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20,913 | 5 | Iowa Republicans have introduced a bill that would put government-installed cameras in every single classroom to livestream school activities for parents to spy on teachers and children. | February 2, 2022 | corrections and updates;education;technology | brian tyler cohen | Brian Tyler Cohen is a political commentator who hosts the podcast "No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen" | iowa | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | a tweet | Cohen is correct in saying Mommsen’s bill would put cameras in classrooms, live streaming school activities for parents who want to know what’s happening in their child’s classroom. The bill would not put cameras in every classroom. It leaves some exceptions for physical education and special education rooms. And, the bill would allow viewing all day during class time, not "at all times of the day," as the statement could be interpreted as saying if taken out of the context Cohen provides in the tweet. But on a whole, Cohen is correct about the purpose of the bill. We rate Cohen’s as . |
9,105 | 2 | The Obama Administration is suing a Wisconsin company for forcing employees to speak English. | July 2, 2014 | labor;workers | bloggers | Blog posting on the Internet | wisconsin | 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 | blog postings | Our rating Various blogs said that the EEOC sued Wisconsin Plastics because the company "forced employees to speak English." That’s not what the lawsuit says. The complaint says the company violated workers’ civil rights by subjecting them to a sham performance exam that focused on English language skills. Even the company says the bloggers, while trying to sympathize with it, took matters too far and sensationalized the lawsuit. We rate the . |
318 | 5 | (John McCain) was even mentioned as a running mate with John Kerry. | February 1, 2008 | elections | citizens united political victory fund | Citizens United Political Victory Fund states that its mission is to support conservative candidates running for federal office who share a vision of reducing the size and scope of government, lowering taxes, cutting spending, promoting traditional family values and winning the war on terror. The group has opposed Sen. John McCain and Rudy Giuliani in the Republican Party primary. It is based in Washington, D.C. | national | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | a TV ad | And, in an April 2007 interview with the Web site myDD.com (Direct Democracy for People-Powered Politics), Kerry says McCain's people approached him about being on the Democratic ticket. Responding to suggestions that McCain had approached prominent Democrats about switching parties, Kerry says: "It doesn't surprise me completely because his people similarly approached me to engage in a discussion about his potentially being on the ticket as vice president. So his people were active — let's put it that way." We're not saying McCain gave the idea much thought or even that he was offered the job, but it's clear he "was mentioned as a running mate with John Kerry." We rule this statement . |
12,353 | 2 | The Germans, the French, countries that opposed us in the (Iraq) war, all believed (Saddam Hussein) had weapons of mass destruction. | September 11, 2016 | iraq | paul wolfowitz | Paul Wolfowicz is the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense under the George W. Bush adminstration. | national | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" | Wolfowitz said the French and Germans believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Publicly, the top elected leaders of both nations said that the was unclear. The Germans, who had talked to an Iraqi defector, were the source of the suspicion that Iraq had developed mobile biological weapon factories. However, months before the war, the Germans had concluded that the defector was unreliable and passed that opinion on to the Americans. They didn’t discount his entirely, but they made it clear that it was unverified. The German intelligence agency seemed equally unconvinced that Iraq had resumed its nuclear program. For the French, the American assertion that Iraq sought to buy uranium from Africa rang hollow. The alleged source was Niger, a country where the French had contacts in the mining industry. They found no proof for the . Anytime we deal with the activities of intelligence services, there are likely to be gaps in the public record. But from the broad body of , neither the Germans nor the French were persuaded that Saddam Hussein actually had weapons of mass destruction. They might have had suspicions, but they were uncertain and said so publicly and, in all likelihood, privately as well. Wolfowitz went too far when he said that Germany and France believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. At best they were conflicted. We rate his statement . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/12bc9309-1ad5-4a1b-8693-329ac7849335 |
22,292 | 1 | Joe Biden and the New Left even promote surgery on teens and young adults, removing breasts and genitals. | October 9, 2022 | lgbtq;public health;health check | america first legal | Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to President Donald Trump, launched the advocacy group America First Legal in April 2021, saying it would use "our legal system to defend our society and our families from any unlawful actions by the left." | null | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | a radio advertisement | The ad says: "Joe Biden and the New Left even promote surgery on teens and young adults, removing breasts and genitals." Experts in the field, LGBTQ advocates , and even critics of gender-affirming care, say they find the message . Some media outlets such as the Florida-based Beasley Media Group took the ad off the air, noting in internal emails published in FCC filings that the company’s attorneys found "the substantiation is inadequate to support the claims" and that the spot is "not in the best interest of our company and or listeners." Some of the ad spots also were pulled by iHeartMedia stations in Pittsburgh. The Biden policy specifically lists surgery among the "array of services" that should be available and notes that "early gender-affirming care is crucial." But the adleaves out other types of care — such as mental health services — that are considered the starting point for caring for this at-risk population. The ad’s key factual problem is the use of the words "promote" and "push." Ensuring a treatment option is available doesn’t mean it’s being pushed, and to cast it as such is hyperbolic. We rate this . |
9,792 | 5 | Only 20 colleges and universities "have athletic departments with revenue exceeding expenses. | November 22, 2014 | education;sports;state budget | jim moran | Rep. Jim Moran, D-8th, was first elected in 1990 to represent a district covering Falls Church, Alexandria, Arlington County and part of Fairfax County.
He serves on the Appropriations Committee and is the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, as well as serving on the Defense Subcommittee.
Moran previously served as the mayor of Alexandria from 1985 to 1990.
Moran was born in Buffalo, N.Y. He graduated from College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Mass., in 1967, and received a master of public administration from the University of Pittsburgh in 1970. | virginia | 3 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | a Facebook post | Moran said only 20 FBS schools generate more money from athletics than they spend. We rate his statement . |
15,063 | 4 | Says Steve Chabot "voted to strip insurance protections for pre-existing conditions. | August 28, 2018 | health care | aftab pureval | Candidate for Congress, Ohio's 1st Congressional District | ohio | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | a campaign ad | Chabot has said repeatedly that he would like to have protections covering people with pre-existing conditions. When presented with bills that lacked the protections, however, he has voted for them anyway. His campaign says the votes weren’t meaningful because the legislation was never going to become law and everyone knew it. We cannot say that when Congress members, elected to make laws, vote for a new law, constituents should take it with a grain of salt. There are certainly political and strategic calculations. The -O-Meter can only measure what a politician says and what he or she did. The connection between the ACA and pre-existing conditions was eminently clear throughout the repeal debate. We rate Pureval’s . |
15,446 | 2 | Illegal refugees get $3,874/mo. Under the Federal Assistance Program. Our SS checks are approximately $1,200/mo. | October 29, 2018 | fake news;facebook fact-checks | viral image | Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine. | null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 | a Facebook post | A Facebook post claims, "Illegal refugees get $3,874/mo. Under the Federal Assistance Program. Our SS checks are approximately $1,200/mo." Refugees are not in the United States illegally. The $3,874 figure traces back to a circulating in Canada. The U.S. Health and Human Services department, which handles refugee resettlement, did not provide an estimate on how much refugees receive in assistance per month, but a department spokeswoman previously told us that the number can vary greatly. Social Security beneficiaries, such as retirees, on average receive more than $1,400 per month. The Facebook post contains an element of but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it . |
17,906 | 1 | A Craigslist ad was soliciting "anti-Trump" protesters in Phoenix. | June 11, 2020 | facebook fact-checks | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | RELATED : A history of hoaxes: Craigslist ads that solicit minority actors for Trump rallies There is a history of similar Craigslist ads being shared online that are unaffiliated with the Trump campaign. But this is one of the first times we’ve seen the images altered to make it look like Trump critics are posting them. Either way, it’s . Liberals and conservatives have accused each other of paying supporters and protesters to show up at political events, but these advertisements appear to be created to stoke anger from the other side of the aisle. We rate this . |
21,740 | 0 | Jane Goodall's comments about population growth at World Economic Forum show COVID-19 pandemic was planned. | July 24, 2022 | climate change;facebook fact-checks;coronavirus | instagram posts | Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters. | null | 3 | 3 | 15 | 51 | 405 | 140 | an Instagram post | An Instagram post alleges that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned because Goodall spoke about unchecked human population growth’s effect on the environment at a World Economic Forum meeting in January 2020. But the virus had been circulating in China a month before Goodall made her remarks, and she has made similar comments over at least the past two decades. Despite the pandemic’s toll, the world’s population is growing and is projected to continue to do so. There’s no the pandemic was planned. We rate this ! |
10,394 | 5 | This March, for the first time in human history, the monthly average carbon dioxide in our atmosphere exceeded 400 parts per million. The range had been 170-300 parts per million for hundreds of thousands of years. | May 18, 2015 | climate change;congress | sheldon whitehouse | Sheldon Whitehouse is a Democratic U.S. Senator from Rhode Island. | rhode island | 11 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | U.S. Senate | In his 100th speech on global warming on May 18, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said: "This March, for the first time in human history, the monthly average carbon dioxide in our atmosphere exceeded 400 parts per million. The range had been 170-300 parts per million for hundreds of thousands of years." He probably could have been more precise if he had used the phrase "global average," because there have been times when the monthly average exceed 400 parts per million at observation sites in Alaska and Hawaii. Beyond that small point, Whitehouse and his staff were on solid ground. For that reason, we rate his statement . (If you have a you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, email us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.) |
