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Photo shows a taxi driver in New York City who “drives around taking people to kill. A warning spreading on social media could make people leery of hailing a cab in New York City. In what looks like a screenshot of a forwarded message, a photo shows a man sitting in a car and this supposed tip: "This is a man with taxi number (2465RB) in NY who drives around taking people to kill. He removed their parts. Share this message. At least save a life. My friend from the DA’s office in Brooklyn just sent me this. Share it for safety." An Instagram post sharing this was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) PolitiFact left a voicemail message for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office but didn’t immediately hear back. But in 2018, when the exact same warning was spreading on Facebook, a spokesperson for the office told Snopes that it knew "nothing" about the person in the photo or the allegations. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 More evidence the claim is a hoax? Similar warnings with the same photo and supposed taxi number have spread in other countries. Claims of this particular murderous cab driver have cropped up in Nigeria, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Instagram posts from 2018 and 2019 tell New Yorkers that he’s "kidnapping and killing for organs" and to "contact 911 cause they believe he’s a serial killer!" And yet, there are no news reports of such a suspected criminal, nor any credible sources connecting 2465RB to something nefarious. We rate the claims in this post Pants on Fir

"When I was your governor, we reduced insurance rates by 10%. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist says Florida homeowners have one person to blame for soaring insurance premiums: Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Hurricane Ian exposed the instability of the state's homeowners' insurance market; six Florida property insurers became insolvent in 2022, the Tampa Bay Times reported. An ad from Crist's campaign contrasts rates under DeSantis with what happened after Crist became governor 15 years ago. "He’s let home insurance rates skyrocket and he raised taxes on Floridians by $1 billion," Crist said. "When I was your governor, we reduced insurance rates by 10%." PolitiFact rated a similar claim by Crist about $1 billion-plus in new taxes Mostly False, noting that online shoppers were supposed to be paying the state's sales tax before DeSantis signed a new law to collect the tax in 2017. In this fact-check, we'll examine Crist's claims about property insurance, something he's mentioned before. Crist was Florida’s governor from 2007 to 2010. During his first year in office, the state’s main action on property insurance was a bill that temporarily froze homeowners' insurance rates for the state-run insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and allowed it to compete with the private market. The raw numbers supported his claim of a 10% home insurance rate drop when Crist was governor, but they don't tell the full story of his lasting impact on property insurance. Why insurance premiums dropped 10% by 2010 Eight hurricanes tore through Florida between 2004 and 2005, leaving homeowners on the hook for higher insurance premiums. Ahead of the 2006 governor's race, the insurance market became a chief concern. Crist, then a Republican, campaigned on a promise to help consumers and their wallets. After taking office, he called on the state Legislature to hold a special session on property insurance. Lawmakers passed HB 1A with bipartisan support, and Crist signed it into law in January 2007. The measure, in part, aimed to freeze Citizens' rates and loosened requirements to qualify. Florida statutes previously required Citizens to develop rates based on the state's top insurers to avoid competing with the private market. HB 1A eliminated that requirement, and Citizens became a major competitor in the homeowners' insurance market. Statewide, insurance premiums under Citizens and private insurers dropped from an annual average of $1,679 to $1,463 — about 13% — in 2008. Crist's 2022 campaign website attributed that decline to HB 1A. However, experts said changes to insurance law don't immediately affect the market. "Typically, there is an 18-to-24-month cycle before we see impacts of insurance reform legislation in Florida," said Mark Friedlander, a spokesperson for the nonpartisan Insurance Information Institute. So, that drop seen in 2008 is more likely a result of changes made before Crist took office. (Still, there was a 10% decline from 2007 to 2010 — Crist's first and last full year as governor.) Featured Fact-check Rebekah Jones stated on October 26, 2022 in a post on Instagram Document shows Rebekah Jones “demonstrated” a violation of Florida’s Whistleblower Act. By Sara Swann • November 1, 2022 A March 2010 report compiled by Risk Management Solutions, a private company contracted by the state, attributed much of the rate decreases after 2006 to revisions made to Florida's windstorm mitigation credits. Windstorm mitigation credits, which date back to 1993, are discounts provided to homeowners who invest in modifications that increase their homes’ resistance to storm damage. However, some insurers would offset their costs by imposing other fees on consumers and it wasn't until 2006 that the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation barred insurers from doing that. Such revisions led to a marked decline in insurance premiums, the report found. The average homeowners' insurance premium declined 3% from 2008 to 2009. But falling rates were short-lived. Private insurers said they could not compete with Citizens' frozen rates, a report from the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology found. Citizens swelled by about 400,000 more policies between 2004 and 2007, for a total of 1.2 million properties covered in 2010. Luckily for Floridians, and the insurance market under Crist, there were no major hurricanes during Crist's tenure. If there had been, Citizens likely would have been unable to cover claims, the Insurance Journal reported in 2014. In 2009, Crist signed HB 1495 to end the rate freeze and allow Citizens to increase homeowners' insurance premiums; the law capped rate increases to 10% until Citizens became actuarially sound, or in line with private insurers' pricing practices. Insurance rates under DeSantis Florida's property insurance rates are now among the highest in the U.S. The average homeowners' premium in Florida is $4,231, the Insurance Information Institute reported. "Nearly all of the reforms that became law in 2007 that insurers didn't like have either been repealed or are not being enforced," said Sam Ramirez, a Crist spokesperson. Still, a report by the Florida State University risk management and insurance program said the lasting effects of Crist's 2007 law "can still be seen today as Citizens rates remain below actuarially adequate levels in many areas of the state." Experts said DeSantis did not cause Florida’s insurance market woes, but he hasn't done much to address the problem. "It’s hard to say we don't have a more vibrant insurance market because of something DeSantis has done," said Patricia Born, professor at Florida State University's Risk Management Program. "It's more about what he hasn't done." Although DeSantis called on the Legislature to hold a special session for property insurance in April, the laws passed during the three-day session did not guarantee consumers would receive premium relief. Friedlander, of the Insurance Information Institute, said, "excessive litigation" filed against insurers plays a large role in the rate increases. Florida accounted for 79% of all U.S. homeowners insurance claim lawsuits, according to DeSantis' office. Our ruling Crist said he "reduced insurance rates by 10%." Crist in 2007 signed a law that froze rates for Citizens, the state-run insurer. Homeowners' insurance rates initially fell then rose, leaving an overall reduction of 10% by the time Crist left office. Experts hesitated to give Crist full credit for the reduction, saying a large share of credit was due to revisions made to Florida's windstorm mitigation credits in 2006. It's also worth remembering that no major hurricane struck Florida during Crist's tenure. Crist’s actions appear to be partially responsible for the 10-percent drop, though he likely attributed too much of an impact to his policies. With that clarification, we rate the claim Mostly Tru

Electric vehicles are unaffordable because “the average cost of replacing an electric vehicle battery is over $10,000, while the average cost of replacing the battery of a gas-powered car is $100 to $200. Arizona Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko opposes Democrats’ climate change plans. Recently, she harsh words for the push to expand the use of electrical vehicles. "The average cost of replacing an electric vehicle battery is over $10,000, while the average cost of replacing the battery of a gas-powered car is $100-$200," Lesko tweeted Aug. 30. "Democrats’ green energy only agenda will bankrupt the American people." The average cost of replacing an electric vehicle battery is over $10,000, while the average cost of replacing the battery of a gas-powered car is $100-$200. Democrats’ green energy only agenda will bankrupt the American people.— Congresswoman Debbie Lesko (@RepDLesko) August 30, 2022 Do the different price tags for batteries reflect the overall relative cost of electric and gas-powered cars? Automotive experts say they don’t. "It’s apples-to-oranges to compare the batteries for EVs and conventional cars," said Hanna Breetz, an assistant professor with ASU’s school of sustainability "They’re different technologies, doing different things in the vehicles. So the numbers aren’t wrong, but you could push back saying that it’s a specious comparison." A traditional battery simply starts the car engine, while the battery for an electric vehicle stores all the power needed for moving the vehicle. Replacing gas-powered cars and light trucks with electric versions is central to the government’s climate plans. The U.S. Transportation Department has set a goal of having 50% of newly sold vehicles be electric zero-emissions vehicles by 2030. Because of the complex nature of hybrid vehicles — cars that use a blend of gas and electric power systems — this fact-check focuses solely on the batteries in traditional gas-powered vehicles and those in fully electric vehicles. Andy Garberson, head of marketing for the consulting group Recurrent Auto, said that electric vehicle battery prices can vary widely, depending on the car model. Generally, the cost falls between $2,000-$20,000. Lesko’s numbers are in the middle of that range. Her prices for traditional batteries are also reasonably accurate. Beyond that, Lesko’s comparison is misleading, said Jeffrey Wishart, an automotive systems concentration professor at Arizona State University. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in a video Video shows “California sets their own forest fires and claims them as climate change effects.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 "The high-voltage propulsion battery in EVs should not be compared with the 12-volt starting/lighting/ignition batteries of all cars," Whishart said "The fair comparison would be to compare the cost of the high volt battery and electric motor with the cost of the internal combustion engine and gasoline tank." Standard 12-volt batteries are cheaper because they are simpler and produced in high volume, which reduces production costs. Mark Schrimer, director of corporate communications of Cox Automotive, an automotive data and online systems vendor, said 12-volt batteries are interchangeable across car makes and models, while the batteries for electric vehicles are custom made. In a traditional car, a 12-volt battery plays a limited role. The battery packs in full electric vehicles "are very high-tech items, made of advanced materials; they are custom made for each vehicle and not interchangeable," Schrimer said. Lesko also overlooks that manufacturers generally provide multi-year warranties for EV battery replacement, which often last up to 100,000 miles or 10 years. California requires 10-year/150,000 mile warranties on all electric and hybrid vehicles. Michael Kuby, a geographical studies and urban planning professor at ASU said that ultimately, the price comparison "depends on the total cost of ownership." The lifetime cost of owning electric vehicles is a moving target. Technology improvements and the economics of producing them in larger volumes both work to push costs down. Consumer Reports found that even with higher upfront costs for electric vehicles, lower operating and maintenance costs make them a better deal for buyers. They estimate that EV owners save between $6,000 and $10,000 over a car’s lifetime. A study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that EV owners save as much as $14,500 on fuel costs over 15 years. Our ruling Lesko said that "the average cost of replacing an electric vehicle battery is over $10,000, while the average cost of replacing the battery of a gas-powered car is $100 to $200." Her numbers are in the ballpark, but beyond that, her comparison breaks down. The two types of car batteries play fundamentally different roles in the operation of a car. A traditional battery only starts the engine. An electric vehicle battery stores all the power needed for moving the vehicle. In addition, early studies found that over a car’s lifetime, consumers save money with electric vehicles because of lower fuel and maintenance costs. The tweet includes numbers that are fairly accurate, but it omits important context that would change a reader’s understanding of the price difference. We rate this claim Mostly Fals

Dark spots on potato chips are “infected with throat mold. Potato chips are one of the most consumed snacks in the United States, with an estimated 1.85 billion pounds eaten each year, but a recent Facebook post claims people should look twice before taking a bite. The post features photos of ridged potato chips with dark spots on the surface along with a photo of a raw potato’s cross-section with a dark ring around its interior. "The chips that look like this, we eat it and say it is burnt," the Oct. 7 post said. "It’s not burnt. It’s infected with throat mold, which means it’s forbidden to be eaten forever, and it must be thrown away. Please be aware of your children." "Throat mold" isn’t a real condition affecting potatoes and an expert we talked to said the ring shown in the raw potato was likely caused by a bacterial infection that affects potatoes, but not the humans who eat them. The rings on the potato chips are also harmless. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.). Most plants contain a vascular system with tissue called the xylem and phloem, which distributes water, minerals and food across the plant. In potatoes, this system encircles the interior of each spud and is known as the "vascular ring." Robert Wilson, a farm adviser and director of the Intermountain Research Extension Center at the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, said he knows of no plant infection called "throat mold." A Google search could not find any references to potatoes and "throat mold" outside of unsubstantiated social media posts similar to the one on Facebook. Wilson said the raw potato’s vascular ring in the Facebook post is likely infected with ring rot. Ring rot happens when a bacteria infects a potato plant, causing its leaves to wilt and the vascular ring in a spud to break down into mush. Potatoes with ring rot are safe to eat, but Wilson said most commercial processing and packing sheds would reject infected potatoes before they are sold to the public for aesthetic reasons. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 24, 2022 in a video McDonald's uses potatoes sprayed with a highly toxic pesticide called Monitor. By Andy Nguyen • October 28, 2022 "Most plant diseases do not carry over to humans, and I’m not aware of anyone becoming sick from eating potatoes with ring rot or dry rot," he said. The photo in the Facebook post is the same one the British Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board uses as an example of a ring rot infection. Wilson said the dark spots on the chips are unrelated to ring rot and are common for potatoes used for chips. Discoloration in potato chips is cosmetic and they are still safe to eat. "(They) are dark spots or dark coloring from bruising, changes in sugars during storage or vascular discoloration," he said. Bruising can happen because of the way a potato has been handled or stored. Potatoes can also convert their starches into sugars, which results in more browning during frying. Vascular discoloration can happen for several different reasons, including stress a potato may experience while it grows or when the vine of a potato plant rapidly dies. Our ruling A Facebook post claims to show an image of a raw potato and potato chips infected with "throat mold" that should be thrown away and not eaten. We found no references to an infection called "throat mold," and an expert told us the raw potato likely had ring rot, which is an infection of a potato’s vascular system and doesn’t harm humans. The dark spots on a potato chip are also harmless and safe to eat. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

A dog endured “unimaginable pain and suffering” during heart research experiments, “just one of 300 killed in (Dr. Mehmet) Oz’s lab. An ad from a Democratic super PAC accuses Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee in Pennsylvania’s pivotal U.S. Senate race, of animal cruelty. The 30-second spot is from Senate Majority PAC, which is supporting the Democratic nominee, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The Nov. 8 contest, which rates as a toss-up, could decide which party controls the Senate, which is split 50-50. The ad uses video clips, labeled as generic footage of animal testing, that show dogs in cages, and clips of Oz in a lab coat and what appear to be notes from a log. "She wasn’t given a name, only a number — 6313," the narrator says. "For 29 days, she suffered in Mehmet Oz’s lab, leaking blood, not eating, struggling to breathe. Twenty-nine days of unimaginable pain and suffering, until Oz took her for the last experiment. Just one of 300 dogs killed in Oz’s lab. Mehmet Oz is unfit to be Pennsylvania’s senator." The words "Dr. Oz’s killing over 300 dogs" appear on the screen, attributed to NBC News. But the words are not from a news report; they are part of a headline on an opinion column written by a professor that was published on NBC’s website. Another Senate Majority PAC TV ad made the same claim against Oz. Oz’s campaign did not dispute a report that more than 300 dogs were euthanized during experiments between 1989 and 2010 in a Columbia University research lab Oz supervised. "The operations in the research lab were carried out by Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows, and the animals were cared for by veterinarians," Oz campaign spokesperson Brittany Yanick said. We did not find evidence that dogs were routinely subjected to "unimaginable pain and suffering." An internal investigation by Columbia found that the dog highlighted in the ad, known as 6313, received "adequate veterinary care." News reports detail allegations and fine The allegations date back 20 years to lab experiments at Columbia involving dogs and other animals that Oz, a heart surgeon, and other cardiac researchers supervised. News reports about the allegations against Oz were published in September and October. On Sept. 13, the Philadelphia news outlet Billy Penn reported that Oz was directing a research program at Columbia when it agreed in 2004 to a settlement with the U.S. Agriculture Department to resolve animal abuse claims. The three-page settlement agreement, which did not mention Oz, fined Columbia $2,000. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 The agreement was based on an internal investigation by Columbia that was spurred by allegations from a whistleblower in the lab, Catherine Dell’Orto. Dell’Orto told PolitiFact she does not know whether the 300 figure is accurate, but that the number of dogs euthanized does not signal animal abuse. Dell’Orto said Oz was responsible for the tests conducted in his lab. She said dogs suffering pain is part of lab testing, but that the lab Oz oversaw did not design tests to limit suffering and caused suffering by waiting unnecessarily long to euthanize some dogs. Dell’Orto told Billy Penn the experiments were meant to "model human cardiac failure" and to assess treatments. Logs showed that puppies were not properly sedated before being euthanized and that an outdated euthanasia solution was used. Also, paperwork did not show that a dog exercise plan was approved by the attending veterinarian. Oz’s campaign provided to PolitiFact the 22-page internal investigation report from Columbia, which covered Oz and other researchers. The report said that under Oz’s supervision,"appropriate veterinary care" was given to dog 6313, and that "inadequate or questionable veterinary care" was given to two other dogs. The report said lab records did not say why the two other dogs were kept alive — one for two days and the other for nearly a month — after being paralyzed. The references in the ad to dog 6313 leaking blood and struggling to breathe were from a summary published by the advocacy group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. Billy Penn reported that before the settlement, PETA had complained of abuse of baboons and dogs at Columbia after being contacted by Dell’Orto. In October, the news and cultural commentary website Jezebel reported that, based on studies in academic journals Oz published from 1989 to 2010, experiments Oz supervised resulted in the deaths of at least 329 dogs. Oz’s campaign said Oz "never abused any animals" and noted that the whistleblower said Oz was not involved in euthanizing dogs. Our ruling Senate Majority PAC said a dog endured "unimaginable pain and suffering" during heart research experiments, "just one of 300 killed in (Dr. Mehmet) Oz’s lab." The ad’s focus on a dog known as 6313 is misleading. An internal investigation by Columbia University said "appropriate veterinary care" was given to this animal, which suffered loss of blood and difficulty breathing. The investigation said lab records did not say why two other dogs in Oz’s experiments were kept alive, one for two days and one for three weeks, after being paralyzed. On the bigger issue of dog deaths, Oz’s campaign did not dispute a published report that more than 300 dogs were euthanized during experiments in a Columbia research lab Oz supervised from 1989 to 2010. The campaign said other researchers conducted the tests and provided veterinary care in the lab. The ad’s claim is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half Tru

“California is registering non-citizens to vote and has refused to cooperate with the Federal Election Integrity Program. As early voting begins in California ahead of November’s midterm elections, a Facebook post claimed the state is registering noncitizen voters. The Oct. 6 Facebook post linked to a different post on another social media platform featuring a text block within an image. The text denigrates the Democratic Party and singles out California. "Now that California is registering non-citizens to vote and has refused to cooperate with the Federal Election Integrity Program, all votes from California should be nullified, and federal representatives from the state be removed from Congress for the benefit of all the states," the post said. The text mentioning California is taken verbatim from a 2018 tweet made by Ryan Fournier, the co-founder of Students for Trump. Fournier’s tweet and this more recent social media post are based on misinformation involving a San Francisco law that took effect in 2018 and allowed noncitizens to vote in school board elections. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Anyone who is 18, a U.S. citizen and a California resident can register to vote in the state. Green card and visa holders, and people who are serving in state or federal prison for a felony conviction or individuals found mentally incompetent, are ineligible to vote. The California Secretary of State Office did not immediately respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment. San Francisco voters approved a law in 2016 allowing noncitizen parents and guardians of children enrolled in the San Francisco Unified School District to vote in board of education elections, regardless of their legal status. Despite social media claims, the law did not expand voting for noncitizens to any other election. The law was struck down July 29, after San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard B. Ulmer ruled it violated California’s Constitution, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. "Transcendent law of California, the constitution thus reserves the vote to a ‘United States citizen,’ contrary to (the San Francisco law)," Ulmer said in his ruling. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 23, 2022 in a post Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs “sent 6,000 wrong ballots to Republicans.” By Gabrielle Settles • October 28, 2022 The same year San Francisco’s law took effect, the California Department of Motor Vehicles revealed around 23,000 residents were registered to vote incorrectly, the Los Angeles Times reported. The mistake stemmed from an error in the agency’s online rollout of its Motor Voter Program, in which eligible residents are registered to vote when they renew or apply for a driver’s license or identification card unless they actively opt out of the program. Around 1,500 people were registered to vote when they didn’t intend to, including an undisclosed number of noncitizens, according to the Times. State officials told the Times that none of the noncitizens registered to vote were in the country illegally. Election officials were able to cancel the erroneous registrations in time for the 2018 midterm elections, and absentee ballots sent to people who were mistakenly registered to vote were voided, the Times reported. There is no such thing as the "Federal Election Integrity Program." However, the post could be referencing the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, established by former President Donald Trump in May 2017 to investigate claims of voter fraud and improper registrations. The commission attempted to obtain voter data from state election officials, but 44 states and the District of Columbia partially or outright refused to hand the information over. Many state officials, including in California, cited privacy concerns, as the data the commission sought included birth dates, addresses and the last four digits of a people’s Social Security numbers. Then-California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said at the time that the commission was a "waste of taxpayer money" and a distraction from real threats to election integrity, like out-of-date voting systems and foreign interference. "I will not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally," he said. The election integrity commission abruptly disbanded in January 2018 after failing to find evidence of fraud. Our ruling A Facebook post shared a link to an image claiming California is allowing noncitizens to vote and refusing to cooperate with the "Federal Election Integrity Program." The claim appears to be based on misinformation involving a 2018 San Francisco law that allowed noncitizens to vote in local school board elections but was struck down as unconstitutional in July. Noncitizens were also mistakenly registered to vote through a Department of Motor Vehicles mix-up in 2018, but state officials were able to fix the issue before that year’s midterm elections. California does not allow noncitizens to vote in elections. Eligible voters must be 18, U.S. citizens and California residents. We rate this claim False.

“Trans species man who self-identifies as a deer accidentally shot by hunters. What looks like a shocking news headline circulating on social media originated on a site that publishes fiction. "Trans species man who self-identifies as a deer accidentally shot by hunters," reads a screenshot of the fabricated story that features an image of what looks like a person dressed like a buck. "A South Carolina man who self-identifies as a deer has been transported to the hospital via helicopter after being shot by two hunters." An Instagram post sharing the screenshot was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The undated story appears to have been posted in fall 2020 on World News Daily Report, which describes itself as a satire site. "World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content," reads a disclaimer at the bottom of the web page. "All characters appearing in the articles in this website — even those based on real people — are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle." PolitiFact has previously debunked stories from the website that were taken out of context on social media. Claims that this story is authentic are Pants on Fir

Abraham Hamadeh misled "about his legal experience. In the Arizona attorney general race, Republican Abraham Hamadeh has leaned on his work as a prosecutor in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. His campaign website says he "has appeared in court to prosecute criminals, uphold victims’ rights, and seek justice for the community." But the Arizona Democratic party cast doubt on his resume. "Hamadeh, who wants to be Arizona’s lawyer, lied about his legal experience," the party tweeted Sept. 13. After a recent debate, Hamadeh’s opponent, Democrat Kris Mayes, said Hamadeh exaggerated his work as a prosecutor. "I think he didn’t first chair any cases," Mayes said Sept. 28. First chair refers to the lead attorney on a case. We took a closer look at Hamadeh’s work record. Hamadeh’s resume In an interview on Prescott Talks, Hamadeh said he worked on "dozens of trials" for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. In a Sept. 12 interview on The Gaydos and Chad Show, Barry Markson, an attorney and legal expert for KTAR News, asked Hamadeh about his courtroom experience. "Have you been what we call first chair, where you've led trials, you've actually conducted the trials yourself?" Markson asked. "Absolutely," Hamadeh answered. When pressed to estimate how many trials he had led, Hamadeh diverted and complained about the work of a freelance reporter who had delved into his work history. State Bar of Arizona records show that Hamadeh got his law degree from the University of Arizona and was admitted to practice in May 2017. Personnel files obtained by freelance writer Dillon Rosenblatt show he began working as prosecutor for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office four months later in September 2017. The state Democratic party highlighted Rosenblatt’s work. Featured Fact-check Blake Masters stated on October 15, 2022 in a tweet Immigrants illegally in the country are treated “better than military veterans.” By Jon Greenberg • October 21, 2022 Hamadeh’s 14 month deployment as a U.S. Army Reserve intelligence officer interrupted his stint at the county’s attorney’s office. In total, Hamadeh worked as prosecutor for a bit less than three years. Hamadeh’s trial experience In his application for that county position, Hamadeh said that he prosecuted 10 misdemeanor bench trials and two misdemeanor jury trials for DUIs when he worked as legal intern for the Tucson City Prosecutor’s Office in 2015. Valeena Beety, a criminal law professor at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor School, said law students in Arizona can practice law in court as part of an externship or clinic if they are supervised by an attorney with an Arizona Bar license. "Generally students don't get to first chair a case; if they do, it would be for a minor fine or maybe a misdemeanor," Beety said. According to court records, Hamadeh worked on 27 criminal cases as a prosecutor. None of these cases went to trial, as the charges were either dismissed or the defendant pleaded guilty. Beety, who also has experience as a federal prosecutor, added that lawyers can only be considered first chair if their case goes to trial. The pattern in Hamadeh’s cases is typical. According to research published by the Vera Institute of Justice in 2020, over 90% of convictions at the state and federal level come through plea bargains. Hamadeh and his campaign did not respond to requests for comment. Our ruling The Arizona Democratic Party said Hamadeh misled "about his legal experience." Hamadeh said in an interview that he worked on "dozens of trials" for the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and led cases as first chair. Court records list Hamadeh as participating in 27 cases, and none of those cases went to trial. In practice, the role of first chair applies to trials. Hamadeh participated in cases, but embellished his role. Without judging whether he intended to deceive — as the Democrats said — we rate this claim Half True.

“Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark. Denmark has a high COVID-19 vaccination rate, but recent social media posts suggest that the country is now banning residents from getting a shot. "Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark," read the headline in a screenshot of a story featured in an Oct. 16 Instagram post. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The story was posted on Sept. 16 on the blog Natural News, whose own Facebook page was deleted by social media platforms in 2019 for spreading misinformation and violating its rules about spam. The blog post goes on to say that "the Danish Health Authority has announced that just about every young and middle-aged person in Denmark is now prohibited from getting ‘vaccinated’ for COVID." But that’s misleading. In September, the Danish Health Authority said it would recommend that people ages 50 and older, "as well as selected risk groups," get a COVID-19 vaccine booster before an expected increase in infections this fall and winter. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 The "autumn vaccination programme" is aimed at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death, according to the authority’s website. That means that people 50 and older, and people younger than 50 who are at a higher risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19, and anyone who works in health care, elderly care, and some social services — regardless of age — will be offered a vaccine. The authority also recommends relatives of people at higher risk get vaccinated. In a section titled "Why are people aged under 50 not to be re-vaccinated?," the health authority said this vaccination program aims to prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death. "People aged under 50 are generally not at a particularly higher risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19," its website says. "In addition, younger people aged under 50 are well-protected against becoming severely ill from COVID-19, as a very large number of them have already been vaccinated and have previously been infected with COVID-19." But this pertains to just booster shots. The primary vaccine series is still available for people in Denmark younger than 50, though vaccinations have been limited among children. RELATED VIDEO Following a seasonal vaccination program, starting in July, according to the health authority, it was no longer possible for children under age 18 to get a first COVID-19 shot. And after August, it was no longer possible for them to get a second injection. Children at high risk of becoming severely ill can still get a vaccine at their doctor’s recommendation. We rate claims that Denmark is banning people under 50 from getting a COVID-19 vaccine False.

“WV families making less than $400K & small businesses will NOT be targeted by the IRS. Since the Inflation Reduction Act passed with only Democratic support in Congress, Republicans have criticized the bill, saying it will saddle ordinary Americans with increased audits by the Internal Revenue Service. The legislation, signed into law by President Joe Biden on Aug. 16, includes provisions that would lower drug costs, address climate change, reduce the deficit, and impose higher taxes on the largest corporations. But much of the Republican criticism has focused on the law’s allocation of about $80 billion over 10 years to strengthen the Internal Revenue Service. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said that the "Democrats' new army of 87,000 IRS agents will be coming for you — with 710,000 new audits for Americans who earn less than $75k." Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., sought to counter these attacks in an Aug. 28 tweet, saying, "The Inflation Reduction Act will ensure the wealthiest & most fortunate among us pay their fair share in taxes just like #WV families & small businesses. WV families making less than $400K & small businesses will NOT be targeted by the IRS because they are already paying taxes." The Inflation Reduction Act will ensure the wealthiest & most fortunate among us pay their fair share in taxes just like #WV families & small businesses.WV families making less than $400K & small businesses will NOT be targeted by the IRS because they are already paying taxes.— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) August 28, 2022 Manchin has a point. His argument is roughly the inverse of McCarthy’s, which PolitiFact rated Mostly False. We concluded that McCarthy’s 710,000-audit estimate runs counter to the IRS’ stated policy and was based on a flawed use of a Congressional Budget Office estimate that assumed much higher spending on enforcement than is in the legislation that passed. (We also found that McCarthy’s 87,000 figure was exaggerated because not all of those employees would be enforcement agents.) Here, we’ll zero in on Manchin’s statement that "WV families making less than $400K & small businesses will NOT be targeted by the IRS." The 710,000 figure stems from an exaggerated calculation by U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the House Ways and Means Committee’s top Republican. He arrived at the number by bringing together two pieces of data. In 2021, the Congressional Budget Office said that $80 billion more for the IRS would "return audit rates to the levels of about 10 years ago." Brady took 2010’s audit rates and applied them to the number of tax returns in 2018, broken down by income groups. Using his approach, there would be about 710,000 more audits for filers reporting less than $75,000 in income. However, this approach ignores several key details about what the CBO report says elsewhere and what the bill — and the Treasury — have made clear: This effort aims to increase audits of corporations and high-net-worth individuals. The full sentence in the CBO report that Brady was drawing from said the audit "rate would rise for all taxpayers, but higher-income taxpayers would face the largest increase." Brady also failed to note a key difference between the budget office’s assessment from a year ago and the bill that was passed in 2022. The CBO assumed in its report that $60 billion of the $80 billion would go toward enforcement. But the current bill would result in substantially less than that — $46 billion — for enforcement, according to a Congressional Research Service analysis. Featured Fact-check Marco Rubio stated on October 18, 2022 in a campaign ad Val Demings "voted with Pelosi to raise taxes over $4,000 on Florida families." By Yacob Reyes • October 25, 2022 With nearly one-third less money for enforcement, the resulting number of audits would likely be smaller. Perhaps the biggest problem with assuming there will be a big increase in audits for middle- to low-income Americans, however, is that it runs directly counter to the IRS’ stated policy, which Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen laid out in a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. "I direct that any additional resources — including any new personnel or auditors that are hired — shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels," Yellen wrote Aug. 10. Rettig had said much the same in an Aug. 4 letter to Congress. Audit rates for filers reporting less than $75,000 in income have held steady over the past several years at about 0.4%. That’s lower than the audit rate in 2011, when it was 1%. Yellen said enforcement will focus on corporations and people with high net worth. Auditing them requires staff with special skills. Today, she said, the agency is able to audit only about 7,500 out of 4 million such returns each year. Focusing on higher earners, as the IRS plans to do, would go a long way toward reversing the agency’s historical focus on auditing some of the lowest earners, largely households that file for the earned income tax credit. The only caveat to Manchin’s statement is that there’s no guarantee the agency will adhere to the new policy it has announced. "The pledge not to use the Inflation Reduction Act funds to increase audits of those making less than $400,000 is not built into law," John Buhl, senior communications manager at the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center, told PolitiFact West Virginia. Although it’s not written in law, it’s a policy that has been stated publicly on several occasions. "Both the IRS and Treasury are committed to that policy decision, as outlined in recent letters," said Erin Heeter, Manchin’s press secretary. "Both the IRS and Treasury also outlined in their recent letters that audit rates for families making under $400k will not change. Buhl agreed that it’s unlikely that the IRS will perform audits on lower-income families when they already have documentation through W-2 wage pay stubs and other statements. And audits of high earners are where the money is, anyway. The top 1% of earners account for about 30% of the $600 billion each year that is owed but goes uncollected, Natasha Sarin, counselor for Tax Policy and Implementation at the Treasury Department, told PolitiFact. Our ruling Manchin said, "WV families making less than $400K & small businesses will NOT be targeted by the IRS." This limitation wasn’t written into the Inflation Reduction Act. However, top Treasury and IRS officials have consistently confirmed that the new resources allocated to the IRS by the law will be focused on audits of the highest-paying Americans, making it stated policy. We rate the statement Mostly Tru

“Over the past 5 years, natural gas costs have gone up over 200%” in the United States Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., recently took to Twitter to argue that the federal government should do more to encourage the domestic production of natural gas. He cited a sharp increase in prices, exacerbated by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attacks on Ukraine. In a Sept. 20 tweet, Manchin said that "over the past 5 years, natural gas costs have gone up over 200%. In Europe, it's up over 1,100%. Energy has been weaponized by Putin. We can offset that by reforming our permitting process, which will put more energy into the market & bring down costs for utilities & consumers." Over the past 5 years, natural gas costs have gone up over 200%. In Europe, it's up over 1,100%. Energy has been weaponized by Putin. We can offset that by reforming our permitting process, which will put more energy into the market & bring down costs for utilities & consumers. pic.twitter.com/KOi6zzXhYt— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) September 20, 2022 There’s no question that natural gas prices in the U.S. are spiking, but the 200% increase cited by Manchin — basically, a tripling — is an exaggeration by some metrics. When we asked Manchin's office for their evidence, it pointed us to the Henry Hub spot price. The Henry Hub is a natural gas distribution site in southern Louisiana; gas comes in from pipelines and is then redirected to other pipelines as demand requires. The "spot price" at the hub "reflects the going rate for gas purchased right now," said Hugh Daigle, a professor in the University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering. Manchin’s office cited the change in prices between August 2017 and August 2022, when the spot price rose from $2.98 to $7.88. That’s an increase of 164%, which is substantial, but not quite the 200% Manchin cited in the tweet. More importantly, the increase is also more modest if you focus on annual averages rather than monthly figures, which helps smooth out some of the month-to-month volatility. Between 2017 and 2022, the yearly average rose from $2.99 to $6.23, or an increase of 108%, which is significant, but only about half of the 200% increase Manchin cited. (Since calendar 2022 isn’t over yet, we used data for the 12 most recent months to determine the 2022 figure, stretching from October 2021 to September 2022.) !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Featured Fact-check J.D. Vance stated on October 10, 2022 in a debate “Tim Ryan when he ran for president two years ago … supported banning fracking both on public lands and generally speaking.” By Louis Jacobson • October 11, 2022 Meanwhile, the "cost" of natural gas depends on where you sit. The Henry Hub spot price is essentially the wholesale price of natural gas, so it’s distinct from the price that consumers will face on their monthly bills. "Consumers pay higher prices, because in addition to paying for the gas itself, they also must pay to get it to their homes, which requires a lot of expensive infrastructure," said Clark Williams-Derry, an energy finance analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. "In fact, gas itself is often a relatively small share of the price that consumers pay on their gas bills." Residential consumer prices are up, though at a slower rate than wholesale prices have risen over the same period. Between 2017 and 2022 (using the same method for approximating the 2022 figure — data for the 12 most recent months), the price of natural gas delivered to consumers rose from $10.91 to $16.74, or an increase of about 53%. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Overall, Williams said, "prices are much, much higher than they used to be. This is largely because the U.S. is exporting more and more natural gas, which is creating a shortfall in domestic supplies that has started to squeeze US consumers." Our ruling Manchin said that "over the past 5 years, natural gas costs have gone up over 200%" in the United States. Natural gas prices have definitely spiked, but not even the data cited by Manchin’s office supported the 200% figure. Comparing the annual wholesale costs in 2017 and 2022, natural gas prices have increased by 108%, while comparing residential customer costs over the same period, the increase is 53%. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details, so we rate it Half Tru

Abigail Spanberger supported “nearly $1 billion in stimulus checks for prisoners, including domestic terrorists. One thing is missing from a GOP television ad that accuses Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., of voting to send COVID-19 stimulus checks to people who are incarcerated — the disclosure that most congressional Republicans also voted to allow it. The ad, sponsored by the National Republican Congressional Committee, blames Spanberger of voting for "wasteful spending," such as "nearly $1 billion in stimulus checks for prisoners, including domestic terrorists." A shaded picture appears of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombers in 2013. Republicans have aired similar ads in congressional races around the country. They refer to House and Senate votes in March 2021 on the American Rescue Plan Act, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that was ultimately signed by President Joe Biden. Among other things, the act provided stimulus payments of up to $1,400 for single tax filers earning less than $75,000 a year and $2,800 to married couples filing jointly who made less than $150,000. Tax filers could get an additional $1,400 for each of their dependent children. Democrats pushed the bill through Congress on partisan votes, saying the relief was vital. Republicans said the bill was a boondoggle and, during a lengthy Senate debate, offered amendments to put Democrats on the record regarding certain policy points. Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., put forward an amendment that would prevent the stimulus checks from going to people in prisons. The amendment failed on a party-line vote. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said it would harm the families of those incarcerated. "Given the stark racial disparities in our criminal justice system, this would cause the most harm to Black and brown families and communities already harmed by mass incarceration," Durbin said on the Senate floor. "Children should not be forced to go hungry because a parent is incarcerated." Imprisoned people qualified for stimulus payments because of broad eligibility requirements in the relief bill — and others before it. All citizens and legal residents who filed a tax return or completed an Internal Revenue Service form requesting payment, were eligible for a check. The act provided 597,000 incarcerated people with stimulus checks totaling $863 million, according to estimates by the Department of the Treasury. The amendment was defeated and the relief act passed in the Senate on 50-49 party-line vote with Democrats in the majority. Four days later, the House approved the bill on a 220-211 vote, with Spanberger and all but one Democrat favoring it and Republicans unanimously opposing it. Democrats did not allow Republicans to introduce amendments before this vote because they needed to pass an exact copy of the Senate bill to advance it to Biden’s desk. Weeks earlier in debate, however, House Republicans had opportunities to amend the bill and did not try to add a ban on incarcerated people getting checks. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 While criticizing Democrats for their votes, the RNCC omits that most Republican members of Congress allowed incarcerated people to receive checks by voting for two earlier rounds of coronavirus stimulus. Both the CARES Act in March 2020 and a supplemental package in December 2020 allowed people in prisons to receive checks. The measures passed with overwhelming bipartisan support with the goal of speedily getting checks to citizens. The issue of imprisoned people receiving stimulus checks was not new when the American Relief Plan Act came up in early 2021. After President Donald Trump signed the CARES Act a year earlier, the IRS issued guidance saying the relief checks could not go to incarcerated people. In October 2020, a federal judge ruled against the IRS and said the government had to issue the checks because the CARES Act had no language restricting the payment to people in prisons. This is important because Republicans afterward supported the second stimulus, in December 2020, that also allowed payments to people who are incarcerated. Spanberger, who supported all three coronavirus stimulus bills, has no regrets. Justin Chermol, her campaign spokesperson, said she backed the American Rescue Plan because "Virginia families were struggling to keep up with expenses, small businesses and restaurants needed additional relief to keep their doors open, and COVID-19 vaccination and testing sites needed additional support." Boston Marathon bomber As the RNCC ad claims, a $1,400 relief check was deposited in Tsarnaev’s prisoner account in June 2021. Tsarnaev is being held in federal prison in Colorado after being sentenced to death for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds. He acted with his brother, who was killed in a police shootout. What the RNCC doesn’t say is that Tsarnaev didn’t get to keep the money. The funds were seized to pay criminal fines he had incurred and restitution to his victims. Our ruling An NRCC ad says Spanberger supported "nearly $1 billion in stimulus checks for prisoners, including domestic terrorists." She did so by voting for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act along with other Democrats who argued that stripping payments to imprisoned people from the broad bill would hurt their families. One of the recipients was Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber. Republicans unanimously opposed the legislation. The NRCC omits important information: Republicans voted for two earlier coronavirus relief bills that also, among many things, allowed coronavirus relief checks to go to imprisoned people. And Tsarnaev’s stimulus money was seized to pay restitution to his victims and criminal fines. The NRCC tells half the story and we rate its claim Half True.

Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup. The footage is a bit shaky. At times, the audio is unclear because of the clamor of movement and the chaos of voices speaking over one another. Commotion aside, the video gives an unexpected look at legislators’ experience on Jan. 6, 2021. It shows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., evacuating to a nearby U.S. Army base. It shows Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., calling government leaders to request additional security and law enforcement personnel to secure the Capitol. For many viewers, the clips highlighted congressional leaders’ confusion, fear and frustration as a mob of violent rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol. But some social media users claimed the footage revealed something more nefarious. "Why were camera crews on standby ready to film Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer during January 6th?" read text in a video shared on Instagram on Oct. 14. "The footage that was released yesterday looks like it was filmed by a movie production company. Lights, camera, action. So much phoniness on both sides. This was a setup and we all know it." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) (Screenshot from Instagram.) These video clips showing congressional leadership and staff evacuating to Fort McNair, a U.S. Army base near Washington, D.C., and attempting to coordinate a security response to the attack do not prove that the events on Jan. 6 were part of a setup. A crowd of then-President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election. There is no credible evidence that the attack was a setup. Falsehoods about the attack on the U.S. Capitol, including claims that it was a false flag, were named PolitiFact’s 2021 Lie of the Year. It was a real event with real consequences. Who captured the footage? The video was filmed by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter Alexandra Pelosi, a documentary filmmaker. It was given to the U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, and some of the footage was played during the committee’s hearing on Oct. 13. On Oct. 14, CNN obtained about an additional hour of video and published some segments. "This first clip, which runs nearly 17 minutes, is part of a documentary that Alexandra Pelosi has been working on for years," said CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. "It’s edited, and we should warn you — you will hear no shortage of profanity. But this is the vantage point from Alexandra Pelosi in the speaker’s office, on the day of Jan. 6, and following events with her mom." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 27, 2022 in a post Video shows Marjorie Taylor Greene planted pipe bombs at Republican and Democratic party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021. By Gabrielle Settles • October 31, 2022 The Instagram post misleads by claiming a "camera crew" was on standby. Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said there wasn’t a crew that day. It was just Alexandra Pelosi with a small, handheld camera that she always has with her, he said. Jan. 6 attack caused millions in damage, prompted hundreds of arrests PolitiFact found no credible evidence that the attack was a setup or was contrived in some way. Fuelled partly by the false belief that the presidential election had been stolen, hundreds of people — many clad in Trump-branded gear, others in helmets and combat gear — breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, aiming to stop the certification of the 2020 election results. Rioters overturned barricades, broke windows and clashed with police. The attack forced lawmakers to evacuate, temporarily delaying the certification of President Joe Biden’s electoral victory. Federal prosecutors estimated that the attack caused about $1.5 million worth of damage to the Capitol building. U.S. Capitol Police officers with guns drawn as rioters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. (AP) In the months since, more than 880 people have been charged with crimes ranging from conspiracy to using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer. Of those, more than 400 people have pleaded guilty to one or more charges linked to the riot, and judges have sentenced nearly 290 people, according to an NPR analysis. Since the attack, PolitiFact has checked dozens of claims about what happened Jan. 6. We’ve found no credible evidence that the riot was led by disguised antifa activists, that the attack was orchestrated by the FBI or that the breach was a "false flag" attack. Our ruling An Instagram post claimed that video footage of Schumer and Pelosi in hiding during the Jan. 6 attack and after evacuating the Capitol shows it "was a setup." We found no credible evidence that the attack was a setup. Documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi recorded some of the unprecedented events on Jan. 6, but that does not prove that the attack was contrived. We rate this claim False. RELATED: The Jan. 6 Capitol attack: A year of debunking false narratives RELATED: Jan 6. committee votes to subpoena Trump. 3 themes show w

There’s a “coincidental correlation” between COVID-19 vaccines and a spike in cancer in adults younger than 50 A recent study showed that there has been a sharp rise in cancer diagnoses in adults younger than 50. A social media user — who apparently didn’t read the study — tried to imply a correlation between that bad news and the COVID-19 vaccines. A meme shared in an Instagram post Oct. 16 shows a screenshot of a 2021 Reuters fact-check headline which read, "Fact Check-No evidence COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer." Below it is another screenshot, this one a CNN article with the headline, "A global epidemic of cancer among people younger than 50 could be emerging." The post’s caption read, "I risk being shadowbanned by sharing these types of memes that don’t claim causation but suggest coincidental correlation #BeFreeMySheeple." The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The COVID-19 vaccines do not cause cancer, as Reuters reported a year ago. The American Cancer Society said on its website that there’s no evidence the vaccines can cause cancer or cause tumors to grow or recur. The claim that there is a link between the two has nonetheless kept fact-checkers busy. The post’s claim that there is a "coincidental correlation" between the rise in early onset cancer in adults younger than 50 detailed in the CNN article and COVID-19 vaccines is also off base. That’s because the cancer study in the article was based on data collected from 2000 to 2012, years before COVID-19. The report was authored by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and published in Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. It looked at global cancer registry records from 44 countries and found a rapidly rising increase in 14 types of cancers, many involving the digestive system. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post “Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 Besides examining the data from 2000 to 2012, the team examined available studies about possible risk factors, including early life exposure, and tumor characteristics of early onset cancers to ones diagnosed after age 50. The report cited increased early screening, and thus early detection, to explain part of the increase. It also said increased early exposure to other common risk factors could explain the spike, including obesity, smoking, alcohol use, sleep deprivation, Type 2 diabetes and unhealthy Western diets high in meat, sugar and processed food. The researchers noted something they called the "birth cohort effect," meaning that groups of people born later than another group had increased risk of early cancer because of increased risk exposure at a young age. "We found that this risk is increasing with each generation," Shuji Ogino, one of the researchers, said in a press release about the study. Our rating An Instagram post implied a "coincidental correlation" between COVID-19 vaccines and a rise in early onset cancers in adults ages 20 to 49. There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines can cause cancer. Meanwhile, the report referred to in this claim about a spike in cancer in people younger than 50 is based on data from 2000 to 2012, well before COVID-19. We rate this Fals

Barack Obama said he walks with his “husband Michael and hold hands. Former first lady Michelle Obama has long been the target of false claims that she’s a transgender woman. A recent Facebook post shows alleged proof claiming that this is, in fact, true: a clip of former President Barack Obama saying, "I walk with my husband Michael and hold hands." "I told y’all Michelle was Michael," text flanking the video says. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Barack Obama did not refer to his wife as "Michael." The clip is from a speech in which he was telling a story about another couple whose names were Debra and Michael. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 9, 2022 in a Facebook post “Donald Trump is back on Twitter,” thanks to Elon Musk. By Sara Swann • October 10, 2022 He made the remarks in 2015, at a conference of the Catholic Health Association, in Washington, D.C. He was talking about Debra Lea Oren, a Pennsylvania resident who suffered from osteoarthritis "so severe that it put her in a wheelchair." But since enrolling in affordable health care coverage, Obama said at the time, Oren was able to have knee replacement surgery and walk again. While sharing Oren’s story, Obama recounted a letter she had sent him. "She said, ‘I walk with my husband Michael and hold hands. It’s like a whole new world for me,’" Obama said. We rate claims that Obama referred to Michelle Obama as his husband, Michael, Pants on Fire.

Kid Rock posted “Zelensky just bought his parents an $8,000,000 villa, complete with a salt water pool & 3 brand new vehicles. In February, singer Kid Rock criticized President Joe Biden for suggesting higher gasoline prices were because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. "He and the media clearly think We The People are stupid," the post from @KidRock, Kid Rock’s verified Twitter account, said. "Let’s go Brandon! - Kid Rock." More recently, a screenshot of another social media post critical of U.S. foreign aid to Ukraine is circulating on Instagram, and it’s attributed to Kid Rock. "I see that Zelensky just bought his parents an $8,000,000 villa, complete with a salt water pool & 3 brand new vehicles," the post from @KidRockOfficial says. "But let’s just keep on sending billions of our tax dollars for ‘foreign aid to Ukraine.’" "At least Kid Rock is paying attention," text above his supposed post says. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 17, 2022 in una publicación en Facebook "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin”. By Maria Ramirez Uribe • October 17, 2022 An Instagram post sharing this image was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) We found what appears to be the original post on Gettr, a social media platform akin to Twitter that was founded by Jason Miller, a former spokesperson for former President Donald Trump. RELATED VIDEO The Sept. 26 post from @KidRockOfficial features the same avatar as the screenshot in the Instagram post. But the page doesn’t belong to Kid Rock. According to the @KidRockOfficial bio, it’s a "Kid Rock fan page." We couldn’t find a Gettr account for Kid Rock, and it’s not listed among the social media accounts on his website. Kid Rock’s website links to his YouTube account and his verified Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts. We’ve previously debunked claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy owns a $35 million home in Florida. We couldn’t find any credible sources to corroborate the claim in this Gettr post, either. As for the claim that Kid Rock authored it, we rate that Fals

Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings Social media posts fueled alarming claims that Seattle-area authorities are investigating a possible serial killer. "King County detectives have been notifying locals about a serial killer in Seattle right now," an Oct. 15 Instagram post read. "Multiple women’s bodies have been discovered recently in the Burien and SODO area, apparently posed in the same way." SODO is an acronym for a Seattle neighborhood known as "south of downtown." Burien is a suburban city about 10 miles south of downtown. Four women had been killed, the post’s caption said. None of this is accurate, according to local law enforcement. The post was flagged as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The Seattle Police Department issued a statement Oct. 15 from its Twitter account. "We’ve received a number of inquiries about this," the tweet said. "Seattle PD does *not* have any serial cases." Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 29, 2022 in an Instagram post The Pelosis “are refusing to turn over surveillance video of their home.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 31, 2022 On Monday, Detective Patrick Michaud confirmed to PolitiFact that the claim was baseless and that Seattle police are not investigating any suspected serial killings. "Nothing has changed since we addressed this online," Michaud said. "Seattle PD does not have any serial homicide cases." The King County Sheriff’s Office, whose jurisdiction includes the two locales referenced in the original Instagram post, issued its own statement on Twitter on Oct. 16. "We are aware of unverified online social media reports that select death investigations, in the vicinity of South Park/SR 509, may share similar characteristics," the tweet said. "At this time, the Sheriff’s Office has identified no evidence affirming this for any cases under our jurisdiction." Our ruling An Instagram post claimed that Seattle-area law enforcement agencies were investigating a possible serial killer and that multiple bodies had been discovered. Both the Seattle Police Department and King County Sheriff’s Office said publicly the reports are wrong. We rate this claim Fals

“Black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die (from maternal mortality) even when they have the insurance and the income. When the issue of abortion came up in the Georgia Senate debate, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock turned the question into one of maternal mortality. In the Oct. 14 debate in Savannah against Republican Herschel Walker, Warnock said that the U.S. leads "all the western nations" in maternal mortality, a statement that we found to be generally accurate in our immediate post-debate analysis. Warnock went on to say, "Black women are three to four times more likely to die (from childbirth) even when they have the insurance and the income." Warnock has a point, though the data is a little less solid than he suggests. We were unable to find any study that explicitly compared Black and white maternal mortality rates while controlling for income and insurance status. Instead, most studies looked at racial disparities without controlling for those factors. For instance, one major study published in September 2021 found that "the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 3.55 times that for non-Hispanic White women," but this controlled for neither income nor insurance. And in a review of the available data, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has written, "Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women." The agency cited a range of factors that "contribute to these disparities," including access to high-quality health care, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism and implicit bias, several of which are linked to differences in income and insurance status. Featured Fact-check America First Legal stated on November 1, 2022 in an ad “Kamala Harris said disaster aid should go to non-white citizens first." By Tom Kertscher • November 5, 2022 The closest data we could find that spoke to Warnock’s assertion was framed slightly differently, but was consistent with his point. The paper, published by the CDC in 2019, controlled for educational attainment. That’s not precisely the same as income, but more education is often correlated with higher income, and with having health insurance coverage. The lowest two educational categories — people with less than a high school diploma, and those with a high school diploma — displayed disparities in maternal mortality between Blacks and whites, but the degree of disparity was lower than Warnock suggested. For women with less than a high school diploma, the Black maternal mortality rate was 1.8 times higher than the rate for white women. For those with a high school diploma, the rate was 2.3 times higher. But for those with higher educational attainment, Warnock’s differential was basically accurate. For those who had attended college but did not finish a bachelor’s degree, Black women had a maternal mortality rate 3.5 times higher than white women did. For college graduates, the differential was 5.2 times higher. In other words, "education exacerbates rather than mitigates Black-white differences in maternal deaths," wrote the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit that studies health policy, in its analysis of the data. Our ruling Warnock said that "Black women are three to four times more likely to die (from childbirth) even when they have the insurance and the income." Studies have shown this type of disparity, but without controlling for income or insurance status. We were unable to find any studies that controlled for those two factors. However, a 2019 study found that for women who had attended college or earned a college degree — a statistic that often correlates with income and insurance coverage — the Black-white differential ranged from 3.5 to 5.2 times, which is in line with what Warnock said. We rate the statement Mostly Tru

"Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin” Los ministros de defensa de la OTAN se reunieron en Bruselas, Bélgica el 12 y 13 de octubre para discutir la guerra entre Rusia y Ucrania. A raíz de este evento, han surgido varias publicaciones en redes sociales que describen de manera errónea la participación de la OTAN en esta guerra. Un video de 8 minutos publicado en Facebook reclama incorrectamente que la OTAN ha decidido invadir a Rusia. "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin, Cumbre de los ministros de Defensa de la OTAN reciben de inteligencia informes de que Putin va a usar armas tácticas", dice el título del vídeo. La publicación fue marcada como parte del esfuerzo de Facebook para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Facebook.) Durante la reunión de los ministros de defensa se ha discutido la necesidad de que los países miembros de la OTAN apoyen a Ucrania con sistemas de defensa aérea. "Ucrania es un país grande, con muchas ciudades, por lo que necesitamos acelerar para ser capaces de ayudar a Ucrania a defender todavía más ciudades y más territorio de los ataques terroríficos contra su población civil", señaló el Secretario General de la OTAN, Jens Stoltenberg, el 12 de octubre. Ucrania ha recibido apoyo militar por parte de los países miembros de la OTAN, incluido Estados Unidos, a lo largo de la guerra. Sin embargo, la OTAN no ha declarado invadir o unirse a una guerra contra Rusia. "La OTAN no hace parte del conflicto, pero nuestro apoyo está jugando un papel clave", dijo Stoltenber el 11 de octubre durante una conferencia de prensa. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 En el video de Facebook, el narrador reconoce que la ayuda militar aportada a Ucrania no es una invasión. "Y es por eso que los ministros de defensa estarían ya decidiendo esta invasión a Rusia. No es una invasión per se, no es que van a ir los aviones como pasó con la invasión de Panamá, o la invasión de Iraq, no", dice el narrador del video. Parte de la razón por la cual la OTAN no ha declarado una invasión contra Rusia es porque Ucrania no es parte de la alianza. El Artículo 5 de la OTAN señala que si un país miembro es atacado, el resto de los países saldrán a su defensa. El Artículo 5 no ha sido aplicado y Ucrania no hace parte de la OTAN. El presidente de Ucrania, Volodímir Zelenski, solicitó ingresar a la OTAN el 28 de septiembre. Sin embargo, aún no ha recibido respuesta. Nuestra calificación Un video publicado en Facebook dice que los "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA". Los países que forman la OTAN están aportando apoyo militar a Ucrania en la guerra contra Rusia. Sin embargo, la OTAN no ha decidido invadir a Rusia. La alianza tampoco ha aplicado el Artículo 5, ya que Ucrania no hace parte de la OTAN. Calificamos la publicación como Fals

Federal aid to tribal governments is “foreign aid. Renewable energy and the transition away from fossil fuels is a key issue for the Arizona Corporation Commission. In a recent debate, Republican candidate Nick Myers said that neither the state or utility rate-payers should compensate the Navajo Nation for the closing of a large coal-fired power plant near Page, Arizona. "It’s not the job of the rate-payers in Arizona to get into foreign aid," Myers said in the Sept. 12 debate on Arizona PBS. "If you’re talking about tribal lands, foreign aid comes under the federal government." Federal aid to tribal governments is not foreign aid. Tribal nations are sovereign, not foreign Although the Navajo Nation has "nation" in its name, it’s not considered a foreign government. The Supreme Court rulings of Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832) defined tribal nations as "domestic dependent nations." That applies to the 574 federally-recognized Native American tribes in the United States. The land of the Navajo Nation was originally inhabited by the indigenous Navajo. The American government took it away, and established the current reservation boundaries. Through congressional acts such as the Indian Self-Determination and Education Act of 1975, federally recognized tribes are able to exercise greater sovereignty in their governmental affairs. The federal government provides some support for education, health and social services. The budgets of the State Department and the Interior Department for 2023 show the Interior Department has a dedicated Indian Affairs section. The State Department budget has no programs for tribal nations. Featured Fact-check Blake Masters stated on October 15, 2022 in a tweet Immigrants illegally in the country are treated “better than military veterans.” By Jon Greenberg • October 21, 2022 Myers told PolitiFact that the National Congress of American Indians, an organization aimed at ensuring the rights of tribes, "seems to be proud of being independent, federally recognized nations." He added that the State Department says "they are responsible for making U.S. payments to international organizations." Neither fact makes tribal groups eligible for foreign aid. Coal plant closures impact tribal communities In November 2019, the coal-fired power plant known as the Navajo Generating Station near Page, Arizona, and the Kayenta mine that provided the coal for the plant permanently closed. The closure impacted the surrounding community and the Navajo Nation, costing hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in lost revenue. The Arizona Corporation Commission held several meetings where residents from the Navajo Nation and neighboring Hopi Nation called for assistance to help transition to renewable energy and for economic recovery. No decision has been made, and the new members of the Arizona Corporation Commission are expected to face this issue in the future as other coal-fired power plants near the Navajo Nation are expected to close. Our Ruling Myers said that financial assistance given to tribal nations falls under "foreign aid" which "comes under the federal government." The U.S. Supreme Court and the federal laws define 574 federally recognized tribal nations as "domestic dependent nations." Federal money for tribal governments mainly flows through the U.S. Interior Department and is not classified as foreign aid. We rate this claim Pants on Fire.

Says “Tim Michels wants to defund public education — calling it ‘the definition of insanity’ to continue to fund public schools. There’s no doubt that education is a flashpoint in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial race. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, a former public school teacher who served as the state superintendent of public instruction, has long criticized Republican lawmakers for not bumping up funding for public schools and used his executive power to send millions of federal dollars their way in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. His opponent, Republican Tim Michels — who favors school choice — has taken him to task for it, arguing Evers is throwing money at low test scores and other problems without seeing improvement. Evers’ camp has fired back. In an Oct. 6, 2022 email blast, the campaign wrote, "Tim Michels wants to defund public education — calling it ‘the definition of insanity’ to continue to fund public schools." Is Evers right? Not exactly. Quote exaggerates, but Michels’ plans could mean cuts to public ed We’ll start with that quote. Did Michels say continuing to fund public schools was "the definition of insanity?" It’s a twist of what was really said. Here’s what Michels said during a July 24, 2022 debate leading up to the August primary election, hosted by WTMJ-TV: "The problem … is we’re already throwing so much money at education. That’s been the fix, if you will, for the last 10, or 20, or 30 years, more money on education, more money on education. And it’s not working — the definition of insanity." The key word there is "more." Michels was calling it the definition of insanity to increase funding to public schools without better results — but the Evers campaign email makes it sound like he was saying it’s insane to continue funding them at all. So the quote is a stretch of Michels’ position. It would be as if saying someone who wanted to hold the line on spending for law enforcement was trying to defund the police. Indeed, critics have turned the phrase "defund the police" into a one-size-fits-all cudgel that ignores a variety of approaches. And using "defund" here invites leaders to make the same leap. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 That said, looking more broadly, Michels’ education proposals could result in funding cuts to public education. Michels wrote in an education policy blueprint that he supports universal school choice — that is, allowing all Wisconsin students to receive vouchers to attend a private or religious school if they choose. Wisconsin already has a handful of such voucher programs — including for Milwaukee, Racine, the rest of the state and students with disabilities — but there are income and other eligibility limits. Currently, when students enroll in private schools using a private school voucher, the district they live in loses state aid, which instead pays for the vouchers. Under that model — if Michels expands vouchers and does not otherwise increase funding to public schools as he has suggested he wouldn’t do — funding to public schools would be reduced. (To be sure, those districts would also have fewer students, and not face the cost of educating those who wound up in private schools.) Finally, we’ll also note that Michels could choose to fund voucher expansion differently, but he hasn’t said how he’ll pursue it. Our ruling Evers claimed that "Tim Michels wants to defund public education — calling it ‘the definition of insanity’ to continue to fund public schools." The latter part of that statement misconstrues Michels’ quote, which criticized increased funding to public schools without getting better results, but did not imply he’d choke off funding altogether. Michels has not said he wants to completely defund public schools, and in using the loaded phrase Evers is aiming for a visceral response akin to the idea of defunding the police. But as a proponent of expanding school choice, Michels could oversee cuts to public schools as a result of a major expansion of the private-school voucher program, especially if the funding system stays the way it is now. Our definition of Mostly False is a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. That fits here. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

If a sealed bag of raw poultry appears “puffy,” it means the protein is not safe to consume Food safety is so important in the U.S. that there are entire parts of government designed to keep people safe from what they consume. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration offer all kinds of advice about how to avoid foodborne illness. Wash hands. Keep raw foods separated from other foods. Thoroughly cook meat. Not on the list: Avoid buying poultry in puffy looking bags. But that hasn’t stopped the internet from issuing its own warnings. "PSA: Air in bags of meat is not normal! Don’t eat it!!!" reads text across a Facebook video posted Oct. 13. The video hovers over a grocery store cooler filled with bagged chicken as a man pokes one of the sealed bags, which has become somewhat inflated, and tells viewers that he was hospitalized after consuming protein in similar packaging. "When the bag is puffy like that, it means bacteria has started growing in there…Don’t buy it!" the video’s caption reads. The post was flagged as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Verify This checked this claim in 2021 and found it to be wrong. That hasn’t changed. A National Chicken Council spokesman told PolitiFact that if a sealed packaged bag of raw chicken appears puffy, "this is not an indicator of spoilage. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 24, 2022 in a video McDonald's uses potatoes sprayed with a highly toxic pesticide called Monitor. By Andy Nguyen • October 28, 2022 "This is a USDA-approved packaging process, and there is no food safety concern, said Tom Super, spokesperson for the trade association. "The puffiness of the bags actually indicates the packaging is properly sealed. The best indicators of spoilage would be the Sell By or Use By date, discoloration, foul smell and/or leakage, not the particular packaging." According to the USDA's official packaging and distribution guidelines, bag puffiness can result from a process called "controlled atmosphere packaging." Packaging manufacturers replace some or all of the oxygen inside the bag or package with gases such as carbon dioxide or nitrogen to preserve the raw poultry, according to the guidelines. Otherwise, "oxygen in the air hastens both the chemical breakdown and microbial spoilage" of the protein, the USDA’s website says. In other words, the more exposure to oxygen, the hastier the breakdown. The USDA further advises that the best way to assess whether poultry is safe for cooking is to inspect its physical appearance, scent and color. "In addition to the color change, the meat or poultry will have an off odor, be sticky or tacky to the touch, or it may be slimy," the USDA says on its website. "If meat has developed these characteristics, it should not be used." Our ruling A viral Facebook video claimed sealed bags of raw poultry that appear taut or "puffy" are indicative of spoilage, making the protein unsafe to consume. That’s false, according to USDA regulatory guidelines for packaging. Puffy packaging is generally an indicator the distributor used controlled atmosphere packaging, in which oxygen is supplemented with carbon dioxide or nitrogen. We rate this claim False.

As attorney general, Catherine Cortez Masto “opposed tougher laws on methamphetamine dealers. In the lead-up to the November midterm elections, a conservative super PAC is investing $10 million in ads attacking Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and supporting her Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt. The ads are running in English and Spanish. The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund estimated that this year 16% of Nevada voters will be Latinos. A 30-second TV ad that began running Oct. 5 focuses on Cortez Masto’s record as attorney general from 2007 to 2015. Cortez Masto "opposed tougher laws on methamphetamine dealers," the ad’s narrator said. (A Spanish version of the ad makes the same claim.) The ad cites an Associated Press article from 2007; Club for Growth told PolitiFact that the article backed the ad’s claim and shared two paragraphs from it in an email. We found the article in a news archives database. Our review of Cortez Masto’s actions on Nevada’s meth crisis shows the ad’s characterization of Cortez Masto’s work falls short and stands in contrast to her full record. Cortez Masto chaired group examining meth use in Nevada In January 2007, Nevada’s then-Republican Gov. Jim Gibbons created the Governor’s Working Group on Methamphetamine Use and appointed 16 members. Cortez Masto, then attorney general, chaired the group. The group met with law enforcement, substance abuse experts and recovering meth users to develop a report and make recommendations about how to respond to the state’s problems with methamphetamine use. In March 2007, Cortez Masto and the working group gave the governor and state legislators preliminary findings and feedback on proposed legislation. The group opposed two bills related to penalties for meth possession. One of those bills, AB116, sought to do two things: reduce the minimum amount of drugs necessary to convict someone of drug trafficking and to increase the minimum sentence for this crime, according to AP reporting from 2007 that PolitiFact found via a news database. PolitiFact looked through publicly available documents and 2007 news coverage and did not find information specifying why the working group opposed the bill. The article cited by Club for Growth says the group opposed the bill but does not provide a reason why or any statements from the group’s members. Meeting notes from the Nevada Assembly show that representatives from two counties' public defense offices, neither of whom were in the working group, also opposed the bill. They said it likely would not have had the intended effect of going after meth traffickers. The representatives argued that most people caught with 3 grams of meth were using that for personal use, not trafficking. Making 3 grams the amount needed for a trafficking conviction would hinder access to treatment as people served mandatory prison time, they said. The working group also opposed AB281, which sought to make possession of any traceable amount of meth a felony with a prison sentence of at least one year. The group said the bill "would ‘severely restrict’ treatment options for meth addicts," The Associated Press reported in 2007. The working group’s meeting notes show law enforcement officials told the group that access to treatment was essential for combating Nevada’s meth crisis. Featured Fact-check Adam Laxalt stated on November 20, 2022 in an ad “Biden and Democrats have dismantled border security.” By Maria Ramirez Uribe • November 3, 2022 The working group published a final report in December 2007 that outlined a "No Safe Haven" plan under which counties could share intelligence about drug cartels. The group also recommended Nevada join a national program that provides resources to local law enforcement offices to dismantle drug trafficking operations. Cortez Masto supported other bills and initiatives to combat the meth crisis Aside from opposing the two bills, the working group supported other proposals that they said would help address Nevada’s meth crisis. The group endorsed AB148, a bill matching federal law on restrictions to cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine which can be used to make meth, The Associated Press reported. The bill became law Aug. 1, 2007. "This new law gives local law enforcement more authority to go after those who are manufacturing methamphetamine in Nevada," Cortez Masto said in July 2007. The law also made it a state crime to use a fake ID to buy medicines with the ingredient used to produce meth, and made buying or selling chemicals used in meth a felony with a three- to 15-year prison sentence. Sigalle Reshef, Cortez Masto’s campaign spokesperson, told PolitiFact that Cortez Masto worked with the state’s Republican governor, law enforcement and Mexican officials to reduce meth manufacturing and trafficking in Nevada. As attorney general and member of Nevada’s Pardons Board, Cortez Masto opposed reduced sentences for inmates convicted of methamphetamine trafficking, the AP reported in September 2007. Her opposition was overruled by the rest of the board, which included the governor. To reduce prison overcrowding, the board decided to commute drug-related sentences for immigrants in the country illegally and immediately turn them in to federal immigration authorities for deportation. Cortez Masto said that was the wrong move, because "if you deport them, they just will come back." In 2009, Cortez Masto’s office noted that she co-sponsored a seminar with law enforcement officers "to find ways to provide ‘no refuge’ for drug traffickers in Nevada." In 2010, Cortez Masto created a Substance Abuse Working Group to permanently study substance abuse issues in Nevada, including drug trafficking. Our ruling An ad from Club for Growth claimed that, as attorney general, Cortez Masto "opposed tougher laws on methamphetamine dealers." Cortez Masto chaired a working group on meth use that opposed two Nevada Assembly bills seeking to increase penalties for meth possession. The opposition came after law enforcement officials told legislators that the bills would likely criminalize meth users rather than go after drug dealers. The group led by Cortez Masto also supported other bills and initiatives intended to mitigate Nevada’s meth crisis. Cortez Masto also opposed reducing sentences for immigrants convicted of meth trafficking. The ad contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this claim Mostly Fals

Video shows gunfire in Venezuela A day after the United States announced that Venezuelan migrants who walk or swim across the U.S.-Mexico border would be immediately returned to Mexico, a video started to circulate on social media that claimed to show gunfire at a soccer game in the South American country. "Tf is going on in Venezuela," read the caption on one post sharing the video taken from the stands of a soccer game that shows shooting. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) El Imparcial, a Mexican newspaper, reported in September that the shooting happened in a Brazilian favela in Rio de Janeiro. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 O Dia, a newspaper in Rio, also said in September that police were looking into the video in connection with a drug trafficking investigation. Millions of Venezuelans have fled their country amid violence, socio-economic insecurity, food shortages and a lack of medical care. They recently surpassed Guatemalans and Hondurans as the second-largest nationality stopped at the U.S. border after Mexicans, according to the Associated Press. But this video doesn’t show shooting in Venezuela. We rate that claim False.

Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission A Dutch politician posed a question to a Pfizer representative during a European Parliament hearing on Oct. 10, eliciting an answer that some social media users framed as a new, shocking revelation. "Pfizer director admits that COVID vaccine was never tested on preventing transmission," read the text on an Oct. 12 Instagram post. But the answer was no revelation at all, according to Pfizer and experts. The post shared a video clip of an exchange between Rob Roos, a conservative member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, and Janine Small, president of international developed markets at the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The exchange soon spread widely on social media and on conservative news sites, where it was framed as a bombshell admission by Pfizer. "Was the Pfizer COVID vaccine tested on stopping the transmission of the virus before it entered the market?" Roos asked. After two other Parliament members asked questions, Small responded to Roos' query. "Regarding the question around, did we know about stopping immunization before it entered the market … no," said Small, presumably meaning to say "transmission" and not "immunization." "We had to really move at the speed of science to really understand what is taking place in the market." The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) "This is scandalous," Roos later said in a video he shared on Twitter, arguing that the admonition to "get vaccinated for others was always a lie." He also appeared on Fox News on Oct. 11, discussing the exchange with host Tucker Carlson. But Pfizer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and news reports before the vaccine’s approval were clear that while the vaccine was effective in preventing symptomatic and severe disease, there was no data about whether it stopped transmission to others. Some may have been surprised at Small’s answer, given public officials’ comments about vaccines and transmission. Both Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, have said that vaccination can help mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The CDC in May 2021 changed its guidance on masking, with Fauci saying on CBS’ "Face the Nation" that vaccinated people’s chances of transmitting the virus to others was low. The agency reversed course on that guidance two months later, when it became clear that wasn’t the case with the delta variant. But the notion that Pfizer "admitted" it didn’t test its vaccine for its ability to stop transmission is incorrect. Andrew Widger, a spokesperson for Pfizer, said in a statement that details of its phase 3 clinical trial have been online since 2020, and that the trial was never intended to study transmission. The phase 3 clinical trial was "designed and powered" to evaluate the COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy in preventing disease caused by SARS-CoV2, including severe disease, Widger said. "Stopping transmission was not a study endpoint," he said, which means it wasn’t an outcome being studied. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post “Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 The FDA, meanwhile, said in its Dec. 11, 2020, announcement of emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s vaccine that there wasn’t yet "evidence that the vaccine prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from person to person." A Pfizer press release that same day and another announcing its approval in the European Union on Dec. 21, 2020, made no mention of the vaccine’s effect on transmission. Dr. Monica Gandhi, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, said the outcomes being measured in the original vaccine trials for Pfizer and Moderna were always about their effectiveness against "symptomatic COVID-19." "So, the prevention of transmission (and asymptomatic COVID) were not primary endpoints of these trials and were never a claim of the pharmaceutical companies in developing these vaccines," Gandhi said, adding, "Indeed, this revelation is not new." Tara Smith, a Kent State University epidemiology professor, agreed, saying the Pfizer executive’s statement was "not a ‘gotcha.’" In a December 2020 article for the online website SELF, Smith wrote that the vaccine’s ability to stop transmission was an unanswered question, noting that it’s common in initial vaccine trials for that topic to be addressed in later studies. "We were hopeful in spring/early summer 2021 that vaccines would be effective against transmission. Delta did change that a bit, making it clear that while vaccines did, and still do, help to reduce one’s risk of infection, they alone are not enough to stop transmission," Smith said in an email to PolitiFact. "That’s why many of us were and remain frustrated at CDC’s messaging around masks, suggesting the vaccinated could stop masking." Before the delta and omicron variants came along, studies suggested that the vaccines were somewhat effective in slowing transmission of the coronavirus. "In the era before omicron, and to some extent the delta variant, the vaccines clearly were transmission-halting to a high degree," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Once variants began evading vaccine immunity and breakthrough infections became more common, he added, vaccines were less likely to stop transmission. When Walensky "said that vaccines decrease transmission and therefore, getting vaccinated protected others, she was providing accurate information to the American public based on data at the time," said Gandhi. It’s clear that the vaccines are not a firewall against transmission to others, despite misleading claims on two occasions by President Joe Biden that we fact-checked in 2021. Currently, Gandhi said, a recent study during the Omicron surge showed that vaccines or prior infection each decreased transmission to others by about 20%. "The pharmaceutical companies and the CDC both were accurate in terms of their messaging and reporting on the vaccines over time in terms of their ability to reduce transmission and — currently — their incredible ability to reduce severe disease due to the generation of cellular immunity," Gandhi said. Our ruling An Instagram post claimed that a Pfizer executive suddenly "admitted" that its COVID-19 vaccine had not been tested for preventing transmission before it went to market. But this is not a revelation. Pfizer’s clinical trial was always intended to study whether the vaccine prevented recipients from getting symptomatic COVID-19 and whether it prevented severe disease. Pfizer did not claim to have data about transmission of the virus to others. We rate this claim False. Clarification: This story was updated Oct. 17 to make clear the Pfizer vaccine trial studied whether the vaccine prevented symptomatic and severe COVID-19, not infection. The rating is unchanged.

