily new-case numbers were in the thousands, but to say that the average was near 5,000 every day is . We rate this statement .

In terms of the wealthiest Americans, we're at the lowest tax rate since the 1950s.

September 12, 2011

taxes

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.

florida

Tampa

We won't go through the complicated analysis again -- you can read it here if you like . Suffice it to say, effective tax rates for high-earning Americans are either at their lowest level since 1960 or at least very close to their lowest level. As for Wasserman Schultz, she said: "In terms of the wealthiest Americans, we're at the lowest tax rate since the 1950s." Since 1960 the top marginal income tax rates -- the most common way to measure Wasserman Schultz's statement -- were lower only between 1988 and 1992 than they are today. With that caveat, we rate her .

A lawyer demanded "several Houston pastors hand over to the city government many of their private papers, including their sermons.

October 15, 2014

city government;legal issues;religion

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

a letter to David Feldman, Houston's city attorney

Five subpoenas, submitted by the City of Houston, required pastors to furnish sermons and personal communications with members of their congregation. We rate this statement . – 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.

President Obama is attacking Paul Ryan on Medicare even though it is his administration with the help of Jim Langevin who cut $716 billion from Medicare.

August 16, 2012

medicare

michael riley

Michael G. Riley, a Narragansett businessman who calls himself a "small-government and free-market Republican," made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District in 2012. He is co-founder of the Coastal Management Group, a consulting and investment company. He has served on the Narragansett Pension Board and Charter Review Commission.

rhode island

a post on Riley’s Facebook campaign page

Congressional candidate Michael Riley says that with the help of U.S. Rep. Jim Langevin, President Obama "cut $716 billion from Medicare." Mr. Obama did direct $716 billion away from future Medicare spending as part of his health care reform law. But calling it a cut leaves the impression that the $716 billion is being taken from money already allocated. That’s not the case.   The debate, however, continues over whether benefits are in jeopardy. In the meantime, the Congressional Budget Office says the move eases the burden of Medicare’s current deficit. Because the statement is "partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context," we rate it . (Get updates from PolitiFact Rhode Island on Twitter: @politifactri . To comment or offer your ruling, visit us on our PolitiFact Rhode Island Facebook page.)

While serving as Town Supervisor, Nate McMurray voted to raise taxes on homeowners.

October 22, 2020

taxes

chris jacobs

Chris Jacobs is a candidate for New York State Senate District 60. He currently serves as Erie County Clerk.

new york

campaign mailer

Jacobs said McMurray voted to raise taxes on homeowners while he was town supervisor on Grand Island.  McMurray said that he raised taxes slightly while he was supervisor, which is corroborated by other documents. He also said that he couldn’t do anything unilaterally, and that he was a member of a five-member board.  We rate Jacobs’ .   

A proposed mine in Wisconsin is "about two-thirds the size of Lake Winnebago.

January 27, 2012

environment;water

penny bernard schaber

Penny Bernard Schaber was elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 2008. The Appleton Democrat is a retired physical therapist.

wisconsin

a legislative hearing

But at the hearing Bernard Schaber -- who spoke of biking around the lake -- was clearly referring to area, not volume. Our rating Bernard Schaber said "the central size" of a mine proposed for far northern Wisconsin "could be about two-thirds the size of Lake Winnebago." There’s an element of in her statement, in terms of volume. But she lacks to back her central , which was area. We rate her statement .

The CDC has removed the 'Covid-19 Pandemic' and replaced it with 'Covid-19 Outbreak' on their website. It was never a pandemic.

September 8, 2020

public health;facebook fact-checks;coronavirus

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

a Facebook post

A Facebook post claims, "The CDC has removed the ‘Covid-19 Pandemic’ and replaced it with ‘Covid-19 Outbreak’ on their website. It was never a pandemic." The CDC website’s homepage currently refers to the "novel coronavirus outbreak," and has been using that term since January. But there is no the CDC removed the word "pandemic" to replace it with "outbreak."  The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March, and the CDC website still refers to "the COVID-19 pandemic" on several of its pages. We rate this !

