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Fast food chain Wendy’s was “exposed for using horse meat. Where’s the beef? Not at Wendy’s, according to a social media rumor. A Facebook user promised to "never again" eat at the fast food chain, posting an image of what appeared to be a news article that Wendy’s had been exposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for using horsemeat. The image showed a horse being spun into meat, and included a quote supposedly from Wendy’s chief executive director: "We only use about 60% beef, the rest is made of meat fillers mostly equine (Horse) meat," the quote said. "Using this type of meat is a cheaper expense for us, allowing us to competitively price our food while been (sic) profitable at the same time. What we are doing is not illegal or unhealthy. The FDA has approved the contents of the meat." This false image about horsemeat at Wendy's has been debunked in years prior. 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’s because there are a few things that are suspicious about this post. 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 The article gives only the first name of Wendy’s CEO: "Boris." The current CEO’s name is Todd Penegor. Also, the doctored horse-and-meat-grinder photo has been shared before. A reverse image search on Tineye showed it was used as early as 2016, appearing with either a Wendy’s or Burger King logo. Both fast food companies have said they have never used horsemeat, Snopes reported in 2015. It was also reported that the claim was traced back to News Buzz Daily, a satirical news website. The claim is as untrue now as then. A spokesperson from Ketchum, the public relations company representing Wendy’s, said the Facebook claim is false. "Wendy’s does not now, nor have they ever, used horsemeat in their products," they said. The FDA and Agriculture Department did not respond to PolitiFact about this claim. But a web search showed they have made no announcements about Wendy’s using horsemeat. We rate this claim Pants on Fire

The Civics Secures Democracy Act “would allow the Biden administration to buy off states with $6 billion” if they adopt critical race theory Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticized President Joe Biden for what he said were attempts to "indoctrinate students" with critical race theory. In a press conference, DeSantis hailed the state’s improving test scores on civics and history and contrasted Florida’s approach — which included contentious civics training for educators — with the Biden administration’s "ideological agenda." "These efforts all come as Congress considers the misleadingly titled ‘Civics Secures Democracy Act,’ which would allow the Biden Administration to buy off states with $6 billion if they sacrifice American History for Critical Race Theory and Biden’s other political whims of the day," DeSantis said in a press release on June 30. If passed, the Civics Secures Democracy Act, introduced with bipartisan support in 2022, will prioritize civics education and devote $1 billion annually to bolster the effort. We wondered whether DeSantis was right that the legislation provides $6 billion to states that incorporate critical race theory, a broad set of ideas about systemic bias and privilege, into their curricula. PolitiFact found that DeSantis’ portrayal was inaccurate. The bill would authorize the education secretary to make grants to support educational programs in civics. It doesn’t mention critical race theory. The bill doesn’t provide a financial incentive for states to adopt critical race theory The legislation was introduced in June by a bipartisan group of senators, including Republicans Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Cornyn of Texas, Democrats Chris Coons of Delaware and Mark Kelly of Arizona, and independent Angus King of Maine. DeSantis and other Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have condemned the bill, suggesting it will give the federal government the financial backing to compel states to adopt critical race theory. Cornyn defended the legislation from Republican criticism, tweeting on June 20 that such claims are "hysterical" and "not a serious discussion of our bill." Further, the evidence tying the Civics Secures Democracy Act to critical race theory is rife with speculation. DeSantis’ argument ignores a provision in the bill that reads: "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize the Secretary of Education to prescribe a civics and history curriculum." David Shultz, professor of political science and legal studies at Hamline University, told PolitiFact that if the bill becomes law, the U.S. Department of Education "will lack any administrative authority to create rules to mandate a curriculum." "There is no truth to the claim that the proposed Civics Secures Democracy Act is a backdoor effort to mandate the teaching of critical race theory," Shultz said. "There is no precedent for the federal government to mandate state education curriculum, and it is not clear that the federal government has the authority to do that even if it tried." When we asked DeSantis about his claim, spokesperson Christina Pushaw said there is "extensive evidence" that the Biden administration is promoting "ideological indoctrination," pointing to an article from the National Review, a conservative magazine. 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 The article didn’t provide credible evidence that the measure would "buy off" states and relied heavily on prediction. It said the bill’s direction to prioritize grant proposals that will close gaps in "civic knowledge and achievement" among "underserved students" is a push for critical race theory. The article then suggested the criteria for receiving the grants could entice states to conform their curricula to "federal demands," such as when states began adopting Common Core, a set of national educational standards. Common Core’s critics have often accused the federal government of coercing states into adopting the standards in exchange for grant money. We have fact-checked similar claims about Common Core before and found them inaccurate. A U.S. Department of Education spokesperson directed PolitiFact to a webpage explaining the federal government’s role in education. "Education is primarily a state and local responsibility in the United States," the website reads. States and communities "establish schools and colleges, develop curricula and determine requirements for enrollment and graduation." A 2021 blog post from Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said his department "has not, does not, and will not dictate or recommend specific curriculum be introduced or taught in classrooms." DeSantis also conflated the amount of federal grant funding offered to state education agencies. The Civics Secures Democracy Act would set aside about $6 billion for federal civics education grant programs over the next six years — but much of it would not go to the states. The bill would award $585 million to state education agencies for civics initiatives annually for six years — totaling about $3.5 billion. The rest of the funding would go to nonprofit organizations, universities, researchers and a new fellowship program. Our ruling DeSantis said the Civics Secures Democracy Act "would allow the Biden administration to buy off states with $6 billion" and compel them to adopt critical race theory. But his claim ignores a provision in the bill that prevents the education secretary from imposing a curriculum on states that accept the grant funding. Also, the legislation does not mention critical race theory. Instead, it prioritizes grant proposals that improve civic knowledge among "traditionally underserved students." DeSantis also misrepresented the amount of grant funding reserved for the states. The bill would award $585 million to state education agencies for civics initiatives annually for six years — totaling about $3.5 billion, not $6 billion. The rest of the funding would be given to nonprofit organizations, universities, researchers and a new fellowship program. We rate DeSantis’ claim Fals

“Moscow was engulfed in flames” after a giant explosion Russian forces have seen heavy losses in Ukraine as they push forward with their invasion of the country, but Moscow isn’t experiencing similar firefight, as a recent Facebook post suggests. "GIANT EXPLOSION IN RUSSIA," the July 6 post says. "The capital Moscow was engulfed in flames. Military equipment factory was blown up." 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 Facebook.) The video in the Facebook post mentions a fire at a factory in Odintsovo, a city about 20 miles outside of Moscow. The British tabloid the Daily Express said in a June 15 story that a "fire was raging and thick black clouds were billowing into the sky at a plant in Odintsovo." Ukrainian media reported that the building was a "paint and varnish plant," not a military equipment factory, according to the Express. 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 A week earlier, according to Euro Weekly News, another plant about 40 miles north of Moscow that produces Russian military equipment, was on fire. RELATED VIDEO In April, The Washington Post reported that a series of unexplained fires and explosions in Russia raised suspicions that some may have been caused by sabotage or Ukrainian attacks. But the claim that Moscow was engulfed in flames is wrong. According to reports, there were two separate fires at factories in cities outside of Moscow. The post claiming that Moscow was "‘engulfed in flames" is wrong. We rate it False.