“Kamala Harris resigns in shock after Biden’s ‘mandatory’ border trip…Trump jails ‘corrupt’ VP. Did you miss the news about Vice President Kamala Harris resigning and then getting imprisoned by former President Donald Trump? So did we. That’s because it didn’t happen. And yet, an Oct. 11 Facebook post with thousands of views claimed otherwise. "Kamala Harris resigns in shock after Biden’s ‘mandatory’ border trip…Trump jails ‘corrupt’ VP," the post said. Another oddly phrased post from Oct. 12 said: "‘Resigns now’ Kamala Harris stunned dumb after Biden’s mandatory border trip." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) RELATED VIDEO Both posts featured the same clip from a Newsmax broadcast in which a guest criticized the Biden administration on immigration and Harris for not visiting the border. But the segment didn’t touch on Harris resigning, or getting jailed. She didn’t. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

“Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies. Rigorous testing procedures have made vaccines among the safest medicines administered to children and adults, but an Instagram post claims the risks far outweigh the benefits of immunizing a premature infant. "Premature infants are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies," the Oct. 10 post claims. "Despite the data showing just how dangerous it is, medical professionals still pressure parents to comply with the regular schedule." The post features a series of text slides detailing the supposed risks that premature and underweight infants are more susceptible to if they get immunized, including apnea, bradycardia and sepsis. The final side includes links to three studies examining suspected negative reactions that premature and underweight infants had to vaccinations. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) None of the three studies cited advocated against vaccinations for premature and underweight infants. One of the studies concluded that the risk of an underweight infant — a category that often includes premature babies — developing severe side effects following vaccination was small. The three studies cited in the post The first study cited was published in 1997 and examined the incidence and severity of apnea, which is when a person briefly stops breathing, typically while asleep; and bradycardia, a too-slow heart rate. The study looked at 98 premature infants born in Australia who received the DTwP vaccine to protect against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough. The study observed that 17 infants developed apnea and/or bradycardia after immunization. Of the 17, 12 infants experienced "brief, self-limiting" issues, while two were given supplemental oxygen. The study did not advocate against vaccinations. However, the study is now based on out-of-date information because the DTwP vaccine is no longer used by many developed nations, including Australia and the United States. It has since been replaced by the DTap vaccine, which has fewer reported side effects. The second study cited by the Instagram post was published in 2016 and examined reported side effects following immunizations with single-dose and combination vaccines in 13,926 premature infants with extremely low birth weights in neonatal intensive care units. The study found that the babies experienced an increase in severe side effects following vaccinations, such as breathing issues requiring extra respiratory support like intubation or a ventilator. The need for respiratory support jumped from 6.6 per 1,000 patient days before vaccination to 14 per 1,000 patient days afterwards. Patient days measures the amount of time someone remains hospitalized. But the study did not recommend against vaccinations. Conversely, it concluded that delaying vaccines for underweight infants could prove dangerous. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 "Immunization delay burdens an already fragile patient population with the increased morbidity and mortality of vaccine-preventable diseases through the first year of life," it said. The third study cited was published in 2011 and also looked at infant birth weight and how it might relate to side effects from vaccinations. It primarily examined emergency room visits and hospital admissions that occurred following vaccinations. "Lower birth weight appears to be correlated with an increased risk of emergency room visits within 24 hours of vaccination," it said. "The absolute risk (from vaccinations) is small, and there was no impact on (hospital) admissions or death." Current recommendations for vaccinating premature infants The current recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is to vaccinate premature infants who were born before 37 weeks of gestation "regardless of birth weight," using the same immunization schedule as that of a full-term baby. "Birth weight and size are not factors in deciding whether to vaccinate a clinically stable preterm infant, except for hepatitis B vaccination," the CDC said. "The full recommended dose of each vaccine should be used. Divided or reduced doses are not recommended." The hepatitis B vaccine is the only vaccination a newborn infant receives at birth, but the CDC said it’s less effective in those born prematurely. The CDC's guidance for giving the hepatitis B vaccine to premature infants varies depending on whether the mother is positive for the virus. The immunization schedule recommends infants begin the first vaccine doses when they reach 2 months of age. The American Academy of Pediatrics found that premature and underweight infants still benefit from receiving the same vaccines as full-term infants and that they are safe to use. Any potential side effects from a vaccine would be the same, regardless if an infant was premature. Our ruling An Instagram post claims premature infants are at a higher risk of injury from vaccinations compared with full-term babies. The post misleads on the findings of three studies it cites. One of the studies is outdated, as it was based on observations of a vaccine no longer widely used in developed nations, including the United States. Another study found that premature, underweight infants have a higher risk of experiencing side effects following vaccinations. But the study also cautioned that underweight infants risked being infected with a vaccine-preventable disease if left unvaccinated for too long. The third study only looked at hospital and ER admission rates between premature and full-term infants following their vaccinations, not side effects. It found that vaccinations did not affect hospital admissions. None of the studies recommended against vaccinating or delaying vaccinations for premature and underweight infants. Medical professionals say vaccines are safe to use in premature infants and should be administered according to the same immunization schedule as full-term babies. We rate this claim False

The government is giving every household a $500 Walmart shopping credit to help with inflation Five days after a Facebook account going by the name "in-store credit" was created Oct. 5, it posted an enticing if confusingly written message. "Gоvernment hands out -500 $ WalΜart shоp crеdit per househоld- to help with the increased priсеs. Complete 3 questions to collect it," the Oct. 10 post said. It included a link to a page using Walmart’s logo but not affiliated with the company. And the promised government handout was gone. Rather, the site offered a $500 Walmart gift card for participating in a survey. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The survey was similar to one that featured in another Facebook post we recently checked that offered a $500 gift card for groceries. That was a scam, and so is this. Randy Hargrove, a Walmart spokesperson, told us the post isn’t accurate. We also didn’t find anything on Walmart’s website to corroborate the claim in the post — though the company does advise customers to avoid buying, selling or checking a gift card balance "on online marketplaces outside of Walmart.com." And we found no evidence elsewhere, in news reports or other credible sources, to support the idea that the government is giving every household a $500 Walmart shopping credit to help with inflation. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

The Biden administration has “created” more than double the number of jobs per month, on average, than any other administration going back to George H.W. Bush The White House recently created an Instagram post featuring a chart that touted the scale of job creation under President Joe Biden. Multiple readers asked us to take a closer look at it. The Oct. 8 post showed a bar graph headlined, "Jobs created by president, average per month." The graph included Biden and the last five presidents: George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The White House (@whitehouse) According to the graph, the contest wasn’t close: Biden had created a bit more than 500,000 jobs per month on average, or more than twice the rate of his closest competitor, Clinton. But economists say the comparison isn’t apples to apples. Specifically, Biden has served in office for less than two years, while the elder Bush and Trump served for four, and Clinton, the younger Bush and Obama served for eight. Why does this matter? Because the longer presidents serve in office, the likelier it is they will encounter an economic downturn. And the job losses during economic downturns are what hamper the job-creation averages for presidents. Biden, for now, hasn’t faced an officially declared recession. By contrast, the elder Bush experienced one in the middle of his term, the younger Bush faced one at both the start and the end of his presidency, Obama entered office with the Great Recession raging, and Trump was in office when the coronavirus pandemic hit, which created a steep, if short-lived, recession. Only Clinton was lucky enough to avoid a recession. But he served in office for a period more than four times as long as Biden has so far, and the more months one serves, the greater the likelihood that the average job creation number tends to flatten out. Biden’s strong monthly job-creation averages reflect the economic cycle when he entered office. He was inaugurated in January 2021, as the nation was recovering from the steep and sudden job losses stemming from the pandemic’s onset in 2020. The jobs recovery began under Trump, but because he was out of office only eight months into the recovery, much of the job gains accrued during Biden’s time in the White House. "This is literally evidence that Biden was handed something on a golden platter," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank. "This recovery from a deep recession would have happened no matter who was president." The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this article. Featured Fact-check Rob Portman stated on June 30, 2010 in a news release Since the Democrats’ stimulus went into effect last year, Ohio has lost about 150,000 Jobs. By Mark Naymik • July 28, 2010 Holtz-Eakin also noted that Biden’s chart uses raw numbers of jobs. However, the labor force’s size has grown considerably since George H.W. Bush’s presidency. Thanks to overall population growth, the labor force is now more than one-third larger than it was at the beginning of the elder Bush’s tenure, making the big increases under Biden less meaningful, relatively speaking. Therefore, a more telling (but still imperfect) measurement is the percentage increase of jobs on a president’s watch. And using this metric, Biden is not the leader. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Using percentage increase, Biden trails his two Democratic predecessors — Clinton, with an almost 21% increase, and Obama, with a bit under 9%. Biden’s increase checks in at 7%. Another complication for making presidential comparisons like these is that the rate of expansion of the labor force has varied from president to president, said Gary Burtless, an economist at the Brookings Institution, a research and policy center in Washington, D.C. By this metric, Biden’s record looks a bit better, Burtless said. The "prime-age population" — essentially, the number of people ages 25 to 54 — grew rapidly during the elder Bush’s four years in office and Clinton’s eight. But this growth has slowed under subsequent presidents, including Biden. And not benefiting from a turbocharged population increase makes the increase on Biden’s watch impressive, Burtless said. "Recent administrations — including Obama’s and Trump’s as well as Biden’s — have faced this headwind," he said. Finally, the White House’s framing in the Instagram post — that these jobs were "created by (the) president" — is an exaggeration. Although presidential policy can affect the economy, such as improvement in the fight against the coronavirus partly because of Biden’s policies, many other factors beyond a president’s control can have an effect, too, including the health of the global economy and improvements in technology. Our ruling Biden’s administration said in an Instagram post that he has "created" more than double the number of jobs per month, on average, of any president going back to the elder Bush. The chart accurately uses raw numbers, but the comparison is less than meets the eye. The claim relies on less than two years under Biden to either four- or eight-year terms for his predecessors. Economists say this puts Biden at an advantage, because most of his predecessors experienced a recession, which hampered their tenure-long job-creation averages. Meanwhile, using a different metric — percentage increase — Biden ranks third among the last six presidents. And the White House’s use of the word "created" in reference to jobs is not entirely warranted, because presidential policies are not the only factor shaping job growth. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important context, so we rate it Half Tru

“Overdoses reached an all-time high in 2021. The opioid epidemic is a major concern in West Virginia, with deaths in the state rising, especially since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. In a recent tweet, the state’s Republican Party offered a statistic designed to spotlight the national problem. "Illicit drugs are flowing into the country at an alarming rate," the Aug. 23 tweet said. "Overdoses reached an all-time high in 2021. 2,071 lbs of fentanyl — more than 469 million lethal doses seized in July. More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last two months under Biden than in 2019 under Trump." Illicit drugs are flowing into the country at an alarming rate:➡ Overdoses reached an all-time high in 2021➡ 2,071lbs of fentanyl– more than 469M lethal doses seized in July.➡ More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last 2 months under Biden than in 2019 under Trump.— WVGOP (@WVGOP) August 23, 2022 In a separate article, we checked the tweet’s assertion about how much fentanyl has crossed the border, finding it Mostly True. Here, we’ll look at the tweet’s statement that "overdoses reached an all-time high in 2021." We sought out national figures, since the rest of the tweet referred to the national picture, rather than West VIrginia specifically. In May 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released overdose figures for 2021 and estimated there were 107,622 drug overdose deaths in the United States for the year. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 Although these figures are provisional and subject to revision, the agency said that this represented a 15% increase in overdose deaths nationwide compared with 2020, and followed a record-setting increase in 2020 of 30%. The increase in 2021 was more modest, but still significant, the agency said. Before 2020, the annual number of overdose deaths had never exceeded 71,000 nationally, federal data shows. The number has risen almost every year since 1999, when there were fewer than 20,000 overdose deaths. Of the 107,622 drug overdose deaths in 2021, the CDC reported that 71,238 were from synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl; 32,856 were from psychostimulants such as methamphetamine; 24,538 were from cocaine; and 13,503 were from naturally derived opioids. Jonathan Caulkins, a drug policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, told PolitiFact West Virginia that the tweet’s characterization of the overdose data as record-setting is "100% accurate." "All data have nuance and uncertainty, but there is no plausible way that such nuance could change the basic headline," Caulkins said. "Alas, the already spectacularly horrible situation has indeed become much worse in 2021 than before." Our ruling The West Virginia Republican Party said "overdoses reached an all-time high in 2021" National data from the CDC supports this: There were an estimated 107,622 drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2021, a 15% increase over what was already a record-setting year in 2020. We rate the statement Tru

Donald Trump’s “rally just got shut down after no one shows up. Former President Donald Trump is known to brag about and sometimes inflate the number of people in the crowd at his rallies. News photos show big crowds at recent-days rallies in Arizona and Nevada. But two recent Facebook posts swing in the opposite direction, claiming that his supporters abandoned him at an event. "Trump rally just got shut down after no one shows up," read one Facebook post from Oct. 8. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 A video in the post reveals that the event in question was not a rally featuring Donald Trump, but one thrown by his supporters. The video shows an Oct. 7 Daily Beast story about a "pro-Trump rally" on the Capitol grounds that day attended by "a mere 27 individuals." The event nevertheless went on, according to the story. Looking for reports that recent rallies that Trump appeared at were shut down, we found only old news coverage. A 2016 Politico story, for example, told the story of a planned Chicago rally that was called off amid safety concerns as protesters gathered outside. We rate the claim that Trump’s rally was recently shut down False.

"In Germany, millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and 30,000 wind turbines are sitting idle because there’s no wind. A viral post from more than a year ago has been recirculating, claiming that German renewable energy isn’t working properly due to winter weather. "In Germany, millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and 30,000 wind turbines are sitting idle because there’s no wind," said a meme shared Sept. 25 on Instagram. It includes a photo of snow-blanketed solar panels. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The claim, however, has no basis in fact. German solar panels and wind turbines were functioning normally in 2021, this claim previously circulated. And experts say winter weather hasn’t generally posed a significant threat to renewable energy. The meme in the post cites the Australian news site SkyNews. A February 2021 segment from the SkyNews show "Outsiders," shows Australian conservative news commentator Rowan Dean stating that "millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and 30,000 wind turbines are sitting idle because there’s no wind." Dean did not elaborate about the source of his claim and he didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s request for more information. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 We found the photo on the website of British stock photo agency Alamy with a caption that reads, "Solar panels are covered with snow at the solar park in Meuro, Germany, 21 February 2013. Despite covered by snow the modules produce 5 megawatts of power." According to a website that tracks energy production data, German solar and wind production experienced no significant or sudden drops during February 2021. Experts told PolitiFact that cold weather and lack of wind can affect energy production, but the implication of a mass failure of these energy sources is wrong. "The claim that millions of PV (photovoltaic) modules don't provide electricity in winter is of course nonsense," Karsten Schafer, a spokesman for the German Solar Industry Association, told Agence France-Presse in 2021 for a fact-check about a similar meme. Snow buildup doesn’t cause significant issues in Germany’s ability to produce solar power, according to Ute Stewart, press and communication officer for Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue. In an email to PolitiFact, Stewart wrote that there is almost never a day when intense snowfall affects the whole country. "If you look at the yearly yield," Stewart wrote, "the loss (of solar power) is insignificant at best, under 1%." At higher altitudes, the loss of solar power because of snowfall can be up to 6%, he wrote, but there aren’t many solar panels at higher altitudes. Some of the snowiest countries in the world use solar power. Our ruling An Instagram post says, "In Germany, millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and 30,000 wind turbines are sitting idle because there’s no wind." There is no data or evidence to support this claim. German solar and wind production energy production experienced no sudden drops the first time this rumor started in February 2021, nor recently. We rate this claim False

Kari Lake has “gone on the record saying she supports Arizona's complete abortion ban. She's called it a great law. With abortion as a driving issue in the midterm elections, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, Katie Hobbs, highlighted the gulf between her and her Republican opponent, Kari Lake. In back-to-back interviews Oct. 9 on CBS News’ "Face the Nation," the candidates exchanged barbs. Lake said Hobbs would allow a woman in labor to have an abortion, simply because she "desired" it. Hobbs fired back, saying Lake was "entirely misconstruing" her position. "A doctor's not going to perform an abortion late in a pregnancy just because somebody decided they want one — that is ridiculous," Hobbs said Oct. 9. "Late-term abortion is extremely rare. And if it's being talked about, it's because something has gone incredibly wrong in a pregnancy." Hobbs went on to say Lake backed the strictest of limits on abortion. "She's gone on the record saying she supports Arizona's complete abortion ban," Hobbs said. "She's called it a ‘great law.’" Hobbs was referring to an Arizona abortion law that dates back to 1864 and that lawmakers carried over into a revised state code in 1901. The law was revived after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 overturned Roe v. Wade, the nearly 50-year-old case that established federally protected access to abortion. Lake opposes abortion. Here, we examine whether she called a law passed even before Arizona became a state in 1912, a "great law." A key interview Hobbs’ campaign pointed us to a June 24 interview Lake gave on "The Conservative Circus with James T. Harris," a radio show and podcast. At 3:48 into the interview, Lake reacted to the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe. (In the Arizona code, the 1901 law is numbered 13-3603.) "I'm incredibly thrilled that we are going to have a great law that's already on the books," Lake said. "I believe it's ARS 13-3603, so it will prohibit abortion in Arizona except to save the life of a mother. And I think we're going to be paving the way and setting course for other states to follow." The law makes it illegal to induce a woman to miscarry, "unless it is necessary to save her life." Violators would face two to five years in prison. Featured Fact-check Blake Masters stated on October 15, 2022 in a tweet Immigrants illegally in the country are treated “better than military veterans.” By Jon Greenberg • October 21, 2022 Arizona’s Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich said he would enforce the law. "ARS 13-3603 is back in effect," Brnovich tweeted June 29. The law, however, is in limbo. A state judge ruled it could be enforced; an appeals court reversed that decision. Arizona already has a law banning abortions after 15 weeks, except to save the mother’s life. In a June 29 Republican primary debate, Lake said she believes life begins at conception and that abortion pills should be illegal. In an Oct. 4 interview on Phoenix radio station KTAR, Lake muddied the waters, saying, "It would be really wonderful if abortion was rare and legal. Rare but safe, I think they said." (Bill Clinton coined the phrase "safe, legal and rare," when talking about abortion access during his 1992 campaign for president.) In her October "Face the Nation" interview, Lake said she supports the legislation that allows abortions up to 15 weeks and seeks no change in that state law. Lake’s campaign did not respond to our query. Our ruling Hobbs said Lake has "gone on the record saying she supports Arizona's complete abortion ban. She's called it a great law." In an interview, Lake said she was "thrilled that we are going to have a great law that's already on the books," and identified the law by number. The law bans all abortions except to save the mother’s life. That is a significant but not "complete" abortion ban. We rate this claim Mostly True.

“Merrick Garland catches Trump planning to flee. Speculation abounds about whether Merrick Garland will become the first U.S. attorney general to indict a former president. But there’s no evidence to support a recent social media claim that Garland caught former President Donald Trump trying to skip the country. "Merrick Garland catches Trump planning to flee," an Oct. 9 Facebook post said. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) We reached out to the Justice Department for comment about the post, but didn’t immediately hear back. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Nevertheless, we found no credible reports or other sources to corroborate the Facebook post’s claim. A video in the Facebook post includes a clip of CNN news coverage of the FBI’s seizure of documents from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and features someone musing about Trump fleeing the country. But the person didn’t say Garland caught Trump planning to flee. We rate this post False

North Korea has taken military action against Russia Ties between North Korea and Russia have disintegrated to the point of military aggression, according to a video viewed thousands of times and flagged by Facebook for misinformation. "North Korea has taken action against (the) Russian army!" a caption for the Oct. 8 video read. The video showed miscellaneous b-roll footage of North Korean and Russian military forces, along with glimpses of the nations’ two leaders, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. Voiceover narration summarized what it said was preemptive military coordination between the respective adversarial foreign powers. But there’s no evidence any of this has occurred. The post was identified as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 Recent news coverage of diplomatic ties between North Korea and Russia indicates the nations’ relations are strengthening, not collapsing. On Oct. 7, a day before the post was published, the international newswire service Reuters published an explanatory report about the state of North Korea’s and Russia’s ties. "Putin and North Korea's Kim forge closer ties amid shared isolation," the headline read. Reuters reported that Kim sent Putin birthday well wishes and commended the Russian president for "crushing the challenges and threats of the United States." The two leaders also exchanged letters this summer in which Kim pledged "tactical cooperation and support" against "threats, provocations, coercion and arbitrariness of hostile forces," and Putin pledged to "expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations," according to an Oct. 8 report in the Toronto Star. According to reporting from The New York Times, American intelligence officials say North Korea exported weapons and ammunition to assist Russia in its war against Ukraine — an assertion North Korea denied. Claims that North Korea has initiated military action against Russia are baseless. We rate them Pants on Fir

A study showed mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are harmful to infants who are breastfeeding Did a recent study show that women are harming their babies by breastfeeding after getting mRNA COVID-19 vaccines? That’s what a claim circulating on Instagram and Facebook feeds suggested. "7 out of 11 women had mRNA in their breast milk," read an image of a tweet shared on Instagram. "This isn’t just a disaster for infants, it’s more proof that mRNA/LNP in the shots hits practically every cell in the body." The tweet was written by Alex Berenson, a former New York Times reporter who has shared misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines. It included a retweet from the Twitter account for the medical journal JAMA promoting the Sept. 22 publication of a study that examined the presence of trace amounts of mRNA vaccines in lactating women’s breast milk. Contrary to Berenson’s assertion, however, the study did not suggest this amounts to disastrous news for infants. It said results suggested breastfeeding post-vaccination is safe and that more research is needed. The post was flagged as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The study, conducted by researchers from New York University’s Long Island School of Medicine, involved the collection of breast milk samples from 11 women who’d received Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines within 6 months after childbirth. The participants were asked to collect samples before being vaccinated and for five days after being vaccinated. "Of 11 lactating individuals enrolled, trace amounts of BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273 COVID-19 mRNA vaccines were detected in seven samples from five different participants at various times up to 45 hours post-vaccination," part of the study’s results read. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post “Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 This discovery did not raise alarms for the researchers. "The sporadic presence and trace quantities of COVID-19 vaccine mRNA detected in EBM (evidence-based medicine) suggest that breastfeeding after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination is safe, particularly beyond 48 hours after vaccination," they said. The researchers did not test the cumulative effects of that exposure to trace mRNA on the infants and wrote that more research is needed. They also wrote that "caution is warranted about breastfeeding children younger than 6 months in the first 48 hours after maternal vaccination until more safety studies are conducted." COVID-19 vaccines are not currently recommended for infants younger than 6 months old. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine recommend that "everyone should receive the COVID-19 vaccine, including those who are pregnant or breastfeeding." Dr. Nazeeh Hanna, the study’s lead author and chief of NYU Langone Hospital-Long Island’s neonatology unit told PolitiFact that although much of the data is still lacking, there’s no evidence to suggest that any amount of either vaccine is harmful to infants who are breastfeeding. Beyond mRNA vaccines, the FDA has authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines that do not rely on mRNA technology. These include the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine and the Novavax vaccine. Our ruling An Instagram post suggested that a new study from JAMA showed that traces of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines found in breast milk for seven of 11 mothers are harmful for nursing newborns. A study involving 11 lactating mothers who had been vaccinated found that samples from five of them contained trace amounts of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines up to 48 hours after vaccination. But researchers said the findings suggested vaccination was safe. They said that until further study is done, women should use caution when breastfeeding infants younger than 6 months in the 48 hours after getting vaccinated. We rate this claim Mostly Fals

“Katie Hobbs voted for allowing a baby who survives an abortion — that the hospital would refuse medical care and allow the baby to die on a cold metal tray. In the close race for Arizona’s governorship, Republican candidate Kari Lake said her opponent holds an extreme position on abortion legality. In an interview on CBS News’ "Face the Nation," Lake said that Democrat Katie Hobbs supports medical cruelty toward infants. "Katie Hobbs, my opponent, actually has voted for allowing a baby who survives an abortion, that the hospital would refuse medical care and allow the baby to die on a cold metal tray," Lake said Oct. 9. Hobbs countered that Lake was "entirely misconstruing" her position. Here, we dig into the details of the bill and Hobbs’ vote. The law As a state senator in 2017, Hobbs voted against a bill that required a physician to use "all available means and medical skills … to promote, preserve and maintain the life" if a baby emerges alive from an abortion. Hobbs was one of 11 senators voting against the bill. It passed 18-11 and became law. The legislation gave doctors the flexibility to curtail treatment if they determined that the only result would be to "prolong the act of dying." But Lake’s suggestion that Hobbs’ vote against this bill meant that she supported intentionally letting a baby die is inaccurate. Laws were already in place that made such actions illegal. Alexander Capron, professor of medicine and law at the University of Southern California, said that with or without the Arizona law, doctors would provide care to a baby. "All live-born children — whether following a normal labor and delivery, a miscarriage or an abortion — is owed a duty of care by the attending physician that would include all reasonable measures to preserve the baby’s life and maximize its prospects for a healthy life," Capron said. No law legalizes leaving a "baby to die on a cold metal tray," as Lake described, Capron said. Not only is there an ethical duty to provide care, it is backed up by federal law. The 1984 Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act aimed to protect children with disabilities, but the protections would apply to "any newborn who has survived an attempted pregnancy termination," Capron said. Featured Fact-check Blake Masters stated on October 15, 2022 in a tweet Immigrants illegally in the country are treated “better than military veterans.” By Jon Greenberg • October 21, 2022 Beyond that law, the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act of 2002 established that federal legal protections for "persons" also covered children born at any stage of development, including after an abortion. Medical care includes more than life-saving care Voting against the bill did not mean, as Lake said, allowing hospitals to deny medical care. There is care that provides comfort to a baby who has only minutes or days to live. Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University’s Langone Medical Center, said the hardest cases are rare and nearly always involve infants with a fatal abnormality. "They can emerge dying but not dead," Caplan said. "Some might have most of the brain missing. They might be missing a skull. Or there’s a genetic condition and they have no intestinal tract. You can’t feed them. They won’t make it past a week." In these cases, Caplan said, palliative care is the best medical care. Keeping the infant warm might be all that is possible. He said efforts to keep the baby alive could be cruel. "It would be prolonging a life of pain and suffering for that malformed infant," Caplan said. Caplan, as other ethicists have told PolitiFact before, said that life-saving measures would apply only when the baby has developed enough to live outside the womb. Although in rare instances, infants born at 22 or 23 weeks have survived, the odds improve greatly after 24 weeks. Much of the opposition to the Arizona bill came from doctors who disagreed with the requirement to use procedures on babies who could not survive. We reached out to the Lake campaign and did not hear back. Our ruling Lake said Hobbs "voted for allowing a baby who survives an abortion — that the hospital would refuse medical care and allow the baby to die on a cold metal tray." Hobbs voted against a bill that required physicians to use "all available means and medical skills … to promote, preserve and maintain the life" of a baby born after a failed abortion. But legal experts say multiple laws already required care be provided under all circumstances. Voting for or against the Arizona bill did not change that. We rate this claim Mostly False.

The "Department of Homeland Security and the State Department coordinated with a group called the ‘Election Integrity Partnership’ to censor Joe Biden’s opponents. A former congressional candidate claims that he and other conservatives were targeted on social media with the government’s help around the time of the 2020 election. "(The) Department of Homeland Security and the State Department coordinated with a group called the ‘Election Integrity Partnership’ to censor Joe Biden’s opponents," says the caption on an Oct. 5 Instagram post by Robby Starbuck. Starbuck is a Republican who announced in November 2020 that he would run for Congress in Tennessee before his own party kicked him off the primary ballot in April 2022. He later filed to be a write-in candidate for the August election after losing his challenge to stay on the ballot. Starbuck’s caption also says the "Biden regime paid ‘Election Integrity Partnership’ entities $12+ MILLION from taxpayer funds" and that Starbuck was added to the partnership’s "enemies list." He detailed his claims in an accompanying 50-minute video, as well as in a lengthy thread on Twitter. The Election Integrity Partnership, which conducted its work publicly throughout 2020 and published a final report of its findings in March 2021, has drawn criticism in conservative media outlets and seen online attacks against its researchers in recent weeks. The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the State Department’s Global Engagement Center were among several organizations that worked with the Election Integrity Partnership — a collaboration of researchers — on 2020 election misinformation claims. The working relationship between the federal agencies and the Election Integrity Partnership began during the tenure of former President Donald Trump. In practice, though, no one from CISA sent examples of misinformation to the Election Integrity Partnership, and the partnership sent no reports to social media companies on the agency’s behalf, a blog post from the partnership stated. The State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which focuses on foreign propaganda and disinformation, submitted some misinformation claims to the partnership, though it’s unclear how many. However, less than 1% of the claims investigated by the partnership focused on claims involving foreign actors, the report said. There’s no evidence the partnership or government agencies working with it sought to "censor" conservatives. Groups involved in the partnership have received more than $12 million in federal grants since Biden took office, and $3 million of those grants were related to the partnership's work. There is no evidence that the grants were politically motivated. Starbuck told PolitiFact he didn’t say the grants were connected to the partnership’s work in 2020, but "people can decide for themselves what they think about it." What is the Election Integrity Partnership? The partnership, which began in July 2020, has a goal to work with government and civilian stakeholders to combat mis- and disinformation on social media about voting and elections before and after the hotly contested 2020 presidential election. The partnership said in July 2022 that it would continue its work in this year’s midterm elections. Four research groups collaborate on the project: the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public; the Stanford Internet Observatory; Graphika, a social analytics firm; and the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. The partnership said when announcing its creation that its mission was to support "real-time information exchange between the research community, election officials, government agencies, civil society organizations, and social media platforms." It was focused narrowly on content "intended to suppress voting, reduce participation, confuse voters as to election processes, or delegitimize election results without evidence." The partnership laid out how it conducted its work, what it found and its recommendations to safeguard future elections in a 290-page report titled "The Long Fuse: Misinformation and the 2020 Election," which it published in March 2021. The partnership initially was set up in consultation with DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The idea for the partnership began with four Stanford Internet Observatory students who were interning at CISA, which is focused on protecting against cyber threats and working on election infrastructure security, and often partners with the private sector. On Oct. 5, in response to recent attacks on its work, the Election Integrity Partnership said in a blog post that its partnership with CISA was reviewed and approved by Trump administration attorneys. The partnership’s aim was helping CISA "understand rumors and disinformation around the 2020 election and so CISA could provide corrective and/or clarifying information from election officials," it said. Kim Wyman, a senior election security advisor at CISA, rejected claims of censorship. "CISA does not censor speech, period," Wyman said in a statement to PolitiFact, adding that the agency works "in a non-partisan manner with state and local election officials" to provide voters with accurate information about elections. "Online content platform operators make their own decisions." Renée DiResta, a technical research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, explained how the Election Integrity Partnership was formed in this video from a 2021 cybersecurity summit. (CISA) How did it work? The partnership allowed its own researchers and what it deemed "trusted" external stakeholders to flag social media content or communicate with analysts regarding online claims. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 8, 2022 in a Facebook post There’s “evidence of a massive transfer of completed, curated ballots” that are fraudulent in the 2022 election. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 11, 2022 The external stakeholders listed in its March 2021 report included government agencies such as CISA and the State Department’s Global Engagement Center. Also listed was the Election Infrastructure Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which is a elections and cybersecurity organization that’s a division of the nonprofit Center for Information Security. It gets some of its funding through the Department of Homeland Security. Civil organizations, such as the NAACP, AARP and others, also could flag content and communicate with analysts. The major social platforms — Facebook and Instagram, Google, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, Nextdoor, Discord and Pinterest — also signed on to the partnership. Three teams evaluated flagged content. The first team determined whether the concern was within the project’s scope and checked the claim’s veracity; The second team delved deeper into the claim and recommended action, such as communicating to partners if appropriate; A third team of managers from the four research groups could tag platform partners on a claim, communicate with government partners to get information, or close a case. Who flagged content? Overall, the partnership said it processed 639 claims that it considered to be within the project’s scope, 72% of which were related to "delegitimizing the election results." The partnership did not recommend specific actions to social media platforms, but tagged them on reports if researchers believed the claims violated the platforms’ published policies. Those platforms "made their own determinations on how to treat our reports," the partnership said. It noted that 35% of the links shared with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube were either "labeled, removed, or soft-blocked." (PolitiFact has a partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and you can read more about it here.) About 79% of the claims analyzed were submitted by analysts from the four research organizations of the partnership, rather than external partners. An additional 16% were reported by the nonprofit Center for Internet Security as tips from election officials. That accounts for about 95% of claims submitted overall. Other stakeholders submitting claims were MITRE, Common Cause, the Democratic National Committee, the Defending Digital Democracy Project and the NAACP, the report said. Both the Democratic and Republican national committees were invited to submit tickets. The DNC submitted four reports. The RNC did not respond to the partnership’s outreach and submitted no reports. Censorship claims Starbuck claimed in his Instagram post that he was named in an "enemies list" in the Election Integrity Partnership’s March 2021 report, along with other conservative figures, such as Donald Trump Jr.; U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; and Charlie Kirk, founder and president of Turning Point USA, a politically conservative group advocating for limited government. Starbuck is referring to Sec. 5.5 in the report, which includes a list of what it called "the 21 most prominent repeat spreaders on Twitter." The list is based on Twitter data collected through Dec. 12, 2020, approximately one month after Starbuck announced his run for Congress That was the only mention of Starbuck in the report. Although the "repeat spreaders" section listed only conservative Twitter accounts, other parts of the report mentioned left-leaning accounts. For example, Occupy Democrats was included for posts that "functioned to fan fears of voter disenfranchisement and intimidation." Overall, the report concluded that while "false narratives occasionally gained traction on the political left, almost all of the most prominent repeat spreaders … belonged to conservative and/or pro-Trump individuals and organizations." The partnership said its lists of repeat spreaders, although published in its final report and in blog posts, "were not provided directly to any partner organization," such as Twitter. Our ruling Starbuck claimed that the Department of Homeland Security and State Department coordinated with the Election Integrity Partnership to "censor Joe Biden’s opponents." Agencies within those departments were external stakeholders in the Election Integrity Partnership during its 2020 work, before Biden took office. CISA did not pass along any claims to the partnership, which also said it didn’t forward any reports on CISA’s behalf to social media platforms. It’s unclear how many misinformation claims were submitted to the partnership by the State Department’s Global Engagement Center, which focuses on foreign propaganda and disinformation efforts. But less than 1% of the claims investigated by the partnership focused on claims involving foreign actors. Although both government agencies were involved in the partnership, there is no evidence that either of them, or the partnership’s researchers, acted to "censor Joe Biden’s opponents." We rate this claim False. Updated, Oct. 13, 2022: The story has been updated to include a statement from CISA that was received after publicatio

There’s “evidence of a massive transfer of completed, curated ballots” that are fraudulent in the 2022 election Recent Facebook posts sow doubt about next month’s midterm elections by relying on old misinformation from the 2020 presidential election. "We have evidence of a massive transfer of completed, curated ballots ready to be injected - October 8, 2022," reads the caption for one Facebook post from that date. "Jesse Morgan says he was suspicious of his cargo load of COMPLETED ballots from NY to PA - October 8, 2022," reads another post’s caption. Both posts feature videos from One America News Network, but neither are from Oct. 8, 2022. Rather, both videos discuss unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump are false. President Joe Biden fairly won the election, and we’ve debunked dozens of statements wrongly alleging otherwise. The video in the first Facebook post shows part of a December 2020 press conference held by the Amistad Project, a group that’s part of a conservative legal organization called the Thomas More Society that worked with Trump’s legal team to file lawsuits challenging election results in key swing states. During the press conference, Jesse Morgan, who said he was a subcontractor who drove for the U.S. Postal Service, claimed he transported completed mail-in ballots from Bethpage, New York, to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in October 2020. The second Facebook post shows a One America News Network interview with Morgan, who had previously drawn attention for his YouTube videos alleging to show ghosts in his home. It was one of several interviews Morgan gave that year. He also appeared on Fox News, and his claims of voter fraud — presented without evidence — spread widely. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 23, 2022 in a post Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs “sent 6,000 wrong ballots to Republicans.” By Gabrielle Settles • October 28, 2022 The district attorney’s office in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, declined to comment to PolitiFact on the Facebook posts, saying it was a "federal matter." The county’s board of elections didn’t respond to PolitiFact’s questions about the posts. The U.S.P.S. Office of the Inspector General investigated the claims with the postal service and the FBI, and in April 2022 said it had found no evidence to corroborate Morgan’s story. RELATED VIDEO According to a report detailing the inspector general’s findings, the contents in the truck Morgan drove the day he alleged to have transported fraudulent ballots "indicate most, if not all the mail contents were packages, not letters or ballots." "Investigators confirmed data records indicated all mail contents were properly transported, accounted for, and processed," the report said. It’s also worth noting that in 2021, Craig Lehman, then a Lancaster County commissioner, told The Dispatch, a politically center-right online magazine, that the county’s election board receives absentee ballot applications to be mailed out of state every election cycle, so it wouldn’t be unusual for some complete ballots to cross state lines. Students who are attending college out of state or out of the country, and Pennsylvania residents who are in another state visiting or caring for a loved one for an extended time are examples of people who request absentee ballots, Lehman told The Dispatch. We looked for and found no news reports or other credible sources backing up the claims in the Facebook post that there’s evidence of massive election fraud leading up to the 2022 midterm elections. We rate these posts False.