In the last 10 years less than half of adults in the U.S. received a flu shot.

September 19, 2020

health care

michael burgess

Burgess, initially elected to Congress in 2002, founded and chairs the Congressional Health Care Caucus, which raises questions about the Democratic-steered overhaul of federal health laws that passed into law in the spring of 2010.

texas

a tweet

Burgess said "in the last 10 years less than half of adults in the US received a flu shot." Estimates on flu vaccination coverage show that, since 2010, less than half of adults each year get a flu shot. That rate is higher among older adults and children. We rate this .

I am very proud, as governor of Florida, that we signed the first divestment act, as it relates to Iran, divesting any investments in companies that would invest in Iran.

October 24, 2010

foreign policy

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

a U.S. Senate debate on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

But it wasn’t until October 2007 that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a related bill, prohibiting the state’s pension funds from investing in companies doing business in Iran. It had already done the same with Sudan in 2006, before Florida — but that wasn’t Crist’s . He said Florida signed the first divestment act concerning companies doing business with Iran. Media reports and official pronouncements support Crist’s story. We rate his .

The goal of Common Core is "to instill federally determined attitudes and mindsets in students including political and religious beliefs.

October 16, 2013

education;religion

florida stop common core coalition

The Florida Stop Common Core Coalition is a group that opposes Common Core.

florida

a report linked to on a website

The goal of Common Core "is not simply to improve academic achievement but also to instill federally determined attitudes and mindsets in students including political and religious beliefs," said an anti-Common Core group. Their , though, is flimsy at best: A computer model that has a data field for voting status or religion, which would typically be used by a private school. We could find no public schools that kept such data, and Florida Department of Education has no plans to require that they do. That’s a far cry from attempting to instill particular religious or political beliefs. We rate this !

The last private rocket launch "cost $80 million. If the government did it, the same thing would have cost probably 40 or 50 times that amount of money. I mean, literally.

March 8, 2018

space

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

a cabinet meeting at the White House

Trump said that at $80 million per launch, private rockets are about 40 to 50 times cheaper than NASA would spend if it did "the same thing." The $80 million figure is roughly accurate, but the key flaw in the statement is that NASA is not doing the same thing. As part of a policy decision made a decade ago, NASA has left the shorter distance work to the private sector while it focuses on getting to the moon and beyond. We found a wide range of approaches and estimates of what it would cost to launch the Space Launch System on a year-in-year-out basis. The answers on the high end backed up Trump’s remark. The answers on the low end suggested he exaggerated. But fundamentally, this is a comparison between a Ford Fusion and a Cadillac Escalade. One will be much more expensive than the other, but they are used in very different ways. We rate this . What do you think? PolitiFact Democratic guest columnist and former U.S. Rep. David Altmire took issue with this fact-check, saying Trump's literal words "were simply too far off to earn the benefit of the doubt" and should have earned a rating. Read his critique  here. Read more about our guest columnists  here .  

The average age a child is trafficked into the commercial sex trade industry is between 11 and 14 years old.

June 16, 2015

children;crime

randy forbes

Randy Forbes is from Chesapeake and represents Virginia's Fourth District in Congress. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2001. He serves on the Judiciary Committee and the Armed Services Committee, where he is chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. Forbes previously served in Virginia's House of Delegates from 1989 to 1997 and in the State Senate from 1997 to 2001. He also was chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia from 1996 to 2001. Forbes received a bachelor's degree from Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, in 1974, and a law degree from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, in 1977.

virginia

a written statement

  Forbes wrote,"The average age a child is trafficked into the commercial sex trade industry is between 11 and 14 years old,"   This widely-circulated is based on a small-sample, national survey from the late 1990s that focused on street children who resorted to prostitution. None of the children were controlled by sex traffickers. Even the main author of the report says his findings are outdated and may no longer be relevant.   We couldn’t find updated national research examining the age children enter the sex trade. Several studies in large cities put the average age around 14 or 15.   Forbes acknowledged further down in his statement that human trafficking "can be difficult to quantify or track," but he didn’t tie that qualifier to the age statistic, which he stated as fact. Child prostitutes obviously enter the sex trade at young ages, but the average age is by no means established and there’s it may be higher that Forbes’ figure. And again, all of the age research deals with street children -- not those who are being controlled by traffickers.   On the whole, we rate Forbes’ statement .