20,903 | 3 | Binding masks to your face with gauze and wrapping pantyhose around your face and mask are now "suggestions to make your mask more 'effective.' | February 4, 2022 | coronavirus | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | A Facebook post suggested that binding a mask to your face with gauze, wearing a section of pantyhose over your head and mask and other approaches were the newest "suggestions to make your mask more ‘effective.’" The post frames the "fit hacks" shown in the screenshot as recommendations. The list was actually part of a Vice article that explained one study about ways to improve mask fit. By showing the list of "fit hacks" without context, the Facebook post mischaracterized both the Vice article and the research it was based on. The researchers acknowledged that most of the "hacks" were impractical. We rate this post . |
19,466 | 0 | The shooting in Boulder, Colo., was a "false flag like most of the others. | March 22, 2021 | facebook fact-checks | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| colorado | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a text post | Both the Boulder Police Department and the FBI are investigating the attack. flag conspiracy theories are a popular form of misinformation following mass shootings. There is no to support the notion that shootings are regularly staged, planned or otherwise faked. The posts are and . We rate this one ! |
21,348 | 5 | We've reduced crime to its lowest level in 27 years. | April 11, 2022 | crime | keith pekau | Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau took office in April 2017 and is now running for the Illinois 6th Congressional District seat. | illinois | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | a campaign advertisement | Index crimes are currently at their lowest, but the crime problems in some areas remain. Pekau also did not mention the high number of violent crimes reported in 2017, the year he took office. We rate this . – The statement is accurate and there’s nothing significant missing. |
6,205 | 3 | Says "Bruce Starr voted to throw 6,000 Oregonians off unemployment. | August 14, 2012 | workers | democratic party of oregon | The Democratic Party of Oregon says it "promotes the election of Democratic candidates at every level across the state of Oregon with technical, financial and volunteer support." | oregon | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | a press release | We rate this . CORRECTION: Democratic Reps. Mary Nolan and Brad Witt sponsored House Bill 3483, legislation passed in 2009 that extended the number of weeks an individual living in Oregon could collect unemployment benefits. Rep. Bill Garrard, a Republican from Klamath Falls, had initially sponsored a different bill under the same number, but dropped his support after the content was changed. An earlier version of this PolitiFact Oregon item was on the bill's sponsorship. |
3,488 | 5 | 90 percent of babies with Down syndrome are aborted. | April 27, 2011 | abortion | richard corcoran | Richard Corcoran is Florida's appointed education commissioner. He was elected to the state House in 2010 and served as House Speaker 2016-2018. | florida | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | comments during House floor debate | Spokeswoman Rebecca Wind said she didn't know of anything else. That leaves us to rely on these studies, which have been cited by subsequent researchers. Corcoran said that "90 percent of babies with Down syndrome are aborted." Though the exact numbers vary slightly, the studies back him up. We rate this statement . |
7,591 | 0 | A "hidden" provision in the health care law taxes sporting goods as medical devices. | July 16, 2013 | health care | chain email | Chain emails circulate on the Internet, usually anonymously, making a variety of political claims. | georgia | 6 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 44 | 107 | an email | Lastly, the email says Cabela’s sporting goods store "refused to hide" the tax. . The company said it made a when it taxed customers and would refund them. Delete the email if it comes your way. ! |
15,006 | 3 | When the law stopped Tony Evers from revoking a teacher's license for viewing pornography, Tony worked with lawmakers from both parties to change the law so offenders could be kicked out of the classroom. | August 20, 2018 | children;education;legal issues;crime;government regulation;sexuality | greater wisconsin committee | The Greater Wisconsin Committee is a liberal group active in Wisconsin state politics, from legislative races to statewide offices. It receives money from a variety of sources, including labor unions. Its campaign ads are typically done through the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund. | wisconsin | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | a TV ad | The same conclusion had been reached by an arbitrator. And two courts upheld the arbitrator’s decision. Moreover, the fact that Evers’ department backed, and Walker signed, a change in the law supports the idea that the law didn’t favor revocation at the time. On the second part of the , Evers did work with lawmakers to change the law, as the narrator states in the ad, but he didn’t change the law as words on the screen in the ad . For a statement that is partially accurate, our rating is . |
19,992 | 1 | Carbon dioxide "is not a problem. The Earth has more than enough land and ocean plant life to metabolize it. | July 10, 2021 | climate change;facebook fact-checks | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a post | A Facebook post says carbon dioxide "is not a problem. The Earth has more than enough land and ocean plant life to metabolize it." The is not supported by . Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have reached record highs, and the build-up is an indicator that plants and the oceans can't absorb fossil-fuel waste fast enough. We rate this . |
7,934 | 4 | Says "by reducing chronic health care costs in the State of Georgia, we can reduce the $32.8 billion lost each year due to lack of productivity and economic costs. | October 18, 2013 | economy;health care | hank johnson | Hank Johnson, a Democrat, represents Georgia's 4th Congressional District | georgia | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | a letter | To sum up, Rep. Johnson said in a letter that "by reducing chronic health care costs in the State of Georgia, we can reduce the $32.8 billion lost each year due to lack of productivity and economic costs." The congressman’s was based on accurate numbers from a Milken Institute study that appeared well-researched. We did find other research that differs from the Milken study. Johnson’s is based on accurate information, but there is a little context necessary to fully examine his statement. Under our rating system, Johnson gets a . |
2,221 | 4 | We've got to find 2 billion gallons (of water per day) between now and 2025. | September 9, 2010 | environment;infrastructure | adam putnam | Adam Putnam lost the Republican primary for Florida governor to U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis in 2018. A former Republican Congressman from Congressional District 12 in Central Florida, was elected Florida Commissioner of Agriculture on Nov. 2, 2010 and re-elected Nov. 4, 2014. | florida | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | an interview with the St. Petersburg Times editorial board | In reality, the state already has projects on the book that get the state a portion of the way there. Yet, Florida has a ways to go. Putnam is right, based on the latest estimates Florida will use about 2 billion more gallons of water a day in 2025 than the state did in 2005. But the state and the five state water management districts have started planning for it, and already have identified water construction projects that will help meet some of the increasing demand. We rate Putnam's statement . |
1,332 | 3 | Says a prank phone call caused "400 children to be taken from their parents... without warrant. | January 27, 2010 | civil rights | debra medina | Debra Medina, a Wharton businesswoman, sought the 2010 GOP nomination for governor. | texas | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | an e-mail | And the detention of the children happened after state authorities were called by the shelter that fielded a call from Colorado that may have been a hoax — though no authority has proved the call was a prank. Significantly, the removal of children didn’t solely occur because of the call, as Crimmins said. The children were taken temporarily based on what investigators saw upon the raid. Therefore, Medina's additional that the children were removed "without warrant" isn't supported. We rate Medina's . |
7,545 | 0 | Says Ohio budget item later signed into law by Gov. John Kasich requires women seeking an abortion to undergo a "mandatory vaginal probe. | June 28, 2013 | abortion;pundits;women | rachel maddow | Rachel Maddow is the host of MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show”. She formerly hosted a radio program of the same name on the defunct Air America network. | ohio | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 1 | On “The Rachel Maddow Show,” broadcast on MSNBC | And with Kasich up for re-election next year, it’s no surprise that Democrats are eager for a debate that draws contrasts with the governor. But there should be no debate about what types of ultrasounds these new regulations require. Had Maddow read the language closely, she would have seen a mandate -- for external detection methods. That puts Maddow’s "vaginal probe" about as far as can be from the , into the realm of the . Or, in -O-Meter terms: ! |
16,482 | 1 | Says Bruce Lee said, "You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass. | August 26, 2019 | history;facebook fact-checks | viral image | Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine. | null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 | a Facebook post | But it’s also been wrongly attributed to Warren Buffet and " anonymous . " AFP Fact Check, which looked into the quote , quotes Sydnie Wilson, licensing director for the Bruce Lee Foundation, as saying: "I do not have proof to provide that Bruce Lee said this himself." Searching for the statement online, we couldn’t find a credible source confirming that Lee, who died in 1973, said it, though a 2018 Inc story compares Buffett and Lee and promises adopting their habits will "make you a high performer." If a legitimate citation for this quote comes to light, we’ll reconsider our ruling on whether Lee deserves credit. For now, we rate this Facebook post . |
21,066 | 1 | CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said she gets COVID-19 reports from CNN. | March 5, 2022 | facebook fact-checks;coronavirus | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | A Facebook post alleges that the CDC director said she gets her updates about COVID-19 from CNN. The is because Walensky was referring to the initial news that Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine proved 95% effective after a phase 3 study. That news came on Nov. 18, 2020, two months before she started the CDC job. Now, as CDC director, she has access to information from those who report to her. We rate claims that say otherwise . |
12,395 | 2 | Since 1978, California has spent $5 billion to put 13 people to death. | September 14, 2016 | criminal justice;death penalty;crime | tom steyer | Tom Steyer is a former hedge fund manager and environmental advocate who lives in San Francisco. In July 2019, he announced he's running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. | california | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | a press release | Tom Steyer said recently: "Since 1978, California has spent $5 billion to put 13 people to death." But that cost has been spread over hundreds of cases since 1978, not just the 13 that led to executions. California currently has more than 700 inmates on death row. Prosecuting and housing each costs the state significantly year after year. Steyer’s might have been correct if he had said taxpayers have spent $5 billion on a system that’s resulted in 13 executions. Instead, his words leave the impression California paid the entire $5 billion for a fraction of its hundreds of cases. We rate Steyer's . – The statement contains some element of but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Click here for more on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/bc51bc76-832d-4387-956d-fa0a87051f25 |