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio "has denied climate change. With Florida's southwestern coast facing a difficult recovery from Hurricane Ian, environmental issues have advanced to the forefront of the state's U.S. Senate race. Democratic Rep. Val Demings blasted her opponent, Republican incumbent Sen. Marco Rubio, for snubbing the idea of climate change for years. "Marco has denied climate change and refuses to deal with the issues that affect our environment," Demings said in a Sept. 23 tweet. "Florida deserves better." Generally, climate change refers to shifts in temperatures and weather patterns driven largely by humans and their burning of fossil fuels. The connection between climate change and hurricanes is complicated and involves ongoing research, PolitiFact reported. Rubio's past skepticism of climate change science is well documented. When a liberal group in 2013 said Rubio is "a climate change denier," we rated the statement Mostly True. The caveat was that some of Rubio's remarks about climate change bordered on skepticism rather than outright denial. But Rubio's stance has shifted in recent years. Since 2018, Rubio has said Earth's climate is changing and humans, to some degree, have contributed to the changes. Rubio questioned the notion of climate change numerous times Rubio's position on climate change seemed ambiguous before he set his sights on national office. As Florida House speaker in 2007, for example, Rubio referenced the existence of global warming and embraced energy diversification. "Global warming, dependence on foreign sources of fuel, and capitalism have come together to create opportunities for us that were unimaginable just a few short years ago," Rubio said in a speech to state legislators. "Florida has the opportunity to pursue bold energy policies, not just because they're good for our environment, but because people can actually make money doing it." At the time, Rubio didn't outright acknowledge humans' ​​​​impact on the environment. By 2009, as he launched his bid for the U.S. Senate, Rubio began questioning whether humans have caused climate change. Asked about human impact on the climate in 2009, Rubio told the Miami Herald: "I'm not a scientist. I'm not qualified to make that decision. There's a significant scientific dispute about that." Rubio took his firmest stance against the concept that people can affect the environment in 2010, telling the Tampa Tribune ahead of the election that he didn't "think there's the scientific evidence to justify it." He won that election and has served in the U.S. Senate for more than a decade. Throughout his early years in Congress, Rubio opposed environmental legislation spearheaded by former President Barack Obama. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 30, 2022 in a photo “There are no greenhouse gas emissions in this photo” of cows grazing. By Kristin Hugo • November 7, 2022 "I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it," he said on ABC News' "This Week" in 2014. "And I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it. Except it will destroy our economy." We rated Rubio's claim about human activity not contributing to climate change False. At other times, Rubio skirted the question without outright denying the human role. "Sure, the climate is changing," Rubio said at a Republican presidential debate on March 10, 2016. "There was never a time when the climate was not changing." At the debate, he did not acknowledge human contribution to climate change. Rubio acknowledged humans' role in climate change in 2018 By 2018, Rubio began saying in public remarks that humans, to some degree, have contributed to climate change. His comments came after Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida Panhandle and drew national media attention. In an interview with CBS' John Dickerson, Rubio said: "My view is climate, sea level rise, these are measurable things. You can measure that. So there, it's not even a scientific debate at some point, it's just a reality debate." Dickerson pressed Rubio further on whether he thought humans were the chief contributor to climate change, to which Rubio said, "That's what a lot of scientists say." But Rubio noted that a few scientists "dispute what percentage" can be attributed to humans. PolitiFact has examined similar attempts to minimize humans' role in climate change. We found that increased levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can cause the Earth to warm. Humans have increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by nearly 50% since 1750, according to NASA. Rubio's campaign also pointed to two op-eds Rubio wrote for USA Today in 2019. In the first op-ed, he acknowledged that "Earth's climate is changing." In the second op-ed, he encouraged "proactive adaptation," which he said "could reduce damage caused by climate change." He also joined the bipartisan Senate Climate Solutions Caucus in February 2020. "Changes in our climate, such as the rise of sea levels, are measurable facts," Rubio said in a press release. "I look forward to working with my colleagues to find real and responsible solutions in a bipartisan way." Democrats and environmentalists have criticized Rubio's actions as "greenwashing" — meaning he says he supports solutions to climate change but rejects measures that would make the most impact, such as reducing carbon emissions through cap and trade. Meanwhile, Rubio has criticized Democrats' approach to climate change as an excuse for bad policies. Our ruling Demings said Rubio "has denied climate change." For about a decade, Rubio denied or downplayed humans' role in changing or worsening the climate. In recent years, he has acknowledged that humans contribute to climate change. He isn't on board with Democratic plans to respond to the crisis, but he has shown more interest in what he calls "responsible solutions" to climate-related issues such as rising sea levels. Demings' claim leaves out the details of Rubio's current position. We rate it Half Tru

The Great Reset advocates replacing capitalism with an economic system that is “kind of socialism, kind of communism” but “mostly just fascism. In June 2020, as countries were still reeling from the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Economic Forum pitched a set of policy ideas it called "The Great Reset." The international organization wanted governments around the world to seize the "rare but narrow window of opportunity" for social and economic change offered by the pandemic "to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world to create a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous future." What were its broader goals? The initiative aimed to make markets fairer through increased coordination among governments and improved trade agreements; to ensure that government spending advances shared goals like equality and sustainability; and to use innovation to support the public good by addressing health and social challenges, according to a June 2020 article by Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum. But according to conspiracy theories about the plan, the initiative advocated that nations eliminate all debt, install an expansive social credit system, abolish private ownership, exterminate sections of the global population, create a global currency, impose a police state and create an alternative soccer tournament in Europe. Those claims have all been debunked by fact-checkers. Yet, conservative political commentator Liz Wheeler claimed in a Facebook video that the Great Reset aims to replace capitalism with an economic system that is "kind of socialism, kind of communism" but "mostly just facism." The video was originally shared on Feb. 26 but recently began recirculating. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The World Economic Forum has repeatedly denied unfounded allegations that The Great Reset is a secret plan orchestrated by international elites to use the pandemic to change social and economic systems in order to create a global totalitarian regime. Adrian Monck, the international organization’s managing director, told PolitiFact that Wheeler’s claims are "ludicrous" and are being perpetuated by "disinformation actors." Featured Fact-check Hillary Clinton stated on July 22, 2007 in Washington, DC "Corporate profits are up, CEO pay is up, but average wages of Americans are flat." By Bill Adair • August 1, 2007 An October 2020 article about The Great Reset written by Schwab does not ask countries to replace capitalism with another economic system. "The reset that we need is not a revolution or a shift to some new ideology," Schwab wrote at the time. "Rather, it should be seen as a pragmatic step toward a more resilient, cohesive, and sustainable world." The BBC reported in 2021 that the plan’s lack of specificity plus the fact that it came from an influential group "provided fertile ground for conspiracy theories to grow." Schwab advocated in 2019 and 2020 for a "virtuous" capitalist system, in which companies "pay their fair share of taxes, show zero tolerance for corruption, uphold human rights throughout their global supply chains, and advocate for a competitive level playing field." The Great Reset conspiracy theory was initially boosted by Republicans, became popular among QAnon believers, and can include anti-Semitic elements. We reached out to Wheeler for comment but did not receive a reply. Our ruling A Facebook post says the Great Reset advocates replacing capitalism with an economic system that is "kind of socialism, kind of communism" but "mostly just fascism." The World Economic Forum never advocated for the creation of a totalitarian world government or the replacement of capitalism with another economic system. There is no evidence to support this theory, and it has been thoroughly debunked. We rate the claim Fals

Adam Laxalt “would let Nevada and other states ban abortion with zero exceptions. In a toss-up race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate, Democrats attacked Nevada Republican Adam Laxalt for supporting "zero exceptions" in abortion laws. Laxalt, the state’s former attorney general, is challenging Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto. One GOP win in the Nov. 8 elections could give Republicans control of the Senate. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ran an ad on Facebook and Instagram about the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision reversing Roe v. Wade. The ad’s text says: "After Roe was overturned, the rights of millions of women were taken away. And Adam Laxalt called that a ‘historic victory.’ "He’d let Nevada and other states ban abortion with zero exceptions. He’s not for us." Laxalt supported the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision that reversed a nearly half-century of precedent guaranteeing the constitutional right to an abortion. Roe’s overturning allowed states to set their own abortion restrictions. But we found no instances in which Laxalt stated support for banning abortion with no exceptions. In Nevada, Laxalt said he would support a referendum that shortened the state’s abortion cutoff to 13 weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest and the mother’s health. Laxalt backed reversing Roe, letting states regulate abortion In the months since the court overturned Roe, most abortions are banned in at least 13 states, according to tracking by The New York Times. The bans in nine states — Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin — have no exceptions for rape or incest; Mississippi has an exception for rape but not incest. Other states have passed bans with gestational limits of six, 15 or 20 weeks, for example. Most of these measures do allow for one exception: the life or health of the mother. To back its claim about Laxalt supporting "zero exceptions," the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee pointed to Laxalt’s support for overturning Roe and for letting states regulate abortion. In May, Laxalt said in an interview that Roe was "wrongly decided" and "so, for it to be returned to the states is an important process." In June, before the court’s ruling, Laxalt went further, saying: "I’m a constitutional conservative lawyer, and Roe v. Wade was always a joke. It was a total, complete invention … It has created decades and decades of political turmoil, not to mention the most important thing, that it is allowed across the country. So, I think its return back to the states is important." Featured Fact-check Adam Laxalt stated on November 20, 2022 in an ad “Biden and Democrats have dismantled border security.” By Maria Ramirez Uribe • November 3, 2022 Those comments were made to pastors and faith leaders, according to a report from the Nevada Independent, which included an audio clip of Laxalt’s remarks. On the day of the Supreme Court ruling, Laxalt released a statement calling the decision "a historic victory for the sanctity of life and the principles of democratic self-determination." He said the responsibility for legislating on abortion returns to "its rightful owners: the American people and their elected representatives." Laxalt’s campaign provided no information in response to our request to comment for this fact-check. As for what states should do, Laxalt has sent mixed messages. Laxalt statements on states and abortion In his statement on the Roe ruling, Laxalt did not call for any change in Nevada’s abortion law, which allows abortion through 24 weeks of pregnancy and after 24 weeks, if it is to preserve the woman’s life or health. He said in the statement, "The people of Nevada have already voted to make abortion rights legal in our state, and the court’s decision on Roe doesn’t change settled law." But in a May interview, when a reporter asked Laxalt whether he would support holding a referendum asking Nevada voters to restrict abortion after 13 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for physical health, rape and incest, Laxalt said he would, according to the article. In August, the Reno Gazette-Journal published an opinion column by Laxalt on his positions on abortion. He said he would support a referendum limiting abortion to pregnancy’s first 13 weeks, but didn’t mention exceptions. He said he would not favor a national abortion ban, because he supports letting states regulate abortion. As for other states, as Nevada’s attorney general, Laxalt filed court briefs in 2018 supporting efforts in Texas and Alabama to ban a procedure commonly used for second-trimester abortions. But we found no Laxalt statements calling for state abortion bans with no exceptions. Our ruling The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee claimed that Laxalt "would let Nevada and other states ban abortion with zero exceptions." Laxalt supported Roe v. Wade’s reversal and supports letting states decide what restrictions to put on abortions, which could include laws that ban abortion with no exceptions. But we found no examples of Laxalt stating support for laws banning abortions with no exceptions, in Nevada or elsewhere. The claim is partially accurate but leaves out important details — our definition of Half True. RELATED: Fact-checking 2022 election campaign ads RELATED: Adam Laxalt’s PolitiFact file RELATED: Catherine Cortez Masto’s PolitiFact fi

“President Trump and I lost an election in 2020 because of a rigged election. Nevada secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant has won more elections in his political career than he’s lost, but he’s been telling his supporters the election systems have long been rigged. When he joined former President Donald Trump onstage at an Oct. 8 rally at the Minden-Tahoe Airport and urged voters to cast their ballots again in his favor, Marchant described the 2020 election he lost as fraudulent. "We have something in common," Marchant told the audience during the rally. "President Trump and I lost an election in 2020 because of a rigged election." PolitiFact has repeatedly debunked statements that the 2020 election was rigged or stolen or illegitimate. Marchant’s claim that his own election was rigged is also wrong. Marchant leads the America First Secretary of State Coalition, a group of candidates running for statewide office across the country on a platform of denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election. His Trump rally claim was the latest in a series of statements he’s made painting the entire elections system as broken. His claims overlook that he’s won four primary or general elections since first running for state office in 2016. "We haven’t in Nevada elected anybody since 2006," Marchant said in a January video on Rumble, a website aggregating politically conservative content. "They have been installed by the deep state cabal." "Your vote hasn’t counted for decades," he said at a debate in February. "You haven’t elected anybody. The people that are in office have been selected. You haven’t had a choice." But Marchant told the Oct. 8 crowd of Trump supporters that they can win. "No matter how much rigging they can do of the system, if you show up on Nov. 8 en masse, with such a turnout, it doesn't matter what they do. We overwhelm the system, " Marchant said. Marchant faces Democrat Cisco Aguilar, a lawyer and former Nevada Athletic Commission appointee, to replace Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican who is term-limited. We contacted Marchant’s campaign to ask for his evidence and did not hear back by our deadline. Trump’s own attorney general told him the election wasn’t rigged Trump said before the 2020 election that a rigged election would be the only way Democrats would win. We rated his statement Pants on Fire. A conspiracy to rig an election would require thousands of people conspiring across multiple jurisdictions to commit felonies. There’s no evidence it happened. After Trump lost, Attorney General Bill Barr told Trump that he did not agree with calling the election "stolen" and that Trump’s statements were "bull----." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 Republican state officials in Nevada, Georgia and Arizona said the election was secure. Dozens of judges, including GOP appointees, rejected Trump’s claims of widespread fraud. Marchant lost his own congressional race in a blue district Marchant’s statements that his own congressional race was rigged against him are also wrong. Marchant served one term in the state Assembly and then lost to a Democrat in 2018. In 2020, he ran for Congress and lost to Democratic Rep. Steven Horsford by about 5 percentage points. Biden won the district by about 4 percentage points. Hillary Clinton won the district in 2016 and Barack Obama won the district in 2012. When Marchant ran, the 4th Congressional District sprawled across multiple counties including rural areas, but most of the population was concentrated in northern Clark County, which includes parts of Las Vegas. In November 2020, Marchant sued alleging voter fraud and challenging Clark County’s use of a ballot sorting machine as a first step to match voters’ signatures on their ballot envelopes. A judge quickly dismissed Marchant’s lawsuit seeking a new election in Clark County. The judge ruled that the district court lacked jurisdiction and noted that Marchant lost by 33,000 votes in Clark County, "which the Court finds to be an insurmountable deficit to overcome on the facts before it." Evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 election in Nevada was scarce. The conservative Heritage Foundation’s database of voter fraud cases only shows one in Nevada from the 2020 election. Donald Kirk Hartle, a Republican, told a TV station that someone voted a mail ballot in his dead wife’s name, but Hartle later pleaded guilty to filling out her ballot. Cegavske, the Republican secretary of state, reviewed allegations by Republicans of thousands of illegal votes cast, including by people who died or voted twice or had inaccurate addresses. Cegavske concluded that the Nevada GOP’s allegations were "based largely upon an incomplete assessment of voter registration records and lack of information concerning the processes by which these records are compiled and maintained." Our ruling Marchant said, "President Trump and I lost an election in 2020 because of a rigged election." State and federal officials — including Trump’s own attorney general — rejected Trump’s allegations that there was widespread fraud in a rigged election. Marchant lost his bid for Congress to the Democratic incumbent in 2020. There was no evidence of widespread fraud in that race, either. Democrats have routinely won races in that county for a decade. We rate this statement Pants on Fire! RELATED: A coalition of ‘stop the steal’ Republicans aims to take control of US elections. QAnon is helping RELATED: How could U.S. voting be affected if election deniers win? RELATED: Trump’s own advisers add to evidence that election wasn’t stolen RELATED: Nevada Republican misleads about Department of Motor Vehicles registering "illegals" to vo

"55,000 years ago the world was 2 degrees warmer Celsius than it is today. Former oil executive Dan Peña has made his stance on climate change clear. As far as he is concerned, it’s not an issue. As evidence of why, in May 2021 Peña told an audience the story of a visit he and his wife made to Antarctica. Scientists were drilling ice core samples to determine former Earth temperatures, he said, and one scientist described to onlookers what those samples revealed. "‘Fifty-five thousand years ago, the world was 2 degrees warmer Celsius than it is today,’" Peña said the scientist told him. "And I said, ‘Well, you mean the whole world?’ And he said, ‘Yes.’ ... In the cosmos of time, it’s not a fart in the wind. In the cosmos of time in the 13.8 billion years that we’ve been on this miserable planet, it’s not a fart in the wind." The Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, not 13.8 billion. The first life appeared about 3.7 billion years ago. The video segment was filmed at an event hosted by London Real, a company that makes videos on self-improvement, business, finances and other topics. The notion that the Earth was 2 degrees Celsius warmer 55,000 years ago has been previously debunked by Climate Feedback, a scientific reference, but videos of Peña making this claim have continued to appear on social media including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Some of these posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Teams of scientists do drill ice cores in Antarctica, including at the British Antarctic Survey and the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility. As snow falls, it compresses, and in the Antarctic’s cold, it doesn’t thaw, even over hundreds of thousands of years. Scientists collect and study ice cores to discern information about temperatures as far back as 800,000 years ago. Tiny air bubbles trapped in the ice provide information about what the environment was like at the time, including carbon dioxide concentrations. Bethan Davies, a senior researcher at the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University in England, told PolitiFact in an email that she knows of no reputable source that claims Earth temperatures were higher 55,000 years ago. "It shows a solid misunderstanding of Earth’s palaeoclimate and the drivers of past temperature change," said Davies, who also runs AntarcticGlaciers.org, a website about the study of glaciation and the Antarctic. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in a video Video shows “California sets their own forest fires and claims them as climate change effects.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 The temperature in one studied region of Antarctica was -35.6°C 55,000 years ago, according to data published in 2016 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It said that in 2006, the average temperature in that area of Antarctica was -28.7°C — that was about 6.9°C warmer than the temperature in that region 55,000 years ago. There is also data about the Northern Hemisphere going back 120,000 years that shows it was colder 55,000 years ago in Greenland, too. To visualize Earth’s climate 55,000 years ago, note that this was the time of wooly mammoths. This would have been during a period of slight warming compared with the rest of that glacial period, but it was not warmer than today, Davies says. There are periods in Earth’s history in which the planet was much warmer than today, or even too hot for humans to live. For instance, 600 million to 800 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs, the global average temperature was 90° Fahrenheit (32°C) as opposed to the 20th-century global average, which was about 57° F (14°C) according to modern measurements by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The global average of 2021 was 1.51°F (0.84° Celsius) warmer than that, according to NOAA’s 2021 report on average land and sea temperature. However, that there have been gradual periods of warming in the past doesn’t mean that climate change is a hoax, normal, or safe. Although the Earth’s temperature has fluctuated, both in deep time and over the last century, the speed at which the climate is changing affects "water, energy, transportation, wildlife, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health," according to NOAA. Even natural climate variations are disruptive, as temperatures, sea-level changes, and other phenomena result in changes to the atmosphere and weather, as well as extinctions of plants and animals. Human-driven change is of particular concern, though, as human activity is happening at rates the United Nations calls "unprecedented" and "irreversible" for centuries or millennia, too fast for the natural world and human society to safely adapt. Our ruling A video circulating on Facebook showed Peña saying Antarctic ice cores show the Earth was 2 degrees Celsius warmer 55,000 years ago. Scientific research looking at the Southern and Northern hemispheres shows that assertion is wrong. Although the planet’s temperatures have fluctuated over billions of years, research published in 2016 shows the Antarctic was 6.9°C colder compared with 2006, the most recent year for which ice core data has been collected. We rate this claim False.

California’s Senate Bill 107 means “your child can now be taken from your custody if you do not affirm gender-reassignment surgery. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed into law a measure that aims to strengthen protections for transgender youths and their families. Senate Bill 107 contains an array of safeguards for families who arrive in California from states where their children have been denied gender-affirming health care. It bans courts from enforcing subpoenas from other states regarding minors seeking that care. It prohibits health care providers from releasing medical information. And it clarifies that California courts have jurisdiction over any child custody cases arising from parents taking their children to the state for care. But a Sept. 29 Facebook post went further to suggest the law says something else: "Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 107 into law. In the state of California, your child can now be taken from your custody if you do not affirm gender-reassignment surgery." The post, shared by the American Council, is a screenshot of a tweet by the group’s founder, Tanner DiBella. The American Council describes itself as an organization dedicated to increasing voter turnout among Christian evangelicals. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) DiBella told PolitiFact the California Legislative Counsel’s summary of the law backs up his reasoning. He pointed specifically to a passage of the summary at the top of bill’s text that reads, "The bill would authorize a court to take temporary jurisdiction because a child has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health care." But experts we spoke to said that doesn’t mean the state would take custody of the child — it clarifies that California courts would assume jurisdiction of the legal matter. Current law allows California courts to decline jurisdiction in multistate custody matters in certain circumstances. Courtney Joslin, a Martin Luther King Jr. professor of law at the University of California, Davis School of Law, said the law has nothing to do with who gets custody of a child during a dispute and makes no mention of allowing the court to take custody. "It’s just describing which courts have jurisdiction in those multi-state (custody disputes)," she said. "There’s no possibility that this bill could be interpreted to do what this person is claiming." Asaf Orr, a senior staff attorney and Transgender Youth Project director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the bill doesn’t give California carte blanche to remove a child from a parent’s custody. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 23, 2022 in Instagram post California state Sen. Scott Wiener “doesn’t just want to sterilize California kids, but sterilization of kids everywhere!” By Michael Majchrowicz • October 31, 2022 If parents disagree over whether their child should receive gender-affirming care in California, a state court would hear that case and rule based on evidence provided by both parents, Orr said. Out-of-state laws would not apply to the court’s determination. Orr said this isn't a new thing, as a state already has jurisdiction over court cases related to children who recently entered that state, for reasons such as escaping from domestic violence. "It just ensures that, in situations like this, the court recognizes they have jurisdiction to hear these cases and that they’re going to decide them based on the evidence," he said. "Both parties, as in any court case, will have the opportunity to present evidence and it’s going to be individualized for that young person." Wendy Seiden, a visiting professor at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, said there is nothing in the law that would allow California to take custody of a child. But it does allow California to resist another state’s attempt to remove a parent’s custody if the proposed removal is based on that parent’s efforts to get gender-affirming care for their child. California state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, an attorney and Senate Bill 170’s author, described DiBella’s interpretation of the text as "categorically false." "It doesn’t change custody laws in any way," Wiener said. "It just means that, rather than having to go back to Texas or Alabama, they can do it in court here." Weiner said he authored the bill in response to proposed legislation in other states involving transgender youth. It provides guidance, he said, for California courts concerning custody hearings involving transgender youths and it helps protect parents who decide to bring their children to the state. "This bill literally protects parents’ ability to make decisions about children's health care without having to be thrown in prison," Wiener said. At least 24 states have proposed bills since Jan. 1 targeting transgender or nonbinary youths’ ability to receive gender-affirming care. In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive earlier this year that ordered state officials to launch child abuse investigations of parents suspected of allowing their child to receive gender-affirming care. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a law in April that makes providing gender-affirming care for youths a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Our ruling A Facebook post claims that a recently signed California law dealing with gender-affirming care for transgender youth will allow that state to take custody of a child from a parent. Experts said that’s not so. The bill clarifies that California courts have jurisdiction to hear any custody cases related to a child being taken to the state to seek gender-affirming health care. It does not say that the courts can take custody of a child. We rate this claim False.

“Donald Trump is back on Twitter,” thanks to Elon Musk Billionaire Elon Musk has changed his mind once again on a potential Twitter deal, indicating Oct. 4 that he intended to buy the social media platform for his original offer price of about $44 billion. While the deal has not yet been finalized, some on social media claimed Musk has already made big changes. "Donald Trump is back on Twitter and he made sure to thank Elon Musk," claimed two Facebook posts shared Oct. 9. The posts included a screenshot of a supposed tweet from the former president that said, "Thank you Elon Musk, I’m Back!!" These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) After the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently banned Trump from the platform for violating its policies against inciting violence. Before the ban, Trump had also repeatedly used his Twitter account to widely spread misinformation about the 2020 election. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 27, 2022 in a post Video shows Marjorie Taylor Greene planted pipe bombs at Republican and Democratic party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021. By Gabrielle Settles • October 31, 2022 Musk has criticized Twitter’s decision to ban anyone other than spam accounts and "those that explicitly advocate violence" from the platform. In May, he pledged to reverse the ban on Trump’s account, saying it was "a morally bad decision, to be clear, and foolish in the extreme." However, Musk has not taken over ownership of the social media platform yet. And as of Oct. 10, Trump’s Twitter account @realDonaldTrump was still suspended. No record of the tweet used to claim Trump is back on Twitter could be found on the platform. The account that apparently sent the tweet is @realDonJTru, which is not an official account for the former president. We rate this claim Fals

"To call what happened on January 6 an armed insurrection, I just think is not accurate. The U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, has scheduled what could be its final public hearing for Oct. 13. It will be the committee’s first public session since the summer, when lawmakers presented the evidence they gathered in a series of televised hearings that attracted millions of viewers. A report is to be filed by the end of the year. The earlier hearings, and the criminal charges brought against more than 900 protesters by the U.S. Justice Department, have made clear that the events of that day were part of a coordinated effort to prevent the lawful transfer of power to newly elected President Joe Biden. An insurrection. The hearings have included video footage and photos of the attack, showing participants erecting gallows, deploying pepper spray, hurling a fire extinguisher, using baseball bats to smash windows and throwing flags like spears at police officers. Within a week of the attack, a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found. In other words, the crowd was armed. Both points seem clear. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' }); Not to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who is locked in a tight re-election race against Democrat Mandela Barnes, Wisconsin’s lieutenant governor. Here was Johnson during an Oct. 4 appearance at the Rotary Club of Milwaukee as reported by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Now some of the protesters did teach us all how you can use flagpoles and that kind of stuff as weapons. But to call what happened on January 6 an armed insurrection, I just think is not accurate." On that, he is plainly wrong. Repeating a ridiculous claim This is not the first time Johnson has made such a claim. On Feb. 15, 2021, we looked at a similar claim from Johnson, who in an appearance on "The Jay Weber Show" on WISN radio said accounts of the Jan. 6, 2021, events were being exaggerated. "The fact of the matter is this didn’t seem like an armed insurrection to me. I mean armed, when you hear armed, don’t you think of firearms?" Johnson said. "Here’s the questions I would have liked to ask. How many firearms were confiscated? How many shots were fired? I’m only aware of one, and I’ll defend that law enforcement officer for taking that shot." Johnson made a nearly identical claim later that morning on "The Regular Joe Show." At the time, we noted the definition of "armed" is broader than Johnson makes it out to be. Carrying a gun, of course, is armed. But so is carrying other weapons. When we checked the claim, just over a month after Jan. 6, NBC News had already reported that within a week after the attack a dozen guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition had been found on seven people arrested before and after the Capitol riot. The New York Times had reviewed video that showed people using stolen police shields, sticks and crutches as weapons. A man photographed with his feet on the desk of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was carrying a 950,000-volt stun gun walking stick. In addition, reports said pipe bombs were found near the Capitol at Republican and Democratic party headquarters. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 We called the claim "ridiculous revisionist history" and rated it Pants on Fire. When asked for backup to the claim, Johnson’s spokesperson Alexa Henning in an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin said "this started with a deceptively edited video tweet from an NBC reporter" and that the senator was referring to how weapons were characterized in the 2020 riots that rocked many cities following the police killing of George Floyd versus what happened on Jan. 6, 2021. "He is in no way condoning this action," she said. "He’s commenting on the hypocrisy of the situation." A video of the question and answer shows that was the framing of his response, but Johnson’s complaints about media coverage don’t change what he said or how he has continued to characterize the Jan. 6 events – as not an armed insurrection. More details since our last fact check Since we last examined this claim, the picture has only become clearer. Few arrests were made on Jan. 6, 2021, but more than 900 people have now been identified and charged, according to a database maintained by National Public Radio. The database contained the names of 908 people charged when last updated Oct. 10. Law enforcement has arrested alleged rioters in nearly all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia. Charges include unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful entry, assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, civil disorder, disorderly conduct, destruction of government property and violent entry in a Capitol Building. "The Justice Department put the cases into three categories: those who conspired over days, weeks and even months to attack the Capitol; those who allegedly violently attacked police, often with the use of weapons; and the remainder who breached the building as part of the mob, but did not commit other crimes," NPR reported. "Sixty defendants have been charged with conspiracy. At least 228 defendants have been charged with violence." At least $2.5 million of damage was done to the Capitol. As NPR also reported: "About 140 law enforcement officers suffered injuries in the attack, many at the hands of rioters wielding pepper spray, metal pipes and American flags fashioned into clubs." Four people in the crowd died Jan. 6, 2021, including U.S. Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt, who was shot to death by Capitol Police as the crowd tried to breach the House chamber. In the days and weeks after the insurrection, additional people died, according to The New York Times, including five law enforcement officers, one of whom, Brian D. Sicknick, had been attacked by the mob and died Jan. 7, 2021. Charges against leaders On Oct. 6, Jeremy Bertino, 43, of Belmont, North Carolina, a former Proud Boys lieutenant, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy and has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department against the group’s former chairman Henry "Enrique" Tarrio and four other Proud Boys leaders. They are scheduled for trial in December. According to The Washington Post, the Proud Boys members are accused of "plotting to oppose by force the presidential transition, culminating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol." In addition to the conspiracy charge, according to The Washington Post, Bertino also pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal possession of firearms as a former felon. Bertino faces up to 20 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and up to 10 years in prison for the firearms charge, the Justice Department said. No sentencing date was set. Meanwhile, several leaders of the far-right militia group Oath Keepers are currently on trial for seditious conspiracy, a rarely used Civil War era offense, in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Our ruling Johnson said "To call what happened on January 6 an armed insurrection, I just think is not accurate." It’s Johnson’s claim — that it was not an armed insurrection — that is inaccurate. There was plenty of evidence to rebut that claim when Johnson made it in the immediate aftermath of Jan. 6, 2021. There is plenty more now. It’s still false and ridiculous. It’s still Pants on Fir

The Jan. 6 hearing “was abruptly canceled after it was revealed that news networks would not be showing it. The U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol announced in September that its next hearing would be held Sept. 28. Just a day before it was to take place, it was postponed because of Hurricane Ian’s impending arrival. But a video shared on Facebook claimed the hearing "was abruptly canceled after it was revealed that news networks would not be showing it." The video was footage from a show called "TurleyTalks," hosted by Steve Turley, a conservative author, internet talk show host and podcaster. "With the hurricane in Florida, the scramble to avert a government shutdown by week’s end, and the midterms looming, news networks have appeared to have largely scrapped the hearings, recognizing that they’ve been nothing more than frankly a waste of time," Turley said. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But the committee hearing was postponed, not canceled, and not because networks lost interest. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 27, 2022 in a post Video shows Marjorie Taylor Greene planted pipe bombs at Republican and Democratic party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021. By Gabrielle Settles • October 31, 2022 In a Sept. 27 tweet, the committee said it decided to postpone the hearing because of the hurricane. "In light of Hurricane Ian bearing down on parts of Florida, we have decided to postpone tomorrow’s proceedings. We’re praying for the safety of all those in the storm’s path," the tweet said. It also said the committee would announce a future date for the proceedings. On the same day Turley’s clip was posted on Facebook, the Jan. 6 committee tweeted the hearing’s new date, Oct. 13. Committee members such as Jamie Raskin, D-Md., have said this hearing could be the last one. But, that’s not set in stone. "The proceedings have been broadcast live on YouTube, the major TV networks, CNN, MSNBC and C-SPAN," the Los Angeles Times reported in a story updated Oct. 6. "Fox News has offered live coverage of sessions held early in the day." It’s not true that the hearing "was abruptly canceled after it was revealed that news networks would not be showing it." We rate the claim False.