“Biden impeachment in progress. Former President Donald Trump was the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. Online, it would seem some people believe President Joe Biden has joined the club. In June 2021, we debunked a claim that Biden was impeached. Now, a second, similar claim is spreading on social media. "BIDEN IMPEACHMENT IN PROGRESS AS TED CRUZ AND GOP LAWMAKERS FILES NEW LAWSUIT," a July 6 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 Facebook.) The post includes a video of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, talking about Biden and fuel prices. He doesn’t mention impeachment. 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 Cruz shared a clip from that speech on May 18, tweeting, "President Biden promised to take down American energy during his campaign. Record gas prices are the intended effects of his deliberate actions." In another tweet that included a clip of the video that appears in the Facebook post, Cruz said, "President Truman had a sign that read ‘The Buck Stops Here!’ President Biden instead plays the blame game for high gas prices." Cruz was speaking at a press conference with other senators that day to discuss a letter they sent to the president’s secretary of commerce "calling for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to quickly issue permits required to bring additional production online from existing offshore federal oil and gas leases," according to a press release on Cruz’s website. Cruz and other senators couldn’t impeach Biden, or another president, and it wouldn’t happen through a lawsuit. Article II of the Constitution gives the U.S. House of Representatives the sole power to impeach an official. So far, no House majority has ever impeached a president of the same party. It is the job of the Senate to consider whether the articles of impeachment merit removal from office. RELATED VIDEO Republicans controlled the House when they initiated the impeachment process against former President Bill Clinton, and Democrats controlled the House when they initiated the impeachment process against Trump in 2020 over his dealings with Ukraine in connection with his hopeful re-election, and again in 2021 after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Democrats still control the House, and they haven’t initiated an impeachment process against Biden. We rate claims that Biden’s impeachment is in progress Pants on Fire!

Video shows Joe Biden putting a Medal of Honor on a Vietnam War veteran backward On July 5, Spc. Dwight Birdwell received a Medal of Honor at the White House for his actions in Vietnam in January 1968. President Joe Biden placed the medal around his neck. And some social media users are sharing a grainy video of this moment as evidence of cognitive decline. "Biden puts medal on backwards," one Facebook post says. "Just imagine if Trump had done this." 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 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 In the clip that’s being shared, the gold star medal that hangs from the blue ribbon that Biden affixed around Birdwell’s neck isn’t visible. But in other footage, and photos, it is. RELATED VIDEO You can see someone handing the medal to Biden and then Biden appropriately placing it around Birdwell’s neck in this clip that was shared live on YouTube by PBS NewsHour. The medal is also visible in this Getty Images photo as Biden secures the medal on Birdwell. We rate claims that he put the medal on Birdwell backwards Pants on Fire!

An image shows that “following his resignation, Boris Johnson has escaped to the sea. An imposter Twitter account posing as an affiliate of the BBC circulated an old, out-of-context photo of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and falsely claimed it showed him at the beach after he announced his resignation as Conservative Party leader. "BREAKING: Following his resignation, Boris Johnson has escaped to the sea," said the July 7 tweet, which showed an image of Johnson running into the water and quickly went viral. The tweet came from "BCC News," a Twitter account with a name, handle and logo designed to resemble legitimate, verified Twitter accounts run by the BBC. The "BCC News" Twitter account created parody content, however; social media users who clicked to its page would see that its bio said, "fake news not real, not affiliated with BBC." The tweet about Johnson went viral. Many users reshared it as a joke, and copycat tweets spread across the platform. Screenshots of the tweet, which were posted on Facebook and Instagram, earned thousands of interactions, the social media insights tool CrowdTangle showed. 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 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.) But the reshares and replies to the original tweet suggested that some people thought it came from an authentic BBC News account, and that the photo of Johnson at the beach was current. The image of Johnson was not taken after his resignation. It was cribbed from a video of him jogging and swimming at a beach in Cornwall, England, in June 2021. Johnson was in Cornwall then for a summit of seven leading industrial nations. The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, published several screenshots from the video to its website at the time, under a headline that likened Johnson to "Baywatch" actor David Hasselhoff. This tweet from a fake BBC News account is going viral, with not everyone realizing it's a joke. The account's bio says it is "fake news not real" and unaffiliated with the BBC. The photo of Johnson is from a video captured in June 2021; it's not current. https://t.co/yLm59IL5fz pic.twitter.com/e4uzjw7Gv0— Bill McCarthy (@billdmccarthy) July 7, 2022 Twitter has since permanently suspended the "BCC News" account for violating its policy surrounding misleading and deceptive identities, a company spokesperson confirmed. We rate the tweets claiming that an image shows that "following his resignation, Boris Johnson has escaped to the sea" Fals

President Donald Trump was in a presidential limousine as he left his Jan. 6, 2021, rally at the White House Ellipse Shortly after former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson appeared before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, social media users supportive of former President Donald Trump raced to undermine key moments from her testimony. Hutchinson was an aide to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Hutchinson said Tony Ornato, the top White House aide for security, told her that Trump, after his Jan. 6 rally insisted on going to the U.S. Capitol with his supporters. And as he was being driven back to the White House, Trump lunged for the steering wheel after Secret Service agents refused to take him to the Capitol, Hutchinson said Ornato told her.. Although Hutchinson testified under oath on June 28, some social media users implied or explicitly argued that she was not telling the truth about Trump. Several widespread posts on Facebook showed an image of Trump riding in the back-row seat of a presidential limousine commonly referred to as "the Beast," far from the driver. The posts suggested that Trump was riding in the same limousine on Jan. 6 and therefore could not have reached for the steering wheel. (Hutchinson repeatedly referred to "the Beast" as she testified before the committee.) 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.) 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 But Trump did not take the presidential limousine pictured in the Facebook posts as he departed his rally at the White House Ellipse. Trump was in an SUV that day, a Secret Service spokesperson confirmed to PolitiFact. A C-SPAN video of Trump’s speech at the rally — which the House Jan. 6 select committee showed during Hutchinson’s testimony — shows the presidential motorcade leaving the location. All the vehicles were SUVs. The photo of the limousine shared in the Facebook posts was not taken on Jan. 6, 2021, reverse image searches revealed. It was snapped in 2020 and shows Trump in the vehicle after landing in Santa Ana, California, according to a caption on Shutterstock. There’s no evidence that Trump was in the presidential limousine shown in the Facebook posts after his Jan. 6, 2021, rally. We rate these Facebook posts Fals

“SCOTUS overturned the 2020 election. President Joe Biden fairly and legally won the 2020 presidential election, but some supporters of former President Donald Trump have hung their hopes of a different outcome on the U.S. Supreme Court. And in some cases, Biden detractors believe the court has overturned the election. "SCOTUS OVERTURNED THE 2020 ELECTION," a July 6 Facebook 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 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 Supreme Court had a sensational term, issuing rulings on abortion, gun rights and the environment, but they didn’t weigh in on the presidential election, much less overturn it. RELATED VIDEO In the fall, the court is expected to consider the power state legislatures have over elections, but this won’t have any bearing on the outcome of the 2020 election. We rate this post Pants on Fire!