Says Chris Christie "instituted an Internet sales tax.

January 4, 2016

economy;government regulation;state budget;states;taxes

conservative solutions pac

Conservative Solutions PAC is a super political action committee based in Tampa, Fla., that supports Marco Rubio for president.

national

an attack ad

Conservative Solutions' attack ad says Chris Christie "instituted an Internet sales tax." Internet businesses with a physical presence in the state were required to collect a New Jersey sales tax long before Christie took office. For businesses outside the state, Christie did expand the requirement that online businesses pay taxes when they have an agreement with an individual or a business in New Jersey to promote their products. The ad says "implemented," which implies that Christie imposed a new tax burden on residents. In fact, the money New Jersey is collecting through Internet sales is, by law, already owed to the state -- either through the sales tax collected by the business or the use tax that's supposed to be paid by consumers. Because the statement has an element of but leaves out critical context, so we rate it ..

California "is hemorrhaging population.

September 28, 2018

government regulation;population;regulation;taxes

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.

california

a debate

Sen. Ted Cruz claimed California "is hemorrhaging population" in a recent debate. In reality, California’s population has grown by an average of 333,000 per year since 2010 due to natural births and international migration. There’s a sliver of in Cruz’s statement: The state for many years has lost more people to other states -- including Texas -- than it’s gained from the rest of the country. But even that interpretation of the doesn’t show a "hemorrhaging." The gap between Californians leaving for other states and those arriving from the rest of the country narrowed considerably over the past decade. In the end, the senator ignored key facts that would give a different impression. We rate Cruz’s statement . –  The statement contains some element of but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression.

Says Bruce Braley took "tens of thousands from his friends in the health insurance industry" and gave them "special favors" by voting for Obamacare.

April 8, 2014

campaign finance;health care

freedom partners

Freedom Partners, initially called the Association for American Innovation when it was established in November 2011, promotes "the benefits of free markets and a free society" and claims "over 200 members." The Washington Post reported that Freedom Partners served as a hub for political spending by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch.

national

a campaign ad

Freedom Partners’ ad claims that Braley took "tens of thousands from his friends in the health insurance industry" and gave them "special favors" by voting for Obamacare. Braley did take tens of thousands of dollars from the insurance industry, though from all types of insurers, not just health insurers. However, Braley, like most Democrats, had campaigned on expanding health coverage to the uninsured, and then, faced with a landmark and highly partisan vote, carried through on his stated intentions. It’s to suggest that donors who contributed less than 1 percent of his warchest weighed more heavily on his vote than his ideology, his past campaign promises and his partisan affiliation. We rate the .

Photo of unbroken windows proves war in Ukraine is fake.

April 23, 2022

facebook fact-checks;ukraine;russia

viral image

Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine.

a Facebook post

A blast radius is not infinite — the damage stops somewhere — but there’s that these cars were destroyed by Russian military forces on the ground in Bucha, not by an explosion. Photographer Emanuele Satolli, who took photos at the same scene pictured in the Instagram post, told the Greek fact-checking outlet Ellinika Hoaxes that he "met several citizens and everyone told me that the cars had been overturned by Russian tanks." Plenty of other photos Abd shot in Bucha show shattered windows, rubble from devastated buildings, streets in ruins, and human corpses — all the real toll of a real war.  Claims that the war in Ukraine is are and . That’s our definition of .

Says he "voted no on the Wall Street bailouts.