COVID was "so bad one year, they just forgot to give us a hurricane? What’s really going on here. Everyone knows 2020 and 2021 were full of news. There was a global pandemic, an American presidential election, a massive attack on the U.S. Capitol. But an Instagram video suggests there was one newsworthy event that someone "forgot" to make happen — a hurricane. "So covid was so bad one year, they forgot to give us a hurricane?" reads overlay text on the video posted Oct. 1. It shows a man filming himself walking on a cloud-covered beach as waves crash in the background. He’s shaking his head. "What’s really going on here?" the post’s caption reads. The post was flagged as part of Instagram’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) It is wrong on two fronts. First, hurricanes are formed in nature, not orchestrated by people, so there’s no conspiracy afoot, though we have seen a number of social media posts falsely claiming otherwise. Second, hurricane activity did not subside after the COVID-19 pandemic began. In fact, 2020 and 2021 marked the first and third most active Atlantic hurricane seasons on record, respectively, according to the National Hurricane Center. In 2020, the center recorded at least 30 tropical cyclones. Fourteen of them were hurricanes, according to the data. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post “Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 Seven of those systems produced major hurricanes of Category 3 strength or higher, meaning they had maximum sustained wind speeds of 111 mph or higher. These included Category 4 Hurricane Laura and Category 3 Hurricane Zeta, both of which made landfall in Louisiana. "Every single mile of the mainland U.S. Atlantic coast, from Texas to Maine, was under a watch or warning related to tropical cyclones at some point in 2020," Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground, an online weather information service, wrote in an analysis published by Yale Climate Connections. The 2021 hurricane season saw 21 named storms — the third-highest on record. Of those, four were classified as major hurricanes, including Category 4 Hurricane Ida, which dealt catastrophic damage to Louisiana when it made landfall in the state’s southeastern region. Hurricanes are formed when humid air flows upward in a low-pressure zone over warm ocean water. That water is then released from the air, and as it rises, the air rotates. The longer a system stays over warm water, the stronger and more dangerous it becomes. Hurricanes tend to peak between the end of June and beginning of November. "We cannot create hurricanes nor can we throw them anywhere we want to," Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences and the director of the Texas Center for Climate Studies at Texas A&M University previously told PolitiFact. "Hurricanes are not manifestations of our thoughts. If we didn’t believe in Hurricane Ian, it would still pummel the west coast of Florida." Our ruling An Instagram video said "so was COVID so bad they just forgot to give us a hurricane?" and suggested something conspiratorial was going on. Hurricanes are formed in nature, not orchestrated by people, so there’s no conspiracy regarding storm exposure. And hurricane activity did not subside after the COVID-19 pandemic began — 2020 and 2021 marked the first and third most active Atlantic hurricane seasons on record. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

Says Tony Evers is “a career politician. The Wisconsin governor's race has become the most expensive 2022 general election in the country, with Republican challenger Tim Michels positioning himself as the outsider businessman. With that strategy, of course, he’s seeking the perfect foil – a career politician. But that’s not exactly how most would describe Gov. Tony Evers, the Democrat who won the job four years ago. Yet there was the claim in a video from Michels posted Sept. 4 on Twitter: Evers is "a career politician." Let’s take a closer look at Evers’ resume – and that of Michels. From teacher to governor During his political campaigns, Evers, 70, has touted his time as a young adult working scraping mold off of cheese at a cheese factory in Plymouth, as well as helping out as an orderly at Rocky Knoll, where his father was the director of the Sheboygan County hospital and sanitorium. Evers graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a PhD in education in 1986 after getting his undergraduate degree there in 1974 and a master’s degree in 1978. Before starting his master’s degree, he worked as science teacher in Baraboo (1974 to 1975). While working on his advanced degrees, Evers served as a teacher and media coordinator at Tomah Elementary School (1976 to 1979), principal at Tomah Elementary School (1979 to 1980) and later principal at Tomah High School (1980 to 1984), all in Monroe County. He then became superintendent at Oakfield Schools (1984 to 1988) in Fond du Lac County, then superintendent for Verona Schools in Dane County, where he served until 1992. He then became an administrator at a Cooperative Education Service Agency (CESA) in Oshkosh, from 1992 until 2001. (The Legislature created 12 CESAs in 1965 in order to replace the office of County Superintendent of Schools and serve as a link between Wisconsin’s school districts, and between the districts and the state.) Then for nearly two decades, Evers worked for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, first as the Deputy State Superintendent between 2001 and 2009, and then as the State Superintendent from 2009 until 2018 (he was elected to the position another two times in 2013 and 2017). That’s the first time holding any sort of elected office comes up – the top job, state superintendent, is a nonpartisan, elected constitutional office. As such, the elected state superintendent cannot affiliate with a political party during their time in office. Of course, as state superintendent, Evers engaged in politics, in that he had a platform he could use to advocate for education issues, seek budget increases and more. Like state Supreme Court contests, there is often a partisan breakdown among supporters for the candidates. And, to be sure, Evers used the position as a springboard to the governor’s job. The position did not include the same partisan dynamic as governor, but it would be naive to suggest there is not a political element to it. Indeed, Evers was appointed deputy in 2001, after an unsuccessful bid for the job. And he previously ran in 1993, when he lost out to John Benson. This brings us to the Wisconsin gubernatorial election in 2018, in which Evers won the Democratic nomination and went on to unseat Republican Scott Walker. This was the first time he ran for a partisan office – but his sixth attempt at statewide office. So, in Evers’ 48-year working career, you can count his time as a politician two ways – four years in a partisan office, or 17 in any elected office. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 But either way, the preponderance of his career was spent as a public school teacher and administrator. "Gov. Evers, who’s spent most of his life fighting for Wisconsin’s kids and schools, has worked as a caregiver, teacher, factory worker, and principal," said Britt Cudabeck, Evers spokesperson, adding "the thousands of people in Wisconsin who work these very jobs every day would be shocked to learn Tim Michels thinks they’re "career politicians.’" Tim Michels and his background While we’re looking at resumes, let’s take a quick look at Michels, 60, who is actually seeking elective office for the third time. The first attempt for Michels came in 1998 when he made a bid for the state Senate, losing out to incumbent Senator Scott L. Fitzgerald in the Republican primary. In 2004, Michels ran for the U.S. Senate, defeating automobile dealer Russ Darrow Jr., state Senator Robert Welch and attorney Robert Lorge in the Republican primary. He lost that fall to the Democratic incumbent, U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, who he also called a "career politician." (Fun fact: When U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson labeled Feingold a career politician in a 2016 rematch between the two, we rated that Mostly True.) Michels earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from St. Norbert College in 1984. From 1984 to July 1996, Michels was also in the United States Army as an Infantry Officer and as a Plans, Operations and Training Officer. He had no deployments. At the end of his service, he held the rank of major, according to his military records. He later earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and an MPA, that's a Master of Public Administration, from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1997. Since 1998, after the death of his father, Dale, Tim Michels and his brothers, Pat and Kevin, have led the family-run, Brownsville-based energy and infrastructure construction company, Michels Corp. The company had projected revenue of nearly $3 billion in 2018, according to BizTimes Milwaukee. Michels is both a co-owner and the vice president, but has said he would divest himself from the business if he is elected as governor. In April, 2022, Michels filed paperwork with the state’s Elections Commission, thus beginning his run for governor of Wisconsin – his third attempt to win public office. We asked the Michels campaign for evidence for their claim, and a comment on the candidate’s own pursuits of elective office, but did not hear back before deadline. But since this claim is résumé-driven, it was easy to gather the material we needed. Our ruling Tim Michels claimed that Evers is a "career politician." In his 48-year working career, one could say he has held any elected office for 17 years, or spent four years as a partisan politician. To label him a "career politician" ignores 31 years, or more than half his work life. But we also can’t ignore two earlier, unsuccessful, attempts to win the statewide job. That means we have a statement that "contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression." And that’s our definition for Mostly False. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

Buzz Aldrin admitted that the moon landing “didn’t happen. Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 joined fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong in landing on the moon, is regularly, and wrongly, accused of saying his historic space flight was a hoax. One iteration that has recently circulated online: a clip from a 2015 appearance Aldrin made at Oxford University. "Buzz admitting moon landing ‘didn’t happen,’" the Oct. 4 Instagram post says. In a video in the post, a woman in the audience asks Aldrin what the scariest moment of his journey was. "Scariest?" he says. "It didn’t happen." The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Aldrin, who is 92 now, participated in a question-and-answer session at the Oxford Union in the United Kingdom in 2015. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 He spoke for about an hour, and the moment in the Instagram post starts around the 30:15 mark of this video that the Oxford Union’s verified account posted on YouTube. It’s clear watching Aldrin’s full appearance that he wasn’t denying the moon landing happened. Rather, he appears to be saying that nothing scary happened. The talk in the video does touch on a fraught moment for Aldrin. Someone in the audience asks about the "circuit breaker," reminding Aldrin of when he and Armstrong, after their moonwalk, discovered a circuit breaker switch had broken off their lunar module. In his 2010 book, "Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon," Aldrin recalled that he "jolted a bit" when he saw the switch had broken, and that he "gulped hard" upon realizing that it had "snapped off from the engine-arm circuit breaker, the one vital breaker needed to send electrical power to the ascent engine that would lift Neil and me off the moon." Aldrin didn’t say the moon landing didn’t happen. We rate that claim False.

Judge Aileen Cannon “loses her license. Recent rulings by the judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s legal challenge to the FBI’s seizure of documents, including some marked classified, from his Mar-a-Lago estate have caused some critics to balk, accusing her of "playing for Team Trump." It’s also led to misinformation about Aileen Cannon, whom Trump nominated for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. On Sept. 30, one Facebook post claimed, without evidence, "Trump’s corrupt judge loses her license after major scandal." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Although some legal experts have faulted Cannon’s rulings in the records case, Cannon hasn’t lost her law license. At Trump’s request, Cannon ordered the appointment of an independent arbiter known as a special master to review the records the FBI seized. She also blocked federal prosecutors from examining the records until the special master, Judge Raymond Dearie, completed his review. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Washington, characterized Cannon’s actions to The New York Times as "an unprecedented intervention by a federal district judge into the middle of an ongoing federal criminal and national security investigation." According to the Florida Bar, which serves partly to "prosecute unethical lawyers" through an attorney discipline system, Cannon’s license is in good standing. She was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2012 and has no discipline history. Disbarment is the severest sanction lawyers can face after being found guilty of disciplinary violations. Such a sanction, issued by the Florida Supreme Court, revokes a lawyer’s license to practice law in the state and expels them from the Florida Bar. "If a lawyer steals client funds or is convicted of a felony, the presumptive sanction is disbarment," according to the Florida Bar. Cannon was previously licensed to practice law in California. Records from the State Bar of California show that after being admitted to the organization in 2008, she was inactive by 2012 — when she was admitted to the Florida Bar. She voluntarily resigned from the California Bar in 2021. We rate claims she lost her license False.

Says Mandela Barnes “supported a 20% increase in the gas tax. As gasoline prices continue to fluctuate, trending higher after a recent dip, the two candidates running for Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate in November are pointing plenty of fingers. In this case, it is U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., claiming that old policies supported by Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor, would have made gas prices even higher. In a TV ad, Johnson lists off a number of accusations against Barnes, including this one: that Barnes "supported a 20% increase in the gas tax." That seems like, well, a lot. So, let’s take a look. Johnson doesn’t consider full gas tax proposal When asked about the claim, Alec Zimmerman, Johnson’s communications director, shared a link to a May 2019 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report that described a proposal from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to increase the gas tax by 8 cents per gallon in order to rebuild and repair more roads. At that time, the gas tax was 32.9 cents per gallon, and would have increased to 40.9 cents per gallon, but the proposal was rejected by the Republican-led Legislature. There is no mention in the story of Barnes, his opinion at the time, or any involvement by Barnes in crafting the proposal — nor did Team Johnson provide any evidence of it. But Barnes was — of course — a member of the Evers administration, and did not so far as we could tell speak out against it. Under the Evers plan, the increase would have been about a 24% jump in the gas tax — not too far off of what Johnson claimed. But the Johnson claim looks at only part of the puzzle. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 There were many news articles written at the time about the Evers proposal — and Johnson’s team conveniently chose one that touches on the proposal only in passing, and does not get at the details. All of this should be familiar to regular PolitiFact Wisconsin readers: In April, we rated Half True a claim by the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce that Evers "tried to make us pay even more at the pump by hiking the gas tax." As we noted in that item, and as was widely reported at the time, the gas tax increase was coupled with a plan to eliminate the minimum markup on motor vehicle fuel, a law that bans selling fuel below cost to attract customers. According to news reports at the time, repealing that measure could have saved drivers as much as 14 cents per gallon. As with the gas tax increase, Republicans rejected eliminating the minimum markup law, even though former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, once made a similar pitch. To be sure, various looks at the economics behind the minimum markup law showed that, by now, much of that savings would have been eroded by other factors such as inflation. Although the Evers administration — and therefore, presumably, Barnes — did support a jump in the gas tax, it also proposed other measures that would have, at least temporarily, reduced the price at the pump for Wisconsin drivers. That information is ignored by Johnson in making the claim. Our ruling Johnson claims that Barnes "supported a 20% increase in the gas tax." Although the Evers administration — and, by association, Barnes — supported an 8-cents-per-gallon increase in 2019, the plan also called for the elimination of the minimum markup on fuel, which had the potential to decrease the price at the pump by 14 cents. Our definition of Half True is a statement that is "partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context." That’s our rating for this one.

“The Obama Foundation stored classified documents in an abandoned furniture warehouse. In August, afterthe FBI seized documents from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump wrongly charged his predecessor with keeping "33 million pages of documents, much of them classified." About a month later, more inaccuracies about former President Barack Obama and his handling of classified documents spread online. "The Obama Foundation stored classified documents in an abandoned furniture warehouse," a Sept. 22 Facebook post said, citing a 2018 letter from the Obama Foundation to the National Archives and Records Administration. The letter revealed that the foundation "not only acknowledged possessing classified documents but also admitted that they kept them in a facility that did not meet NARA standards for the storage of those documents," the post said. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) The post links and quotes from a Sept. 22 story by conservative website PJ Media. The story headline, as it appears in the Facebook post, said "Letter reveals Obama Foundation is keeping classified docs in abandoned furniture warehouse." But clicking the link reveals that the story has since been updated. "Correction," the headline now says. "NARA kept classified docs in a furniture warehouse, not the Obama Foundation." After Trump’s incorrect suggestion that Obama kept millions of documents, including classified materials, the National Archives and Records Administration issued a statement saying it has "assumed exclusive legal and physical custody of Obama presidential records when President Barack Obama left office in 2017, in accordance with the Presidential Records Act." RELATED VIDEO The agency said that it moved approximately 30 million pages of unclassified records to one of its facilities in the Chicago area, and that it moved other classified records to one of its facilities in the Washington, D.C., area. Obama "has no control over where and how NARA stores the presidential records of his administration," the agency said. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 But this arrangement is old news; so is the involvement of a former furniture store. The Chicago Tribune reported in spring 2016 that paperwork, electronic data and artifacts from Obama’s presidency would go to the old Plunkett Home Furnishings store in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, which was converted into a "NARA-controlled facility," according to a memorandum of understanding between the Obama Foundation and the National Archives. The following year, the foundation and the National Archives announced that the foundation would fund the digitization of all of the unclassified presidential records created during Obama’s presidency while government facilities would house the original materials. And in 2018, an Obama Foundation representative sent a letter to the national archivist detailing mutual "intent regarding the digitization of Obama presidential records and related matters concerning preservation, processing and display of and access to such records and artifacts." This is the 2018 letter mentioned in the Facebook post. Among other commitments listed in the letter is one that says the Obama Foundation agreed to transfer up to $3.3 million to the National Archives Trust Fund "to support the move of classified and unclassified Obama presidential records and artifacts from Hoffman Estates to NARA-controlled facilities that conform to the agency’s archival storage standards for such records and artifacts, and for the modification of such spaces." But that doesn’t mean the Obama Foundation stored classified documents in an abandoned furniture warehouse, as the Facebook post says. The National Archives moved records from the Obama presidency to the Hoffman Estates facility at the end of his presidency "under the assumption that former President Obama and his Foundation would be building and transferring to NARA a traditional, physical presidential library in the Chicago area," the National Archives said in a Sept. 23 statement. When Obama decided he wanted a digital library — not a physical one — the National Archives "transported the classified records back to secure locations" in the Washington D.C., area. "The Obama Foundation provided NARA with funds to help convert the Hoffman Estates facility and to cover some of the expenses of moving the classified records, but the foundation has never had possession or control over the records," the agency said. We rate claims that the Obama Foundation stored classified documents in an abandoned furniture store Pants on Fire. RELATED: Why Trump is wrong to suggest Obama personally kept ‘33 million pages of documents,

Antony Blinken “confesses that Biden” is responsible for the Nord Stream pipeline leaks Europe is investigating what caused several recent leaks in the Nord Stream pipeline network that runs from Russia to Europe. On Oct. 5, a German government spokesperson said sabotage is suspected. The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported the same day that the country’s federal police believe state actors were probably involved. Russia has tried to implicate the United States in the leaks, and a recent Facebook post echoes this. A video in the post is titled "Blinken confesses that Biden did it," and over several minutes, a woman in the video makes the case that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments during a press conference Sept. 30 shows him conceding that the United States "deliberately destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 "Theories abound that the U.S. is to blame," the woman in the video says before adding that "statements of Mr. Blinken’s solidify these theories." She then points to remarks Blinken made during a press conference featuring Blinken and Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and how Blinken described the situation as a "tremendous opportunity." But nowhere did he suggest Biden is to blame for the leaks. A reporter at the press conference asked Blinken and Joly how their respective countries would ease energy supply problems in following the leaks. Blinken talked about working with European partners "to make sure that there is enough energy on world markets," keep oil prices down, decrease energy demand and transition to renewable energy. RELATED VIDEO "Ultimately," Blinken then said, "this is also a tremendous opportunity. It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs. That’s very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come, but meanwhile, we’re determined to do everything we possibly can to make sure that the consequences of all of this are not borne by citizens in our countries or, for that matter, around the world." We rate claims that this shows Blinken admitting Biden caused the leaks False.

Aileen Cannon has been arrested U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s legal challenge to the FBI’s recent seizure of documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate, has drawn scrutiny for rulings siding with Trump. But a recent Facebook post implies that whatever allegiance Cannon might have for the former president, who nominated her for her judicial post in southern Florida, was misguided. "Trump betrays Judge Cannon and police have just taken her away, she was being used by Trump," the Oct. 1 post says. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 We contacted the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida about the post but didn’t immediately hear back. However, we found no evidence to support the claim that Cannon was arrested. We didn’t find news articles or other reports corroborating the post in online searches or in the Nexis news archive. The high-profile case Cannon is presiding over has drawn widespread media coverage. On Sept. 9, The Washington Post reported that "her profile soared" as she intervened in the Justice Department's investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified information. Her arrest would be closely watched and covered. But she hasn’t been taken into custody. We rate that claim Pants on Fire!

"Defibrillators are being installed all over” the U.K. after a child’s death, which may be “why the UK suddenly stopped” COVID-19 vaccination for children under 11 years old A young man in England died of sudden cardiac arrest on New Year’s Day. His grieving family members have since made it their mission to install in his hometown publicly accessible defibrillators — which they say could have saved his life. Now a social media user is attempting to tie his death to COVID-19 vaccines. "Defibrillators are being installed all over the United Kingdom. This initiative has in part been headed by the parent of a young child who recently experienced heart failure and died," read the caption of a Sept. 9 Instagram post. "I wonder if this initiative has anything to do with why the UK suddenly stopped jabs for (children) under eleven years old." Defibrillators are devices used to send a shock to the heart to restore a normal heartbeat, and can be used to treat someone with sudden cardiac arrest, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The post features a video of a man talking about something he calls "quite concerning." He shows a photo of a defibrillator kiosk, then points to a map that he said shows "10,000 of them all over England." "I’m sure it’s nothing nefarious at all," he said, seemingly sarcastically. The good news: It is nothing nefarious. The Instagram post is wrong on three counts: it wasn’t a young child who died; there is no U.K.-wide effort to install defibrillators, but there is one to show where they’re located; and some children under 11 can still receive COVID-19 vaccines. The post said that the effort stemmed from a parent of a "young child" who died of sudden cardiac arrest. It links to an article in the Mirror, a U.K. publication, that details tefforts by a mother in Rugby, England, to have 20 outdoor defibrillators (not 10,000) installed in her city (not across England) after the death of her 18-year-old son. Jamie Rees collapsed on New Year’s Day and died in a hospital four days later, his family said. They said he might have survived had there been access to a defibrillator during a long wait for an ambulance. Rees’ family did not mention the COVID-19 vaccine in the Mirror article, in multiple news interviews, or on websites set up to raise money for the defibrillator plan. The Instagram video shows a map of locations where defibrillators are stationed across England. That map appears to originate from a private company called HeartSafe. The company sells defibrillators, accessories and cabinets. Anyone who owns a defibrillator can register the device on the company's website. The company has a map that shows people the publicly accessible defibrillators closest to them. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post “Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 We found a version of this map dating back to at least April 2015. A similar database called The Circuit, funded by the British Heart Foundation, makes registered devices visible to National Health Service ambulances and emergency dispatchers who can direct callers to the nearest location. The defibrillator kiosk shown in the Instagram post is from Manchester, England, according to the caption provided on the stock photo website Alamy. The city has a program run by the nonprofit group CityCo and the North West Ambulance Service to ensure that people there have easy access to the lifesaving devices. The program predates the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, the British Office for National Statistics said in July there is "no evidence of a change in the number of cardiac-related deaths or death occurring from any cause after a coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination in young people aged 12 to 29 years in England." The U.K. has not stopped giving all COVID-19 vaccines to children younger than 11, as the Instagram post claimed. It recently limited which children in that age group can receive them, however. All U.K. children ages 5 to 11 had been declared eligible for COVID-19 vaccines earlier this year. But the U.K. Health Security Agency in September began limiting vaccination among some children in that age group, the Guardian reported. The National Health Service updated its website in September to say that for children in the 5 to 11 age group, those who turned 5 years old on or before this past Aug. 31 can still get a first and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. However, children who turned 5 years old after that date can get the vaccines only if they are "at high risk due to a health condition or because of a weakened immune system," or if they live with someone with a weakened immune system. The Health Security Agency told the Guardian and the fact-checking organization Full Fact that this was the plan all along, though the National Health Service did not initially make that distinction on its website. Our ruling An Instagram post claimed that thousands of defibrillators are being installed across the U.K. after the sudden death of a young child, and linked this to changes in COVID-19 vaccine eligibility for children in the U.K. The death referred to in the post was that of an 18-year-old man, not a child. There’s no evidence his death is linked to COVID-19 vaccines. The map of defibrillator locations shown in the video comes from a public-access database that predates COVID-19. There’s no widespread effort to install defibrillators across the U.K., but there are efforts to show people where to find them. Finally, the U.K. has not stopped giving COVID-19 vaccines to all children ages 5 to 11, though there are eligibility restrictions. We rate this claim Fals

Val Demings "voted to allow transgender youth sports and teaching radical gender identity without parental consent. In the Florida U.S. Senate race, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio used transgender and gender identity references to cast Democratic Rep. Val Demings as "radical" and in lockstep with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "One hundred percent. That’s how often radical Val Demings votes with Nancy Pelosi," the narrator says in a Rubio TV ad. The narrator makes claims about Demings’ voting record as photos of Demings and Pelosi appear against a black backdrop. Behind the photos, thunder crackles and a roof seems to cave in, collapsing in a cascade of debris. "Demings even voted to allow transgender youth sports and teaching radical gender identity without parental consent," the narrator said. Demings voted for legislation that supported transgender athletes, but, according to legal experts, it did not address curriculum. Demings supported federal Equality Act Asked for proof to support the claim, Rubio’s campaign cited the Equality Act, federal legislation Demings backed and the House passed in 2021 and 2019. The Senate did not vote on either version. The Equality Act sought to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. The 1964 law protects against discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The bill would have applied to employment, education, housing, credit, jury service and programs receiving federal funding and public accommodations (such as retail stores). Although the majority of states already allow transgender athletes to play in high school and college sports, the bill would have enshrined that right federally. Despite the ad’s claim that Demings voted to teach "radical gender identity without parental consent," the bill did not address school curriculum, legal experts said. Demings’ vote would have allowed transgender student-athletes to compete The Equality Act did not explicitly address sports, but by prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity, it would have allowed transgender student-athletes in college and high school to compete on teams based on their gender identity rather than their sex asssigned at birth. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 19, 2022 in a post The diphtheria vaccine is a “poison dart” with side effects worse than the symptoms of diphtheria. By Andy Nguyen • October 24, 2022 "It would bring the Civil Rights Act into explicit agreement with the Department of Education’s understanding of Title IX to allow transgender students to play sports," said Pennsylvania State University law professor Dara Purvis. Title IX is a federal law intended to protect people from sex discrimination in federally funded education programs or activities. If the Equality Act became law, students could challenge state laws that ban or restrict transgender participation in sports, said University of Miami law professor Tamara Lave. Nineteen states have laws banning or restricting transgender participation in sports, The Associated Press reported in June. Equality Act’s connection to curriculum not proven The Equality Act did not specify anything about teaching gender identity. Rubio’s campaign pointed PolitiFact to an article by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, that speculated that the Equality Act "could pave the way" for courts to "require sexual orientation and gender-identity curricula the same way they required Black history curricula." University of Virginia law professor Douglas Laycock and Alexis Rangel, policy counsel for the National Center for Transgender Equality, said the Equalilty Act did not address curriculum. The Equality Act deals with "discrimination and harassment in education, not the content of school curricula," said David Farmer, spokesperson for the National Center for Transgender Equality. Also, "radical gender identity" is a subjective talking point, he said. Our ruling Rubio said Demings "voted to allow transgender youth sports and teaching radical gender identity without parental consent." Demings supported the Equality Act, which would have allowed students nationwide to compete on sports teams based on their gender identity rather than their sex asssigned at birth. The majority of states allow transgender athletes to play college and high school sports. The Equality Act did not address school curriculum. We rate Rubio’s statement Half True. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 election campaigns RELATED: Marco Rubio’s PolitiFact file RELATED: Val Demings’ PolitiFact fi

“Dr. Oz wins seat. Recent polling has shown Pennsylvania Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz gaining on his Democratic rival, the state’s lieutenant governor, John Fetterman. But an Oct. 5 Facebook post prematurely called the race. "‘HE LEFT THE RACE’ Trump has VICTORY laugh after Fetterman BEGS to join ‘Trumper’ … Dr. Oz wins SEAT," the post says. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Fetterman has not left the race. The last day for a primary-nominated candidate to withdraw from the general election was Aug. 15. And in the hours since this post was published, Fetterman’s Twitter account was actively and regularly campaigning. His website was soliciting donations. His Facebook account was sharing videos based on claims Oz is connected to medical research that resulted in the deaths of dogs, pigs and rabbits. Oz, meanwhile, hasn’t won the Senate seat. The general election isn’t until Nov. 8. We rate this post Pants on Fire!

Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman’s tattoo references ‘heroin use’ and the Crip Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich claimed in a recent Fox News segment that Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman’s tattoos are references to heroin use and violent gangs. Fetterman is the lieutenant governor of the commonwealth and the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. He will face off against Republican challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz next month. "He apparently had a tattoo that was either a reference to a song in favor of heroin use or was a tribute to the Crips," the Republican and former House speaker said Sept. 29 on "Hannity," referring to the Los Angeles-based street gang. Gingrich floated a similar claim days prior on Twitter, writing "Is Pennsylvania Democrat Fetterman’s tattoo ‘I will make you hurt’ based on his ties to the crips gang as reported by the Free Beacon or a reference to the nine inch nails heroin song ‘Hurt’. Fetterman won’t answer questions." Is Pennsylvania Democrat Fetterman’s tattoo “I will make you hurt” based on his ties to the crips gang as reported by the Free Beacon or a reference to the nine inch nails heroin song “Hurt”. Fetterman won’t answer questions.— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) September 26, 2022 We reached out to Gingrich to find out what he was basing his information on, but didn’t hear back. We found a Sept. 26 Washington Free-Beacon article that sought to draw a connection between Fetterman and the Crips gang, but the article didn’t mention tattoos. Fetterman, meanwhile, has answered questions about his tattoos. Fetterman talked about them for a 2008 story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and a 2009 story in Rolling Stone, when he was mayor of Braddock, a Pittsburgh suburb. He wrote about them in a 2021 blog post. And in a Sept. 25 op-ed published by NBC News, Fetterman addressed the claims directly after another Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, also zeroed in on the candidate’s ink. Fetterman’s right arm shows a series of numeric dates. Each memorializes someone from Braddock who was a victim of violent crime, Fetterman has said. "This isn't a vanity thing for me," Fetterman told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in the 2008 piece. "It's a personal inventory that allows a way for me to properly document these people who have been felled by violence." There are nine dates on his arm, he wrote in the NBC op-ed: "Each one is a day on which someone died violently in Braddock, Pennsylvania, while I was mayor." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 His left arm, meanwhile, shows the numbers "15104." That’s the ZIP code for Braddock. "I get that etching art permanently onto your body isn’t how most politicians would express their connection to their communities," Fetterman wrote. "But I didn’t care about what anyone else thought. It felt right to me." Fetterman used to have the words "I will make you hurt" tattooed on his outside right wrist. That’s a lyric from the 1994 song "Hurt" written and performed by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and covered in 2002 by Johnny Cash on his final album. The Grammy-nominated song is written from the perspective of a person in a moment of deep sadness and regret and includes a line about needle use and its failure to erase painful memories. In a 2009 interview with Rolling Stone, Fetterman also connected the sentiment in that tattoo — that of getting "hurt" — with the deaths that were recorded on the other side of his arm. "That’s what it does to me," he said in the story. "It’s very per­sonal." We found no specific reference to the Crips in the coverage of Fetterman’s tattoos. And Fetterman’s campaign said Gingrich’s entire claim was wrong. But Newsweek noted in a fact-check that Fetterman talked about the Crips in a 2015 interview posted on Medium. In it, the interviewer asked Fetterman about why he spelled Braddock as "Braddocc" in campaign signs. Fetterman said it was a reference to gang spellings. This also provided the basis for the Sept. 26 Washington Free-Beacon story that Gingrich mentioned in his tweet. Fetterman’s full comments in the Medium post were: "When I first came into office, I was elected because of the vote of the young people that I work with. I helped get their GEDs. When I first arrived in town, I noticed that they would spell it that way, and that’s a reference to ‘Crip killer’, they turned the ‘k’ into a ‘c’. So during my campaign, I [used] ‘Vote John Mayor of Braddocc’ and ‘Vote John Mayor of Braddock’ the way it’s traditionally spelled, and the reason why I did that is because there are two Braddocks, and you have to acknowledge that. We have to acknowledge that here’s the Braddock that only young people know, the Braddock of despair and decline, and they grew up in an era when they never knew there were 14 furniture stores and three movie theaters. And I caught some flak for that because some people thought I was spelling it like a gangster. No, there are two Braddocks. And we need to bring them together and agree on the way to move forward, so that’s why I spelled that the way I did. Because ultimately I carry their flag, because they’re the ones that made the difference that I won by one vote that first election." Our ruling Gingrich claimed on social media and on Fox News that Fetterman’s tattoos were references to heroin use or gangs. A review of Fetterman’s public statements going back to 2008 indicates that Fetterman got the "15104" tattoo on his left arm as a hat-tip to the town of Braddock, where he was mayor from 2006 to 2019. The tattoos on his right arm are numeric dates memorializing Braddock residents who died as a result of violent crime during his tenure. A tattoo that Fetterman used to have included the words "I will make you hurt," a lyric from a song that referenced needle use. But Fetterman described it in 2009 as being connected to the pain he felt from these residents’ violent deaths. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this claim Mostly Fals

George W. Bush was photographed talking into the wrong end of a phone. Former President George W. Bush’s intelligence has been the subject of some debate. Opinion writers have weighed in on whether he was smart, or not, or pretended to be less intelligent than he is for political gain. One recent social media post doesn’t mince words. "If u ever feel u suck at life, just remember George Bush took a photo holding a phone upside down," the Instagram post says. It shows Bush holding a phone receiver to his ear upside-down. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The photo has been altered. A reverse image search led us to the original, taken in March 2003 by then-White House photographer Eric Draper. The caption says Bush, who was holding the phone correctly, was talking to then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair. We rate claims that he was photographed holding the phone upside-down Fals

The COVID-19 vaccine caused J.J. Watt’s atrial fibrillation On Sept. 28, Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt revealed on Twitter that he had experienced atrial fibrillation, an irregular and rapid heart rhythm that can cause blood clots in the heart and increase the risk of stroke and heart failure. An image shared on Instagram suggests it happened because Watt received the COVID-19 vaccination. "‘Fully vaccinated’ NFL megastar JJ Watt says his heart went into ‘A-fib’ this week, had to be shocked into rhythm," reads a screenshot of a blog post headline. "Since when do football players in the best shape of their lives go into A-fib?" an Instagram post sharing this screenshot said. "Pretty sure I got a hint… #Whaccine #TheThing." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) We reached out to Watt’s representative and the Arizona Cardinals but didn’t hear back. The blog itself provides no evidence to corroborate its claim. Forbes reported in December 2021 that although Watt hasn’t explicitly said he’s vaccinated against COVID-19, he’s among several players "on 100% vaccinated teams according to their head coaches or teammates." Kliff Kingsbury, the Cardinals’ head coach, said in September 2021 that the team was 100% vaccinated. Watt had signed a two-year contract with the Cardinals about six months earlier. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 The Associated Press reported Oct. 2 that Watt "doesn’t know what caused the irregular heartbeat." On Twitter, he said he "went into A-fib" on Sept. 28 and had his heart "shocked back into rhythm" Sept. 29, and he played in a game Oct. 2 against the Carolina Panthers. "I talked to cardiologists and electrophysiologists from all over the country," Watt said during a postgame press conference. "I was assured multiple times from multiple people that there was nothing else you could do. I could play like normal and something could happen the next day or never again in 20 years. So I was assured, and I went back to practice on Friday and here we are." Many athletes are prone to AFib, a CBS News affiliate in Milwaukee reported after Watt’s health scare. Dr. Atul Bhatia, an electrophysiologist at a medical center there, told the outlet that athletes typically have good heart health, but because they train so intensively, they are at higher risk for AFib. "They are more prone to develop atrial fibrillation, just because of the super trained heart," Bhatia said. "There are many, many individuals, in athletics, in the field of sports, who have this condition undiagnosed." RELATED VIDEO The virus that causes COVID-19, meanwhile, has been connected to new-onset AFib cases, said Dr. Eduardo Sanchez, chief medical officer for prevention at the American Heart Association, in a Sept. 14 statement. According to a published study, new-onset AFib cases were identified in 1 in 20 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. (Watt tested positive for COVID-19 in August.) Sanchez said "we can’t stress enough the connections between COVID-19 and cardiovascular disease. … We urge everyone who is eligible to get the vaccine and all recommended boosters. The side effects of the vaccine have proven to be minimal and far outweigh the risk of getting COVID." We found no evidence to support the claim that COVID-19 vaccines caused Watt’s atrial fibrillation. We rate that False.