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “signs bill requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with (the) state. Author and "King of Horror" Stephen King has had readers switching on the nightlight for six decades. But on July 6, King took the fright to Twitter, warning his followers that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill "requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with (the) state." His claim copied the headline of a June 2021 article published by Salon (Salon has since changed its headline), and was echoed by others on Twitter in reference to Florida House Bill 233. The bill requires the states’ public colleges and universities to "conduct an annual assessment of the intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity," using a survey developed by the State Board of Education or the Board of Governors. The inaugural surveys were emailed to faculty and students in early April 2022. Copies of the surveys were sent to PolitiFact by Andrew Gothard, statewide president of the United Faculty of Florida and an instructor at Florida Atlantic University. The faculty survey has one question about participants’ political leanings (asking if people were conservative, moderate, liberal or none of the above), but the majority of the survey concerns the university’s cultivation of open political discourse and whether certain political viewpoints are discouraged or favored. The student survey has no questions on participants’ political beliefs. The survey begins with the disclaimer that it is both anonymous and "completely voluntary." Although many critics fear the new bill could limit free speech, the 2022 survey is not a required registration of political views as King claimed. PolitiFact reached out to King’s team for comment but received no response. What is House Bill 233? House Bill 233 was one of three education bills DeSantis signed into law on June 22, 2021. After banning the teaching of "critical race theory" a few weeks prior, DeSantis said he saw the bill as an opportunity to protect free speech and promote "intellectual diversity" on college campuses. "The goal of this legislation is to ensure that no one feels as though a political ideology is being forced on them in higher education, from any angle," said Christina Pushaw, press secretary for DeSantis, "The college campus is supposed to be a place to freely discuss ideas, weigh them against one another, and draw informed conclusions. It is not supposed to be an indoctrination camp pushing any singular ideology." The bill requires "an objective, nonpartisan, and statistically valid survey to be used by each institution which considers the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented and members of the college community, including students, faculty, and staff, feel free to express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom." The 2022 survey, the first of its kind, asked students and faculty how they agree or disagree with a number of statements about the educational environment on campus. Here are a few examples from the student survey: My college or university campus provides an environment for free expression of ideas, opinions, and beliefs. My professors or course instructors use class time to express their own social or political beliefs without objectively discussing opposing social or political beliefs. I feel comfortable speaking up and giving my views on controversial topics. I have felt intimidated to share my ideas or political opinions because they were different from those of my professors. 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 And from the faculty survey: Students in my classes are exposed to competing arguments and multiple perspectives on a topic. Students at my institution are not shielded from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable or even deeply offensive. An expectation of receiving continuing contract/tenure is that faculty ascribe to a particular political viewpoint. My institution encourages research, publications, dissertations, etc. on topics that span both liberal and conservative viewpoints. If participants disagree with certain statements, they are asked which views are favored — conservative or liberal. The survey ends with a series of identity questions on race, gender and position at the university. Although the 2022 survey was anonymous and voluntary, the bill’s language does not require such criteria. The open-ended language led to speculation after its signing about whether faculty and students would be required to share their political affiliation. Based on statements from the Florida Department of Education, PolitiFact found a similar claim to be False in 2021. Critics of the bill, like Gothard of the United Faculty of Florida, see the legislation as an attempt to "chill the right to freedom of speech, freedom of association and the right to privacy among all the Florida students, higher education students, faculty, and staff." Gothard also expressed concern that if future survey results are not anonymous, they could be used against faculty. The United Faculty of Florida, the higher education branch of the Florida Education Association, is challenging the bill’s legality in federal court. Pushaw told PolitiFact that the administration wants the survey to remain anonymous and voluntary. "That’s the best way to understand how respondents really feel," she said. "If some people don’t want to take the survey for whatever reason, that’s their prerogative." Our ruling King claimed DeSantis signed a ​​bill "requiring Florida students, professors to register political views with (the) state." Florida House Bill 233 requires an assessment of the "intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity" at state colleges and universities. Although not stipulated in the bill, the 2022 survey was anonymous and voluntary. Only the faculty survey had a question pertaining to individual political beliefs. It remains to be seen whether future surveys will change, but DeSantis’ press secretary said the administration’s goal is to keep the survey anonymous and voluntary. We rate King’s statement False. UPDATE: After we published this fact-check, Stephen King gave a statement to CNN on the matter: "I regret having posted the headline without being more confident the story was correct. Salon is usually more reliable. Twitter is a constant learning experience, and I will try to do better

"Fox offers Chris Wallace's Sunday spot to Candace Owens. A widespread Facebook post falsely claimed that Fox News sought to fill the Sunday TV show vacancy left by longtime anchor Chris Wallace with conservative commentator Candace Owens. "Fox offers Chris Wallace's Sunday Spot to Candace Owens," said the July 2 Facebook post, which was shared hundreds of times and flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Owens, who did not respond to a request for comment, hosts a show for The Daily Wire. She previously worked for Turning Point USA and founded an effort to get Black voters to leave the Democratic Party. She has not tweeted anything about joining Fox News. Wallace, the host of "Fox News Sunday," left the network in December 2021 for a role with CNN+, the CNN streaming service that launched in April only to shut down weeks later. Featured Fact-check Tucker Carlson stated on October 27, 2022 in a TV segment The United States is "about to run out of diesel fuel ... by the Monday of Thanksgiving week." By Andy Nguyen • November 7, 2022 He told The New York Times that he "no longer felt comfortable with the programming at Fox." He said he felt the falsehoods spread by the network’s talk show hosts about the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol were "unsustainable." In his stead, Fox News handed the "Fox News Sunday" airwaves over to a rotating cast of its other anchors, including Martha MacCallum, Brett Baier and John Roberts. The network has not yet named a permanent host for the show. Fox News confirmed to PolitiFact that the claim about Owens is fake. The rumor appears to have originated with "America’s Last Line of Defense," a network of parody websites whose bogus stories have fooled people online for years. In 2017, PolitiFact reported that a man from Maine was operating the sites, writing under a series of pseudonyms. A headline on one of the "America’s Last Line of Defense" websites matches the text of the widespread Facebook post verbatim — except that it misspelled Owens’ last name. We rate this Facebook post Fals

A video shows Joe Biden speaking slowly and slurring on the Fourth of July In a video that’s being shared on Facebook, President Joe Biden’s speech on July 4 appears perhaps slower than usual, and a little distorted. Some people commenting on the post certainly noticed. "If you’ve been around people with mental disorders or illnesses, you know what a medicated person’s speech sounds like," one person said. "He has clearly been medicated." "He is slurring his words badly," someone else 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 Facebook.) Comparing the video in the Facebook post with a recording of the speech posted by PBS NewsHour on Youtube, it appeared to us that the video had been altered. But we wanted to check with an expert. Siwei Lyu, director of the University of Buffalo Media Forensic Lab and co-director of the school’s Center for Information Integrity, said there are "two telltale signs" that the video in the post had been edited. In the original video, Biden’s speech is about eight minutes long. In the video that appears in the Facebook post, his speech is about 10 minutes long. 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 is roughly 80% of the original playback sound," Lyu said. What’s more, he said he could hear "clear audio artifacts" that suggested the video had been altered, especially when the crowd clapped for Biden at the beginning of his speech. "The clapping sounds like an echo, which is the artifact caused by the time-stretching algorithm," he said. What does that mean? Lyu said: "The time-stretching algorithm is widely used to change the playback speech of audio, but it tries to keep the original pitch in the sound while slowing down the tempo, so that the slowed sound would not sound like slowing down a vinyl record." RELATED VIDEO "In my opinion," Lyu said, "there is no doubt that the Facebook version of the video is a slowed-down version of the original PBS video." It’s the same technique that was used to slow down a speech by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to make it appear like she was slurring in 2019, he said. We then rated claims that Pelosi was slurring during her speech Pants on Fire. This post gets the same rating: Pants on Fir