August 12, 2010

economy;financial regulation;message machine 2010

glenn nye

Glenn Nye, a Democrat, represented Virginia's 2nd Congressional District from 2009 until 2011. The district includes Virginia Beach, the Eastern Shore and parts of Norfolk and Hampton. He now works as the senior political adviser at Hanover Investment Group, Alexandria. Nye was born in Philadelphia, but grew up in Norfolk. He graduated from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. He previously served in the Foreign Service of the U.S. State Department in Kosovo, Macedonia, Singapore and Afghanistan. He also worked for the U.S. government on development projects in the West Bank, Gaza and Iraq.

virginia

a TV ad

So Nye says he voted against the bailout. People hearing his would undoubtedly think he was referring to the main vote on the TARP, but he wasn’t even elected when that vote was taken. He cites one vote on a procedural motion that was not substantive and that the news media did not characterize as significant, and another vote that was more substantive, although the issue was moot at that point. So there is just a small amount of to his . We find his .

Says Gov. Scott Walker's proposed reduction in university spending is "about the size of the one" under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, but Democrats didn't treat Doyle's cut as so dire.

March 12, 2015

education

robin vos

Wisconsin state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, has represented western Racine County in the state Assembly since 2004. In November 2012, he was elected Assembly speaker. Vos previously served on the Racine County Board of Supervisors, from 1994 to 2004.

wisconsin

an interview

By contrast, under Walker, his proposed 2015-’17 reduction comes four years after cuts of $250 million to universities in his first budget (2011-’13). Our rating Vos said Walker’s proposed reduction in university spending is "about the size of the one that happened" under Doyle, but Democrats didn’t treat that  cut as so dire. The one cut Vos referred to, in 2003 under Doyle and legislators, was very similar in size to Walker’s current proposal. It’s worth pointing out though that Doyle, unlike Walker, allowed big tuition hikes to ease the 2003 budget cuts, and that Walker has proposed deeper cuts in the UW System than Doyle in less time. We rate the Vos .  

Electric cars in California are not sustainable as only 10% of their batteries are recyclable and the state can't recycle them.

June 9, 2022

environment;climate change;transportation;facebook fact-checks

instagram posts

Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters.

an Instagram post

A woman in an Instagram video claims California’s push for electric cars is not sustainable in part because California does not have a recycling facility that can handle the lithium-ion batteries in cars and that the recycling facilities in the country can recycle only 10% of the batteries’ material.  While California so far has no lithium-ion battery recycling plant, the California Environmental Protection Agency report said lithium-ion battery recycling is still a fairly new industry with room for growth. Also, companies from other states are partnering with California to recycle its batteries. Furthermore, current recycling methods can recover from half to up to 95% of the material used lithium-ion batteries, far more than the post’s of a 10% recovery rate.  We rate this .

Pens provided by Maricopa County are part of a plot to rig the Arizona primary.

July 28, 2022

elections

tweets

Twitter is a messaging service where people often discuss politics. Individual messages are called Tweets.

arizona

a tweet

Social media users have suggested there is something with the Pentel pens provided by Maricopa elections officials and that they are part of a plot to rig the Arizona primary Aug. 2. The county tested the pens and found they dry quickly, which helps during in-person voting when voters feed their ballots into the tabulation machine. If voters use a pen that doesn’t dry quickly, it can smudge the ballot or muck up the tabulation machine, requiring cleaning and slowing the voting process. We found no the pens are part of a nefarious scheme by election officials.  We rate this statement . RELATED : Despite #sharpiegate, no of plot to use the pens to cancel Trump votes RELATED : Voting by mail has been popular in Arizona for decades. Now the state GOP wants to ban it RELATED : All of our fact-checks about Arizona RELATED : All of our fact-checks about elections

Says Mitt Romney flip-flopped on a taxpayer protection pledge.