“Iowans are paying $5,000 extra for everyday goods under Biden and Axne’s inflation. Republicans have blamed Democrats a lot for rising inflation this past year. Democrats, after all, are in power at the White House and both chambers in Congress and this is an election year. Thus, Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Bondurant, who is seeking a seat in Congress, brought it up in a recent tweet that introduced a campaign ad that attacks his opponent in Iowa’s 3rd District race, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, for out-of-control spending in Washington, D.C. "Iowans are paying $5,000 extra for everyday goods under Biden and Axne’s inflation," the tweet stated. We examined a couple of things in that statement: that Iowans will pay an extra $5,000 this year because of inflation and that Biden and Axne can share some of the blame for that inflation. We start with the numbers. Contacted by Politifact Iowa, Nunn’s campaign said they were taken from a March report by Bloomberg News. The report states that by, Bloomberg’s calculations, Americans would pay $5,200 more on average this year for goods using the Personal Consumption Expenditures index. This number is an estimate of inflation throughout 2022 and could be different at the end of the year. Inflation can be measured across other time periods so other measures exist, depending on where you live and from when you measure the rise in consumer good prices. A July report from the Republican side of Congress’ Joint Economic Committee went back to January 2021 — when Biden took office — to state that Iowans were projected to pay $7,997 more this year than they would have for the same goods back then, for a state inflation rate of 13.7% since the start of 2021. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, whose announcements get widespread news coverage, reports Consumer Price Index inflation every month, measuring against the past 12 months. The bureau reported an August rate of 8.1% in the Midwest region for the previous 12 months. That would amount to a yearly increase in costs from August 2021 to August 2022 of $4,176, using the Consumer Price Index report from the Bureau of Labor statistics for the Midwest region. Next, who's to blame. Nunn’s campaign, when contacted by Politifact Iowa, stood by its claim that Democrats are to blame for inflation. The campaign ties Axne to Biden by pointing out accurately, according to the FiveThirtyEight data analysis website, that Axne has voted with Biden 100% of the time during Biden’s term as president. We have looked previously at claims that tie inflation to Biden. Sources in an April 2022 Politifact story said that, although the American Rescue Plan Act, a stimulus package passed in 2021 that cost about $1.9 trillion, added 2 points to inflation, international pressures and supply chain issues had a greater impact on inflation. Featured Fact-check Deidre DeJear stated on October 19, 2022 in a tweet "Kim Reynolds doesn’t think nurses are educated." By Liam Halawith • October 31, 2022 Marc Goldwein, with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a group that promotes lower deficits, said in that PolitiFact story: "With no American Rescue Plan, we would still have inflation above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2% to 3%." None of the experts PolitiFact talked with for the April story, liberal or conservative, said Biden’s actions were responsible for all of the inflation. Sources cited in other PolitiFact stories have said that supply chain disruption, low supply of goods and international market pressures have contributed to inflation. Financial experts in a June New York Times story said strong demand, supply shortages and the aforementioned factors on the service industry also are major pressures on inflation. In a letter to congressional leadership, 126 economists wrote that the Inflation Reduction Act will have a downward pressure on inflation after a short-term upward pressure when the bill was first passed. The letter was obtained first by CNN. Stanford University economist John Taylor and others have said that the Federal Reserve’s fiscal policy during the COVID-19 pandemic could be a factor. That policy aimed to artificially stimulate the economy by keeping interest rates lower than usual. However, the Fed operates on its own, not by Democrats or, when they are in power, Republican partisans. Democrats blame inflation on international pressures such as the war in Ukraine. President Joe Biden said in May blamed inflation on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The war is affecting supply chains but the full impact will not be known for a while. Some countries have higher rates of inflation than the United States, with Turkey having an inflation rate of 54.8%, according to the Pew Research Center. Wendy Edelberg, director of The Hamilton Project and a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, said in a Politico story that the supply chain disruption caused by the war in Ukraine is impactful but not the whole story of why inflation is rising internationally. Our ruling Nunn’s campaign said Iowans would pay $5,000 more this year because of inflation, and that Democrats were to blame. Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that Iowans will pay $4,176 more on household goods this year because of inflation, based on a bureau report for the Midwestern region going back to August 2022. The $5,000 figure comes from an estimate that Bloomberg News analysts predict for 2022. But it is an estimate. We must wait to see how close the prediction was to what happens. The effect the American Rescue Plan ultimately will have on inflation has yet to be determined but it is having some effect, analysts said. But, solely blaming Democrats for inflation does not take into account the whole picture. Supply shortages and strong demand for products, supply chain problems and international market pressures combine with federal monetary policies to affect inflation. We rate the statement Half Tru

“In 2016, Democrats suggested that the election was stolen.” Gov. Glenn Youngkin recently gave his blessings to an "Election Integrity Unit" established by Attorney General Jason Miyares, a fellow Republican, to investigate and prosecute violations of Virginia’s election laws. Youngkin visited Loudoun County’s Office of Elections on Sept. 20 to watch officials test vote-counting machines. Reporters asked him why the 20-person unit is needed when, as Democrats note, Virginia elections have been basically clean. "People have concerns about the election process and oh by the way, it’s not just Republicans; it’s Democrats," Youngkin said. "Let’s just remind ourselves that in 2016 Democrats suggested that the election was stolen." Did Democrats suggest the 2016 presidential election, won by Donald Trump, was hijacked? The claim is often made by Republicans advancing Trump’s disproven claims that the 2020 presidential election, won by Joe Biden, was stolen by fraudulent vote counting. Youngkin, after some initial hedging, acknowledged last year that Biden was legitimately elected. Youngkin’s office sent us a number of recordings of prominent Democrats saying that Trump’s 2016 victory was turned by events that occurred during the campaign, especially documented Russian interference on Trump’s behalf. It’s important to point out, however, that the Democrats did not question the actual counting of ballots in 2016, as Youngkin’s statement implies, or that Trump won the election. Let’s look at the information Youngkin’s office sent. Hillary Clinton In 2016, 2.8 million more people voted for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton than Trump, but she lost the determining Electoral College vote. During a September 2019 interview on CBS, she blamed her loss on voting restrictions passed by some states before the 2016 election and Russian hacking of her campaign that was later confirmed by a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. Trump "knows he’s an illegitimate president," Clinton said. "I believe he understands that the many varying tactics they used, from voter suppression and voter purging to hacking to the false stories — he knows that — there were just a bunch of different reasons why the election turned out like it did … I know he knows this wasn’t on the level." In an October 2020 interview with The Atlantic, Clinton said, "There was a widespread understanding that [the 2016] election was not on the level. We still don’t know what happened … but you don’t win by 3 million votes and have all this other shenanigans and stuff going on and not come away with an idea like, ‘Whoa, something’s not right here.’" Jimmy Carter In June 2019, Jimmy Carter, the former Democratic president, said, "There’s no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election, and I think the interference, although not yet quantified, if fully investigated would show that Trump didn’t actually win the election in 2016. He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf." Bernie Sanders Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is an independent who has twice sought the Democratic presidential nomination. During an ABC interview in January 2017, he twice declined to say whether he thought Trump would be "a legitimate president." "I think he’s going to be inaugurated this week," Sanders said. "I have great concerns, apparently Republicans do as well, and there’s going to be an investigation about the role that Russian hacking played in getting (Trump) elected." Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 8, 2022 in a Facebook post There’s “evidence of a massive transfer of completed, curated ballots” that are fraudulent in the 2022 election. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 11, 2022 John Lewis The late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said in January 2017 he would not attend Trump’s inauguration. "I do not see this president-elect as a legitimate president," he told NBC. "I think there was a conspiracy on the part of the Russians and others that helped him get elected. That’s not right. That’s not fair. That’s not the open democratic process." Jerry Nadler Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said in January 2017 that Trump was legally elected but an "illegitimate" president. "He was legally elected," Nadler said. "But the Russians weighing in on the election, the Russian attempt to hack the election and, frankly, the FBI’s weighing in on the election make his election illegitimate. But he is the president." Nadler’s reference to the FBI concerned then-FBI Director James Comey’s disclosure to Congress, 11 days before the 2016 election, that he was reopening an investigation into whether emails stored on Clinton’s personal computer contained classified information. Maxine Waters Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., was among seven House Democrats who raised futile objections to the Electoral College count by Congress in January 2017 that certified Trump’s victory. They tried to argue that the election was tainted by Russian interference and voter suppression. They were overruled because none of their objections had required support from a senator. Polling Youngkin’s office also sent us an April 2022 Rasmussen poll. It showed that 72% of Democrats believe it’s likely the 2016 election outcome was changed by Russian interference, but that opinion is shared by only 30% of Republicans and 39% of voters not affiliated with either major party. Our ruling Youngkin said, "In 2016, Democrats suggested that the election was stolen." He was referring to Trump’s victory in the presidential election. Youngkin, a Republican, made the claim while endorsing the formation of an "Election Integrity Unit" by Virginia’s attorney general to investigate violations of the state’s election laws. He was at the Loudoun County Office of Elections, where he had just witnessed the testing of vote-counting equipment. Democrats say the integrity unit is an effort to placate disproven Republican claims that Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election was caused by vote-counting fraud. Youngkin, in responding to that accusation, said concern over election fraud is a bipartisan issue. Indeed, some well-known Democrats — including Clinton — said Trump’s 2016 victory was fishy. They mostly cited events that happened during the campaign, such as Russian hacking of campaign information and Comey’s announcement that the FBI was reopening an investigation into Clinton’s emails. They also complained that many states had passed laws that suppressed voter turnout. But Youngkin’s contention that the Democratic response in 2016 equates with the Republican response to 2020 runs into trouble. The Democrats, while questioning events that occurred during the campaign, didn’t contend there was widespread vote-counting fraud that flipped the election. The Democratic leaders cited by Youngkin’s office also made a distinction about 2016 that Trump and his followers did not about 2020. While the Democrats rejected the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency based on the oddities of the campaign, they acknowledged that he won the election. All told, we rate Youngkin’s statement Half True.

Ted Budd “helped write legislation to outlaw abortion nationwide with no exceptions for rape or incest — a law that could even put doctors in jail. A new political ad claims that North Carolina’s Republican U.S. Senate candidate helped write a proposal for tighter federal abortion regulations, showing that he’s way out of step with most residents’ opinions on abortion. The ad attacks U.S. Rep. Ted Budd over a bill introduced last year. It praises Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley, who the ad says will stand up for reproductive rights. It was produced by the Women Vote Project, an arm of Emily’s List, a group advocating for women’s issues. The ad says: "Sometimes it feels like we can’t agree on anything, except this: 85% of North Carolinians think abortion should be legal for women who need it. Ted Budd isn’t one of them. He helped write legislation to outlaw abortion nationwide with no exceptions for rape or incest — a law that could even put doctors in jail. There’s a better choice: Cheri Beasley. She’ll always protect our personal freedoms." The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning its landmark Roe v. Wade ruling pushed reproductive rights to the forefront of many campaigns this midterm election season. The decision leaves it up to states to set their own abortion laws. The ad’s claim about North Carolinian’s support for abortion rights is based on a recent poll. But it’s worth noting that PolitiFact analyses of abortion polling have generally found that survey results can vary significantly depending on how pollsters frame and ask questions. Although Budd co-sponsored and supported the anti-abortion bill referenced in this ad, we found its characterization of him as bill author to be an overreach. Bill with ‘no exceptions’ The ad says Budd "helped write legislation to outlaw abortion nationwide with no exceptions for rape or incest," and refers to a bill known as H.R. 705, or the "Heartbeat Protection Act of 2021," which was introduced on Feb. 2, 2021. It never became law or even came up for a vote. The bill called for a ban of abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which typically happens around six weeks — sometimes before women know they’re pregnant. Although the bill carves out an exception if the mother’s life is "endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself." The bill doesn’t mention exceptions for rape and incest, as media outlets have noted. The bill also says physicians who perform abortions outside of the bill’s limitations would be fined or "imprisoned not more than five years, or both." The ad says Budd "helped write" the bill. The Heartbeat Protection Act of 2021 was introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., and co-sponsored by more than 120 other Republicans. Budd is listed as one of the bill’s 40 original sponsors — a sign that Budd supported the bill before its introduction, said Benjamin Ray, an Emily’s List spokesperson. There’s no formal definition of "original co-sponsor" that captures whether or not — or to what extent — a U.S. House member helped write a bill, said Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a research and policy center in Washington, D.C. In other words, just because Budd was an original co-sponsor doesn’t mean he helped write it. Featured Fact-check Tony Evers stated on October 19, 2022 in Campaign ad If a 12-year-old girl became pregnant because of rape or incest, "Tim Michels would force her to deliver the baby." By Madeline Heim • October 21, 2022 While Budd’s office may have reviewed the bill before its introduction, PolitiFact North Carolina found no evidence that he "helped write" it. A Budd campaign spokesperson didn’t dispute that Budd supported the measure, but said the senate candidate didn’t write it. "If Ted had written the legislation, I would say Ted wrote the legislation," campaign spokesman Jonathan Felts told PolitiFact in an email. Kelly’s office also rebutted the ad’s claim. "U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly is the lead author of H.R. 705, The Heartbeat Protection Act of 2021," Kelly spokesman Matt Knoedler said. "Mr. Budd is among 123 co-sponsors of the bill, but it was Mr. Kelly and our team who wrote the legislation." Bills nearly identical to H.R. 705 — also called the Heartbeat Protection Act — were introduced by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, and co-sponsored by Budd in 2017 and 2019. Other citations, recent actions The ad also refers to a bill Budd co-sponsored known as H.R. 1011, or the "Life at Conception Act," and a Bloomberg Law article from May. The Life at Conception Act would grant legal protections at the embryonic state, starting at fertilization. The Bloomberg Law article explains how criminalizing abortion could have a dramatic effect on women and people going through fertility treatments to get pregnant, said Ray, the Emily’s List spokesperson. The Women Vote Project announced the launch of its ad Sept. 9. Four days later, Budd was one of more than 120 House members who co-sponsored a bill that would institute a national law banning abortions after 15 weeks. Unlike the bill mentioned in the Emily’s List ad, the proposal would grant exceptions for rape and incest, as well as the life of the mother. The proposal was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. In 2017, he co-sponsored H.R. 586, also known as the Sanctity of Human Life Act, which proposed to define life as "fertilization, cloning, or its equivalent, at which time every human has all the legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood." The ad says the bill Budd co-sponsored is out of step with the views of North Carolinians. It cites a poll commissioned by the politically conservative John Locke think tank. The results, released in August, show that 85% of respondents believe that abortion should be totally or mostly legal — or, at the very least, legal in certain cases. The ad bases its claim on that survey alone. Polling experts discourage the use of single surveys to represent a consensus view of an issue. Still, the John Locke results aren’t far off from responses to similar polls, such as one from WGHP-TV, The Hill political website and Emerson College researchers, and one by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This year, Budd was asked whether he supports abortion in cases of rape and incest. He told WNCN-TV: "I want to look at it broadly. First of all, when a person finds themself in that type of situation, let's just admit right up front, regardless of what your political background is or what party you're with, that it's a tragedy when somebody finds himself there. And I want to say, why would you want to add a second tragedy to an already very tough situation? I don't condemn anybody that's ever been through that. But I want to say let's not add more tragedy to a very tough situation." In an email, Budd campaign spokeswoman Samantha Cotten accused Beasley of being out of touch and that Budd’s campaign has "always been transparent that Ted is pro-life." Our ruling An ad from Women Vote Project says Budd "helped write legislation to outlaw abortion nationwide with no exceptions for rape or incest — a law that could even put doctors in jail." Although the ad accurately describes the details of the Heartbeat Protection Act, it misstates Budd’s involvement. He sponsored the bill, meaning he supported it. But Budd’s campaign says he didn’t help write it. The claim is partially accurate but leaves out important details. That’s our definition of Half Tru

Herschel Walker misled about “personally treating 4,500 veterans per year,” about “graduating from college” and about “working in law enforcement. Aiming to re-elect Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ran a series of three social media ads calling Republican Herschel Walker a liar. In a series of ads, the group claimed that the former football legend "lied" about "personally treating 4,500 veterans per year"; about "graduating from college"; and about "working in law enforcement." The committee cited to PolitiFact examples of Walker making the statements and news reports indicating that his statements are false. Walker’s campaign did not reply to our emails. As to whether Walker lied, PolitiFact can’t speak to Walker’s motives, but the record shows he has misrepresented his experience and credentials on multiple occasions. Walker not involved in "treating" veterans In a 2017 interview with Craig Carton, a New York sports radio talk show host, Walker spoke about personally "treating" 4,500 to 5,000 soldiers per year. That gives the impression he was involved in medical care. However, his work involved visiting military bases as a spokesperson for Patriot Support, a for-profit program that’s part of the Universal Health Services hospital chain. Here’s an exchange from the interview, in which Walker alluded to his work with Patriot Support: Walker: "My love, and a lot of people don’t know this, for the last eight years, I’ve been treating soldiers. So, I’m at a base, once a month anywhere in the world, and we treat about 4,500 soldiers a year. And one thing — " Carton: "What do mean by ‘you treat them?’" Walker: "For any type of illness that they have, from traumatic brain injuries or any type of things like that, and I've been doing it now for eight years." Several minutes later, Walker repeated: "I'm treating about (4,500) to 5,000 soldiers a year." In other speeches and interviews, Walker made it clear he was a spokesperson. In one talk, Walker said, "I will speak to an average of between 50 to a thousand people while I’m at the base" and in other talks he referred to the program being part of a hospital system. In some instances, Walker said he created the program. Walker’s campaign website says he was "appointed spokesman for Universal Health Services’ Patriot Support Program where he has visited hundreds of military bases sharing his personal story to help remove stigmas around mental health." The Associated Press reported on a lawsuit the Justice Department and nearly two dozen states brought against Universal Health Services. Prosecutors alleged that Universal Health Services and its affiliates pushed people with government-sponsored insurance into inpatient mental health care to drive revenue. Universal Health Services reached a $122 million settlement in 2020 with the Department of Justice and the coalition of states. The company denied the government’s allegations. The VoteVets political action committee has run ads attacking Walker over his work for Patriot Support. In response to one of the group’s ads, Walker’s campaign said the allegations against Universal Health Services "had absolutely nothing to do with Herschel." Featured Fact-check America First Legal stated on November 1, 2022 in an ad “Kamala Harris said disaster aid should go to non-white citizens first." By Tom Kertscher • November 5, 2022 Walker did not graduate from the University of Georgia Walker has said that he graduated from the University of Georgia, where he was a star running back before playing in the United States Football League and later the National Football League, but that’s not true. On the "Sway in the Morning" SiriusXM radio talk show on Feb. 7, 2017, Walker talked about his support of then-President Donald Trump. Then he said: "Well, I think one thing we have to know, and this is for this country. Donald Trump is our leader. And people say, ‘Hersch, you played football,’ but I said, ‘Guys, I also was valedictorian of my class. I also was in the top 1% of my graduating class in college.’" Walker’s campaign website on Dec. 16, 2021, posted that Walker graduated from the University of Georgia, but removed the reference hours later, after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution inquired about it, the newspaper reported. The University of Georgia confirmed to PolitiFact that Walker did not graduate. He attended the school for three years. Walker has not worked in law enforcement Walker has said he worked in law enforcement, but in response to news stories refuting his statements, his campaign has said that he supports law enforcement. In a 2019 speech at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, Walker related an incident in which he got angry at a man over a car. He said: "I grabbed a gun. I worked for the (unintelligible) law enforcement. Y'all didn't know that either, did you? I spent time at Quantico at the FBI training schools. Y'all didn't know I was an agent? I probably shouldn't tell y'all that. Y’all don’t care about that. Yeah, I’ve been in law enforcement." Walker told the same story in a 2017 speech at the U.S. Army’s Fort Benning in Georgia, saying he was able to carry a gun because "I was working with law enforcement" and had "my FBI clearance." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in June reported on Walker’s 2019 speech and his other claims of working in law enforcement, including telling police in Texas in 2000 that he was a "certified police officer." The newspaper said the claims were not true. Walker’s campaign told the Journal-Constitution that Walker was an honorary deputy in Cobb County along with three other Georgia counties that the campaign did not specify. The newspaper said the Cobb County Police Department said it had no record of involvement with Walker and the Cobb Sheriff’s Office could not say whether he was an honorary deputy. In response to the Atlanta newspaper story, a Walker campaign spokesperson said that Walker majored in criminal justice at the University of Georgia and "has supported and worked with law enforcement for years, including speaking to police about mental health, leading women’s self-defense training, participating in the FBI Academy at Quantico." PolitiFact could not reach either Cobb County agency or the FBI for comment on Walker. Our ruling The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee claimed that Walker misled about "personally treating 4,500 veterans per year," about "graduating from college" and about "working in law enforcement." Walker incorrectly said he treated 4,500 veterans. Walker did not graduate from college or work in law enforcement, contrary to his claims. ​​We don’t know what motivated Walker, but we know he has misrepresented his experience and credentials. We rate the claim True. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 election campaigns RELATED: Raphael Warnock’s PolitiFact file RELATED: Herschel Walker’s PolitiFact fi

Lee County, Florida, wasn't "even in the cone" of Hurricane Ian 72 hours before landfall Hurricane Ian battered Florida's southwestern coast Sept. 28, leaving streets flooded, buildings destroyed and people homeless. Lee County, which includes Cape Coral and Fort Myers, has some of the most extensive damage. Media coverage of the area's mounting death toll prompted questions about whether Lee County officials gave residents ample notice to evacuate. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Lee County Commission Chairman Cecil Pendergrass rebuffed the questions on Oct. 2, saying the data available before landfall did not warrant such a response. "Seventy-two hours before the storm, we still were not in the cone," Pendergrass said during a press conference. "We were working off of data and went off that data." DeSantis also said Lee County based its decision on the National Hurricane Center's track forecast. "They were following the weather track and they had to make decisions based on that," he said in an interview with CNN. "But you know, 72 hours, they weren't even in the cone." Federal officials echoed the comments from state officials. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell made a claim about Lee County that was similar to DeSantis' during an Oct. 2 appearance on ABC's "This Week." We reviewed eight advisories the National Hurricane Center issued Sept. 25 — three days before Ian made landfall. Most of Lee County was not within the forecasted path three days before landfall. But one of the county's barrier islands, Cayo Costa — where the Category 4 hurricane made landfall — appeared inside the cone on each of eight advisories from Sept. 25. (No advisory was issued exactly 72 hours before Ian made landfall at 3:05 p.m.) Lee County's Cayo Costa appeared in all storm advisories The cone graphic that DeSantis and Pendergrass referenced is often misunderstood, according to the National Hurricane Center. The visual is meant to show the probable track of the center of the storm — not the extent of a hurricane's reach. Featured Fact-check Rebekah Jones stated on October 26, 2022 in a post on Instagram Document shows Rebekah Jones “demonstrated” a violation of Florida’s Whistleblower Act. By Sara Swann • November 1, 2022 Focusing on the cone itself downplays the impacts of a storm as large as Ian. Still, in Ian's case, the cone was an accurate forecast of the storm's eventual trajectory, an expert said. Matt Rogers, an atmospheric science researcher at Colorado State University, told PolitiFact that the cone graphic from Sept. 25 predicted that the center of Ian would cross the coastline anywhere between Cedar Key and Cayo Costa in Lee County. "The cone was therefore accurate," Rogers said. "The cone forecast from Sunday night predicted it was possible for the center of the hurricane to be as far south as Cayo Costa, and that's what happened." The first of the Sept. 25 National Hurricane Center advisories, issued at 2 a.m., showed sparsely populated Cayo Costa inside the cone graphic on its eastern edge. A magnified graphic of Hurricane Ian's forecasted track, which included Cayo Costa, parts of Cape Coral and Pine Island, at 2 a.m. Sept. 25. The red line depicts Lee County; the blue line shows the storm's cone. (National Hurricane Center) Other areas in Lee County also appeared inside the 2 a.m. cone graphic, including the northern coasts of Cape Coral and Pine Island. Those areas, along with Cayo Costa, remained in the cone graphic in subsequent advisories issued at 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. The hurricane's forecasted track shifted largely north of Lee County in an advisory at 11 a.m. However, Cayo Costa remained in the cone graphic. Hurricane Ian's forecasted track, which included Cayo Costa, at 11 a.m. Sept. 25. (National Hurricane Center) The track continued to shift and began to include the northern coasts of Cape Coral, Pine Island and Sanibel Island by the advisory issued at 5 p.m. Hurricane Ian moved further south by the 11 p.m. advisory and the cone extended to North Fort Myers. Through all the projected trajectory changes on Sept. 25, Cayo Costa remained inside the forecast cone. The governor's office said that DeSantis' broader point is that storms are difficult to predict and much of Lee County was outside of Hurricane Ian's path on Sept. 25. "The weekend before Hurricane Ian hit Florida, most models and most media were focused on Taylor County and then Tampa Bay," Press Secretary Bryan Griffin told PolitiFact. "Hurricane Ian changed course several times." On Sept. 25, the National Hurricane Center said that coastal areas of Lee County were at risk of experiencing storm surges between 4 to 7 feet. By the following day, Sept. 26, "many areas of Cape Coral and Fort Myers had between a 10 and a 40% chance of a storm surge above 6 feet, with some areas more than 9 feet," The New York Times reported. Lee County's emergency plan calls for an evacuation when there is a 10% chance of 6 feet of storm surge. Lee County officials did not issue an evacuation order on Sunday or Monday. The county issued a mandatory evacuation order Sept. 27. By that night, nearly all of Lee County was in the cone graphic. At 3:05 p.m. Sept. 28, Hurricane Ian made landfall and devastated the region. 305 PM EDT 28 Sep -- Hurricane #Ian has made landfall as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane near Cayo Costa, Florida with maximum sustained winds at 150 mph. The minimum pressure from Air Force Reconnaissance Hurricane Hunters was 940 mb.Latest: https://t.co/tnOTyfORCw pic.twitter.com/O3agPDOZHk— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 28, 2022 DeSantis and Lee County officials said they used the cone forecast as an indicator of whether evacuation was needed. But experts caution against using the cone graphic for that purpose and the National Hurricane Center included a disclaimer on each cone graphic issued for Ian. Ian had hurricane-force winds spanning 90 miles and tropical-storm-force winds spanning 350 miles, The New York Times reported. "The actual extent of the storm radiating out from the center of the storm is obviously much wider than the cone," Rogers, with Colorado State University, said. "Impacts from the storm will be outside of the cone, especially for large storms like Ian." Our ruling DeSantis said that 72 hours before Hurricane Ian made landfall, Lee County wasn't "even in the cone." Most of Lee County was not within Hurricane Ian's forecasted path 72 hours before landfall. But one of the county's barrier islands, Cayo Costa, appeared inside the forecast cone on each of eight advisories issued by the National Hurricane Center on Sept. 25, three days before the storm made landfall there. Experts stress that the cone does not indicate areas that will be affected by the storm; it indicates the expected center of the storm. There is an element of truth in that most of Lee County was not in the forecasted center of the storm 72 hours of landfall; but one of the county's barrier islands was, and focusing on the cone itself downplays the impacts of a storm as large as Ian. We rate his claim Mostly False

A 1956 video warned about COVID-19 A black-and-white video circulating on social media includes a description that might surprise people who first learned about COVID-19 in, well, 2019, when the first cases were reported. "This video was made in 1956," reads text appearing over the video. "Cronavirus info in video must watch." "The future certainly looks bright, but it isn’t without its darker sides," a narrator can be heard saying in the video, shared in a Facebook reel that has recently regained attention. "According to some predictions, obesity will likely run rampant, and political corruption will become so commonplace as to be accepted. People with nothing entertaining or informative to say will broadcast their demands for attention, and once beloved performers will become pushers of snake oil. "Perhaps worst of all will be the emergence of a deadly and potentially devastating disease. Think of the last time that you contracted influenza. You were likely bedridden for days, having no appetite or desire to play games. Experts predict that by the year 2020, a new virus will rise spreading from somewhere in Asia to the rest of the world. And with international travel being available to even the most common of citizens, a sickness which would have been contained in years past will quickly spread to all corners of the globe." This part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 The video in the post is a clip of a longer video posted on YouTube in February 2020 with this title: "1950s PSA: ‘Avoiding the Future Plague.’" It was uploaded by RamsesThePigeon, the handle of the video's creator who identified himself to The Associated Press as Max Patrick Schlienger. RELATED VIDEO The YouTube post makes clear that the footage in the video was used with "archival and public domain footage," and Schlienger told the AP that "the piece was intended to make a satirical commentary on the anti-science, misinformation-favoring perspectives that were already starting to be spread at the time." In August, as the video started to gain traction again, Schlienger tweeted that he made the video in 2020 and "it was intended to satirize the very perspectives it’s now being used to support. Misinformation-peddlers cut out all the punchlines." We rate claims that this is an old, authentic PSA warning about a disease like COVID-19 Fals

Tim Ryan said “I do love” Nancy Pelosi and votes with Joe Biden and Pelosi 100% U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan faces a challenge running as a Democrat in Ohio, a state Donald Trump won in 2020 by 8 percentage points. Ryan’s strategy in the Senate race against Republican J.D. Vance is to portray himself as independent of party leaders. A new ad from Vance calls this strategy "a tale of two Tims." "TV Tim Ryan pretends he is with you," Vance says. The ad rolls a clip of Ryan saying in his own TV ad, "I don’t answer to any political party." Vance continues: "But D.C. Tim votes with Biden, Pelosi 100%." The ad pivots to a clip of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow saying to Ryan, "You’ve said that you don’t like Nancy Pelosi, you love Nancy Pelosi." Ryan responds: "Yeah, I do love her." TV Tim is a fake. DC Tim is bad for Ohio. pic.twitter.com/IdUu6mfdhG— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) September 23, 2022 The clip omits an important "but;" Ryan went on to say that despite his love, it was time for a new Democratic leader in the U.S. House — Ryan himself. The clip was from 2016, when Pelosi was vying to remain the House minority leader after Trump’s presidential win. Although Ryan votes with Pelosi’s priorities most of the time, he has disagreed with her on some topics. "Tim Ryan doesn't sound like Nancy Pelosi, doesn't act like Nancy Pelosi, he's never lived a day in San Francisco, and he tried to dethrone her from leadership," said David Niven, political scientist and associate professor at the University of Cincinnati. "To say that one of the few Democrats to ever mount a challenge to Nancy Pelosi's leadership is somehow a Pelosi clone is just silly." Ryan said he loved Pelosi, but ran against her for House minority leader in 2016 Pelosi, a longtime House member from San Francisco, has led the lower chamber’s Democratic caucus as speaker or minority leader since 2003. Ryan supported Pelosi’s previous leadership bids from 2003 to 2015. When Trump won the presidential election in 2016, Ryan announced his own bid for caucus leader. In multiple interviews, Ryan said that he loved Pelosi, but it was time for a new leader who could attract Trump voters in red areas, including the Midwest and the South, to vote for Democrats. "Let me just say, I love Nancy Pelosi," Ryan said on CNN on Nov. 16, 2016. Ryan said she was a "terrific fundraiser" and wasn’t at fault for Democrats losing the election. He made similar comments on MSNBC before, asking, "The question is, are we going to take the House back and can we take the House back?" Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 In Ryan’s interview with Maddow on Nov. 17, 2016, the same one that plays in Vance’s ad, Maddow asked what Ryan would do differently as the Democrats’ leader. Ryan replied, "Yes, I do love her. And this is tough, because this is a battle kind of within the family." Ryan said Democrats need a leader who can persuade Trump voters in red districts in the Midwest to re-enter the Democratic fold, and "I think I can do that." Two weeks later, Ryan lost, and Pelosi was re-elected by her colleagues as House Democratic leader by a 134-63 vote. In November 2018, after Democrats took control of the House, Ryan signed a letter with 15 other House Democrats saying they wanted a new leader. Ryan declined to run but said he would support U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio if she ran. A month later, Ryan announced he would support Pelosi if she agreed to leave the speaker position by the end of the next Congress or the following one if she didn’t get support from two-thirds of House Democrats. (She cleared that two-thirds hurdle easily in 2019 and 2021.) Ryan has consistently voted with Biden and Pelosi Ryan’s voting record does show alignment with the priorities of President Joe Biden and Pelosi. FiveThirtyEight, a website that analyzes data, including lawmakers’ records, found that Ryan voted with Biden 100% during the current Congress. That is not unusual for House Democrats; Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a member of the party’s progressive wing, voted with Biden about 94% of the time. ProPublica, an investigative news outlet, analyzed major votes by lawmakers and found Ryan voted with Pelosi 100% in the current Congress and the previous Congress. One caveat: Pelosi rarely votes — a tradition among House speakers. That means the comparison between Ryan and Pelosi is based only on the votes in which they both participated. She voted fewer than 80 times during the 116th Congress (2019-21), making it much more likely that she and Ryan (or any Democrat) voted with her. Ryan has disagreed with Democratic leaders on some issues. He is one of dozens of co-sponsors of the Trust in Congress Act that would prevent lawmakers and immediate family members from trading stocks. Pelosi initially said the bill was unnecessary but later said the House could vote on it. The legislation’s sponsors say that Pelosi, whose husband trades individual stocks, has dragged her feet on bringing the bill to a vote. Ryan has also criticized Biden’s plan to eliminate student debt, saying it "sends the wrong message to the millions of Ohioans without a degree working just as hard to make ends meet." Ryan’s campaign pointed to multiple votes on trade, agriculture, military or the budget on which he disagreed with Pelosi. Ryan voted for the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which passed during a government shutdown, funding the government for several weeks and raising spending limits for two years. Ryan also broke from Pelosi in opposing the USA Freedom Act of 2014, which sought to end the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records collection program. Our ruling The Vance ad highlights Ryan’s "love" for Pelosi and his overlapping voting record with Pelosi and Biden. Ryan’s voting record in the current Congress does align with Biden’s agenda and Pelosi’s recent votes, though as House speaker she does not vote on every measure. But the more glaring issue with the ad is that it snips out Ryan’s explanation of why he thought Pelosi should no longer lead the party. Vance’s ad does not account for Ryan’s notable decision to challenge Pelosi’s leadership after the 2016 election, leaving viewers without the full story. Vance’s statement is partially accurate but takes things out of context. We rate this statement Half True. RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Ohi

Says Mandela Barnes supports killing “preemies” – “infants born prior to 37 weeks of pregnancy The tight, closely watched race for one of Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate seats is growing increasingly bitter as Election Day nears. Ads attacking Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, or attacking his Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, seem to be everywhere. Indeed, an especially vivid one even popped up Sept. 28 via Google on the PolitiFact Wisconsin website. The ad was from Restoration PAC, a conservative group based in Downers Grove, Illinois. The digital ad presents a mock dictionary definition. "Preemie," it reads. "An infant born prior to 37 weeks of pregnancy that Mandela Barnes supports killing." The claim is pretty outrageous — but its underpinnings draw on a familiar attack on Democrats who support abortion rights. Let’s break it down. Support for Roe v. Wade isn’t the same as supporting abortion until birth When asked for evidence to support the claim, Restoration PAC spokesperson Dan Curry clarified what it is really about: Barnes’ stance on abortion. (The ad links to a webpage which says the U.S. allows "on-demand" abortion "thanks to extreme abortion-on-demand Democrats like Joe Biden and Mandela Barnes." Barnes, of course, lives in Wisconsin, where abortion is currently banned in nearly every case.) Curry wrote that the lieutenant governor supports "partial-birth abortions" — a political phrase referring to a rarely used abortion procedure — and "abortions up until time of birth." The use of the word "preemie," then, is wrong. "Preemie" is a nickname for babies born prematurely, more than three weeks before their due date. That key word? Born — meaning an abortion was not performed. The ad itself even used the word "born." On its face, the statement makes it sound like Barnes supports killing these infants after they’ve been born, which would be homicide. In the United States, about 1 in 10 infants per year is born prematurely. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 In his response, Curry wrote, "We removed one word from our advertising to make it clear exactly which barbaric procedure we are referring to that Barnes supports." A request for the updated ad, or updated language, was not returned. In any case, that change alone is evidence that the original claim — which is what we are rating here — wasn’t accurate. It was wildly wrong. The broader implication, that Barnes supports abortions very late in pregnancy, is a common talking point from abortion opponents, who argue that if a person supports abortion rights, they support abortions "up until time of birth." A quick aside on that phrase — it’s misinformation in itself. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, abortions at or after 21 weeks represent 1% of all abortions in the U.S. Many abortions that occur later in pregnancy are because of health crises — which Wisconsin’s abortion ban, and others, makes an exception to allow. Abortions moments before birth, as the above statement implies, do not happen. So, what is Barnes’ stance on abortion? He wants to codify Roe v. Wade, which federally protected the right to the procedure until June 24, when U.S. Supreme Court overturned it. Seeking to make Roe the law of the land is not the same as supporting abortion up until birth. Even when Roe was in place, it didn’t greenlight abortion at any time during a pregnancy. It included a viability restriction, asserting that states couldn’t impose significant restrictions on abortion access before the fetus became viable — usually around 24 weeks’ gestational age. Most states — including Wisconsin — prohibited abortion, except in medical emergencies, after viability or even earlier in the pregnancy. With the ad’s linguistic distortion aside, the underlying point is still vastly misleading when it comes to Barnes’ view. Our ruling A Restoration PAC ad claimed that Barnes supports killing "preemies," or "infants born prior to 37 weeks of pregnancy." There’s no evidence for the claim that Barnes would support killing babies after birth — it is a wild accusation that the group itself has, apparently, backed off on. Even read more generously, the idea that Barnes would support abortion until birth misses the mark given what he has said about the issue. We rate this claim Pants on Fire! window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

"Florida schools (were) still open during the start of the hurricane. An Instagram video showed teachers and students maneuvering down a flooded school walkway. The teachers stood in the rising water and guided the children, who were holding their lunchboxes as they stepped on top of benches that lined the corridor. "Florida Public schools (were) still open during the start of the hurricane," the Sept. 30 post read. The post came two days after Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida. People who commented wondered why parents had sent their children to school during the storm. They didn’t. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The video is real, but it’s from three years ago and was taken when a storm impacted a school in Texas. According to KRTK-TV, Channel 13, an ABC affiliate in Houston, the video shows children leaving Durham Elementary School during Tropical Storm Imelda, which dumped about 43 inches of rain in parts of Texas in September 2019. In a Sept. 20, 2019, report, the station said the clip showed children walking along a "bridge" of benches a teacher built to provide an outdoor walkway to lunch when water started rising. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 During preparation and response to Category 4 Hurricane Ian, the Florida Department of Education closed down most of its 75 school districts. Cassie Palelis, a department press secretary, said the closures were necessary "to allow families time to prepare and open as shelters for the community." Sixteen districts were closed Sept. 27; 52 districts were closed Sept. 28, the day the hurricane began to hit the state; and 58 were closed Sept. 29, Palelis said. "The department will continue working with superintendents in Southwest Florida to help facilitate recovery efforts and ensure students can safely return to the classroom as quickly as possible," she said. Our ruling An Instagram video alleged Florida Public Schools were still open during Hurricane Ian. The video is 3 years old, and shows the effects of a flooded school hallway from Tropical Storm Imelda in Texas, not Hurricane Ian in Florida. A majority of Florida Public Schools did close ahead of and after the hurricane. This claim is Fals

Joe Biden said of Jill Biden, “She was 12, I was 30. Misinformation about how President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden became acquainted has long been social media fodder. But a recent remark by the president is putting a new spin on the rumors. "She was 12, I was 30," read a quote that appeared in an Instagram post that showed an old image of Jill Biden sitting on Joe Biden’s lap. The Oct. 2 post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The photo has been misused before. In 2021, it was shared with the description that "she was 15" and "he was in his 30s when she used to be the family babysitter." Joe Biden, who was born in November 1942, is nearly 10 years older than Jill Biden, who was born in June 1951. According to the White House website and news reports, they met in 1975 and went on their first date that March, when she would have been 23 years old. She wasn’t the family babysitter. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 RELATED VIDEO On Sept. 23, Joe Biden was giving a speech at a Democratic National Committee event in Washington, D.C., when he appeared to recognize someone in the audience and pointed at the person. "You got to say ‘hi’ to me. We go back a long way," he said. "She was 12, and I was 30. But anyway, this woman helped me get an awful lot done." Some social media posts wrongly claimed that this amounted to Biden admitting he had an inappropriate relationship with a minor. That’s wrong, and so is the claim that he said his wife was 12 when he was 30. We rate this post False.