Cheri Beasley voted to reverse the conviction of an armed kidnapper, release a double murderer early The National Republican Senatorial Committee recently released its third installment in a series of ads attacking Democrat Cheri Beasley, a former chief justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court, who is running for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat against Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Budd. In the ad, "Discovery," a narrator says: "In stopping crime and holding criminals accountable, Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley has failed us. "A teen murderer? She vacated the death sentence. "An armed kidnapper? Beasley voted to reverse the conviction. "An armed double-murderer? She voted for an early release. "Time after time and case after case, Cheri Beasley protected criminals not victims. "How can we trust her to protect our families?" In a press release, NRSC spokesman T.W. Arrighi said the ad offers a glimpse of Beasley’s record "without sugarcoating the facts." "The ad released today gives more examples of the violent criminals who Beasley protected. We hope voters will remember the victims when they vote in November," he said. PolitiFact North Carolina already checked the claim about the vacated death sentence of a teen murderer, and rated it Half True because it left out key context. Another NRSC ad included misleading claims against Beasley that we rated Mostly False. Some television stations took it off the air, citing false or misleading claims. "The fact is that as a judge and chief justice of the Supreme Court, Cheri held dangerous offenders accountable and worked with law enforcement to keep communities safe," Beasley spokeswoman Dory MacMillan said. What about the NRSC’s latest claims about Beasley’s opinions regarding an armed kidnapping and a double murder? The language in the ad provides some literal accuracy about Beasley’s actions on these two cases, while also omitting some details about the cases and process that led to her votes. Featured Fact-check Senate Leadership Fund stated on October 11, 2022 in a political ad Cheri Beasley “backs tax hikes — even on families making under $75,000.” By Paul Specht • October 31, 2022 Armed kidnapper The NRSC said Beasley "voted to reverse the conviction" of an armed kidnapper. This refers to State of North Carolina v. Ramar Dion Benjamin Crump, which the state Supreme Court addressed in 2020. This case wasn’t about the defendant’s actions, but whether a Superior Court judge granted him a fair trial. Crump was sentenced in 2016 to serve at least 72 years in prison for his role in a 2013 shoot-out with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police. His arrest that September connected him to a poker game that had been robbed a few days prior. He was convicted on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill, nine counts of robbery with a dangerous weapon, 10 counts of second-degree kidnapping and two counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, WCNC reported. On appeal, Crump’s team argued that the trial court violated the defendant’s rights when it prevented the defense from questioning prospective jurors about their possible racial biases. The state argued that the defense wasn’t categorically prohibited from asking jurors about racial bias — just from asking the specific questions that defense attorneys were posing. Writing for the majority, Justice Anita Earls wrote: "The fact that the trial court rejected three questions in a row that related to the topic of racial bias is strong evidence that ‘the trial court would have prohibited … further questions to the jurors’ about racial bias, even if defense counsel did not return to the subject again after being repeatedly denied." The jurors’ biases were relevant to the case because Crump and police offered conflicting testimony over who opened fire first. Beasley sided with the majority in the 4-3 ruling that ordered a new trial. State prison records show Crump, 32, was released from prison last August. His new trial is pending, a spokeswoman for the Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s office told PolitiFact on June 22. Double murder In the ad’s last claim about a specific ruling, the NRSC ad narrator says Beasley "voted for an early release" of an "armed double-murderer." This refers to State of North Carolina v. Bobby E. Bowden, which was heard by the state Supreme Court in 2014. Bowden was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of armed robbery on Dec. 15, 1975, and was sentenced to life in prison. In 2005, the year Bowden turned 56, his attorneys offered a two-pronged argument for why he should be released early: First, they said, state law defined a life sentence as 80 years in prison. Secondly, they said, he had earned enough "credits" for good behavior while in the prison system to be released in 2012. The state Supreme Court ruled 4-2 that Bowden wasn’t eligible to have his sentence reduced, and could only use credits for extra benefits behind bars or to move up his parole eligibility, WRAL reported. Beasley disagreed with the majority along with Associate Justice Robin Hudson, who pointed out in the dissent that the credits had already been applied and the lower courts supported the early release. "The State is under no obligation to create or to award credits that reduce a prisoner’s sentence for a crime for which he was lawfully convicted," Hudson wrote. "But once it does so, it cannot then arbitrarily and with no process take those credits back." State prison records show Bowden died in 2019 at age 69. Our ruling The NRSC ad says Beasley helped reverse the conviction of an armed kidnapper and, separately, voted to grant early release to a convicted double-murderer. Beasley did vote to release a man convicted of armed robbery. The ad leaves out her reasoning: that the trial court erred in blocking the defense from questioning potential jurors about their possible racial biases. The ad says Beasley voted to grant early release to a double-murderer. It omits that he had already served more than 30 years in prison and had accumulated credit for good behavior that lower courts believed could be used for early release. The statements are accurate but need clarification or additional information. That’s our definition for Mostly Tru

Images show Highland Park shooter had antifa connectio Authorities have identified Robert Crimo III as a suspect in a July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, that left seven people dead and more than two dozen injured. With that news came a flurry of unverified and false images misleadingly suggesting that Crimo is associated with a number of social or political ideologies. A July 4 Facebook post that published several images from Crimo’s supposed Instagram account includes a screenshot of Crimo’s page bearing a flag associated with antifa, a broad left-wing coalition of anti-fascist activists. 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 Facebook.) Although Crimo did have a larger online presence than the suspects in recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, most of the 21-year-old’s social media accounts have been deleted. None of the images supposedly pulled from his social media accounts have been verified, and the evidence supporting their authenticity is thin. First, the screenshot with the antifa flag was cropped to exclude a username. It also lacks timeline indicators; there are no dates or times shown in the photos. Further, the account in the screenshot had little engagement. It had one follower and followed no other users — a sign that the Instagram account may have been recently created. Instagram did not immediately respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment. The Lake County Sheriff’s Office could also not be reached for comment, but spokesperson Chris Covelli said in a July 5 briefing that Crimos’s online activity was still being reviewed. 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 The suggestion that Crimo had antifa ties also appeared in an article published by The Gateway Pundit, a conservative website that has spread misinformation in the past. Most of the article’s proof relies on screenshots of unverified accounts — including screenshots used in the Facebook post — and speculation. For example, one image in The Gateway Pundit’s evidence collage depicts Crimo wearing a black beanie with the letter "A" on it, which the article claimed was short for antifa. However, it’s well documented that Crimo referred to himself by the pseudonym Awake the Rapper, which also starts with "A." The article also made unsubstantiated assumptions about Crimo’s tattoos and their meaning. We found no evidence from credible sources to corroborate claims that Crimo posted an antifa flag or that he has ties to the group. Information about Crimo’s political affiliation is also scarce. Videos from Crimo’s now-deleted YouTube channel showed him cheering for former President Donald Trump’s motorcade, according to NBC. Our ruling A Facebook post claimed that Crimo, the man apprehended for the mass shooting in Highland Park, had posted an antifa flag on Instagram. The photo is unverified. And PolitiFact found no credible evidence to suggest that the account in the Facebook post belonged to Crimo or he had any ties to antifa. We rate this claim False

The mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, was a “false flag. News stories about the July 4 mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, are still developing but there’s no evidence to support claims that the deadly event was a "false flag" operation staged by Democrats, as some social media posts have suggested. "Here we go," one post said. "Folks..this is CLEARLY another op by the Dems." "Pray against false flag events today and this month," another said. "Pray they will be stopped and exposed. Pray that the real perpetrators will be caught! #notbuyingtheirlies #falseflags #exposed." 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 Facebook.) On July 6, prosecutors said the 21-year-old shooting suspect, Robert Crimo III, confessed to firing more than 80 shots from a rooftop during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. 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 Authorities had released the names of seven shooting victims by then. Other people were injured, and reporters have talked to witnesses who survived the attack. Dr. David Baum, who was at the parade and helped treat people who were injured in the shooting, told NBC Chicago that he saw several people shot. "The bodies that I saw, it was not an image that anyone who’s not a physician would have an easy time processing," Baum said. RELATED VIDEO Gabriella Martinez, who said she saw the gunman on a rooftop, initially thought the gunshots were fireworks. "Then literally one second (later) we all started getting into a panic mode," she said. Claims that this shooting was staged or a "false flag" event is wrong. We rate it Pants on Fire.

Ukrainian “attack destroys skyscraper in Moscow. There’s the war in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country, and then there are skirmishes to control the narrative. A video shared on Facebook on July 4 under the label "RUSSIA VS UKRAINE today" shows a black smoke plume at the top of a skyscraper. It suggests that Ukraine is taking the war into Russia. "GIANT EXPLOSION IN MOSCOW," a description of the video says. "Putin Panics. Horrible Attack Destroys Skyscraper in Moscow. State of Emergency Declared....." 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 Facebook.) We found the same footage in a July 4 article on the website of the British tabloid the Daily Express. While the headline describes a fire at a "huge Moscow tower block" as a "Putin nightmare," it doesn’t say the incident was an attack or connected to the country’s invasion of Ukraine. 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 "Fire broke out on the roof of the mammoth but yet unfinished Capital Towers building that is around 300m high and has 66 floors," the story says, citing local reports. "Scaffolding caught fire at the top of the massive building." RELATED VIDEO But the unfinished building wasn’t destroyed, the Express says. "The fire was put out before the fire brigade arrived, with only scaffolding burned, according to the Tass news agency in Russia, citing various sources." A Polish news organization, also citing the Tass agency, said "the fire affected one square meter of space." We didn’t see any credible reports tying the fire to a Ukrainian attack, or any attack. We rate this post False.

Peter Meijer voted to “create the Adam Schiff-led January 6th Commission. The latest attack from John Gibbs against his GOP primary opponent Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Grand Rapids, misrepresents the freshman congressman’s vote on the congressional committee currently investigating the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. In a fundraising email from his campaign, Gibbs claimed that Meijer voted to "create the Adam Schiff-led January 6th Commission." To back up its claim, Gibbs’ campaign pointed to Meijer’s vote for a bipartisan commission to investigate the Capitol attack that was never created because Senate Republicans blocked the proposal. But Meijer voted against creating the committee that is carrying out the probe and whose members were selected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. A spokesperson for Gibbs’ campaign called U.S. Rep. Schiff, D-Calif., "a central voice" on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. But the group’s chair is Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., not Schiff. The closely watched primary in Michigan between Gibbs and Meijer is one of a handful in which an incumbent Republican faces a Trump-endorsed candidate. Meijer was among the 10 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection on the day members of Congress convened to certify Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. Gibbs — who worked in the Trump administration at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — has made Meijer’s vote to impeach the former president following the Jan. 6 insurrection a key talking point against his GOP opponent. Meijer was also among a small group of Republicans who voted to establish a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol. 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 "Let us be clear: the imperative to have a public, objective, fact-based investigation of the Capitol attack is not a partisan issue, and it should never be treated as such," Meijer said during a speech on the House floor outlining his support for a bipartisan commission. But after Senate Republicans blocked the proposal, Meijer subsequently voted against creating the Select Committee currently undertaking the congressional probe into the Jan. 6 attack. In a series of tweets explaining his vote, Meijer once more stated his support for an investigation into the insurrection but raised concerns about the format of the proposed committee. "I believe it is essential we have a thorough, credible Jan. 6 investigation in order to produce an objective report to get at the truth and clear away fictions and lies," Meijer wrote. "I fear the structure of this partisan select committee will not produce that critical outcome." The bipartisan commission initially proposed and supported by Meijer would have entitled Democratic and Republican legislative leaders to the same number of appointments. But the resolution that created today’s select committee entitled Pelosi to select its chair and appoint 13 members, including five selected following consultation with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Pelosi appointed the committee’s two Republican members: Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. But Pelosi rejected two GOP lawmakers nominated by McCarthy, stating they would undermine the committee’s work because of their previous claims about the Jan. 6 attack. McCarthy pulled his remaining picks from the committee in protest. Our rating Gibbs claimed that Meijer voted to "create the Adam Schiff-led January 6th Commission." Meijer voted against establishing the select committee currently investigating the Capitol attack. Prior to that, he did vote for a bipartisan commission. But that commission was never created, and the committee that was established is not led by Schiff, who serves as a member but not its chair. We rate this claim False

Claims the U.S. military is using "polymer drone flies" that look and act like a large fly A video circulating on social media claims to show a new piece of technology from the United States military: a miniature drone made to look and act like a large fly. The video was shared in a June 13 Facebook post and shows a person holding a fly between their fingers. The fly buzzes and wiggles its legs before flying away. A caption with the post includes several hash tagged words, "#drones #flies #military," and a tweet superimposed on the video says "polymer drone flies, used by the U.S. military." 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 military does use miniature drones, there is no evidence the fly being shown in the video is one of them. The video includes no audio that would imply that what the person is holding is a mechanical drone and features only the sounds of rushing wind and the fly buzzing away. The thing the person is holding looks similar to Cuterebra ruficus, a type of botfly (which, in this case, is not short for "robot") found primarily in the southwestern U.S. Pictures of the fly online show the fly is similar in appearance and size to what’s being held in the video. A drone that the military does use, however, is known as the "Black Hornet." Made by Teledyne FLIR, it weighs less than 1.6 ounces and is about 7 inches long. It’s considered the world’s smallest military drone. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 27, 2022 in an Instagram post Video shows “military robots ready for war.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 31, 2022 Rather than having flapping wings like the insect seen in this video, the drone uses rotor blades similar to a helicopter to fly. Separately, a British biomechanical company is developing a drone that uses flapping wings, but it’s only in the prototype stage. Alex Caccia, chief executive of Animal Dynamics, told the BBC in 2020 that his company is developing a drone that's inspired by a dragonfly. Called the Skeeter, the drone uses four wings to fly. However, the drone's prototype is about 8 inches long — not nearly as small as the fly in the video. Caccia also said "making devices with flapping wings is very, very hard" and it'll be some time before a production version of the Skeeter is ready. Our ruling A video shared to Facebook claims to show a person handling one of the "polymer drone flies" used by the U.S. military. No proof in the video or post is offered to show that the person is holding something other than a type of botfly. The U.S. military does use an insect-like drone called the "Black Hornet," but it is several inches long and uses rotor blades to fly. We rate this claim Fals