November 28, 2011

message machine 2012;taxes

democratic national committee

The Democratic National Committee is the national organization of Democrats.

national

a campaign advertisement

In 2002, Romney refused to make "a pledge in writing" on taxes. Four years later, he signed one and touted it as a selling point for his candidacy. In our book, that’s a clear flip-flop. We rate the DNC’s charge .

We haven't seen a single American megachurch offer anything to help Ukrainians.

March 7, 2022

religion;ukraine;russia

tweets

Twitter is a messaging service where people often discuss politics. Individual messages are called Tweets.

national

a tweet

The church’s website features ways people can help and has provided multiple updates on its efforts in the region. The Rock Church , a megachurch in San Diego, California, is directing people to its partner organization, Crisis Response International, and told PolitiFact that it’s in the process of establishing a Ukraine relief fund. Crossroads Church , an Ohio-based megachurch, partners with humanitarian and disaster relief organizations Convoy of Hope and World Vision , which both have operations on the ground in Ukraine. Other church networks, like the United Methodist Committee on Relief and Catholic Relief Services, are collecting donations and deploying staff and resources .  We rate posts that say no megachurches are raising money for Ukraine relief .

If I had not asked for my emails all to be made public, none of this would have been in the public arena.

August 17, 2015

candidate biography;technology

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

an interview with Iowa Public Radio

Clinton said, "If I had not asked for my emails all to be made public, none of this would have been in the public arena." The shred of here is that Clinton’s request was the driving force behind the State Department’s decision to release the emails as soon as possible. However, multiple pending FOIA requests for her emails likely would have made some of these emails public regardless. It’s disingenuous for Clinton to treat her request as proactive transparency, when her practices protected her email from public scrutiny until she was out of office. We rate Clinton’s .

A report in Navy Times said that 7.3 percent of Army, Navy and Marines have thought about attempting suicide.

March 16, 2011

afghanistan;military

tim ryan

Tim Ryan is a representative of Ohio’s 13th Congressional District. Ryan served the state’s 17th Congressional District from 2003 until 2013, when he assumed office to represent the 13th District. In 2019, he ran for the Democratic nomination for president. In 2022, he is running for an Ohio U.S. Senate seat.

ohio

a House committee hearing

Through a series of goofs and misrepresentations, data about actual attempted suicides among military personnel became a number cited as the percentage of those who had contemplated suicide. The numbers Ryan cited didn’t come directly from the military. Instead, he relied on material from a blog article that used faulty mathematics to come up with an erroneous percentage. The series of errors took data from a military report on a course to create an statement. On the -O-Meter, that kind of a rates as .

Says when New York "implemented a program" to tax the wealthy at higher rates it saw a revenue shortfall "because of the outward migration of their top earners.

May 22, 2019

economy;taxes

mike murphy

Rep. Mike Murphy, R-Springfield, represents the 99th House District in the Illinois General Assembly. 

illinois

remarks during a press conference

Citing remarks made in February by the governor of New York, Murphy claimed that when that state "implemented a program" to tax the wealthy at higher rates it saw a revenue shortfall "because of the outward migration of their top earners." Cuomo did raise the specter of out-migration among the state’s better-off taxpayers when personal income tax revenues came in below projections early this year. But he blamed the drop on fallout from the Republican federal tax overhaul of 2017 and other factors, not graduated income tax rates in New York which haven’t been raised in a decade. What’s more, IRS data show the number of people filing with income greater than $200,000 in New York has increased every year since 2009 when New York raised rates on top earnings to levels similar to those currently under consideration in Illinois. We rate Murphy’s . — The statement is not accurate. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check.

Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years.