13,844 | 3 | The First Amendment's the First Amendment. It goes start to finish. We can't say to one football coach you're fired if you kneel in silent prayer at the end of the game, but to a player, if you kneel in protest to a game, you're celebrated. | September 25, 2017 | religion;sports | james lankford | James Lankford, a Republican, is a U.S. Senator from Oklahoma. Previously, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Prior to joining the House, he served as director of student ministry at the Baptist Convention of Oklahoma and as director of the Falls Creek Youth Camp. | national | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | a press conference | We can’t say to one football coach you’re fired if you kneel in silent prayer at the end of the game, but to a player, if you kneel in protest to a game, you’re celebrated." His complaint of the First Amendment’s double standard is because the First Amendment only applies to government action, or the public high school football coach. The First Amendment doesn’t protect NFL players’ speech, which is under the purview of their employer. Additionally, the football coach Lankford discussed wasn’t fired; he failed to reapply once his contract ended. We rate this statement . |
5,566 | 1 | The salaries of Wisconsin's best-educated public school teachers were "slashed" by Gov. Scott Walker through a recent administrative rule change. | April 26, 2012 | education;labor;state budget | chain email | Chain emails circulate on the Internet, usually anonymously, making a variety of political claims. | wisconsin | 6 | 5 | 9 | 11 | 44 | 107 | an email | Eventually, the employment relations commission or a court will likely have to settle that issue, which also affects technical college teachers. Our conclusion A chain email says an administrative rule modified by Gov. Scott Walker amounted to him slashing teacher salaries. We can’t predict the future, so there is no way to know how individual districts will approach teacher pay in the years ahead under this rule and Act 10. But it’s clear that the rule Walker reshaped does not give him authority over base pay, and does not mandate pay cuts for teachers. We rate that . |
20,673 | 1 | At Lions Gate Hospital in Vancouver, "13 babies were reportedly stillborn at the hospital in a period of 24 hours. All of their mothers had received a COVID-19 injection. | November 30, 2021 | facebook fact-checks;coronavirus | bloggers | Blog posting on the Internet | null | 8 | 18 | 24 | 53 | 233 | 396 | an article | All of their mothers had received a COVID-19 injection." There was not a surge of stillbirths at Lions Gate Hospital. Vancouver Coastal Health, which operates Lions Gate and six other hospitals, said the information is . The company saw only four stillbirths reported among its seven facilities between April and August 2021. We rate this . |
4,867 | 4 | Mitt Romney is "tearing down his 3,000-square-foot house to build an 11,000-square-foot house. | January 12, 2012 | candidate biography;message machine 2012 | winning our future | Winning Our Future is a Super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich for president in 2012. | national | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | the video "When Mitt Romney Came to Town" | The video used a reasonable figure for dimensions of the "teardown" project -- even though the Romney campaign calls it a doubling of living space, the official application uses numbers that would amount to a quadrupling. But the video implied that the project is under way when in fact it’s not imminent. On balance, we rate the statement . |
21,064 | 2 | In my first year in office, Aurora homicides went down by 40%. | February 20, 2022 | crime | richard irvin | Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin took office in May 2017. He jumped into the GOP primary for Illinois governor in January 2022 and is campaiging with State Rep. Avery Bourne, R-Farmersville. | illinois | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | a tweet | Irvin claimed that he reduced the number of homicides by 40% during his first year as Aurora mayor. There is only an element of in this : Homicides in Aurora dropped from six to four during Irvin’s first year as mayor. Experts say using percentages to describe the small fluctuations in the city’s homicide stats is , and there is no proven connection to Irvin’s policies. We rate this . – The statement contains an element of but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. |
12,092 | 2 | Says Gov. Mike Pence and Rep. Mike Coffman "take the same positions on a number of things ... Coffman and Pence oppose equal rights for LGBT Americans. | July 20, 2016 | lgbtq | democratic congressional campaign committee | The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is responsible for assisting Democratic candidates for the U.S. House. | colorado | 1 | 1 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 9 | a news release | A DCCC news release said, "Coffman and Pence oppose equal rights for LGBT Americans." The release stated that Coffman and Pence "take the same positions on a number of things," including on gay rights. DCCC and other critics have a point in saying Coffman opposed same-sex marriage, repealing the military’s "Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell" policy and he supported the Defense of Marriage Act. But he has backed legislation to protect gay Americans from discrimination in the workplace, in securing credit, in federal transportation and housing programs and in military benefits. Advocacy groups have praised Coffman’s support on some protections and said he is not as steadfast an opponent as Pence. We found several examples where the pair do not align. We rate this . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/fb91919a-bd52-46a0-af26-f910a8c191f8 |
7,200 | 2 | Abortion coverage is a standard insurance benefit "in nearly 90 percent of private plans sold in the U.S. | March 26, 2013 | abortion;health care | naral pro-choice virginia | NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia is an abortion-rights advocacy group. It is the state chapter of NARAL Pro-Choice America. | virginia | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | a statement | NARAL said McDonnell’s amendment banning an upcoming health care exchange from offering insurance plans that include abortion denies Virginians "coverage that currently exists as a standard benefit in nearly 90 percent of private plans sold in the U.S." NARAL bases its on a 9-year-old study by the Guttmacher Institute that found 87 percent of typical of typical employer-based insurance policies covered "medically necessary or appropriate abortions." Contrary to NARAL’s contention, the findings do not reflect coverage "that currently exists." The research focused on policies that were offered in 2002. Guttmacher never updated its report. The only other major research on abortion coverage was conducted by Kaiser in early 2003 and produced a different result. It found that 46 percent of workers with employer-based insurance had coverage for abortions. Experts have struggled to reconcile the two numbers. Guttmacher, in 2011, said that the "actual level of coverage is probably somewhere between" its estimate and that of Kaiser. So NARAL is citing as gospel an old figure that even its authors undercut. We rate its . |
7,522 | 2 | Michelle Nunn has praised the Occupy movement. | June 17, 2013 | occupy wall street | national republican senatorial committee | The National Republican Senatorial Committee helps elect Republicans to the U.S. Senate. | georgia | 1 | 3 | 11 | 18 | 14 | 7 | a press release | Its argument is based on an op-ed she wrote in 2011. The op-ed referenced Occupy a couple of times, but Nunn supporters say the intent of the article was to talk about young people and their role in the marketplace. The bulk of the op-ed was about millennials. The has an element of but ignores critical factors that give a different impression. We rate this . |
8,423 | 5 | Over 3 million Americans are employed in the growing green-collar workforce," which is more than the number "of people working in the fossil fuel industry. | January 22, 2014 | environment;economy;energy;jobs;transportation | tammy baldwin | Tammy Baldwin was elected to the U.S. Senate on Nov. 6, 2012. She represented Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District from January 1999 to January 2013. She served as a member of the Wisconsin Assembly from January 1993 to January 1999. She was a Dane County supervisor from 1986 to 1994 and briefly served on the Madison Common Council, filling a vacancy, in 1986. | wisconsin | 10 | 14 | 15 | 12 | 7 | 0 | a news release | Our rating Baldwin said: "Over 3 million Americans are employed in the growing green-collar workforce," which is more than the number "of people working in the fossil fuel industry." The latest estimates are for 2011. The federal government says there were 3.4 million green jobs, while a national oil and gas trade group says there were 2.59 million oil and gas jobs. We rate Baldwin’s statement . Follow us on Twitter and Facebook . |
14,332 | 5 | Says Stephen F. Austin and James Bowie promoted slavery. | February 26, 2018 | education;history | ann teich | Ann Teich, initially elected to Austin's school board in 2012 and re-elected in 2012, represents District 3. | texas | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | a meeting of the Austin school board | Teich told board colleagues that Austin and Bowie, key figures in the founding of Anglo Texas, each promoted slavery. Austin and Bowie each owned slaves. Austin believed his colony’s success required slaves and also that Texas should join the U.S. as a slave state. Bowie and two brothers earlier traded in slaves. We rate this . – 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. |
1,801 | 1 | Bill McCollum "served as a lobbyist whose clients enabled mortgages for illegal immigrants. | June 16, 2010 | immigration | rick scott | Rick Scott, a wealthy Florida businessman, was first elected Florida's 45th governor on Nov. 2, 2010 and re-elected Nov. 4, 2014. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018 and is running for re-election in 2024. | florida | 15 | 36 | 42 | 42 | 38 | 8 | a press release | McCollum lobbied for Citigroup in 2002. That company started accepting the Mexican consular ID in 2002, but news articles didn't start mentioning Citi providing mortgages to customers with the ITIN identification until 2004. He lobbied for AmeriDream in 2002 and 2003, and AmeriDream didn't announce it would start accepting ITINs until 2005. There are numerous reports in the past decade that illegal immigrants have been able to obtain mortgages through the consular cards or ITINs, but there are no specific examples we could find or Scott could provide that McCollum's three clients did so when he was their lobbyist. We rate this . |
838 | 3 | On attacks by Republicans that various programs in the economic stimulus plan are not stimulative, "If you add all that stuff up, it accounts for less than 1 percent of the overall package. | February 3, 2009 | economy;stimulus | barack obama | Barack Obama is the former president of the United States. Obama also served as a U.S. senator from Illinois. He was born in 1961 in Hawaii, where his parents met as students at the University of Hawaii. Obama's father is from Kenya and his mother is from Kansas. He graduated from Columbia University and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. Obama previously served in the Illinois state Senate and was an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School. He and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters, Malia and Sasha. | national | 124 | 165 | 163 | 71 | 71 | 9 | interview with CBS News | Obama's point is that some perspective is in order, that legislators are quibbling over a relatively small portion of the spending. And yes, if he's talking about some of the most publicized projects, he's right. But we think that it's to dismiss all of the complaints as less than 1 percent. In fact, many Republicans have said large percentages of the stimulus plan would not stimulate the economy and would waste taxpayer money. And so we rate Obama's statement . |