“More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last two months under Biden than in 2019 under Trump. Public officials have expressed growing concern about the flow of fentanyl into the United States, as the synthetic opioid has been blamed for a growing number of deaths. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 56,000 people died in 2020 from overdoses involving synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, and preliminary figures show an uptick in synthetic opioid-related deaths during the coronavirus pandemic. Fentanyl is similar to morphine but is 50 to 100 times more potent. The West Virginia Republican Party recently took to Twitter to criticize President Joe Biden for the continuing flow of fentanyl into the country. "Illicit drugs are flowing into the country at an alarming rate," the Aug. 23 tweet said. "Overdoses reached an all-time high in 2021. 2,071 lbs of fentanyl — more than 469 million lethal doses seized in July. More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last two months under Biden than in 2019 under Trump." Illicit drugs are flowing into the country at an alarming rate:➡ Overdoses reached an all-time high in 2021➡ 2,071lbs of fentanyl– more than 469M lethal doses seized in July.➡ More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last 2 months under Biden than in 2019 under Trump.— WVGOP (@WVGOP) August 23, 2022 We took a closer look at this part of the claim: "More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last two months under Biden than in 2019 under Trump." The claim is numerically accurate, but needs additional context. Data from Customs and Border Protection shows that federal agents seized 4,500 pounds of fentanyl in July and August 2022 at U.S. borders and coasts. This was more than the 2,800 pounds seized all of 2019. Virtually all of it was seized along the southwestern border, the vast majority of which was taken at ports of entry, from people trying to come into the U.S. legally via authorized checkpoints. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Although the two-month figure for July and August is more than all of 2019, it is not more than the figure for 2020 (when 4,791 pounds of fentanyl were seized) or 2021 (when 11,201 pounds were seized). So, the talking point is somewhat cherry-picked. Featured Fact-check Blake Masters stated on October 15, 2022 in a tweet Immigrants illegally in the country are treated “better than military veterans.” By Jon Greenberg • October 21, 2022 As a whole, the amount of drugs seized by CBP has declined over the past two years, but the rise in fentanyl seizures is seen as particularly important, since it is potent and can be deadly even in small doses. By weight, marijuana usually accounts for the majority of drug seizures by border officials. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); John Findlay, the West Virginia Republican Party’s executive director, said the focus on fentanyl is appropriate because it is unusually deadly. Jonathan Caulkins, a drug policy researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, agreed. However, experts say it is an oversimplification to solely blame Biden and his administration. It’s impossible to know whether the rise in fentanyl seizures is because of more smuggling attempts or better targeting and interdiction by law enforcement. Caulkins said it’s often assumed that law enforcement always intercepts a constant percentage of what is smuggled across the border — which would mean that the amount being smuggled has increased along with seizures — but in reality, no one knows whether that is true. It’s also too soon to determine whether fentanyl seizures have hit a new, long-lasting, higher level or whether the two-month spike is an aberration. Caulkins said he knew of no specific reason for the two-month increase, beyond the general upward trend in recent years. Finally, Caulkins said, although White House policies can affect the transborder drug flow, other factors play a role, too. The flow can be influenced by factors on both the supply side, such as changes in the behavior of criminal cartels and international law enforcement, and on the demand side, such as an increase or decrease in users in the United States. "That's a perennial discussion, but it should be informed by much more than just some simple seizure stats," he said. Our ruling The West Virginia Republican Party tweeted, "More fentanyl has crossed the border in the last two months under Biden than in 2019 under Trump." We don’t know how much fentanyl has crossed the border undetected, but we do know how much has been seized. Federal agents seized 4,500 pounds of fentanyl in July and August 2022, mostly at the southwestern border, which was more than the 2,800 pounds seized all of 2019. But whether the 2022 change is attributable to Biden’s policies is unclear. Also unclear is whether the recent spike in seizures reflects a larger inflow or improved interdiction by law enforcement. We rate the statement Mostly Tru

“CDC says 60% of Americans have parasites. A viral Instagram video claims that the majority of adults in the United States are infected by parasites — but it cites data that does not support the claim. The video was originally published Aug. 30 by a health blogger named Greg Mongeon, whose Instagram profile says he is a functional medicine doctor. In the video, Mongeon is participating in an interview for his podcast "The Daily Dose." Mongeon says during the interview that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "say that 60% of Americans have parasites." The post was flagged as part of efforts by Facebook to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The Instagram video shows a screenshot of a CBS News headline that reads: "CDC warns of common parasites plaguing millions in U.S." The story was published in May 2014 and cites a 2014 CDC news release about five of the most common parasitic infections. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 The CDC news release notes, "More than 60 million people in the United States are chronically infected with Toxoplasma gondii," the parasite that causes a condition called toxoplasmosis. It’s one of the most common parasites in the world, according to the Mayo Clinic, and is often found in cat feces and can infect humans. The news release does not mention the percentage of people in the U.S. who are infected with parasites. We did not find any information in news releases or other information from the CDC that says 60% of Americans have parasites. The CDC did not respond to a request for comment. We rate the claim False.

President Joe Biden admitted having an inappropriate relationship with a minor A Russian state-run media outlet used recent remarks by President Joe Biden to further the false claim that he is a pedophile. The caption on a Sept. 26 video on Facebook of Biden’s remarks says, "In words so inappropriate you’d think they were being said by his son Hunter, Joe Biden wowed a teachers’ union when he pointed at a young woman in the crowd and said ‘you gotta say hi to me. We go back a long way. She was 12, I was 30.’" The video zooms in on Biden and replays his words in slow motion: "She was 12, I was 30." The caption continues, "In other news, it was found on Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop that Joe Biden was listed in Hunter’s phone as ‘Pedo Pete.’ We’re sure that these two stories aren’t related." The video was flagged as part of efforts by Facebook to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The claim — which was posted by Russia Today, an American cable network that is funded by the government of Russia — was the latest addition to a long line of debunked claims that Biden is a pedophile. It implies that Biden was admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a minor, when he was instead acknowledging a longstanding friendship with an audience member. On Sept. 23, Biden gave wide-ranging remarks to attendees gathered at the National Education Association headquarters in Washington, D.C. During the roughly half-hour speech, he spoke about climate change, abortion and public education, according to a White House transcript from the event. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 About three minutes into the speech, Biden appeared to recognize someone in the audience, who is not shown on camera. He abruptly trailed off and pointed to the person. "You got to say hi to me. We go back a long way," he says, as the audience chuckled in response. "She was 12, and I was 30. But anyway, this woman helped me get an awful lot done." Immediately after the comment, Biden went on to talk about the U.S. being at an "inflection point" and that "democracy itself is on the ballot" come November’s midterm elections. We reached out to the White House press office for comment and did not receive a reply. Our ruling A Facebook post suggests Biden admitted having an inappropriate relationship with a minor. The claim, shared by Russian state media, baselessly implied that Biden’s comments acknowledging a longstanding friendship with an audience member amounted to him admitting to an inappropriate relationship with a minor. The claim referenced other, debunked claims that Biden is a pedophile. We rate this claim False.

Sen. Marco Rubio and U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis “voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy.” When a hurricane strikes Florida, it provides a rare moment when Republican and Democratic politicians agree on policy: They all want federal money to help the state recover from devastation. When Hurricane Ian hit Florida, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican, joined Florida’s full congressional delegation in signing a letter to President Joe Biden seeking a major disaster declaration, which allows for temporary aid. Gov. Ron DeSantis, also a Republican, sent Biden a similar letter. The requests from the Republicans for help from a Democratic president and administration prompted many Twitter users to suggest that Rubio and DeSantis are hypocrites. They said the Republicans opposed federal relief for New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy battered those states in 2012. "Just a reminder to New York … Marco Rubio and Ron DeSantis (who was then in Congress) voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy. But because we are New York, we care about everyone," tweeted Yuh-Line Niou, a Democrat who represents areas of Manhattan in the New York Assembly. "Even when they don’t care about us." Craig Fugate, a former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Hurricane Ian could be "one of the highest losses in hurricanes in recent U.S. history." One early estimate said property damage losses could be $40 billion. The major disaster declaration Biden signed Sept. 29 unlocks the Disaster Relief Fund so FEMA can provide immediate aid, including temporary housing assistance. The declaration will result in billions of dollars flowing to Florida, said Steve Ellis, president of the government spending watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. But if lawmakers want to provide more relief, they will need to pass supplemental appropriations. When asked to back up Niou’s claim, her spokesperson pointed to articles about Rubio’s vote against Hurricane Sandy aid. We looked at multiple votes by the lawmakers and news analysis to get a more complete picture of their votes in 2012 and 2013. Votes on Hurricane Sandy packages Hurrianne Sandy made landfall Oct. 29, 2012, and devastated portions of the East Coast, including New York and New Jersey. The path to passing a relief package was slower than after Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi in 2005. Following Hurricane Sandy, President Barack Obama had just been elected to a second term and conservative Republicans elected in a tea party wave in 2010, and then in 2012, were looking for ways to curb spending. On Dec. 7, Obama requested $60.4 billion in emergency appropriations. Three weeks later, the Democratic-led Senate voted 62-32 to approve it, with Rubio voting against. Twelve Republicans joined the Democrats in voting for the bill. Republicans then countered with a stripped-down alternative of $24 billion, which Rubio supported but which failed on a party-line vote. Rubio said he voted against the larger bill because it contained "unrelated pork." ("Pork" or "pork barrel" spending is government spending for localized projects secured primarily or solely for bringing money to political representatives’ districts.) There was funding for many things in the $60.4 billion package, including money for a declared fishery disaster in Alaska, Ellis said. But nearly everything had some relationship to a disaster — not only Sandy — although some were more tenuous than others. "The question is did it have to be funded in an emergency supplemental" meaning it would allow lawmakers to evade budget caps, Ellis said. "And the question for Sen. Rubio and every other senator, is how much is too much extra stuff and what is the alternative." Then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, sought to divide the relief funding. FEMA warned that it would run out of money in January if Congress didn’t provide additional borrowing authority to pay claims. The first vote, a $9.7 billion measure, passed the House on Jan. 4. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 DeSantis, a newly sworn-in congressman, was one of 67 House Republicans who voted against the bill. DeSantis said he sympathized with victims and that those with flood insurance should have their claims paid. But he said that "allowing the program to increase its debt by another $9.7 billion with no plan to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere is not fiscally responsible." The funding passed the Senate in a voice vote, in which individual senators’ votes are not recorded. Rubio spokesman Alex Conant told the Tampa Bay Times that Rubio supported it, calling it a "clean" appropriation. Obama signed the measure into law. The second part of the disaster relief, a bill for $50.5 billion, passed the Senate Jan. 28, 2013, 62-36 largely along party lines. Rubio voted against the bill and DeSantis voted against the measure that passed in the House. Obama signed it into law. Republicans who objected made similar "pork" arguments. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said two-thirds of the bill was pork spending unrelated to hurricane relief. The data and the assessment of those who studied the Sandy bill say the extras in it amounted to far less than Cruz suggested. We rated the statement Mostly False. Until Sandy, disaster spending prompted little acrimony, Ellis said. Sometimes, there were quibbles about continued appropriations for a period after a disaster, such as subsequent appropriations for Hurricane Katrina, but not much. "This changed with Sandy because of two things: One, it affected primarily the ‘blue’ states of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, and two, it came right on the heels of fiscal conservative pushes." DeSantis and some of the other Republicans who voted against Sandy relief later would form the Freedom Caucus, which often sought to block Democratic budget deals. We contacted a DeSantis spokesperson to ask whether he had any evidence for us to consider about past storm relief spending. Spokesperson Bryan Griffin said "we are completely focused on hurricane response. As the governor said earlier, we have no time for politics or pettiness." Rubio’s spokespeople did not respond. Our ruling Niou said Rubio and DeSantis "voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy." Niou is on firmer ground about DeSantis but omits that Rubio voted against the larger Sandy aid bill but did vote for less extensive bills. Rubio voted against a $60.4 billion bill for Sandy relief in December 2012, but supported an alternative $24 billion measure that failed. In January 2013, Rubio supported a $9.7 billion aid bill, but not a $50 billion bill. DeSantis voted against both $9.7 billion and $50 billion in Sandy relief in January 2013 as a newly elected congressman. We rate this statement Mostly True. RELATED: All of our fact-checks about hurricanes or weath

“The Russian army has surrendered in Donetsk! Two days before Russia announced it was annexing four Ukrainian regions in violation of international law, one social media post had an announcement of its own: "The Russian army has surrendered in Donetsk," read a caption in a Sept. 27 Facebook post. Donetsk was one of the four eastern Ukrainian regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin was expected to claim for his nation. He did so Sept. 30. Russia has faced numerous setbacks in its war with Ukraine, including stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces and shortages of troops and weapons. But this Facebook post claiming the Russian army had experienced its most significant setback of the war came without any supporting evidence. A 17-minute video with the post featured narration from what sounded like a computer-generated voice talking about the conflict in Ukraine, but it didn’t say anything in support of the caption’s claim. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post and video follow a noticeable trend on Facebook of accounts claiming to have the latest news on the war in Ukraine. Instead of offering news, they use fake, sensationalist headlines paired with mostly unrelated videos from other sources. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 There have been reports provided by the Ukrainian government of Russian soldiers surrendering have been covered by the media. However, the reports haven’t been independently verified, and none have mentioned troops in Donetsk. Donetsk is a province in eastern Ukraine and part of the Donbas region, which has been under Russian control since before the invasion. The post may be confusing reports of mobilized Russian residents calling a Ukrainian-sponsored hotline about wanting to surrender as scores of men have attempted to flee to other countries to avoid being drafted to fight. A search through the verified social media accounts for Ukraine's Ministry of Defense also shows no mention of soldiers surrendering in Donetsk. Putin had called for the mobilization of 300,000 reserve soldiers in late September to serve in Ukraine amid military personnel shortages. Our ruling A Facebook post claimed Russian soldiers surrendered to Ukrainian troops in the eastern province of Donetsk. Although there have been stories of Russian soldiers surrendering, none have been independently verified or have been reported as having occurred in eastern Ukraine. The post provides no evidence to support its claim. The Ukrainian government has also not publicly said anything about Russian soldiers surrendering in Donetsk. In fact, Putin has announced Russia is annexing the region. We rate this claim False

"Ron Johnson has voted against funding for law enforcement and recently opposed a plan to recruit and train new officers In U.S. Senate races across the country, Republicans have been questioning Democrats’ commitment to law enforcement. In this claim, the roles are reversed. It’s the Democratic challenger, Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, slamming the incumbent, Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, for an alleged lack of support for law enforcement. It came as Barnes responded to attacks on his support for eliminating cash bail. "Ron Johnson has voted against funding for law enforcement and recently opposed a plan to recruit and train new officers," the Barnes campaign said in a Sept. 2 news release. The same news release included this claim, "Under Lt. Governor Barnes’ plan, the Waukesha perpetrator wouldn’t have been released," which we rated Mostly True. As we dive in, let’s specify a few things. First, funding for police officers is primarily done locally, not through Congress. Most typically, federal funding has come in grant money, which is often used to encourage local government units to hire more officers. Second, Congress is different from local or state legislative bodies. It’s a place where it is common for spending measures to roll in dozens upon dozens of issues and proposals, many of which never get a straight up-or-down vote. As such, it can be hard to tease out what an individual lawmaker’s vote means on any number of those issues. So, did Johnson vote "against funding for law enforcement" and recently oppose "a plan to recruit and train new officers?" Let’s look at both parts of the claim. Voting ‘against funding for law enforcement’ On this part of the statement, the Barnes news release largely cited two votes from Johnson’s nearly 12 years in Congress. Both of them are stretches, at best. The first was Johnson’s past support for a balanced budget proposal from U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa. A May 6, 2012, report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank that analyzes the impact of federal and state government budget policies, concluded the proposal "would make massive new cuts in nondefense discretionary spending, which funds everything from veterans’ health care to medical and scientific research, highways, education, national parks, food safety, clean air and water enforcement, and border protection and other law enforcement." Johnson favored the plan, which ultimately failed 42-57 in a May 16, 2012, vote. But that’s not a direct vote on cutting law enforcement. It’s a vote on a measure that would result in cuts, and those cuts might include law enforcement, but not in the way most people would think of it: Taking lots of officers off the streets. Similarly, the Barnes campaign cites Johnson’s March 6, 2021, vote against the American Rescue Plan Act, which passed, 50-49. The COVID-19 relief package, passed by Democrats under President Joe Biden, included $350 billion for state and local governments to reduce violence. A White House Fact Sheet noted that "Before the American Rescue Plan passed, the Menino Survey found that 27% of mayors anticipated making significant cuts to their police budgets and services." Featured Fact-check Tim Michels stated on October 24, 2022 in News conference Tony Evers “wants to let out between 9,000 and 10,000 more” Wisconsin prisoners By Madeline Heim • November 4, 2022 The Boston University Initiative on Cities, an urban leadership and research center at Boston University. administers the Menino Survey, a national survey of mayors named for the late Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. But PolitiFact National already tackled this issue, when it rated False this claim from U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va.: "Every Republican in Congress voted to defund the police when they voted against the American Rescue Plan." Here we’ll draw from that fact check’s conclusion: "The $1.9 trillion stimulus dedicates $350 billion to compensating state, local and tribal governments for lost revenue during the coronavirus crisis. The law gives the governments wide flexibility in using the money, and one option is to spend it on essential workers or their departments. "But the bill never guaranteed that the money would go to essential workers — including police and their departments — when Republicans voted against it. And there’s a huge difference between voting against a possible one-time cash injection into police departments and cutting their existing funding, as Scott implied." So, Barnes comes up empty on the first part of the claim. Opposing "a plan to recruit and train new officers" Here Barnes argues Johnson opposed a Biden police and crime prevention plan to recruit and train 100,000 new officers, citing an Aug. 8 WTMJ-TV, Channel 4, report. The proposal was Biden’s $37 billion Safer America Plan, which according to a July 21 memo from the White House aims to provide funding to communities for several initiatives including "hiring and training 100,000 additional police officers for community policing (nearly $13 billion over the next five years through the COPS Hiring Program) and setting aside dedicated funds for small law enforcement agencies." In the Aug. 8 WTMJ report, when asked about the plan, Johnson told the station: "I’m sure he’s going to spend more money that we don’t have, exacerbating inflation, not accomplishing whatever goal it’s trying to accomplish." Johnson campaign spokesperson Alexa Henning argued the quote, cited by Barnes’ team, "completely takes out of context the Senator's remarks at the media gaggle following his American Legion speech." "The Senator was not aware of the exact legislation prior to the reporter asking him the question," Henning said in an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin. "He wasn’t opposing the specifics of the bill, instead he was commenting on how Democrats' massive spending bills are exacerbating inflation and mortgaging our kids’ future." Fair enough. But that muddle is partly on Johnson, for expressing opposition to a bill before understanding what was in it. In any case, there have been multiple other occasions when Johnson has backed spending for law enforcement, such as establishing a reserve fund to hire 100,000 new police officers nationwide to combat the crime wave and the proposed JUSTICE Act, which included $100 million in federal grants to assist law enforcement officers in training, and access to new technology for body-worn cameras. The measure also authorized $50 million to establish new funding for state and local law enforcement agencies to pay for costs related to training. Also, it is Johnson — not Barnes — who has the most public backing from police groups and law enforcement officials in the race, including an endorsement from the Milwaukee Police Association. Our ruling Barnes said, "Ron Johnson has voted against funding for law enforcement and recently opposed a plan to recruit and train new officers." The evidence on both is beyond thin. On the first part of the claim, Team Barnes makes an American Rescue Plan Act-related claim PolitiFact has already rated False. Also, Johnson’s vote on a budget balance bill was cited, but the best evidence is cuts to law enforcement funding might have happened down the line. On the second part of the claim, the criticism of Johnson’s response to Biden’s Safer America Plan is indirect at best — albeit, the response apparently came in knee-jerk fashion. Finally, the claim ignores cases where Johnson has backed law enforcement. We rate this claim False. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

Michigan’s Proposal 2 “will permanently put in the Constitution that you never have to show an ID to vote ever again. There are several elements to Proposal 2, a voting-focused ballot measure that Michigan voters will be asked to consider in the November midterm election. But one thing Proposal 2 won’t do? Abolish a voter identification requirement established by state lawmakers years ago. But some Michiganders, including Ted Nugent, a politically conservative rock musician who has more than 3.5 million followers on Facebook, have shared misleading claims about the proposal on social media. "For all of you Michiganders!!!!" Nugent wrote in a Sept. 20 post. "Instead of listening to the vast majority of Michiganders supporting common sense election reforms like requiring a photo ID to vote, the soulless left decided to put a Constitutional Amendment on our ballot this fall." Nugent — who MLive reported is a member of the far-right Oath Keepers, a militia group with ties to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — continued, claiming the proposal would threaten Michigan election security. "What does Proposal 2 do?" Nugent asked. "It will permanently put in the Constitution that you NEVER have to show an ID to vote ever again." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) That misrepresents what the proposal would do. Instead, it would enshrine Michigan’s current requirements to show voter identification into the state constitution. Nugent’s claim about the voter ID element of Proposal 2 misleads by ignoring Michigan’s existing voter identification requirements. If Proposal 2 passed, it would, among other things: require nine days of early in-person voting; require at least one ballot drop box per municipality or one per 15,000 voters in larger municipalities; allow municipalities to use publicly disclosed donations to help administer elections; and require state-funded postage for absentee ballots. How would Proposal 2 impact voter ID requirements? Tyrone Washington shows a mailer reminding voters they must present a valid photo ID to vote at the New St. Paul Tabernacle in Detroit, Nov. 6, 2007. Michigan voters were being asked to either show photo identification or sign a short affidavit for the first time. (AP) Voters in Michigan have been required to show picture identification or sign an affidavit verifying their identity since 2007. An affidavit is a sworn written statement that asserts certain facts — in this case, that someone’s identification details are true, under penalty of perjury. "After checking the ePollbook to verify that the voter is registered to vote in the precinct, ask the voter to show one of the forms of photo identification listed below to verify the voter’s identity," reads the state’s Election Officials’ Manual. "Be sure to ask all voters for picture ID." The instructions continue: "If the voter states that he or she has picture identification but did not bring it to the polls or if the voter states that he or she does not possess one of the acceptable forms of picture identification, the voter can vote by signing the ‘Affidavit of Voter Not in Possession of Picture Identification.’" The manual is clear: "A voter who does not possess picture identification who refuses to sign the affidavit cannot vote and should be referred to the local clerk. A voter who claims to have picture identification but refuses to show it cannot be issued a ballot until they show it and should be referred to the local clerk." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 If Proposal 2 passes, this procedure will not change. The proposed constitutional changes are too long to put on the ballot in their entirety, so voters will find a summary of the proposal when casting their votes. The portion of that summary that addresses voter ID laws states that Proposal 2 would provide voters with the "right to verify identity with photo ID or signed statement." That is in line with section 168.523 of Michigan election law, which states that "at each election, before being given a ballot, each registered elector offering to vote must identify himself or herself by presenting identification for election purposes." If the registered voter has no acceptable ID, "the individual shall sign an affidavit to that effect before an election inspector and be allowed to vote," the law continues. The proposal also would not change Michigan voter registration requirements. In Michigan, people are automatically registered to vote when applying for or updating their license or state ID cards — unless they opt-out or are ineligible to vote. People can also complete a voter registration application online, in person or mail a completed application to a designated election official, as long as it is more than 15 days before the election. The application asks people to verify that they are qualified to vote and to provide their Michigan-issued ID number or the last four digits of their social security number. If neither can be provided, the application asks a potential voter to include a copy of a valid photo ID from any state or a copy of a document that lists their name and address (e.g. utility bill, bank statement, etc.) Within 14 days of an election, people can only register to vote in person and must provide a document that verifies their residency and includes their current address, such as a state ID, university document or utility bill. Voters can register on Election Day. Micheal Davis, executive director of Promote the Vote, the group that brought forward Proposal 2, said it "enshrines Michigan’s current, effective voter identification law into the Michigan Constitution." About 2.3 million people voted in person in Michigan’s election Nov. 3, 2020, and only 11,417 voted without showing an ID. That’s about 0.5% of in-person voters. The vast majority of people voting in person show their IDs. But for the small number who do not, "current law provides safeguards for voters to verify their identity," Davis said. Proposal 2 ensures the current law "is permanent and won’t be subject to legislative changes in the future." Michigan’s voter ID requirements are not as strict as some other states. But Republican state lawmakers have recently supported stricter voter identification requirements, in line with the national trend. Jeff Litten, executive director of Secure MI Vote, a group advocating for stricter voter ID laws, opposes writing these existing measures into Michigan’s constitution. He said he believes using affidavits creates an opportunity for fraud in that someone might impersonate a voter. But Michigan election law already makes that a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and up to a $2,000 fine. Our ruling Nugent claimed that Proposal 2 on Michigan voters’ ballots "will permanently put in the Constitution that you never have to show an ID to vote ever again." Michigan voters have been required to show picture identification or sign a sworn affidavit verifying their identity since 2007. Poll workers ask to see photo IDs before giving voters their ballots, and the vast majority of Michigan voters show their IDs when voting. A tiny percentage of voters sign affidavits to cast their ballots. If Proposal 2 passes, it will put these existing procedures into the state constitution. It won’t change existing voter ID requirements. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate this claim Mostly False. RELATED: As extremes shape voter ID debate, the rules keep getting strict

Father danced for his daughter at her grave after she was killed during recent protests in Iran Protests have filled Iran’s streets following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly. Women and others protested her death, and United Nations human rights officials said they’ve received reports that 76 people have died in the protests. Iranians have risked their safety by posting video of the protests. But some videos being shared by others on social media are misleading. One video shared Sept. 28 on Instagram by American actor and comedian D.L. Hughley showed a man dancing among a group of people. Another man reached out and grabbed the dancer as he became seemingly overwhelmed with emotion. "Saddest thing I have ever seen in my life: a father who promised his daughter he will dance at her wedding now dancing at her grave after she was killed by Iranian regime in the protests against killing people for forced hijab," read the text on the video, which is originally from TikTok. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 But the video does not depict recent events in Iran. It has been circulating online for more than a year. A reverse image search for the video showed the earliest online posting was a July 12, 2021, post on Facebook. The caption is in Turkish, and a translated version says it tells the story of a man who danced for his daughter after she died. The video does not show a father dancing for his daughter at her grave after she was killed during recent protests in Iran. We rate this claim Fals

“North Korea sent more than 100,000 troops to Russia for the Ukraine War! With Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for the mobilization of 300,000 volunteers to join the fighting in Ukraine, a recent Facebook post is claiming those troops will be joined by an additional 100,000 soldiers courtesy of North Korea. "North Korea sent more than 100,000 troops to Russia for the Ukraine war," claims the title and caption for a video shared on Facebook. What sounds like a computer-generated voice narrates throughout the nine-minute video, claiming that North Korea will also send volunteer workers to "Russian-occupied Donetsk and eastern Ukraine" in addition to the soldiers. It’s true that the Russian military faces personnel shortages. But we found no evidence that North Korea is sending troops. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Although the Facebook post cites no evidence to support its claims, there have been stories in the news and on social media about North Korea offering soldiers to help Russia — not about troops already being sent to Russia as the post implies. The news stories draw from an article published Aug. 5 by the New York Post, which quoted Igor Korotchenko, a Russian military pundit. During a broadcast on Channel One Russia, a state-owned news station, Korotchenko said, "There are reports that 100,000 North Korean volunteers are prepared to come and take part in the conflict," according to the New York Post’s article. He didn’t elaborate on the reports. The U.S. government estimates that around 80,000 Russian troops have been wounded or killed throughout the fighting. The heavy troop shortages led to Putin declaring a mobilization of Russian military reservists to fight in Ukraine. Several days after the Post article’s publication, the Russian Foreign Ministry denied online and in a news briefing that North Korean soldiers would fight in Ukraine. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 Ivan Nechayev, a deputy spokesman for the ministry, said Aug. 11 that it was a bogus story spread by "some bloggers and people close to the expert community," according to the state-owned Russian News Agency Tass. "In this regard, we can state with full responsibility that these reports are fake news through and through," Nechayev said. "No such talks are underway, and there are no plans to deploy North Korean volunteers to the (Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics)." Donetsk and Luhansk are provinces in eastern Ukraine that comprise the Donbas region. Much of the region had been under the control of Russian-backed separatists since 2014 and is considered a foothold for Russia in Ukraine. The North Korean government has made no public statements offering to send soldiers to Russia. It has expressed interest in sending construction workers to help with rebuilding in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian territories, which it recognized as independent states in July. The U.S. government also claims North Korea has been selling weapons and ammunition to Russia to help with a shortage of military supplies in Ukraine — directly violating United Nations-imposed sanctions. North Korean officials denied the claim. Our ruling A video shared on Facebook claims North Korea sent "more than 100,000 troops to Russia" to help with the country’s war against Ukraine. The video appears to be based on a statement made on a Russian-backed television station that said North Korea offered troops to Russia, not that it sent any. The Facebook video and the statement made on television provided no evidence of their claims. Russian officials have denied they received any offer from North Korea about sending soldiers to help fight in Ukraine. We rate this claim False

"Walrus seen on Florida streets after Hurricane Ian hits land. Floridians are assessing the damage from Hurricane Ian. An estimated 2.6 million customers were out of power, and emergency responders are trying to assist people trapped in their homes by flooding. Amid this real chaos and destruction, though, are some unfortunately misleading claims, such as one that alerted folks that a walrus was on the loose. "Walrus seen on Florida streets after Hurricane Ian hits land," said the text on a video one Instagram user posted on Sept. 28. The footage showed an animal lumbering down a neighborhood sidewalk. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 The video also gained traction on Twitter. But this video is from 2020. It’s a seal, not a walrus. And it happened in Puerto Cisnes, Chile — not Florida. In October 2020, an elephant seal got stranded on shore and began roaming the seaside town. It wasn’t related to a hurricane or weather event. The Guardian reported that neighbors, police and naval officers worked together to guide the unlikely visitor back to the water. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

"The true meaning of Hurricane," or Her-ricane, is the spirit of "the African woman who has been stolen. As Hurricane Ian slammed into Florida, social media users spread a false claim about how the word "hurricane" came about. "The true meaning of hurricane," a Sept. 28 Instagram post read. "The spirit of the African woman who has been stolen, beaten, raped and thrown overboard the slave ships en route to enslaved lands." The post then claimed that all hurricanes start at the "same point of exodus of Africa." It was flagged as part of Facebook's efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We didn't find credible evidence supporting this etymology. The term "hurricane" is derived from "hurakan," a word coined by the Taino, or the indigenous people of the Caribbean, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It was translated into Spanish in 1526, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Oxford English Dictionary said the word’s initial spelling varied — including "furicano" and "uracan" — before arriving at its current spelling in the late 1600s. But the background behind this claim is interesting. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 "The ‘her-ricane’ interpretation appears to be a kind of folk etymology used for rhetorical purposes regarding the slave trade," Ben Zimmer, a linguist and Wall Street Journal language columnist, told PolitiFact. A TinEye search revealed that a post with identical wording appeared online in 2017. It appears to be based on folklore the late Dick Gregory, a comedian and civil rights activist, referred to in his 2017 book, "Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies." "The first Africans were brought to America as slaves in 1619. The first hurricane slammed into this place in 1635," Gregory wrote. "I say a hurricane is the spirit of a Black woman. (That’s why it starts with her!)" It’s a powerful image, but research doesn't support the folk etymology. The syllable "her" isn't in the word’s actual derivation. However, Zimmer told PolitiFact that the Taino word does relate to a goddess figure. "Regardless of the rhetorical point, this shouldn't be taken as a serious etymology," Zimmer said. "The resemblance of the first syllable of 'hurricane' to the English word ‘her’ is coincidental." We rate the purported etymology Fals

Vladimir Putin “is fleeing the war! As Russia appears ready to annex parts of Ukraine that its troops have occupied, a recent Facebook post defies reality, suggesting instead that Russian President Vladimir Putin is abandoning the invasion. "Putin is fleeing the war!" the Sept. 27 post says. "Russian people raised the flag of rebellion!" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 Contrary to waving a white flag, Putin is becoming more directly involved in the war’s strategic planning, The New York Times reported Sept. 23, "including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson." RELATED VIDEO Putin has also recently drafted about 300,000 more reservists to the front lines. News reports have said that people who wouldn’t normally be called up for service are being tapped to fight, angering some Russians. But there’s no sign that Putin is "fleeing the war." We rate that claim False.

“Pelosi’s panel ready to arrest Trump. The U.S. House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol postponed its upcoming public hearing because of Hurricane Ian, but a Facebook post claims that something big is about to break. "Pelosi’s panel ready to arrest Trump after reviewing 100k+ Secret Service texts," the Sept. 25 post said. It included a nearly 26-minute video of a CNN broadcast that covered what the committee might reveal at its next hearing, as well as other news, such as developments in the war in Ukraine. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) The video in the post doesn’t support the claim that the committee is "ready to arrest Trump." And the panel lacks the authority to pursue criminal charges, anyway, though it can make a criminal referral to the Justice Department recommending prosecutors there seek an indictment. The Justice Department can take or ignore that recommendation. The New York Times noted earlier this year, however, that because the committee’s staff is led by "a bipartisan pair of former U.S. attorneys, any recommendations they make would most likely be taken seriously by federal prosecutors." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 27, 2022 in a post Video shows Marjorie Taylor Greene planted pipe bombs at Republican and Democratic party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021. By Gabrielle Settles • October 31, 2022 News outlets such as NBC News reported Sept. 27 that senior leadership at the Secret Service had confiscated the cellphones of two dozen agents who were involved in the agency’s Jan. 6 response. The phones were handed over to the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, NBC said. RELATED VIDEO A few days prior, U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., vice chair for the committee investigating Jan 6., said the committee had received some 800,000 pages of communication materials from the Secret Service but that most text messages from that date weren’t recovered, according to USA Today. "The texts themselves, in many cases, are gone," Cheney said. We rate claims that the panel is preparing to arrest Trump after reviewing more than 100,000 Secret Service text messages False.

Footage NASA shared from the DART spacecraft just before it crashed itself into an asteroid isn’t real A NASA spacecraft smashed into an asteroid on Sept. 26 — right on schedule. The spacecraft’s intentional collision with the asteroid Dimorphos was NASA’s "first attempt to move an asteroid in space." The Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, aka DART, is part of the agency’s strategy to protect Earth from objects such as asteroids or comets. In the coming weeks, scientists will closely monitor Dimorphos to determine whether the crash prompted an orbital change. But, for now, NASA has confirmed that DART hit the asteroid — and also released a number of images the spacecraft transmitted back to researchers on earth. Some social media users targeted those images, claiming that the footage was fake. "What you are looking at is supposedly footage from a NASA spacecraft crashing into an asteroid," read a screenshot shared Sept. 26 on Instagram. "What kind of person actually believes this is real?" The screenshot was shared alongside a short video clip featuring an asteroid and, eventually, close-up rocky terrain. The caption also conveys incredulity: "Yes, this is real footage supposedly from NASA ‘hitting an asteroid.’ For all of those who have discovered the truth of where we really live, you know how this and anything that comes from NASA is truly laughable. They will do anything to push the space hoax." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The footage shared in the Instagram post is real and shows a selection of images from the final five and a half minutes that DART captured and transmitted back to earth as it approached Dimorphos. NASA compiled the images into a short video clip. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 23, 2022 in an Instagram post “Wikileaks releases moon landing cut scenes filmed in the Nevada desert.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 25, 2022 Don't want to miss a thing? Watch the final moments from the #DARTMission on its collision course with asteroid Dimporphos. pic.twitter.com/2qbVMnqQrD— NASA (@NASA) September 26, 2022 "This replay movie is 10 times faster than reality, except for the last six images, which are shown at the same rate that the spacecraft returned them," NASA said of its 39-second video. "Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos are visible at the start of the movie. At the end, Dimorphos fills the field of view." The final full image shows a patch of Dimorphos’ surface that is about 100 feet across, NASA said. It was taken about 7 miles away from the asteroid and two seconds before impact. The last complete image of asteroid moonlet Dimorphos, taken by NASA’s DART spacecraft about 7 miles from the asteroid and two seconds before impact. (NASA/Johns Hopkins APL) DART sent one more partial image that was taken about 4 miles from Dimorphos’ surface, just one second before impact. It shows a 51-foot wide section of the asteroid. The spacecraft collided with the asteroid as the picture was being transmitted to Earth, resulting in the incomplete image, NASA said. The video clip and images have been reported on by several news outlets. For decades, conspiracy theorists have denied the existence of space and suggested space exploration is a hoax. The claims are without merit. Our ruling An Instagram post suggested the footage NASA shared from the DART spacecraft just before it crashed itself into an asteroid wasn’t real. The footage shared in the post is real and was published by several news outlets. It was a sped-up video compilation of images DART captured and transmitted back to earth as it approached Dimorphos, seconds before impact. We rate this claim False.