July 21, 2016

criminal justice;crime

donald trump

Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016.  He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024.

national

Cleveland

Trump said, "Homicides last year increased by 17 percent in America’s 50 largest cities. That’s the largest increase in 25 years." The statement comes from a credible source -- calculations made by the Washington Post . However, in painting a bleak picture, Trump cherry-picks the Post’s overall findings -- and makes mistakes criminologists warn about. The Post article acknowledged that FBI data found a smaller increase in recent years, with contradictory results for many cities. And experts caution against putting too much stock in short-term changes, since year-to-year data can be volatile for hard-to-discern reasons. Lost in Trump’s formulation is that, overall, violent crime has been falling consistently for about a quarter century. The statement contains an element of but ignores facts that would give a different impression, so we rate his . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/729fe9ae-3336-4971-8c96-52b25f6b4e25  

Says Dominion Voting System flipped votes to Joe Biden in states where Trump is bringing legal challenges.

November 11, 2020

elections;facebook fact-checks

facebook posts

Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.  

a Facebook post

Viral social media posts that the 2020 presidential election is compromised because Dominion Voting Systems flipped votes to favor Joe Biden. This is . There is no credible that the system affected any vote counts. Minor problems, including human error and temporary machine malfunctions, took place in a few jurisdictions and did not impact vote tabulations. We rate this !

A lot of people are still dealing with lack of access to health care. There are counties out there, in my former Senate district, that didn't have doctors and providers.

October 20, 2018

health care

troy balderson

Troy Balderson is a Republican member of the U.S. House representing Ohio District 12. 

national

a television interview

Balderson said that "a lot of people are still dealing with lack of access to health care." He then spoke specifically about people in his former Ohio Senate district. It is that a number of them dealt with changes, especially in the counties we mentioned. Nearly half of all Ohio counties, each in a small market, wound up with only a single ACA carrier this year. For some people, that changed their access to the doctors and hospitals they preferred. Yet things will improve for many in 2019. And even counting all the changes since the ACA began, many more people have health coverage now than before. This has been part of the ACA’s push and pull from the start. If you are a constituent who lost access to your preferred insurer or provider, you might have called Balderson to urge him to fight for change. If you are a citizen who got health care because of the ACA, you might have joined a protest in hopes Congress will leave it alone. That’s why we rate his .

Says 50 million people would lose their health insurance if Obamacare is repealed.

October 3, 2012

debates;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

a presidential debate

Obama said in the debate that by repealing Obamacare, "you're looking at 50 million people losing health insurance." He didn’t say so, but that figure is based on projections for a decade down the road, and it applies to people who don't have insurance now. If Romney repeals the health care law, some of those people will not have actually gotten coverage. And, only about 30 million to 32.9 million people would lose coverage by 2022 if Obamacare was simply repealed. An additional 18 million people might lose coverage if Romney achieves his plan of converting Medicaid to a block grant, according to some studies. Obama’s number assumes the worst about the possible effect of Romney’s plan, whose stated purpose is to get more people covered. And some critics say the promise of Obamacare is inflated -- that not so many people will gain coverage, therefore not so many would lose it if the law is repealed. Obama is right that repealing the health care law will result in millions losing coverage, but his statement is an oversimplification of long-term projections and includes more than just a simple repeal of the 2010 law. On balance, we rate Obama’s statement .

Says Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine "want to expand (Obamacare) into a single-payer program.

October 4, 2016

drugs;health care;history

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

the 2016 Vice Presidential debate

Pence said Clinton and Kaine "want to expand (Obamacare) into a single-payer program," suggesting that they have proposed such a change. They have not. They have promoted a public option, which would be a government-sponsored insurance plan. A lot of Democrats, such as Bernie Sanders, would like to go in that direction. But throughout the current campaign, Clinton has consistently resisted that suggestion, saying she would work to prevent the repeal of Obamacare and try to improve on it. No one would be surprised if Clinton pushed for single payer if it became politically practical, but none of her campaign statements are calling for that. We rate Pence's statement . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/9c96e957-1429-4062-b0a0-e96538007969

Says Ted Cruz "was just bribed by the Kochs to introduce a bill that would give them and their allies America's national forests, parks, and other public lands and open them for mining, drilling, fracking and logging.