12,793 | 3 | Less than half" of jobs at the Carrier manufacturing plant in Indiana "are actually staying. | December 4, 2016 | jobs;punditfact | heather mcghee | Heather C. McGhee is president of Demos, a group that believes too much political and economic power lies in the hands of too few people | null | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | an interview on "Meet the Press" | McGhee said that less than half of the jobs from the Carrier deal actually stayed in the United States. If you just count the number of jobs at the Carrier plant, which is what Trump promised to save and what McGhee referenced on the show, then her is not accurate. In fact, more than half of the jobs will stay in the United States because the deal is keeping approximately 800 jobs out of 1,400 at the Carrier plant. However, her statement is correct when applied more broadly to include jobs that will be lost from the United Technologies' factory closure in Huntington, as well as the hundreds of jobs not saved in the Carrier deal. McGhee’s statement is partially accurate but needs clarification, so we rate the . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/228c9aa4-bea8-420d-b946-dd81fe8327f9 |
7,596 | 3 | The U.S. Postal Service doesn't run on your tax dollars. It's funded solely by stamps and postage. | July 8, 2013 | debt;federal budget | american postal workers union | The APWU says it is the world's largest postal union, representing more than 220,000 U.S. Postal Service employees and retirees, and nearly 2,000 private-sector mail workers. | georgia | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | television advertisement | To sum up, the American Postal Workers Union claimed in its television ad that the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t operate on taxpayer dollars and and it’s solely funded by stamps and postage. The Postal Service has borrowed money from the government in recent years, primarily it says, to cover the cost to pre-fund employee health benefits. The first part of the statement is on target. The second part, however, gets a return to sender. We rate this . |
10,558 | 4 | We built a new prison every 10 days between 1990 and 2005 to keep up with our mass incarceration explosion of nonviolent offenders. | July 27, 2015 | criminal justice;crime | cory booker | Cory Booker is a senator from New Jersey. He was first elected to the Senate in 2013, making him the first African-American senator from New Jersey and the first African-American elected to the Senate since Barack Obama in 2004. Booker served as mayor of Newark from 2006 until 2013. He has a bachelor's degree in political science and a master’s degree in sociology from Stanford University, an honors degree in United States history from The Queens College as a Rhodes Scholar and a J.D. from Yale Law School. In 2019, he ran for the Democratic nomination for president and suspended his campaign in January 2020. | national | 10 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 0 | a post on Instagram | Booker said, "We built a new prison every 10 days between 1990 and 2005 to keep up with our mass incarceration explosion of nonviolent offenders." Booker is right that a new prison was built every 10 days during that period. But while there was a significant rise in the incarceration rate of nonviolent offenders, it took place over a longer time period than the post indicates -- between 1980 and 2013. On balance, we rate his . |
14,315 | 3 | Says NRA head Wayne LaPierre said, "We believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America's schools. Period. | February 22, 2018 | guns | everytown for gun safety | Everytown for Gun Safety is an advocacy group that seeks to prevent gun violence. | national | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | a tweet | Everytown for Gun Safety tweeted the reminder that nearly two decades ago, LaPierre said, "We believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America’s schools. Period." The quotation is accurate, but it takes LaPierre’s words out of context. His full message was that adults should keep weapons out of the hands of minors and that schools and localities should act swiftly to punish any student caught bringing a firearm to school. In 1999, LaPierre also left open the door for armed security on school grounds, but that was not the focus of the policy debate at the time. That option has since risen on the NRA’s agenda. The Everytown tweet has a measure of , but it leaves out important context that changes the meaning behind LaPierre’s words. We rate this . |
650 | 5 | Sarah Palin "already has more executive experience" than Barack Obama and Joe Biden "combined. | August 31, 2008 | candidate biography | rudy giuliani | Rudy Giuliani is the former mayor of New York City. He was born in Brooklyn in 1944 and previously served as a federal prosecutor, as well as an associate attorney general under President Reagan. He graduated from Manhattan College and earned a law degree from New York University Law School. He has been married since 2003 to Judith Nathan and was married twice before. He has two children, Andrew and Caroline. He withdrew from the presidential race on Jan. 30, 2008. | national | 8 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 12 | 7 | St. Paul, Minn | "We've got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe 12-million dollars a year – we have a budget of about three times that just for the month." But we think elected executive experience is what Giuliani had in mind here. And even given Obama's point, Palin's years of elected executive experience beat out the rest of both tickets, even her own running mate. So we find Giuliani's statement . |
49 | 5 | Guantanamo detainees "get taxpayer-paid-for prayer rugs…they had honey-glazed chicken and rice pilaf. | September 5, 2007 | terrorism | duncan hunter | Duncan Hunter is a former U.S. representative from California, first elected to the post in 1980. He was born in California in 1948 and went to Western State University for undergraduate and law degrees. He served in Vietnam and practiced law before running for Congress. He is married and has two children. He withdrew from the presidential race on Jan. 19, 2008. | national | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Durham, N.H | Indeed, the Joint Task Force Guantanamo, which runs the camp, provides prayer rugs to the detainees that are paid for by taxpayers, according to Lt. Col. Edward Bush, a spokesman for the task force. "Detainees are given the opportunity to practice their religions," Bush said, which means that the Muslim call to prayer is sounded five times a day and played over the loudspeakers in the camp. Bush said the detainees are served three meals a day that meet their "cultural dietary requirements," and chicken and rice pilaf is one of the offerings. He could not confirm that the chicken dish was served on a Friday, as Hunter specifically claimed, but Hunter's point remains valid. Bush said that while it's not possible to know if "all" of them gain weight, it is common for them to do so, he said. |
3,847 | 3 | Says the 2012-13 state budget "leaves $6 billion in a rainy day fund. | June 18, 2011 | state budget | rick perry | Rick Perry is the U.S. Energy Secretary and was governor of Texas from late December 2000 through 2014. He was re-elected in 2002, 2006 and 2010. He unsucessfully ran for president in 2012 and 2016. | texas | 26 | 24 | 43 | 30 | 31 | 18 | a speech | Of course, the reverse could also happen, ratcheting up the state’s fiscal obligations. So, as Perry says, lawmakers left $6 billion in the fund. However, if projections hold, that money looks likely to be sucked up in 2013 to make up for this year’s legislative decisions to under-fund Medicaid costs and postpone a payment to school districts. Broadly, Perry’s statement leaves the misimpression that Texas state government is sailing along without financial frets. We rate this blue-sky . |
21,135 | 1 | Ukraine has been shooting residents of Donetsk and Lugansk just because they wanted to speak Russian. | March 20, 2022 | facebook fact-checks;ukraine;russia | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | The U.S. State Department calls this framing "Russophobia," a label the Russian government uses whenever it "wants to play the victim, when it is actually the aggressor." Ukraine appealed to the U.N.’s International Court of Justice in the Hague to rule on the Russian government’s claims of genocide "in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts of Ukraine," calling them . The court ruled 13-2 on March 16 that the Kremlin’s justification for the war was unjustified and ordered Russia to stop its invasion. Judges from Russia and China were the two dissenting votes. We rate this post . |
22,775 | 1 | Former President Donald Trump tweeted, "The storm is upon us. | March 18, 2023 | facebook fact-checks | viral image | Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine. | null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 | a Facebook post | We didn’t find the tweet in Trump’s Twitter feed , nor among his deleted tweets that used to be tracked by ProPublica’s Politwoops database. We also found no credible news coverage or other sources reporting on Trump tweeting the phrase, though previous perceived forays into QAnon lore were covered in the media. In the Facebook post, the purported tweet appears alongside a March 18 authentic Social post from the president urging his supporters to protest. But unlike that post, this tweet isn’t real. We rate claims that Trump tweeted this . |
14,693 | 4 | Rep. Dan Donovan "voted for Tax Cuts | May 30, 2018 | taxes | 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. | new york | 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 | a tweet | Trump said Donovan "voted for Tax Cuts." That's actually . Donovan has voted for tax cuts in the past, though he was against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act last year. Trump's other tweets about tax cuts refer to that law, but we can't assume what Trump was talking about. That makes Trump’s statement accurate, but it required additional information. We rate it . |
8,661 | 5 | The Koch brothers are one of the biggest polluters in the country. | April 3, 2014 | environment;punditfact | bob beckel | Bob Beckel is a former Democratic consultant and current Fox News co-host of "The Five." | null | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | a broadcast of "The Five" on Fox News | Beckel said that the Koch brothers are one of the country’s biggest polluters. In this fact-check, we're talking about the Kochs' company, Koch Industries. Koch Industries operates over 100 plants across the country. According to one ranking, it is not responsible for the most significant releases but it does land within the top 30 on one list and the top 15 on another. Most people would count that as "one of the biggest." Most of those releases are legal under EPA permits. The EPA does not consider this level of pollution to pose a health risk in and of itself. However, it is still pollution. We rate the . |
800 | 1 | Obama raises taxes on seniors (and) hard-working families to give welfare to those who pay none. | October 16, 2008 | taxes | john mccain | John McCain was a U.S. senator from Arizona, a post he held from 1987 to his death in 2018. He previously served two terms in the U.S. House. He was the Republican nominee for president in 2008. McCain was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and spent his career in the military, as his father did. He was a combat pilot in Vietnam who was shot down and spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war. He was born in 1936 in Panama. | national | 37 | 37 | 31 | 32 | 39 | 8 | a Web ad | Using the term "welfare" to describe refundable tax credits? Not by most people's definition. That the plan would give payments to people who pay no taxes? Only if you don't consider payroll taxes as taxes. That all adds up to . |
16,097 | 0 | Video shows Nancy Pelosi slurring her speech at a public event. | May 22, 2019 | congress;corrections and updates;fake news | politics watchdog | Politics WatchDog is a Facebook page that attracted scrutiny in May 2019 after posting a manipulated video of House Speaker nancy Pelosi that was slowed down to make her speech appear slurred. Its About page says, "Democrats and Republicans need to be watched. We will police both parties. Sometimes we will poke fun at both parties so don’t be snowflake. Remember no matter what side you on we are all Americans." | national | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | a Facebook post | A viral Facebook video giving the impression that Pelosi slurred her speech at a public event isn’t an accurate account of how she spoke at the event. We rate this post . |
13,476 | 3 | It's a longstanding policy of the Department of Justice not to comment on conversations that the attorney general has had with the president of the United States. | June 13, 2017 | legal issues;transparency | jeff sessions | Jeff Sessions is President Donald Trump's Attorney General. He was previously a U.S. Senator from Alabama.