Video shows the aftermath of a mass shooting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania On the same day that a shooter opened fire on a crowd gathered for a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a Facebook user posted a video warning of another active shooter in Pennsylvania’s capital city. The caption of a livestreamed video claims to show the aftermath of a mass shooting at a fireworks display in Harrisburg. The video shows people walking along a sidewalk or gathered in groups to view the fireworks, with paper plates, bottles and other trash littering the ground. There’s no evidence that a shooting happened, so we looked into the video. 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.) Harrisburg Police Commissioner Thomas Carter said that a fight broke out at about 9:30 p.m. between two juveniles in the crowd, according to ABC27 News. Matt Maisel, a city spokesperson, told PolitiFact that in the midst of the fight, someone threw firecrackers on the ground, which caused people to panic. Someone in the crowd shouted "gun!" and attendees started to run, leaving their belongings. But the claim that there was an active shooter is categorically false, Maisel said. 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 Some children were separated from their parents amid the chaos. Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams said in a press conference the next morning that her grandchildren had been among those who were lost in the shuffle. The attendees that started the fight were from outside of Harrisburg, Williams said. "I want to assure the public that it is safe to come to the events in the city of Harrisburg," Williams said. "We will not tolerate the juveniles coming into the city of Harrisburg and causing chaos like that." Police officers sprayed mace to stop the fight and made one arrest, Carter said during the same press conference. He confirmed that there was no active shooter, and no injuries. Our ruling A video on Facebook claimed to show the aftermath of a mass shooting in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That’s not what happened. According to local officials, a fight broke out among the crowd, and someone shouted that there was a gun. This definitely caused a panic in the crowd, but there was no shooting. We rate this video caption Fals

Says an image shows the Highland Park shooting suspect "in jail or rehab or a psychiatric center" before the shooting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., shared a doctored image that she falsely claimed showed the suspect in the Highland Park, Illinois, mass shooting was in a "in jail or rehab or a psychiatric center" before he opened fire on the Chicago suburb’s July 4 parade. Police took into custody Robert Crimo III of Highwood, Illinois, after they said he positioned himself on a nearby roof and fired the shots that killed seven people and injured dozens more. Crimo had not been charged with a crime by midafternoon July 5, and much remained unknown about his life leading up to the shooting, including details regarding his mental health or arrest history. Our fact-checks disrupt the agendas of politicians across the ideological spectrum. Support the truth today. Here’s some of what we have learned from police as of July 5: Crimo attempted suicide in 2019. That same year, law enforcement officials also seized dozens of knives and a sword from him after a family member reported that he threatened to "kill everyone," but Crimo was not arrested over the incident. The 21-year-old had posted violent imagery and discourse online. He was living at the time of the attack in an apartment behind a house owned by his father, according to reports, and he purchased the firearm police said he used to carry out the attack legally. But before many of those details had been revealed, Greene had already posted the altered image of Crimo twice, using it to make a political point about guns and mental health. In the image, which Greene first tweeted July 4 alongside other photos of Crimo, Crimo looks as if he’s seated in a compact, windowless cell and holding a Bible. The second time Greene shared the image was on July 5, when she posted a Twitter thread arguing that the attack and other recent mass shootings should not be blamed on lax gun laws. 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 "The public should not allow this to continue," Greene wrote. "People are not stupid. Is he in jail or rehab or a psychiatric center in this photo? That’s not his bedroom. 22 yrs old and 5’11 and 120 lbs is not normal or healthy. What drugs or psychiatric drugs or both does he use?" Greene framed the image as evidence of Crimo’s "very dark" history. "Until we are willing to rip open the ugly truth about the dark and destructive path these young men are on that lead them to mass shootings, then they will continue," she said. "No matter how many gun control laws are passed. Even with no guns at all, evil will find a way until it’s fixed." The image is noticeably edited. There’s no evidence that it actually shows Crimo "in jail or rehab or a psychiatric center" prior to his July 4 parade attack, as Greene claimed. "This is an obvious fake," said Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and an expert on image analysis and digital forensics. "There are clear signs of manipulation around his head and hair, the resolution on his face is inconsistent with the background, and the lighting and shading on his face is inconsistent with the rest of the scene." PolitiFact could not pinpoint where the image originated, but we found the same image posted on several since-suspended Twitter accounts that appear to have been affiliated with Crimo or the stage name he adopted as an amateur rapper, "Awake the Rapper." A Twitter spokesperson confirmed that the company suspended accounts that "may belong to the alleged perpetrator," per its rules around perpetrators of violent attacks. Shortly after sharing the image for the second time to her nearly 1 million Twitter followers, Greene retweeted it again and said, "This is supposedly photoshopped." Greene’s office did not respond to a request for comment. We rate Greene’s claim that the image shows Crimo "in jail or rehab or a psychiatric center" before the shooting Fals