At an Atlanta Braves celebration, President Joe Biden “demanded that all the little kids come up on stage to sit on his lap. After President Joe Biden welcomed the Atlanta Braves to the White House on Sept. 26 to honor their 2021 World Series win, he was given a Braves jersey with his name on it, a tradition at these types of sports celebrations. After posing for a team photo while holding up the jersey, Biden invited some of the children in attendance to pose for photos with him and the team. It didn’t take long for some on social media to use the moment to revive false claims that the president is a pedophile. "Joe Biden was welcoming the World Series champions Atlanta Braves to the White House when he did something extremely strange. He demanded that all the little kids come up on stage to sit on his lap," conservative commentator Benny Johnson said in a Facebook reel shared Sept. 27. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 A full video (beginning at the 14:20 mark) of the event available on C-SPAN tells a much different story than the one described in Johnson's deceptively edited video, which shows only portions of a larger event and dramatically zooms in on children’s faces "Hey guys, come here. Everybody under 15 come here," Biden said after snapping some photos with the team. The full video shows five children lined up next to Biden in front of the group. When one very young boy approached, Biden dropped to one knee, to the boy’s level, and held out the jersey, waving the boy to come closer. The youngster hesitated a moment, then came closer and turned around so a photographer could take his photo with the president. Biden did not tell the boy, or any other children, to sit on his lap. Our ruling A deceptively edited video claims that while hosting the Atlanta Braves at the White House, the president urged children in attendance to come onstage and sit on his lap. After posing for a team photo with the Braves, Biden did urge the children to come on stage to get a photo with him. But he didn’t ask any of them to sit on his lap. We rate this Pants on Fir

“President Xi of China under house arrest” amid “coup by the PLA. China President Xi Jinping hadn’t been seen in public for days. So the internet drew a false conclusion and splattered it all over social media pages: "President Xi of China under house arrest. Coup by the PLA (People’s Liberation Army)," read one of several posts appearing on Facebook and Twitter alleging China’s political leadership was suddenly in peril. The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) In this case, it appears, they were nothing but false rumors based on a mixture of flight cancellations, a viral video of a military convoy, the departure of a top general and Xi’s absence from public view. Experts we spoke with said there was no evidence of a coup underway in China, and Xi reappeared in public Tuesday, seemingly putting the rumors to rest. The Associated Press reported that Xi was shown on Chinese state television visiting an exhibition in Beijing. "These are rumors for which there does not appear to be any actual evidence. I do not regard the claims as credible," Timothy Heath, a senior international defense researcher at the RAND Corporation, said before Xi’s reemergence. "People are starting the rumors because Xi has been absent from headlines but this is just normal preparations for the upcoming party congress." Heath was referring to the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which begins Oct. 16. There, Xi is expected to be given an unprecedented third term as president. In 2018, Xi amended the party’s constitution to remove term limits for presidents. China hasn’t addressed the rumors publicly, but dashed any notion that Jinping’s power is in question Sept. 25, when the state-run Xinhua News Agency announced the delegate list for the congress with an introduction that praised Xi. Xi’s hiatus from the public was likely a matter of the strict COVID-19 protocols China instituted for international travel, one expert told PolitiFact. He attended a summit at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Uzbekistan on Sept. 16, where he also met separately with Russia President Vladimir Putin. China’s zero-COVID policy requires international travelers to quarantine at a hotel for seven days, followed by three days of home isolation. Xi’s reemergence in public Sept. 27 would fit that timeline. "A similar thing happened when he visited Hong Kong fairly recently and he ‘disappeared’ for a week and there was some rampant speculation going on. But he was actually just in quarantine," said Kenton Thibaut, a resident China fellow at Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. It’s hard to pinpoint where the coup claims originated. "This kind of rumor had coincided with a few events that made it seem like on its face a bit more plausible to people that this could be happening," said Thibaut, who said the rumors started a day after Li Qiaoming, a top general, left his commander post. Many claimed it was Li who would replace Xi. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Some articles pointed to a viral tweet from Wanjun Xie, the China Democracy Party chairman, who posted a video and wrote Sept. 22 that an 80-kilometer-long military convoy was headed to Beijing. 9月22日，中共解放军大部队开往北京。军队的车头在北京怀来，车尾在河北省张家口，行军队伍长达80公里。 pic.twitter.com/zx6YE591C6— 谢万军 Wanjun Xie (@wanjunxie) September 23, 2022 That tweet was shared by Jennifer Zeng, a human rights activist with more than 200,000 followers. Zeng also mentioned a rumor that Xi had been arrested, which she later tweeted wasn’t true. There were also claims on Twitter and elsewhere about large-scale, unexplained flight cancellations and train stoppages, leading some people to make the connection to the military convoy and Xi. In addition, false claims of an explosion in Beijing during the coup were shared, but they used a 7-year-old video from another location, according to Newsweek fact-checkers. Thibaut said the claims were "seized on" by a subset of Chinese dissidents who often share anti-China conspiracies, but that it really spread by Twitter users in India after Subramanian Swamy, a politician with nearly 11 million followers, shared the rumors. That "made it kind of snowball and go a little bit more viral," she said. Drew Thompson, a former U.S. Defense Department official and a visiting research fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, took to Twitter on Sept. 24 and attributed the rumors on to a Chinese journalist’s Twitter thread that said about 60% of flights were canceled. Thompson argued that "flight cancellations are not the opening phase of a coup." They have been common in China because of COVID-19 lockdowns, he said. Thibaut agreed, saying flight cancellations are "pretty par for the course during COVID" in China. Before Xi’s public reemergence, Magnus Fiskesjö, an associate anthropology professor at Cornell University, told PolitiFact he believed the rumors could have been sparked by real-life events. But a sign they were not credible, he said, was that "we have not heard of any sudden changes in the Chinese ruling elite. That should have come out by now." Georg Fahrion, a China correspondent for the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel, made light of the rumors in a Twitter thread filled with photos. "Today in Beijing," he wrote, "I investigated the #chinacoup so you don’t have to." The photos that followed showed orderly daily scenes from several of Beijing’s public spaces, including an adult bicyclist transporting an older person seated on a bike trailer: "Alas, hope is dim," Fahrion concluded. "Coup reinforcements arrive in armored personnel carriers. Send us your thoughts and prayers." Our ruling A Facebook post said that China’s leader Xi was under house arrest as rumors of a coup proliferated on social media over the past week. But there was no credible evidence to support the claim as it traveled across the internet. Xi was out of public view for 10 days, but he reappeared Sept. 27, after this rumor circulated. Xi is expected to be awarded an unprecedented third term as president when the National Congress of the Communist Party of China meets in October. This claim is Fals

Video shows “Italians take down an EU flag and replace it with an Italian flag” after the 2022 national election Brothers of Italy, a far-right political party rooted in the emergence of post-World War II neo-fascism, garnered a majority of votes in Italy’s general election Sept. 25. Giorgia Meloni, who co-founded and leads the Brothers of Italy, is poised to become the country's first female prime minister. She's also expected to lead the most right-wing government Italy has had since Benito Mussolini, Italy’s fascist dictator during the early 20th century. A day after the election, an Instagram account shared footage of what appears to be a large crowd of Italian demonstrators taking to the streets and waving the country’s flag. The video was similarly shared in other Facebook posts and tweets as news of Meloni’s election was trending. (One Facebook post shared before the election used the same video and claimed to show "Italian demonstrators today" tearing down the European Union flag and replacing it with Italy’s flag.) "Italians take down an EU flag and replace it with an Italian flag," a block of text over the video posted on Instagram claimed, referencing the European Union, an economic and political union of 27 countries, including Italy. The video shows demonstrators clashing with police, and a man wearing an Italian flag mask climbing the balcony of a nearby building to remove a European Union flag hanging from it. The man tosses the flag into the crowd below. "Look at those radical Italian Nationalists," the video’s caption said. "I’m sure the (mainstream media) will be calling them fascists in no time." Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 The Instagram post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Facebook’s parent company, Meta, owns Instagram. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Unstated in these posts, however, is that this video predates the 2022 election by about nine years. The video is from a Dec. 14, 2013 demonstration by CasaPound, a neo-fascist group that venerates Mussolini. The exact segment featured in the Instagram video can be found around the 2:25 mark of this video uploaded to YouTube Dec. 16, 2013. At no point in the original video did the man replace the European Union flag with an Italian one. The video shows the neo-fascist group swarming the Rome headquarters of the European Commission during a wave of protests in Italy related to economic insecurity and skepticism toward the European Union. Our ruling A video shared widely on Instagram the day after Italy’s 2022 election claimed, "Italians take down an EU flag and replace it with an Italian flag." But the video shows a demonstration in 2013 related to economic insecurity and skepticism toward the European Union. Claims this video involved the recent election are False

As Hurricane Ian approached, President Joe Biden said, “a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now. Back in August 2021, as the delta variant caused COVID-19 cases to surge in the United States, President Joe Biden spoke during a press briefing about the intersection of natural disasters such as hurricanes and the coronavirus. "If you’re in a state where hurricanes often strike — like Florida or the Gulf Coast or into Texas — a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now," Biden said. "Everything is more complicated if you’re not vaccinated and a hurricane or a natural disaster hits." Biden’s comments were taken out of context then, and they’re being mischaracterized now, as Hurricane Ian takes aim at Florida. One Facebook post featuring a video clip of Biden’s 2021 remarks has a caption that says Biden made the comments on Sept. 27, 2022. Another post, this one made Sept. 28, shows the same clip and says: "EXTREMELY URGENT AND IMPORTANT public service announcement about Hurricane Ian coming towards Florida from the president of the United States. This is not a joke. He actually said this." These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) When Biden made the comments Aug. 10, 2021, there were no tropical storms immediately threatening the mainland U.S. but peak hurricane season was nearing. He was recommending people get vaccinated ahead of hurricanes so that they would be prepared to evacuate and shelter with other people indoors. He didn’t suggest it as a means of protecting people against hurricanes, as claims have suggested. RELATED VIDEO What did Biden actually say Sept. 27, as Hurricane Ian was heading toward landfall along the Florida’s Gulf Coast? During a phone call between the president and Florida officials, Biden didn’t mention vaccines, vaccination, COVID-19 or the coronavirus, according to a White House summary. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 "The president spoke with the mayors about the potential impacts of Ian and ongoing efforts federal, state and local governments are taking to preposition resources and continue to initiate evacuation operations," the summary said. Biden also "emphasized the importance of encouraging families to heed evacuation orders." Biden tweeted on Sept. 27 that he "approved a federal emergency declaration" and that he had instructed Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell "to ensure that all available federal support is surged to prepare and respond to the hurricane." "I encourage Florida families to heed evacuation orders," he said. Biden also mentioned the hurricane during remarks he gave in the Rose Garden that day about Medicare and the Inflation Reduction Act, saying he had approved the state’s request for emergency assistance and that residents should obey the instructions of local officials. He didn’t talk about vaccines in connection with the hurricane. Our ruling Facebook posts claimed that as Hurricane Ian approached, Biden said, "a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now." Biden made those remarks in 2021 amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, not in 2022 as Hurricane Ian was nearing landfall. And he recommended vaccination to prepare for evacuation or staying in a shelter during hurricanes, not as a means of protecting people against hurricanes. We rate this claim False.

A news anchor warned that if Hurricane Ian “moves 20 miles to the west … you and everyone you know are dead. As Hurricane Ian churned toward Florida, a news clip predicting death and destruction tore its own path on social media. "See this? Melbourne, Daytona Beach, all the way up to Jacksonville, this moves 20 miles to the west and you and everyone you know are dead," former Fox News anchor Shepard Smith says in the clip, gesturing at a screen showing a projected storm path along Florida’s east coast. "All of you. Because you can’t survive it. It’s not possible unless you’re very, very lucky. And your kids die, too." But Smith left Fox News in 2019, and this clip is even older. An Instagram post sharing it was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) The clip in the post shows Smith, who now anchors a show on CNBC, talking in 2016 about Hurricane Matthew, a Category 5 hurricane that never made landfall in Florida though it caused widespread flooding and several people died. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 RELATED VIDEO But before Matthew skirted Florida, state officials and meteorologists feared a direct hit. "Evacuate, evacuate, evacuate," then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott said. "This is going to kill people." In that 2016 broadcast, Smith was speaking to residents who were ignoring the state’s evacuation orders. We rate claims that this clip is current, and related to Hurricane Ian, False.

“You know how many convicted felons Scott Walker let out during his eight years early on parole? Zero. Tony Evers is approaching 1,000 of these that he’s let out early. In recent days, the Wisconsin gubernatorial race has turned to the issue of parole, and a seemingly stark comparison between Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, Scott Walker. Amid it all is Republican Tim Michels, who is hoping to unseat Evers in the November 2022 election. Michels put himself in the middle following reports and TV ads that slammed Evers for the fact violent criminals were released by the state parole commission on his watch. Those ads, of course, do not mention that the same thing happened during Walker’s administration, that the governor does not directly allow any release, or that in many cases the releases were required under law. Michels also mangled a basic concept — the difference between pardons and parole. "You know how many convicted felons Scott Walker let out during his eight years early on parole? Zero," Michels told a supporters Sept. 10 at the Rally for Liberty held at the Manawa Rodeo Grounds in Waupaca County. "Tony Evers is approaching 1,000 of these that he’s let out early," He also made variations of the claim at a Lake Delton rally, a news conference where he was endorsed by the Milwaukee Police Association and during a radio interview on the "Vicki McKenna Show." So let’s take a look. Walker versus Evers Michels errs dramatically on the numbers, suggesting Walker was hypervigilant on paroles, issuing zero, while Evers flung the prison doors open. First, it’s important to note that many of the paroles in question were required by law. The parole commission — under Evers or Walker — did not have discretion on whether to allow them. (Michels has said he wants Evers to halt all paroles but that clearly is not possible.) And the parole numbers were even higher under previous governors, of both parties. Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's parole commission granted more than 5,000 discretionary paroles. Doyle served eight years. Under Republican Gov. Scott McCallum, who served three years, that number was 2,500, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. And, although the governor appoints the parole commission chair, the other members are hired through the civil service system. The governor is not involved in the actual decisions. Overall, the Evers administration has released 895 felons under discretionary and mandatory parole, compared with 1,397 during Walker's tenure, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of Department of Corrections data. Of the total number of offenders paroled during Evers' tenure, 593 were convicted of offenses classified as violent, such as murder, rape and armed robbery. The number for Walker's time in office was 744 violent offenders, the Journal Sentinel reported. Walker served two terms; Evers is nearing the end of his first. As the Journal Sentinel reported, since Evers took office in 2019, the commission has approved 461 discretionary parole grants — 51.5% of the total number. Between 2011 and 2018, when Walker was in office, the commission granted 663 discretionary releases, or 47.5% of the total. So, the percentage is slightly higher under Evers. Meanwhile, of those who received a discretionary parole since Evers took office, 78 offenders — or 16% of the total paroled — have absconded, been accused of new crimes or were sent back to prison, parole commission data shows. During Walker's administration, 81% of those who received discretionary parole reoffended or absconded. By that measure, Walker falls far short — though, of course, inmates released under Walker have been out longer than any under Evers. But the Michels claim, made multiple times, was that Walker issued zero paroles. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 That is wildly wrong. Pardon versus parole What’s going on here? Clearly, Michels is mixing up pardons with parole. But when we reached out to the Michels campaign to seek backup for the claim, it did not acknowledge the difference and instead continued to connect the two. Campaign spokesperson Anna Kelly said Michels "has repeatedly referenced his opposition to Evers' pardon spree in addition to the reckless flood of paroles for killers and rapists that he has unleashed upon communities across Wisconsin, often unbeknownst to the families of their victims." Let’s look at pardons, with this background drawn from an explainer piece published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A pardon comes only years after someone has served a sentence. A pardon eliminates the legal impact of a felony conviction, which can make it hard to obtain housing, jobs and education. It does not expunge the record of the offense or remove it from Wisconsin’s online court system. Walker pointedly declined to issue any pardons during his two terms in office. Evers, meanwhile, has issued more than 600 pardons (as of Aug. 5) during his term. The vast majority were given to people convicted of low-level nonviolent crimes. Indeed, he has touted the pardons. We rated True a claim by Evers that he has issued more pardons than "any Wisconsin governor in contemporary history." Truth in sentencing versus parole To be sure, the number of people eligible for parole has been declining. Indeed, parole only applies to individuals sentenced for crimes that occurred before Jan. 1, 2000. That’s when the truth-in-sentencing law — authored by Walker when he was a state lawmaker — took effect. It had broad bipartisan support at the time. For a look at how it works, let’s return to the Journal Sentinel explainer: Currently in Wisconsin, a judge will specify how many years someone will spend in prison, known as initial confinement, and how many years a person will be monitored in the community, known as extended supervision. The law requires all prisoners to serve every day of the sentence imposed by a judge. Under the parole system, judge sentenced people to prison and after a certain time period, they became eligible for parole. Then it was up to the parole commission to decide if the person should stay behind bars or go out into the community on supervision. About 8% of the state's 20,235 in-custody prisoners were sentenced under the parole system, according to Department of Corrections data. The state reported that 1,784 people in custody had at least one parole-eligible offense at the end of August. The average age of those people is 52.4 years old. Our ruling Michels claimed "You know how many convicted felons Scott Walker let out during his eight years early on parole? Zero. Tony Evers is approaching 1,000 of these that he’s let out early." There are many ways this was mangled, but here is the chief one: Walker refused to issue any pardons, not any paroles. And many paroles are required by law — for instance, once a person reaches a certain stage of a sentence and has completed certain programs. Michels incorrectly interchanges the two. What’s more, when it came to paroles, some 895 felons have been released during Evers’ tenure — not 1,000. And when just discretionary releases are considered, since Evers took office in 2019 discretionary parole grants by the commission represented 51.5% of the total number. Under Walker, the percentage was 47.5% of the total. Since Michels has made the statement repeatedly, and continues to lump the two together in attacks even after being alerted to the difference, it’s clear this is not a semantic error. For us, that makes this claim false and ridiculous. That’s what we call Pants on Fire! window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

In the United Kingdom, “Charles cedes throne to William immediately. After Queen Elizabeth II died Sept. 8, her eldest son, Charles, the former Prince of Wales, became king. News reports have captured the sentiment of some people in the United Kingdom who say they would have preferred that Charles’ eldest son, Prince William, ascended to the throne. But posts linked to that wish don’t reflect reality. "Bad news for Queen Camilla as Charles cedes throne to William immediately," one Sept. 18 Facebook post said. Another Facebook reel claimed that Elizabeth "changed her mind about giving the throne to Prince Charles" and "now her eldest grandson," William, is readying for the throne. These posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Although Charles hasn’t been coronated yet, the throne passed to him immediately and without ceremony "at the moment the queen died," the BBC reported. He was officially proclaimed King Charles III on Sept. 10 in front of the Accession Council, a ceremonial body. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Elizabeth "always signaled her support for Charles’ accession," The Washington Post said in a story stomping on some people’s hopes that the crown skip a generation to William. In a statement issued Feb. 5, the day before the 70th anniversary of the queen’s accession to the throne, Elizabeth thanked people for their support and said, "When, in the fullness of time, my son becomes king, I know you will give him and his wife, Camilla the same support that you have given me." She said that it was her "sincere wish" that Camilla be known as "queen consort." The laws are in Elizabeth’s favor, the Post noted, especially the 1701 Act of Settlement, "which states that the monarch’s heir must be the monarch’s direct successor." The paper spoke to Robert Hazel, a government and constitution professor at the University College London, who said that when Charles made his personal declaration as part of his accession ceremony, his wording "indicated very clearly that he expects to be king for the rest of his life." Claims that Charles is ceding the throne to William rate False.

“Joe Biden blamed Elton John for AIDS. On Sept. 23, President Joe Biden surprised singer Elton John with a National Humanities Medal. Biden recognized the longtime AIDS activist for his musicianship, advocacy and courage in finding "purpose to challenge convention, shatter stigma, and advance the simple truth that everyone deserves to be treated with respect." But a screenshot of a tweet from Lavern Spicer, who unsuccessfully sought a Florida seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, has circulated on social media in the days since, making it seem as though the president actually disparaged the British artist. "Joe Biden blamed Elton John for AIDS and everyone just gave him a free pass for it," the tweet said. One Instagram post featuring the tweet also included a clip of the White House event at which Biden presented John with the medal. "By the way," Biden said, referring to $6 billion the United States is contributing to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, "it’s all his fault that we’re spending $6 billion in taxpayer money this month to help AIDS — fight HIV/AIDS." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) Biden’s remarks in context make it clear that he wasn’t blaming John for AIDS, a disease caused by HIV, an infection that attacks the body’s immune system. The video shows John applauding Biden’s "it’s all his fault" comment, and applause and cheers from the audience are also audible. RELATED VIDEO "We’re joined by so many people that … he’s set free to be themselves, to be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve," Biden said earlier in the evening. "Families and advocates in the fight against HIV/AIDS … a fight that he has led with sheer will, and fight for those lives lost and those lives that we can save." Immediately before Biden made the comment that’s featured in the Instagram post, John said he would treasure his medal, and that it would make him double his efforts "to make sure this disease goes away." "Your kindness — America’s kindness to me as a musician is second to none," John said. "But in the war against AIDS and HIV, it’s even bigger. I can’t thank you enough." Biden appeared to be crediting John for his activism over the years. He wasn’t blaming him for the spread of AIDS. We rate that claim False.

House Democrats kicked Nancy Pelosi from office House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in 2018 this year would be her last as the chamber’s Democratic leader, and there’s some speculation she might retire from Congress entirely. But a recent Facebook post announcing purported "breaking" news claims that her colleagues couldn’t wait. "Whole Congress ERUPTS as House Democrats KICKS Nancy Pelosi from office," the grammatically incorrect post from Sept. 27 said. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) The post includes a nearly 18-minute video with a variety of footage, including a speech from former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and remarks from conservative pundit Ben Shapiro. But nothing in the video supports the claim made in the post. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post “Nancy Pelosi (purchased) 10,000 shares of Amgen, manufacturer of Nplate, a drug used to treat radiation sickness.” By Sara Swann • October 25, 2022 The U.S. House of Representatives can expel members for "disorderly behavior" with a two-thirds majority vote, and it’s happened only five times. RELATED VIDEO Three lawmakers were expelled in 1861 for fighting on behalf of the Confederacy during the Civil War. More recently, in 1980, former Rep. Michael Myers, D-Pa., was expelled for bribery, and in 2002, former Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, was expelled on corruption charges. The expulsions in the past century drew wide media coverage, and the expulsion of Pelosi — not just a lawmaker but also the House speaker — would be big news. And yet, there has been none. That’s because this Facebook post is Pants on Fire!

“Breaking: Judiciary Democrats just voted to support non-citizens voting in our elections. An Instagram post distorts House legislation to suggest that Democrats want to allow immigrants who are not American citizens to vote. "Breaking: Judiciary Democrats just voted to support non-citizens voting in our elections," stated a Sept. 21 Instagram post which is a screenshot of a House Judiciary GOP tweet. "There is no hiding it. Democrats WANT non-citizens voting in our elections." Other posts on Facebook make similar claims. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The Instagram post pertains to a bill a Democrat filed to provide ballots in languages other than English. The tweet included a photo of a page of an amendment to the bill that said two things: That the bill can’t be construed to allow noncitizens to vote That the bill can’t be construed to encourage or require a state and "political subdivision" to allow noncitizens to vote in state or local elections. Noncitizens are people who are not U.S. citizens; they can include people who are in the country legally under visas and people who are here illegally. The Democrat’s bill doesn’t say noncitizens should be able to vote. And nothing in the bill would change that existing law already bans "voting by aliens" in federal elections. (Under immigration law, an "alien" is a noncitizen.) In a federal election, people vote for president, vice president, and for candidates to the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. Federal law says noncitizens can vote in nonfederal elections if a state law or local ordinance allows them to do so; this would include city council or school board elections. About 15 cities allow some noncitizens to cast ballots in local races, although a measure in the largest of those cities — New York City — was recently struck down by a judge. Proposal to make election materials available in multiple languages The Instagram post refers to H.R. 8770, "Expanding the Voluntary Opportunities for Translations in Elections Act," or in shorthand, Expanding the Vote. It was proposed by Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Ga. The bill intends to make it easier for elections officials to provide ballots and other election materials to voters who are not proficient in English. The bill cites the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which says that states and jurisdictions shall not deny "the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color." Congress voted in 1975 to provide ballots and election materials in languages of minority groups, including those that speak Spanish and Asian, American Indian andAlaska Native languages. That’s why California, Florida and Texas are required to offer ballots in Spanish, and why some counties in multiple states have ballots in Chinese and Vietnamese. Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act says that language requirement kicks in when there are 10,000 people, or more than 5% of the voting-age citizens, who have low literacy rates and do not speak English very well. Williams’ bill aims to strengthen the language provision by directing the U.S. attorney general to alert jurisdictions when they approach the triggering threshold. The bill would provide grants to jurisdictions that want to provide voting materials in other languages even if they don’t yet meet that threshold. Republican amendment raised topic of noncitizen voters The Instagram post relates to Republican criticism of the bill during a Sept. 21 House Judiciary committee hearing. Williams’ bill so far has been debated only within the committee. It has not been scheduled for a vote by all House members and there is no Senate counterpart. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., proposed an amendment saying nothing in the bill "may be construed to permit any noncitizen to vote in a federal election." It also said that the bill can’t be construed to encourage or require a state or locality to allow noncitizens to vote. "This amendment just makes clear that this bill does not intend to permit or encourage noncitizens to vote," McClintock said. He raised as an example the federal charges against 19 people accused of voting illegally in North Carolina during the 2016 presidential election. PolitiFact has found anecdotal evidence of noncitizens on the voter rolls, but the incidents are rare and their numbers would not tilt a statewide election’s outcome. Noncitizens who illegally vote face high risks: They could be deported or incarcerated; if convicted, they could undermine naturalization applications. During the hearing, several Democrats told McClintock that existing law already bars noncitizens from voting in federal elections. They emphasized that the proposed changes in the Democratic bill were about making electoral participation easier for people who are U.S. citizens and eligible to vote. "Access to the ballot is an essential part of being an American citizen but there are many barriers for voters who do not speak English as their first language," said U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross, D-N.C. All of the votes in favor of McClintock’s amendment were Republicans; Democrats opposed the measure. "This reads like an amendment that wouldn’t change law but is meant for political messaging purposes," said Joshua C. Huder, who teaches classes on American government and Congress at Georgetown University. "This happens pretty regularly in committee. On a partisan committee like Judiciary, it’s not very surprising as both parties frequently engage in such tactics." Hiroshi Motomura, a University of California, Los Angeles law professor and expert on immigration and citizenship, said it’s wrong to say that by voting against this amendment Democrats were voting in favor of noncitizen voting. In effect, noncitizens’ voting in nonfederal elections remains a local and state decision. "Noncitizen eligibility to vote in state and local elections has always been a matter of state and local law," Motomura said. Our ruling An Instagram post said "Breaking: Judiciary Democrats just voted to support non-citizens voting in our elections." Democrats proposed a bill to make it easier for voters who are not proficient in English to get ballots in their native language. A Republican amendment said the bill should not be construed to mean noncitizens could vote. But the bill never said noncitizens could vote, nor did it change existing law that says noncitizens can’t vote in federal elections. It’s up to states and local municipalities to decide whether noncitizens can vote in state and local elections. Democrats’ vote against the amendment didn’t change that, either. We rate this statement False. RELATED: Nevada Republican misleads about DMV registering "illegals" to vote RELATED: JD Vance’s ad about ‘open border’ and immigrant voters is wrong RELATED: Factchecking Arizona’s Blake Masters’ claim of open borders and Democratic amnesty pla

Soursop cures cancer A cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming as patients weigh treatment options, and online there are plenty of purported cures — but they should be considered with caution. We’ve previously debunked claims that alkaline foods and sugar and hot lemon water will kill cancer. Other social media posts have overpromised what potential cancer treatment developments can actually do. Now we’re examining a recent Facebook reel that floats the tree fruit soursop as a "cancer cure." "Soursop can stop the growth of cancer," a man in the video says as he explains how to blend the fruit with water to supposedly tap the fruit’s healing powers. The reel was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Soursop, a fruit native to South America that’s also known as graviola, guanabana and Brazilian pawpaw, is high in antioxidants. As the Cleveland Clinic noted in December 2021, "antioxidant-rich diets may help protect against diseases like heart disease or cancer." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 There’s also "some evidence that extracts from the plant’s leaves could kill cancer cells or fight inflammation," the clinic said, but "those findings came from test-tube and animal studies, which involved huge doses of extracts from soursop leaves." The clinic also quoted Cleveland Clinic dietitian Alexis Supan, who said "there haven’t been any human studies, so it’s too soon to tell if there are any benefits." Studies involving humans are needed to determine whether the plant could be effective in fighting cancer cells in people, according to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The studies are also needed to ensure the extract is safe. In lab and animal experiments, there was evidence of damage to nerve cells and "neurological side effects similar to Parkinson’s disease," the center said. The video in the Facebook post focuses on using the fruit’s pulp. One study showed that graviola pulp extract had a beneficial effect on prostate cancer cells in mice, according to Cancer Research UK. But again, there haven’t been human studies, "so we don’t know whether it can work as a cancer treatment or not." The claim that soursop is a cure for cancer still needs more evidence to support it. We rate this post False.

"Only 325,000 American kids out of 19,000,000" were vaccinated against COVID-19 The first COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use in children ages 12 and older in May 2021. In the year-plus since, have only a minuscule fraction of U.S. children been vaccinated against the virus? Only if you believe misleading claims circulating on social media. "Why did only 325,000 American kids out of 19,000,000 get the shot?" read a screenshot of a tweet shared in a Sept. 23 Instagram post. "Because of those of you BRAVE enough to tell the truth to your friends, family or neighbor. Why will several of them have long term disability or WORSE? Because of those of you COWARDS who knew, but did not say." A caption accompanying the post said, "Less than 2% of American kids means 98% were spared." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.) (Screenshot from Instagram.) The claim refers only to "the shot" and does not specifically mention the COVID-19 vaccine. But the Twitter account that originally shared the claim has many examples of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and frequently retweets people such as Dr. Simone Gold and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who are known for spreading false information about COVID-19 vaccines. The post gives the false impression that only a tiny fraction of all American children have been vaccinated against COVID-19, referring to how many "American kids" had received vaccines without specifying that the numbers it cited were for a smaller group of children. In this case, the figures cited in the Instagram post represent vaccines given to children in early childhood. But that’s just one subset of all American children, a critical piece of information that the post fails to disclose. About 325,000 children ages 6 months to 4 years old were fully vaccinated as of mid-September. And U.S. Census Bureau data showed that there were about 18.8 million children younger than 5 in the U.S. as of July 1, 2021. About 40% of the 73.5 million children in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The low vaccination rate among the nation’s youngest children is driven by misinformation and lackluster efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccines, experts told The Washington Post. Vaccination rates among children vary widely across age groups, with older children likelier to be vaccinated. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post “Covid vaccinations now prohibited in people under 50 in Denmark.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 COVID-19 vaccines and children in the U.S. Elsa Estrada, 6, smiles at her mother as a pharmacist applies an alcohol swab to her arm before administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a pediatric clinic for children set up at Willard Intermediate School in Santa Ana, Calif. Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. (AP) Millions of U.S. children have been vaccinated against the coronavirus since the vaccines became available to them. According to analysis by the American Academy of Pediatrics, as of Sept. 21: 1.4 million children ages 6 months to 4 years old had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This represented about 8% of children in that age group. Many children would have only just completed their three-dose Pfizer vaccination series in September, given that the vaccine was authorized for this age group in June. 10.7 million children ages 5 to 11 years old had received their first dose, representing about 38% of children in that age group. About 8.8 million in this age group had completed their two-dose vaccine series. 17.6 million children ages 12 to 17 years old had received their first dose, representing about 67% of children in that age group. About 15 million in this age group had completed their two-dose series. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration first authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 and older in May 2021. In October that year, the agency expanded the authorization to include children ages 5 to 11. Since June 2022, both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized for children ages 6 months and older. The number of doses required to complete the primary series depends on the vaccine brand and the child’s age. Many children receive two doses in the primary series, but some vaccines include three primary doses for children younger than 5. Our ruling An Instagram post claimed that "only 325,000 American kids out of 19,000,000" were vaccinated against COVID-19. The figures in the claim refer to a subset of all U.S. children — those ages 6 months to 4 years old — and give the misleading impression that only a tiny fraction of all American children have been vaccinated against COVID-19. But data shows that tens of millions of children younger than 18 have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. More than 20 million kids ages 5 to 17 have completed their two-dose vaccine series. In total, about 40% of the 73.5 million children in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. We rate this claim Mostly False. RELATED: Ask PolitiFact: Children are far less likely to die from COVID-19. Why do they need vaccinatio

“Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer became a federal judge” and “was the person to sign off on the Mar-a-Lago search warrant. A Facebook post focuses on two news stories that have been sources of misinformation on social media: financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. "Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer became a federal judge" and "was the person to sign off on the Mar-a-Lago search warrant," says a Sept. 17 Facebook post. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.) Although the judge who signed the Mar-a-Lago search warrant represented people in Epstein’s orbit, he never represented Epstein himself, according to court filings and the judge’s own words, as reported by the Miami Herald in 2019. Epstein died by suicide in August 2019 in jail as he awaited trial on charges of sex trafficking. Bruce Reinhart, a federal magistrate judge since 2018, signed a warrant that allowed the FBI to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Aug. 8, in connection with an investigation into presidential records. The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents. Reinhart previously was a criminal defense lawyer. His clients included some of Epstein’s employees, including his scheduler, who were accused of abetting Epstein’s alleged crimes against underage girls. Reinhart shared an office address with Epstein’s lead attorney, Jack Goldberger, according to a July 2019 Miami Herald article. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Before Reinhart became a defense lawyer, he worked as a federal prosecutor in the office that initially investigated Epstein and granted him a nonprosecution deal in 2008 that allowed him to plead guilty to state charges. Reinhart said he was not part of the Epstein investigation, though the Miami Herald reported that his bosses in the U.S. Attorney’s Office filed a document in court that said he had learned confidential, non-public information about the case. Reinhart’s clients who were Epstein’s employees also received federal immunity, according to the Miami Herald. Reinhart declined to tell the Herald whether he had received payment from Epstein for representing Epstein’s employees. Since approving the Mar-a-Lago warrant, Reinhart has been the target of misinformation and anti-Semitic attacks. Fact-checkers said an altered photo showing Reinhart with Epstein confidante and convicted sex trafficker Ghislane Maxwell was false. Our ruling A Facebook post says, "Jeffrey Epstein’s lawyer became a federal judge" and "was the person to sign off on the Mar-a-Lago search warrant." The judge, Reinhart, did not represent Epstein. He represented people who worked for Epstein and who were accused of abetting Epstein’s crimes. We rate this claim False. RELATED: Photo doctored to look like Ghislaine Maxwell was massaging Judge Bruce Reinhart’s feet

“Future and Malia Obama are expecting first child together. Numerous hoaxes and conspiracy theories have targeted former President Barack Obama and his family throughout his time in office and beyond. A recent hoax being shared widely on social media targets his oldest daughter, Malia. "BREAKING: Future and Malia Obama expecting first child together," reads the headline in a reel shared on Facebook Sept. 14. "This is the president’s daughter," a man sharing the image in a video says. But the news isn’t true. It originated on a satirical Instagram account. In addition to the reel, we found it being shared elsewhere without clear reference to its satirical intent. The Facebook reel and others were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The image in the reel is a screenshot of an Instagram post from the account RapStreet TV, which says in its bio that it shares "daily satire." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 It shows a picture of Malia Obama, 24, alongside one of the rapper Future, 38, the stage name for Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn. "This news came as a shock to many as the relationship between Malia and Future was kept secret until now," the caption on the original Instagram post said. Much like many of the other claims involving Obama’s daughters, the post is not true and has no basis in reality. It's not the first time Malia Obama has been the target of fake pregnancy rumors. A fake news website in 2014 claimed the then-16-year-old became pregnant by an unknown father. We found no evidence that Malia Obama and Future know each other. A search of Google and Nexis news archives did not include any mentions of them together outside of references to RapStreet TV’s Instagram post. Our ruling A Facebook post shared a screenshot claiming Malia Obama and the rapper Future were expecting a child together. The screenshot came from an Instagram account that posts satirical news headlines. Despite the satirical source of the claim and the lack of evidence that the two know each other, it did not stop it from spreading on social media. We rate this claim Pants on Fir