| national | 1 | 2 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 0 | a congressional hearing | Sessions said, "It's a longstanding policy of the Department of Justice not to comment on conversations that the attorney general has had with the president of the United States." The Justice Department provided us with memos from 1982 and 2009 about executive privilege. They do not say outright that attorneys general can’t ever comment on conversations with the president. However, they do guide the attorney general to consult with the White House before responding to congressional inquiries that may involve confidential communications with the president. This is the rationale Sessions invoked later in his testimony. Sessions’ statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details, so we rate it . |
18,324 | 1 | Joe Biden wants to raise taxes on 82% of all Americans. | September 2, 2020 | economy;taxes | donald trump jr. | Donald Trump Jr. is the son of President Donald Trump and his former wife Ivana Trump. | null | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 6 | a tweet | Donald Trump Jr. said, "Joe Biden wants to raise taxes on 82% of all Americans." Trump inaccurately described an analysis from the Penn Wharton Budget Model. The 82% is a calculation made using the model’s estimates that represents the percentage of people whose after-tax incomes would change under Biden’s plan. But there’s a difference between a tax increase and the share of corporate tax increases borne by individual taxpayers in the form or lower investment returns or incomes. Biden has pledged not to directly raise taxes on people earning less than $400,000 per year. Some Biden tax credits not included in Penn Wharton analysis could potentially offset some of the indirect hits posed to lower earners as a result of Biden’s proposed corporate tax hike. We rate this statement . |
22,455 | 0 | Says U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., "says pedophilia isn't a crime — it's an identity. | December 15, 2022 | crime;sexuality;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. | california | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 | a Facebook post | (We’ve previously written about "grooming" allegations.) She also talked about allegations that someone is a groomer or pedophile "merely because of their identity, their sexual orientation, their gender identity." But she wasn’t suggesting that pedophilia is an identity and not a crime, as this post says. She was discussing social media posts that malign people as pedophiles simply because of their identity. We rate claims that Porter called pedophilia an identity and not a crime ! |
18,847 | 1 | Republicans in Nevada found "at least 3,062 instances of voter fraud. ... Thousands of individuals have been identified who appear to have violated the law by casting ballots after they moved from NV. | November 5, 2020 | elections | nevada republican party | The Nevada Republican Party is the affiliate of the Republican Party in Nevada. | nevada | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | a tweet | The information released so far by Trump’s team does not confirm their . We rate the . RELATED : Donald Trump’s about illegal votes This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here , for more. |
8,722 | 3 | Americans will spend more on taxes in 2014 than they will on food, clothing and housing combined. | April 23, 2014 | taxes | the tax foundation | According to its website, the Tax Foundation is a non-profit begun in 1937 with a mission "to educate taxpayers about sound tax policy and the size of the tax burden borne by Americans at all levels of government. From its founding in 1937, the Tax Foundation has been grounded in the belief that the dissemination of basic information about government finance is the foundation of sound policy in a free society." | national | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | a Facebook post | The Tax Foundation post said that "Americans will spend more on taxes in 2014 than they will on food, clothing and housing combined." While a minority of Americans probably does pay more for taxes, the numbers suggest that there are many more Americans whose food, clothing and shelter expenses exceed their tax burden. We rate the . |
1,320 | 4 | Inequality in Texas is steadily getting worse, with very few rich people, a great many poor people, and fewer and fewer in the middle. | January 18, 2010 | census;economy;families | ronnie earle | Ronnie Earle, the former district attorney for Travis County, lost the 2010 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor to Linda Chavez-Thompson. | texas | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | a speech | Earle passed along a September press release from the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for programs serving low-income Texans, stating that the ranks of Texans living in poverty has likely swelled given the national recession. Even if so, that doesn't necessarily mean that fewer people are in the state's middle class. Eschbach, the state demographer, suggested that because there has been little change in income inequality across Texas over the past decade, more research would be needed before concluding the state's middle class has dwindled. Ultimately, neither Galbraith or Eschbach quibbled with the gist of Earle’s . We rate his statement . |
4,223 | 4 | Issue 2 makes it illegal for us to negotiate for enough firefighters to do the job. | September 2, 2011 | elections;labor | we are ohio | We Are Ohio is a citizen-driven, community-based, bipartisan coalition that has come together to repeal Senate Bill 5 in Ohio. The legislation would overhaul rules for collective bargaining by public employees. | ohio | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | a campaign commercial | We think the natural reading of "enough firefighters to do the job" is how many would be needed to fight a fire -- or on duty. Scenes in We Are Ohio’s ad show firefighters responding to a call, buttressing that notion. There is language in SB 5 that could allow negotiations on overall staffing levels -- a point of clarification -- but only if management allows the topic to be part of negotiations. And there is a clear prohibition against negotiating the number of workers "on duty." On the -O-Meter, a statement that is accurate, but needs clarification rates . |
9,292 | 1 | Says Thom Tillis "gives tax breaks to yacht and jet owners. | August 20, 2014 | message machine 2014;wealth;taxes | senate majority pac | Senate Majority PAC is a super PAC that works to elect Democrats to the U.S. Senate. | national | 0 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 0 | a campaign ad | A Senate Majority PAC ad said, "Thom Tillis gives tax breaks to yacht and jet owners." North Carolina lawmakers, under Tillis’ leadership, overhauled the state’s tax code in 2013. But they left in place a 23-year-old tax break for boats and aircraft. By using the word "give," the statement suggests Tillis created the tax breaks, which he didn’t. Because the ad turns inaction into action, we rate this . |
18,871 | 0 | Says conservative website Judicial Watch published a story about "elite" units of the National Guard recounting official ballots that were printed with "an invisible, unbreakable code watermark and registered on a Quantum Blockchain System. | November 10, 2020 | elections;facebook fact-checks;ask politifact | instagram posts | Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters. | null | 3 | 3 | 15 | 51 | 405 | 140 | an Instagram post | "There are currently no National Guard men and women on duty for election support. The information you present suggests federal control of a state’s National Guard, which would not be the case." We rate this post ! This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here , for more. |
18,266 | 4 | Drug overdose deaths decreased in 2018 for the first time in 30 years. | August 25, 2020 | drugs;health care;health check | ryan holets | Ryan Holets is a police detective from Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was a speaker at the Republican National Convention in 2020. | null | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | a speech at the Republican National Convention | Holets is correct in saying that overall drug overdose deaths ticked down in 2018, although a small category of deaths — those related to fentanyl — rose. And it’s pretty close to 30 years since a decline was documented. Still, Holets failed to mention that drug overdose deaths went up again last year, according to preliminary data from the CDC. Also left unsaid were other factors that may contribute to the rising or falling drug death rates — and what that may say about the underlying level of dependence or addiction. We rate his statement . |
18,895 | 4 | Every single swing-seat House Democrat who endorsed #MedicareForAll won re-election or is on track to win re-election. Every. Single. One. | November 7, 2020 | congress;health care;medicare | alexandria ocasio-cortez | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat, was elected to New York's 14th Congressional district seat in November 2018. | new york | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 1 | a Tweet | Ocasio-Cortez said that every House Democrat in a swing seat who supports Medicare for All won their race. Ocasio-Cortez's statement is as far as it goes, but it leaves a impression. Only two of the 23 Democratic incumbents running for re-election whose races the Cook Political Report rated as "toss-up" or "lean Democratic" had signed on as co-sponsors of the bill. We rate her statement . |
16,555 | 1 | Says Joe Biden "said he never spoke to the Ukrainian company, and then the picture came out where he was playing golf with the company boss and Hunter" Biden. | October 6, 2019 | impeachment;negative campaigning | donald trump | Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024. | national | 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 | a tweet | Trump claimed Joe Biden "said he never spoke to the Ukrainian company" where his son, Hunter, served as a board member. He also claimed a photo of the Bidens shows them posing with "the company boss" of Burisma. The photo that Trump is referencing doesn’t show a Ukrainian executive of the company. It shows Devon Archer, a former board member and Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner. Also, Biden never said he had never spoken to Burisma — he said he’d never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings. We could find no that Biden ever made the former . Trump’s statement is not accurate. We rate it . |
9,203 | 5 | It cost us more to shut the government down than to keep it open. | August 5, 2014 | congress;deficit;economy;federal budget | rand paul | Rand Paul, a U.S. senator from Kentucky elected in 2010. He ran for president in 2016 before dropping out to seek re-election to the Senate. Paul is a medical doctor and an ophthalmologist. His father is Ron Paul, a 2008 presidential candidate and a former member of Congress from Texas. | national | 12 | 15 | 13 | 7 | 12 | 4 | Iowa | Our ruling: Paul said, "It cost us more to shut the government down than to keep it open." Numerous independent economic research groups found that the shutdown resulted in overall costs, in terms of lost revenue, hindered GDP growth, stalled private-sector activity and actual expenditures associated with the logistics of closing the government for two weeks. The government had to pay all of what it normally would have spent during that two-week period and then some. There was very little to the contrary. We rate this . |
10,184 | 4 | Says Loretta Lynch's nomination "has been now sitting there longer than the previous seven attorney general nominees combined. | April 17, 2015 | criminal justice | barack obama | Barack Obama is the former president of the United States. Obama also served as a U.S. senator from Illinois. He was born in 1961 in Hawaii, where his parents met as students at the University of Hawaii. Obama's father is from Kenya and his mother is from Kansas. He graduated from Columbia University and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. Obama previously served in the Illinois state Senate and was an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School. He and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters, Malia and Sasha. | national | 124 | 165 | 163 | 71 | 71 | 9 | a press conference | Obama said that Lynch’s nomination "has been now sitting there longer than the previous seven attorney general nominees combined." Mathematically, Obama was correct if you start counting from Lynch’s initial nomination, but short by 19 days if you start counting from the resubmission of her nomination to the newly installed Republican-controlled Senate. Either way, it’s clear that Obama has a point that Lynch’s delay has been long by historical standards, especially for a Cabinet nominee. We rate the . |
9,104 | 1 | Obamacare "already has caused millions of hardworking Virginians to lose their health insurance. | July 7, 2014 | health care | barbara comstock | Barbara Comstock, a Republican, has represented Virginia's 8th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015. She represented Fairfax County in Virginia's House of Delegates from 2010 to 2014.