“Charlie Crist is pro-life. With less than two months until Florida’s Democratic primary, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has ramped up her criticism of her opponent, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist. Most of Fried’s criticism has zeroed in on Crist’s past as a Republican, namely his inconsistent view on abortion access and reproductive freedom. "Charlie Crist is pro-life and his opponent is pro-choice," read the words that appear across an ad that Fried shared on Twitter June 28. The video spliced together archival and recent footage of Crist juxtaposed with images of Fried. Throughout the ad, Crist is heard repeatedly saying, "Charlie Crist is pro-life. My opponent is pro-choice." The campaign ad has been viewed more than 94,000 times. Fried also retweeted a user who, after seeing the video, described Crist as an "anti-abortion Democrat." PolitiFact has fact-checked claims related to Crist’s stance on abortion more than six times. We couldn’t pinpoint the precise origin of the audio used in this ad, but we do know that his attitude toward abortion is complicated and difficult to summarize. And this 30-second video misrepresents his current stance. When we asked Fried’s campaign about the ad, a spokesperson said Crist has described himself as "pro-life" as recently as April. "Nikki Fried takes him at his word, and the word he uses is pro-life," Caroline Korba, Fried’s press secretary, told PolitiFact. Here’s what Crist said about seven and a half minutes into the April 12 interview Korba was referencing: "When I say I am pro-life, I mean I am for life, and I am for a woman’s right to choose and make her own decisions about her body." Crist’s campaign also rejects the definition of "pro-life" that is used in most political debate. When asked about Crist’s past use of the term, spokesperson Joshua Karp differentiated Crist from those who typically describe themselves as "pro-life." "Those individuals clearly aren't interested in the life of women," Karp said. Crist’s history on the issue provides more insight. His early career as a Republican state senator was marked by his belief that the decision to have an abortion should rest with women, not the government. At the time, Crist defended his position by saying it fell in line with Republican support of small-government involvement. Even so, his stance on reproductive freedom had its limits. He told the Miami Herald that he did not support state-funded abortion. He voted for a ban on abortion later in pregnancy, which critics call "late-term abortion." Crist also told the Tampa Bay Times in 1998 that he was "pro-choice, but not pro-abortion." 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 As he geared up to run for Florida governor in 2006, Crist began using anti-abortion rhetoric. He won that race and became governor of Florida for four years. However, Crist’s remarks on abortion continued to puzzle "activists on both sides of the abortion debate," according to the Miami Herald. Even as a Republican, Crist said he wouldn't support repealing the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Roe v. Wade, that made abortion legal. Further, Crist said politicians shouldn’t put "themselves in the place of physicians." During an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2010, Crist left the Republican party. In 2012, he said in an op-ed published by the Tampa Bay Times that his decision was fueled by the party’s tendency to pitch "so far to the extreme right on issues important to women." Before he left the governor’s office, Crist vetoed legislation that would have required women to get an ultrasound before opting to have an abortion. Crist’s view on abortion before he registered as a Democrat in 2012 was murky, but Fried’s ad suggested that his stance had not changed. Crist has been a Democrat for almost 10 years, and he has routinely expressed his support for reproductive rights. In 2017, for example, Crist voted against federal legislation that would have banned abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. He also voted against a bill that sought to defund Planned Parenthood, a nonprofit organization that provides health care services, including abortion. The Planned Parenthood Action Fund gave Crist a 100% rating for the 117th Congress, which convened in 2021 and goes through January 2023. The rating is based on Crist’s votes on legislation related to sexual and reproductive health. Conversely, Crist has a 0% rating from the National Right to Life. Laura Goodhue, the executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, meanwhile, said on June 29 that her organization will not endorse either candidate over the other in the Aug. 23 primary because both are "pro-reproductive health care." Our ruling Fried said, "Charlie Crist is pro-life." That’s misleading. While Crist has made conflicting statements regarding reproductive freedom throughout his decades in politics, even using the term "pro-life" to describe his stance, he does support a woman’s right to choose. The ad omitted Crist’s record over the last decade, in which he has voted in support of legal abortion access for women. Fried’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly Fals

The cost of a Fourth of July cookout in 2022 increased by 67.2% because of inflation Nikki Haley, President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations and a possible future Republican presidential candidate, roused passions on Twitter over July 4 weekend when she took a shot at inflation on President Joe Biden’s watch. A tweet from Haley’s personal account said, "Remember last summer when Biden bragged about a $0.16 savings on your July 4th cookout? Well, this is what you’re spending on this 4th of July." The tweet referenced a graphic about Biden’s "inconvenience store" that was attributed to her political action committee, Stand for America. The graphic offered what it said was the one-year increase in price for six July 4 cookout staples. The graphic said the price of hot dogs had increased by 15.6%, soda by 13.2%, condiments by 11.9%, ice cream by 9.6%, bread by 8.7% and watermelon by 8.2%. After these six items, the graphic summed everything up by saying that the total increase was 67.2%. Inflation has increased the cost of the typical July 4 barbecue — but not by that much. As many Twitter followers quickly pointed out, basic mathematical principles say you can’t add six percentage increases together to yield a total percentage increase. In this case, you’d have to divide that total by six (i.e., the number of items being averaged) to find the overall increase. Assuming you were weighting the six items equally, that would be an average increase of 11.2%. That’s not an insignificant increase, but it’s also far less than 67.2%. Realizing its mistake, Haley’s staff deleted the tweet within an hour or so. But screenshots continued to circulate through the holiday and into the following week. Users mocked Haley for making such a basic mistake when she graduated from Clemson University with an accounting degree. She has an ACCOUNTING degree 😭 pic.twitter.com/69gX6kGJJX— Santiago Mayer (@santiagomayer_) July 4, 2022 "This was a staff error that should not have been published," Haley’s office said to PolitiFact in a statement. "We realized the calculation error and immediately removed the graphic." There’s no question that the graphic’s final calculation was wrong. But the individual increases for the six items are close to accurate. For a comparison, we looked at data from the U.S. Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service, which at the time of Haley’s tweet was current through May 2022. We found that five of the six items Haley cited fell under categories tracked by the department, although with a somewhat broader definition. (The only one we couldn’t find data for was "condiments.") Featured Fact-check Joe Biden stated on October 8, 2022 in an Instagram post 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. By Louis Jacobson • October 13, 2022 Here’s a summary of one-year cost increases for categories tracked by the USDA: Beef: 10.2% Nonalcoholic beverages: 12% Dairy products: 11.8% Cereals and bakery products: 11.6% Fresh fruits: 8.5% So, Haley’s graphic overstated inflation’s effect on some products and understated it on others. We also found another price comparison: an analysis of July 4 barbecue costs published every year by the American Farm Bureau Federation. (When the Biden White House trumpeted a savings of 16 cents for July 4 cookout prices a year ago — the inspiration for Haley’s tweet — this was the source.) The Farm Bureau’s list of items mostly don’t overlap with Haley’s, but two do. The Farm Bureau found a 16% increase for hamburger buns (which was higher than Haley said) and a 10% increase for ice cream (which was in line with Haley’s figure). However, the Farm Bureau’s increases for several types of meat exceeded 30%, which is about double Haley’s estimate for hot dogs. All told, the Farm Bureau found that the overall cost for a sample cookout "is up 17%, or about $10, from last year, a result of ongoing supply chain disruptions, inflation and the war in Ukraine." Our ruling Haley said that this July 4, the cost of six American cookout staples had jumped for a total increase of 67.2% Haley’s attempt to slam Biden over inflation overstated the burden of these items when it added the percentage increases into one large total. Instead, Haley should have calculated the average increase for the six items by adding the percentages together and dividing by six. Were it not for this error, Haley’s cookout claim would have been more accurate: The granular percentage increases in the graphic were either similar to what independent estimates had found or understated them. But the eyeball-catching total missed the mark. We rate this claim Fals