July 11, 2014

environment;campaign finance;candidate biography;crime

occupy democrats

Occupy Democrats, founded in 2012, is an advocacy group created to counterbalance the Republican tea party, and to "give President Obama and other progressive Democrats a Congress that will work with them to grow the economy, create jobs, promote fairness and fight inequality, and get money out of politics!"

texas

a Facebook photo post

Occupy Democrats said Cruz "was just bribed by the Kochs to introduce a bill that would give them and their allies America’s national forests, parks, and other public lands and open them for mining, drilling, fracking and logging." If excess federal lands were put up for auction, as possible under Cruz’s amendment, anyone including the Kochs could perhaps purchase the lands and then, as the owners, possibly chop down trees, drill for oil and the like. All this said, this group failed to provide (nor did we find) of a bribe or any Koch-linked inducement causing Cruz to present his proposal nor did we find confirmation his proposal came about so pristine federal lands could be exploited. Campaign contributions aren’t bribes and suspicions aren’t facts. We rate this unsupported and !

The American Rescue Plan "helped create nearly 10 million new jobs.

August 16, 2022

economy;jobs

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

remarks at the White House

Biden said the American Rescue Plan "helped create nearly 10 million new jobs." Economists agree that the law probably helped boost job creation. But Biden’s 10 million figure is an exaggeration. Analysts with the Congressional Budget Office projected that, even without the law, about 8 million jobs would be added to the economy through the end of 2022. With five months still to go until year’s end, the U.S. is running at about 1.6 million new jobs above that projection, with perhaps more to come. Whether all 1.6 million of those excess jobs created resulted from the American Rescue Plan is open to debate, but even if they all did, it’s well short of 10 million. Biden gets credit for saying the law "helped" job growth, but his supporting data is exaggerated. We rate this statement .

House Speaker "Kevin McCarthy has quietly implemented a pay raise for members (of Congress) that could be $30,000+ per person. It circumvents the Constitution by instead reimbursing their rent, utilities, & meals.

May 3, 2023

congress;facebook fact-checks

brian tyler cohen

Brian Tyler Cohen is a political commentator who hosts the podcast "No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen"

a Facebook post

Cohen wrote that McCarthy "has quietly implemented a pay raise for members (of Congress) that could be $30,000+ per person. It circumvents the Constitution by instead reimbursing their rent, utilities, & meals." The House’s rule change is not accurately described as a pay raise. Rather, for the first time, lawmakers can be reimbursed for living expenses in Washington, D.C., the same type of reimbursements that private-sector employers regularly give workers. And the reimbursements will have to come from the existing pot of money congressional members are given to pay for office staff and other expenses. There is no "pay raise." McCarthy did not spearhead the change. It was set in motion when Democrats controlled Congress and advanced through two committees with strong bipartisan support. The 27th Amendment bars lawmakers from passing a law that raises their pay, but the change wasn’t to a law. It’s also unclear whether the newly allowable reimbursements would qualify as compensation prohibited by the amendment. Cohen refers to a real change the House made in recent months, but he mischaracterizes it in several ways. We rate the statement .

In Wisconsin, the stimulus paid for a bridge to a bar called Rusty's Backwater Saloon. They've got great burgers, but no new jobs.

July 2, 2009

economy;stimulus

john boehner

John Boehner of Ohio is the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was formerly the Republican minority leader from 2007-2011, and was the majority leader briefly prior to that.

national

a Web ad

In fact, it's not even the main access point for Rusty's. And as for the project not creating jobs, we think Ellie Mae's sniffer is a bit off there too. The main point of the stimulus wasn't so much to create burger-flipping jobs on the other end of bridge construction projects, but to to create jobs for people doing the bridge work itself, thereby creating an economic ripple effect. And according to a Wisconsin highway official, at least a dozen construction workers will be used to replace the bridge. But because some people may use the bridge to get to Rusty's, and because there's a legitimate argument to be made that many small, rural and used bridges got stimulus money while other bigger (arguably more important) projects were ineligible, we'll give Boehner a .