Prior to that, Comstock held various staff positions on Capitol Hill. She did opposition research for the Republican National Commiittee, was a staffer on George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign and a consultant in Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign. She is founding partner and co-principal of Corallo Comstock, a public relations and public policy firm.
Comstock was born in Springfield, Mass. She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Georgetown University Law Center.
| virginia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | a web post | Comstock’s website said that millions of Virginians lost their health insurance because of Obamacare. Her campaign acknowledged it erred and, after our inquiry, changed its site to say millions of "Americans" lost their health insurance. While we applaud the campaign’s admission of a , that does not unplug the -O-Meter. There’s no exact count on how many Virginians were notified last year that their plans would be ended because of Obamacare. A state health insurance lobbyist estimates the number at 850,000. But these people still had options; they or their employer could renew their old plans for another year or switch to new coverage. So Comstock’s about millions of Virginians losing coverage was unfounded and we rate it . |
15,847 | 2 | The catalytic converter used in automobiles was invented in West Virginia. | February 10, 2019 | history;science;technology | brian joseph | Brian Joseph is CEO of Touchstone Research Laboratory, a technology firm based in Triadelphia, W.Va. | west virginia | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | a newspaper interview | Joseph said, "The catalytic converter used in automobiles was invented in West Virginia." One particularly important type of catalytic converter was co-invented by Keith, who was born in West Virginia. But he did not invent it in West Virginia. We rate his statement . |
3,413 | 3 | A space shuttle the National Museum of the United States Air Force near Dayton would be "within a day's drive of 60 percent of the U.S. population. | April 30, 2010 | space;tourism | michael turner | Michael Turner, a former mayor of Dayton, is a member of the House of Representatives from Ohio's 3rd District in the southwestern corner of the state. | ohio | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | a letter from the Ohio congressional delegation to NASA | A 500-mile range from the museum reaches across New Jersey, but doesn’t take in New York city or New England. The congressional delegation’s underlying point was accurate -- a large portion of the U.S. population would be within driving distance of a shuttle in Dayton. But by narrowing the starting point for the range from the entire state, as Smith-Daniels used, to just the museum, they also eliminated more than 40 million of people. Then again, they also were smart enough not to say how far they’d drive in a day. With that important detail mentioned, we rate the as . |
12,825 | 4 | Germany managed to increase its use of renewables and its output of carbon dioxide at the same time -- because it resorted to cheap coal to keep the lights on at a price its people could afford. | December 1, 2016 | energy | jeanne ives | Jeanne Ives is a former three-term Republican state representative from Wheaton, Ill. She unsuccessfully challenged former Gov. Bruce Rauner in Illinois' 2018 Republican primary election. | illinois | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | a floor speech | State Rep. Jeanne Ives said, "Germany managed to increase its use of renewables and its output of carbon dioxide at the same time because it resorted to cheap coal to keep the lights on at a price its people could afford." In 2015, renewable energy accounted for nearly one-third of Germany’s total electricity generation, compared to 25.9 percent in 2014. During this same time period, carbon dioxide emissions rose slightly by 1.1 percent. While subsidies for wind and solar is part of the reason Germany’s residential consumers have seen electricity prices rise 50 percent between 1998 and 2015, the country’s aggressive push to eliminate nuclear energy by 2022 has been the main driver behind the coal and carbon comeback. Prematurely closing down nuclear power plants without having enough renewables on the grid to replace them led to an uptick in the use of lignite coal and therefore carbon emissions. As of 2015, coal supplied Germany with 40 percent of its power total power generation, even though renewables’ share surged to 30 percent. This statement is accurate, but requires additional context about Germany’s energy transition. We rate this . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/ba45f7c9-ecba-4b3a-acae-f5a0a21790ba |
12,090 | 3 | Says U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson "opposes faster broadband internet in small towns" and "got nearly $90,000 in campaign contributions from the telecom special interests. | June 23, 2016 | infrastructure;technology | democratic party of wisconsin | The Democratic Party of Wisconsin focuses on advancing state Democratic candidates and related issues. | wisconsin | 3 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 7 | 7 | a radio ad | Johnson’s voting record shows he opposed two particular proposals to grow faster broadband in rural areas and one signed letter to the FCC showed he was against a faster definition of broadband. But two other letters to the FCC suggest he’s in favor of faster rural broadband — but concerned with its execution. Johnson’s campaign has said he supports using the private sector to grow rural broadband. The second part of the is on point — Johnson actually received somewhat more from the industry than the ad claimed. On balance, we rate the . |
9,287 | 3 | Over 60 percent of the provisional ballots cast in [the 2012] election were disqualified because those folks were not duly registered as voters. | August 10, 2014 | elections;history | john carlevale | John Carlevale of West Greenwich, R.I., has run for several offices, most recently in an unsuccessful bid for secretary of state in 2014 as a Republican. A graduate of Mt. Pleasant High School and the University of Rhode Island, he received a graduate degree in child development and family relations. Carlevale spent 33 years in human services, helped found the Rhode Island chapter of the Social Service Employees Union International, and taught at the Community College of Rhode Island for 31 years. He is co-founder of the State of the State public access television show, which advocates for better government. | rhode island | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | an interview on WPRI's "Newsmakers" program | Secretary of State candidate John Carlevale said, "Over 60 percent of the provisional ballots cast in [the 2012] election were disqualified because those folks were not duly registered as voters." Data from the Rhode Island Board of Elections shows that the actual total was 50.4 percent. He's off the mark, but close enough to earn a . (If you have a you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, email us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.) |
22,098 | 3 | Tim Ryan when he ran for president two years ago … supported banning fracking both on public lands and generally speaking. | October 10, 2022 | environment;energy | j.d. vance | J.D. Vance won the U.S. Senate race in Ohio in 2022. He has also worked as an investor, commentator, and bestselling author of Hillbilly Elegy. | ohio | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | a debate | Vance said that Ryan, "when he ran for president, two years ago ... supported banning fracking both on public lands and generally speaking." Ryan said during a 2019 event that he would "absolutely" consider banning fracking on federal lands. He also voted to stop the processing of fracking applications for drilling sites off the California coast in environmentally sensitive water. Ryan told The Washington Post that if the fracking industry cannot keep local residents safe, the federal government might need to "halt" fracking operations. However, Ryan’s full record of statements and policies on fracking is more nuanced than Vance suggests. Ryan’s focus has been on leveraging natural gas as a transitional fuel and a source of revenue and jobs for Ohio. He’s said he supports fracking as long as the industry keeps the environmental risks in check. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context, so we rate it . |
422 | 2 | Barack Obama's health care plan "will cost taxpayers $1,700 more to cover each new person. | April 20, 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 | 72 | 76 | 70 | 43 | 31 | 9 | a television ad | This makes it hard to say exactly how much the plans will cost. ( We looked at this point previously when Obama said his plan would save more .) So Clinton's ad is pushing the envelope quite a bit to say that her plan would save $1,700 per person. Yes, there is that a mandate lowers costs for everyone, but whether $1,700 would be the difference between her and Obama's plan is a different matter. We find her statement to be . |
8,847 | 0 | Obamacare is "one big fat VA system. | May 21, 2014 | health care;veterans;punditfact | kimberly guilfoyle | Kimberly Guilfoyle is a co-host of The Five. | null | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | a broadcast of "The Five" on Fox News | Guilfoyle said Obamacare is "one big fat VA system." We found no health policy expert who agreed with that comparison. The VA is owned and operated by the federal government. Its staff are government employees. In contrast, Obamacare builds upon the existing private sector health industry. The law sets standards for insurance and health care providers and it subsidizes premiums. Washington does run the Medicaid insurance program but even under that program, it is paying private providers. We rate the . |
18,502 | 1 | In manufacturing, "I brought back 700,000 jobs. (Obama and Biden) brought back nothing. | September 29, 2020 | economy;jobs | donald trump | Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024. | null | 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 | the first presidential debate | Trump said that in the manufacturing sector, "I brought back 700,000 jobs. They brought back nothing." Trump is about the job gains on his watch; the actual increase is about 450,000 prior to the pandemic. As for the record under Obama and Biden, Trump wants to have his cake and eat it, too. If he’s going to ignore the coronavirus pandemic, then it’s fairest to ignore the Great Recession in comparing himself with Obama. And during the post-recession recovery, Obama oversaw gains of 916,000 manufacturing jobs. We rate the statement . |
8,395 | 2 | The CBO's latest report confirms what Republicans have been saying for years now. Under Obamacare, millions of hardworking Americans will lose their jobs. | February 4, 2014 | economy;health care;jobs | eric cantor | Eric Cantor is a former congressman who represented Virginia's 7th District from 2001 to 2014. He rose to House minority whip in 2009 and House majority leader in 2011. Cantor was upset by Dave Brat in the 2014 GOP primary for congress. He is now vice chairman and managing director of Moelis & Company, a global investment bank.
| virginia | 7 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 6 | 4 | a news release | Cantor says the CBO confirmed a long-standing Republican talking point -- that millions of people would "lose their jobs" as a result of the health care reform. But the statement is . The CBO projected the law will lead to 2.5 million fewer full time equivalent workers by 2024, but the report does not say that those legions will "lose their jobs." That implies the employees will be laid off or forced out of work. To the contrary, the report takes pains to note that virtually all of those people will be working less due to their own choices, such as opting to receive higher federal subsidies for care rather than working more to boost their wages. The CBO said it’s not projecting the law would cause a bump in unemployment or underemployment. The report does not paint a rosy picture of the economy and it can be easy to miss the distinction between people leaving jobs because they want to as opposed to being laid off. But Cantor’s statement is deeply flawed and we rate it . |
7,983 | 1 | Hidden" in the healthcare.gov code is language that means users "waive any reasonable right to privacy of your personal information. | October 24, 2013 | health care;technology;privacy issues | joe barton | Joe Barton is a Republican congressman from Texas. He was formerly the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce committee and served as that committee’s ranking member while the Democrats were in the House majority. | national | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | a Fox News interview | Barton claimed healthcare.gov has "hidden" code indicating that consumers waive their rights to privacy when they apply for insurance. The website’s markup does include a sentence along these lines that isn’t visible to the user. But because it’s not displayed to the public, it carries no legal weight and consumers can’t consent to it. Bottom line, it doesn’t change a thing about the privacy protections in place at healthcare.gov. We rate Barton’s . |
20,609 | 4 | Within two years, there were two 500-year (storm) events" in Wisconsin. | November 6, 2021 | environment;climate change;weather | tammy baldwin | Tammy Baldwin was elected to the U.S. Senate on Nov. 6, 2012. She represented Wisconsin’s Second Congressional District from January 1999 to January 2013. She served as a member of the Wisconsin Assembly from January 1993 to January 1999. She was a Dane County supervisor from 1986 to 1994 and briefly served on the Madison Common Council, filling a vacancy, in 1986. | wisconsin | 10 | 14 | 15 | 12 | 7 | 0 | Panel discussion | Our ruling Baldwin claimed that since she took office, two "500-year" storm events occurred in northern Wisconsin. Data from the National Weather Service shows that 500-year storms did indeed strike the northernmost counties in Wisconsin in 2016 and 2018, overwhelming creeks and rivers. But storms in Cashton and Madison in 2018 lso rose to the same level, meaning that there have been more than two such storms within two years in the state. So Baldwin actually undershot the number of high-impact storms within the state between 2016 and 2018. We rate this . |
15,698 | 0 | A photo of Trump having a stroke is really a virus that will wipe out all information on your computer. | February 19, 2019 | fake news;facebook fact-checks | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | A similar warning came in 2016, claiming that a video of Trump getting arrested would infest computers if opened. That was also . Sharing warnings, for any situation , may not appear to have any drawbacks, but people should not expect such things to keep their information safe. It is important to be cautious when clicking on links and visiting new websites, especially when it involves high-profile figures. We rate the warning ! |
3,356 | 4 | Every child born today inherits a $30,000 share in a national debt that stands at more than $13 trillion. | January 11, 2011 | deficit | tim pawlenty | Tim Pawlenty is the former governor of Minnesota, having served two terms in office from 2003-2011. | national | 2 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | his book, "Courage to Stand: An American Story" | On Jan. 1, 2011, gross federal debt stood at just over $14 trillion, which works out to $45,433 for every American. So both of the figures Pawlenty used have a basis in reality, but they do not relate to each other the way he suggested. If Pawlenty wants to stick with the $30,000-per-person figure, he should have said that debt stands at more than $9 trillion. Alternately, if he prefers to stick with the "more than $13 trillion" debt figure, he should say that the amount of debt per person exceeds $45,000. Since both of his numbers are right -- just measuring different things -- we’ll give him some leeway and rate his statement . |
13,035 | 1 | Look at what's happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this? Sweden. They took in large numbers. They're having problems like they never thought possible. | February 18, 2017 | crime;foreign policy;terrorism | donald trump | Donald Trump is the former president of the United States. He was elected the 45th president of the United States on Nov. 8, 2016. He has been a real estate developer, entrepreneur and host of the NBC reality show, "The Apprentice." Trump's statements were awarded PolitiFact's 2015, 2017 and 2019 Lie of the Year. In November 2022, he announced he would run for president in 2024. | national | 36 | 85 | 120 | 194 | 360 | 179 | a campaign rally | Decrying countries who accept immigrants and refugees, Trump told supporters to "look at what’s happening last night in Sweden." We couldn’t find any reports that support Trump’s narrative. It’s possible Trump was referring to another event, but there hasn’t been a fatal terrorist attack in Sweden since 2010. Even though Sweden has taken in a large number of immigrants, nothing was amiss Feb. 17. We rate Trump’s . UPDATE: This fact-check was updated shortly after publishing to include Trump's tweet confirming he watched the Fox report. The rating did not change. https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/1408093c-03fb-4409-a012-5eabe9c618f5 |
23,190 | 1 | Monkey virus DNA found in COVID-19 shots | June 12, 2023 | facebook fact-checks;coronavirus | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | Social media posts shared an Epoch Times article headlined, "Monkey virus DNA found in COVID-19 shots." There is no to support this . Monkey DNA and the SV40 virus are also not listed among the ingredients for the COVID-19 vaccines that federal regulators approved. Pfizer also told PolitiFact that it did not use African green monkey DNA in its vaccines. The Epoch Times article cited a study, which has not been peer-reviewed, that found part of a DNA sequence called an SV40 promoter in two expired vials of the Pfizer vaccine. But the SV40 promoter is not the same as the SV40 virus and is not cause for concern, molecular biology experts told PolitiFact. We rate this . |
11,562 | 3 | Says the Congressional Budget Office "is expecting a protracted economic malaise for at least the next decade under current policies. | March 28, 2016 | economy | tom price | Rep. Tom Price is the Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Trump administration. Previously, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives for the 6th District of Georgia, an area that includes Marietta and Canton. | national | 3 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | a post on Medium | Price, in the resolution his committee produced, wrote that the Congressional Budget Office "is expecting a protracted economic malaise for at least the next decade under current policies." Even granting Price some leeway for his use of the subjective term "protracted economic malaise," he cherry-picks what CBO wrote, offering its negative interpretation without acknowledging its positive interpretation. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details, so we rate it . |
23,080 | 1 | Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., is facing charges after "lying" to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. | May 26, 2023 | facebook fact-checks | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | The video was clipped from a Feb. 28 House Judiciary Committee hearing , led by committee chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. The hearing, on the judiciary authorization and oversight plan for the 118th Congress, does not show that Swalwell "faced charges instantly" after he spoke. We found no court records, news reports, or other that Swalwell faced charges after he spoke at the hearing. A few days before this circulated, news reports and a statement from Swalwell revealed that the House Ethics Committee ended a two-year investigation into Swalwell’s conduct in connection with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative and decided against further action. We rate the that Swalwell is facing charges . |
5,468 | 1 | Personal income is growing faster in Tennessee on average than any other state in the country. | April 20, 2012 | economy;income | bill haslam | Bill Haslam is the former mayor of Knoxville and is now the governor of Tennessee. | tennessee | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | a speech to Carter County Republican Party | Even if it was a made at the conclusion of a long day, Haslam told an audience that personal income was growing faster in Tennessee than in any other state -- something that we see on video and that was then reported by a newspaper. In fact, 15 states showed better per capita income growth than Tennessee did, and the state only outpaced the national average by 0.3 percent. He also, in our determination, is trying to take premature credit for income growth that for the most part occurred before any of his policies had been put into place. We rule the governor’s . |
14,442 | 0 | Says U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis "voted in favor of food stamps for illegal immigrants. | March 23, 2018 | immigration;congress;food;punditfact | uncle sam's misguided children | Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children is a website that says it is a "community founded by United States Marine Veterans to bring awareness of the lame stream media." | null | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | a headline | Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children said that DeSantis "voted in favor of food stamps for illegal immigrants." The article fails to point out that even before the farm bill passed, undocumented immigrants were already generally blocked from getting food stamps. The farm bill that DeSantis voted against was a sweeping piece of legislation that mentions immigrants only briefly in the context of requiring states to verify their status. DeSantis stated at the time of his vote against the bill that he thought it was a bad deal for taxpayers and failed to rein in the food stamp program. By voting "no" he took a stand against the overall piece of legislation — that’s not that he "voted in favor of food stamps for illegal immigrants." We rate this ! |
19,462 | 2 | Under H.R. 1, the Federal Election Commission "for the first time ever, instead of being an equal number of Republicans and Democrats (would be) three of one side and two of the other. | March 21, 2021 | campaign finance | roy blunt | Roy Blunt is the junior U.S. senator from Missouri. He was formerly a U.S. representative from Missouri’s 7th district, and served for six years as the Republican whip in that chamber. | missouri | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" | Blunt said that under H.R. 1, the FEC "for the first time ever, instead of being an equal number of Republicans and Democrats (would be) three of one side and two of the other." H.R. 1 would reduce the number of FEC commissioners from six to five. But the bill says that "no more than two" of the five members "may be affiliated with the same political party." The fifth member would be unaffiliated with either of the two major parties. So Blunt’s of a 3-2 split cannot come to fruition. However, it’s worth pointing out that assuring that the fifth member will truly be independent requires some trust. If a fifth member did make it through the vetting process but later showed partisan leanings, the newly five-member commission could for the first time in its history enforce policy without bipartisan support. We rate the statement . |
21,639 | 0 | A video shows Joe Biden speaking slowly and slurring on the Fourth of July. | July 4, 2022 | facebook fact-checks | viral image | Graphics, pictures and charts shared on social media give chain emails a run for their money when it comes to spreading too-good-to-be-true claims all over the Internet. A common form is is the "Internet macro," which uses an easily recognized and repurposed image (called a meme) wth superimposed text to make a funny but political argument. Sometimes these images are passed across social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit so widely that the original source is nearly impossible to determine. | null | 4 | 13 | 35 | 53 | 711 | 331 | a Facebook post | Lyu said: "The time-stretching algorithm is widely used to change the playback speech of audio, but it tries to keep the original pitch in the sound while slowing down the tempo, so that the slowed sound would not sound like slowing down a vinyl record." "In my opinion," Lyu said, "there is no doubt that the Facebook version of the video is a slowed-down version of the original PBS video. " It’s the same technique that was used to slow down a speech by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make it appear like she was slurring in 2019, he said. We then rated claims that Pelosi was slurring during her speech . This post gets the same rating: . |
16,857 | 0 | An email from Hillary Clinton to Donna Brazile Oct.17th, 2016 stated: "If that f-----' bastard wins, we're all going to hang from nooses! You better fix this s---! | December 28, 2019 | elections;facebook fact-checks | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| null | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | Victurus Libertas also wrote, without , that Clinton singled out Brazile during her rant. Our search of news articles did not reveal any that Clinton sent a profanity-laced tirade to Brazile after the forum. We searched WikiLeaks’ Hillary Clinton email archive and found nothing about nooses. The post makes a about Clinton’s emails that isn’t supported by any proof. We rate this statement . |
19,504 | 1 | Says Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert are "still not doing Biden jokes. | March 25, 2021 | corrections and updates;pop culture;facebook fact-checks | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| national | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | "It was Inauguration Day here in the U.S.A. Joseph Rapunzel Biden is our 46th president," Kimmel said. (Biden’s middle name is actually Robinette). We rate this Facebook post . UPDATE, March 31, 10:15 a.m.: After publication of this article, Kimmel's spokesperson emailed us to point out that Kimmel's show was on hiatus during the week that Biden fell while boarding Air Force One. We have updated the article to reflect that. |
4,691 | 2 | The only reason the unemployment rate is going down is because … twice as many people dropped out of the employment pool as the number of jobs were created. | December 5, 2011 | economy;jobs;workers | newt gingrich | Newt Gingrich is a political adviser and author. A former Georgia congressman, Gingrich served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. Gingrich sought the GOP nomination for president in 2012. | national | 7 | 11 | 21 | 17 | 15 | 12 | a press conference | Gingrich would have been correct if he’d simply challenged the White House’s spin by reminding voters that the big drop in the unemployment rate came not just from the jobs created in the previous month but also from workers who left the labor force. However, he overplayed his hand by arguing that "the only reason the unemployment rate is going down" is because of labor force shrinkage. It was by no means the only reason. There were thousands of jobs created too. Gingrich also erred by using the survey in his numerical comparison. (We feel for him: Until Burtless straightened us out, we had thought Gingrich had reported the numbers accurately.) Using the appropriate survey data, the decline in the unemployment rate stemmed in roughly equal parts from job creation and a shrinking labor force. He can't put the blame "only" on people who stopped looking for work. So we rate his statement . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/736a198d-c5ed-4d2e-80ae-5aa7ada93f14 |
19,469 | 1 | Finally, a judge has ruled Dominion voting machines were designed to create fraud. | March 18, 2021 | elections;facebook fact-checks | facebook posts | Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
| michigan | 24 | 50 | 108 | 245 | 1,410 | 570 | a Facebook post | It was discredited by Michigan election officials and the former head of certification at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, the federal agency that certified the voting system used in Antrim County. Circuit Court Judge Kevin Elsenheimer in December ordered that the report be released. But he made no ruling about any alleged fraud. An official hand audit performed by a bipartisan group of election officials confirmed what Antrim County had already certified, that Trump had won the county, even as he lost Michigan to Joe Biden. We rate the post . |
3,477 | 1 | In early voting in Miami-Dade County, "there is a trickle of two or three people a day at a very high cost to keep those public libraries and polls open. | April 15, 2011 | elections | miguel diaz de la portilla | Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, is a Republican state senator, representing District 36 in Miami-Dade County. He was elected to the Senate in 2010. He is a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner. | florida | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | a Senate Rules Committee meeting | ''I think we'll go to Aventura,'' voter Craig Hooten, 41, told a Miami Herald reporter on that date, after noting an hour and 45-minute line at the Aventura City Hall early voting site. While there have been cases of early voter turnout falling below the double-digit mark, those instances were related to inclement weather. Overall, early voting in Miami-Dade County has experienced steady growth each election cycle, with some sites processing more than 3,000 voters. Based on the figures provided to us by the Miami-Dade elections department, we have not come across any cases of just "two or three voters" showing up to an early voting site, as Diaz de la Portilla claimed. We rate this . |
6,077 | 5 | Georgia spends fewer tourism advertising dollars than any other state in the South. | August 6, 2012 | state budget;tourism | ron stephens | Ron Stephens, a Republican, is a member of the Georgia House of Representatives. A pharmacist, Stephens was first sworn into office in 1997 and lives in Savannah. | georgia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | an article | Our ruling: Stephens said that Georgia’s state government spends fewer tourism advertising dollars than any other in the South. He was right in the metrics that matter most: per capita spending, and spending as a percentage of state budget. In dollars, Stephens was close. Only Kentucky spends less. Stephens earns a . |
1,146 | 1 | Forty-five percent of doctors "say they'll quit" if health care reform passes. | October 12, 2009 | health care;pundits | glenn beck | Glenn Beck is the host of The Glenn Beck Program, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show. He also hosts an Internet-based TV show. Beck formerly hosted a television talk show on CNN Headline News and then Fox News. | national | 4 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 6 | a statement on his Fox News Channel program | The survey didn't say 45 percent would quit; it said they would consider quitting, which is considerably different. Moreover, polling experts have raised significant questions about the poll's methodology. Of special concern are the combination of the heavy mention of IBD 's name and questions that experts said appeared to be seeking answers critical of health reform. We'd like to see an independent poll assessing doctors' views of health care reform, but neither the findings from the IBD survey nor those from the Keyhani-Federman study are fully persuasive to us. We rate Beck's statement . |
164 | 5 | When Sen. Edwards ran in 2004, he wasn't for universal health care. I'm glad he is now. | November 15, 2007 | 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 | 72 | 76 | 70 | 43 | 31 | 9 | Las Vegas | At a debate a few months later, moderator Tim Russert charged Edwards with changing his position. "That's and so has America," Edwards responded. "I proposed universal health care for children at that point, and what is clear from this presidential campaign is I was the first presidential candidate — others have followed me now, and that's a good thing, good thing for America — but I was the first presidential candidate to lay out a specific, truly universal health care plan. And the one thing I can
tell you ... anybody who knows me knows I will never give up." Edwards did release his plan before Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, but Dennis Kucinich released a proposal for universal health care before Edwards. |
1,841 | 4 | I have a record on the environment of creating green energy ... taking trash and turning it into cash. | June 3, 2010 | environment | vernon jones | Vernon Jones is a Democrat running to represent Georgia's 4th Congressional District. | georgia | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | a candidate forum | It has collected $3.9 million in revenue in that time span, with an estimated $2.1 million on the way in the next two years. Most business ventures have start-up costs, and DeKalb had some in this project. The revenue is on pace to soon exceed the start-up costs and expenses. DeKalb is, Jones said, converting "trash into cash." We rate this as . |
16,802 | 3 | Says a proposed change to Illinois' gambling law would result in "lower taxes paid to the state and higher taxes paid" to Chicago from a city casino so that the total amount would be the same, but the city would get to "keep more of it. | November 17, 2019 | gambling | dave syverson | Dave Syverson is a Republican from Rockford represents the 35th Senate District in the Illinois General Assembly. | illinois | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | a TV interview | Speaking about a proposal to change the tax structure for a future Chicago casino, Syverson said the plan would lower taxes paid by the casino to the state and increase the taxes it pays to the city so that the overall amount would be the same but Chicago would "keep more of it." That doesn’t entirely square with the language of the bill. As he said, it would have reduced tax revenue for the state — but it also would have lowered taxes paid to the city. Syverson conceded that last point in response to our inquiry. We rate his . – 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. |
10,511 | 1 | ISIS supporter tweeted at 10:34 a.m. Shooting began at 10:45 a.m." in Chattanooga, Tenn. | July 16, 2015 | technology;terrorism;punditfact | pamela geller | Pamela Geller is an activist who co-founded Stop Islamization of America, also known as the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a far-right group. In February 2015, Geller's group hosted a "Draw the Prophet" event in Garland, Texas, during which two shooters tried to ambush the event but were killed. | null | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | a tweet | Geller claimed that an ISIS supporter tweeted ahead of the Chattanooga shooting. The gained a lot of traction before it became clear that the tweet happened a few hours after the shooting. Geller updated the original post, but it did little to stuff the rumor back into the bag. We rate the . |
12,754 | 4 | Obamacare "is not a popular law. | November 9, 2016 | health care;government regulation;polls and public opinion | paul ryan | U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R.-Wis., became Speaker of the House in 2015 and served until his retirement in January 2019. Ryan was elected to represent southern Wisconsin in Congress in 1998 and for part of his tenure chaired the House Budget Committee. He was Mitt Romney's vice-presidential running mate in the 2012 presidential election. He did not seek re-election in 2018. | wisconsin | 11 | 16 | 24 | 23 | 7 | 5 | a news conference | Those findings track polls taken throughout 2016 -- unfavorable or disapprove leads favorable or approve. Similarly, the majority in a September 2016 poll say the law is working somewhat or very poorly. But it’s worth noting that in one October 2016 poll, favorable and unfavorable tied. And in two polls, expanding or keeping the law as-is was favored by more people than repealing it or scaling it back. Overall, Ryan’s statement is accurate, but needs more information – our definition of . https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/1eeb5445-8689-49d1-97a0-300a30fa3225 |