“Since I took office, Michigan has added more than 25,000 auto jobs. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has made economic development in the state a key focus as she hits the campaign trail to seek a second term. In her bid for reelection, she has zeroed in on Michigan’s auto industry specifically, claiming she has overseen the addition of tens of thousands of new jobs over the last few years. "Since I took office, Michigan has added more than 25,000 auto jobs," Whitmer wrote in a June 8 tweet. She has made similar statements in the past. In a June 2 tweet, she appeared to take credit for the growth she claims occurred since her tenure as governor began. "I'm thrilled about @Ford's $2 billion investment to create 3,200 good-paying auto jobs — add this to the nearly 25,000 auto jobs we've created!" Whitmer tweeted the day the automaker announced plans to add jobs supported by the state’s economic development fund. Republicans hoping to unseat Whitmer have pushed back against the claim. Publicly available employment data does not show that Michigan has gained 25,000 additional jobs in the auto industry since January 2019 when Whitmer entered office. Whitmer spokesperson Bobby Leddy wrote in an email that the jobs figure from the governor is "a conservative estimate" of the jobs auto manufacturers and suppliers have announced since 2019 as part of auto manufacturing expansions supported by the state. Leddy and Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) spokesperson Otie McKinley provided a list of dozens of companies that have collectively promised to create more than 25,000 jobs in Michigan’s auto industry in exchange for hundreds of millions in tax relief and government grants. Many of those jobs have already been created and currently employ people, Leddy wrote. But the number of auto jobs Whitmer touts also includes thousands that do not currently exist. Those promised by GM, for instance, will require breaking ground on a new plant, Leddy wrote. "Governor Whitmer is proud of her record of job creation, particularly in the auto industry, as we move to cement Michigan’s legacy of manufacturing," Leddy said in a statement. It is unclear how far along the companies are in their promise to create the jobs they’ve committed to add to the state’s economy. MEDC "does not have a real-time account as to the exact number of jobs that have been created by each individual company," McKinley wrote in an email. Each company must submit reports of the new jobs it creates based on a previously agreed upon reporting schedule, he said. Jobs are created and destroyed all the time in the auto industry as companies hire or lay off workers and open or close plants. That’s why many look to net employment numbers in an industry over time to determine whether a state has created more jobs than it’s lost, said Brad Hershbein, a senior economist and the deputy director of research at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. "So how many more jobs do we have now than we did before?" Hershbein said. Using that measure, Whitmer’s claim that Michigan has added more than 25,000 new auto jobs isn’t borne out by employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The number of auto jobs in Michigan as of May 2022 — the most recently available data — was slightly lower than it was in January 2019 when Whitmer took office. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data in the transportation equipment manufacturing industry is the best way to analyze auto job growth in the state during that time period, according to Wayne Rourke, the associate director of Michigan’s Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives. 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 It’s a broad category that encompasses manufacturing outside the auto industry, including aerospace, railroad and ship manufacturing. But the vast majority — about 90% — of the transportation equipment manufacturing industry jobs are within the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts manufacturing sectors. The bigger transportation equipment manufacturing category allows for easy comparisons of job numbers between two different time periods since Michigan’s labor market information bureau publishes adjusted data that accounts for fluctuation in the job numbers resulting from typical seasonal variation in an industry. When Whitmer entered office in 2019, there were 187,890 jobs in transportation equipment manufacturing, according to seasonally adjusted data published by the bureau. In May 2022, there were 184,500 jobs in the sector, a decline of 3,390 jobs. Comparing each month’s employment data in the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts manufacturing sectors across years shows that employment in the auto industry took a huge hit during the COVID-19 pandemic but has essentially returned to pre-pandemic levels. Hershbein said it was "a little bit misleading" to refer to jobs expected in the future as those that the state has already added or created. "Claims about what could happen in the future should always be taken with a fair amount of salt, and this is long true in the economic development world where we give incentives to businesses to create jobs and they don’t always end up doing that," Hershbein said. "It’s nice that the jobs are announced. It’s certainly better than not having jobs announced. But in terms of people’s standards and well-being, we have to see those jobs actually materialize." Hershbein also said that the general climate of economic uncertainty casts a bit of a cloud over state deals with auto manufacturers. "There’s still a possibility that the economy could go into a recession," he said. "If that were to happen would they still go forward with their plans? Would they scale it down? Would they postpone them? A lot could still happen." MEDC requires companies to fulfill their job creation commitments to receive state support, McKinley wrote in an email. Funding isn’t provided to companies that don’t create the jobs they’ve promised, he said. "I have a high level of confidence that any job promised by a company signing one of these contracts will fulfill their obligations," said Mike Johnston, the vice president of government affairs for the Michigan Manufacturers Association. He acknowledged that Whitmer’s claim is not borne out in the most recently available Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data, but said that it provides an accurate picture of where the state’s auto industry is heading. "If anybody looking at the economy doesn’t look at the future of the economy, they’re looking too short-sighted," he said. "Any snapshot on the economy has to come in the context of where the economy is going and Michigan — in particular the manufacturing sector — is looking very positive." Bernard Swiecki, the director of research at the independent Center for Automotive Research, said that he wouldn’t call Whitmer’s statement misleading. "It’s positively oriented, but it’s not out of whack with standard industry practice. When states and communities announce these things, they do focus on the new creation," he said. "It’s not like it’s a made up number," he said. But when someone sees it, they might think Whitmer is referring to a net gain in jobs since she entered office. "And that’s not what it really is. So basically, it’s a number that needs context." Our ruling Whitmer claimed that since she entered office, "Michigan has added more than 25,000 auto jobs." Her number refers to jobs automakers and suppliers have created, but it also includes jobs they have committed to add in exchange for state support that don’t currently exist. Current employment data does not show that Michigan has gained 25,000 jobs since January 2019, when Whitmer took office. Whitmer is referring to jobs promised through state deals over the last few years. But the claim ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. Thousands of those jobs haven’t been created yet, and employment data shows those added haven’t made up for job losses in Michigan’s auto industry. We rate it Mostly Fals

Video claims Moscow turned into “sea of fire after being attacked by two mysterious missiles. A video on social media uses footage of burning buildings and people fleeing for cover to claim there was a missile attack against Moscow, Russia. "Kremlin electricity is under attack," a caption for the June 28 Facebook video says. "Putin panics when Moscow is blown up by two rockets turned Moscow into a sea of ​​fire." A narration with the video claims the attack happened June 27 and resulted in a large number of casualties. The video implies the Ukrainian military was behind the attack against Moscow and another Russian city as part of the ongoing war between the two countries. However, the footage in the video was not from an attack on Moscow, and the Russian capital has not been turned into a "sea of fire." 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.) There have been no media reports of an attack on the Russian capital. Recent reports from Moscow include the appearance of basketball player Brittney Griner in court on the day the video claims the attack happened and the opening of a shopping mall on the city’s outskirts. The footage of people fleeing in the Facebook video wasn’t from Moscow and didn’t even occur this year. It's CCTV footage from a 2018 fire that engulfed a mall in the Russian city of Kemerovo, more than 2,200 miles away from Moscow. 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 Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February, the fighting has largely stayed within the Ukrainian border. Russia accused Ukrainian forces of entering Russia in April for the first time during the conflict after an oil depot near the Ukraine-Russia border was attacked. However, Ukraine’s government did not claim responsibility for the attack. The video also claimed a facility operated by the Russian Defense Ministry in the city of Tver was attacked by Ukrainian forces in June, killing 27 people. Although there have been no reported attacks against the facility, one of its buildings did experience a fatal fire in April that killed six people and injured 27 others. The preliminary investigation into the fire found that old wiring at the facility played a part in the fatal blaze. Our ruling A Facebook video shared images claiming to be from a missile strike on Moscow, implying Ukraine launched the attack against the Russian capital. There appears to be no basis to the claim as there has been no reporting or corroborating evidence that missiles were launched at the city. The video misrepresented footage from a separate incident several years ago as being from the attack and falsely claimed a fire at a Russian facility was part of a Ukrainian military strike. We rate this claim Pants on Fir

The Founding Fathers of the United States intended that “the church is supposed to direct the government. Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert raised eyebrows when she gave an impassioned address to worshippers at a Colorado church on June 26. While encouraging churchgoers to get more involved in their local governments to help shape policy, Boebert, who easily won her primary election on Tuesday, said she’s "tired of this separation of church and state junk." "The reason we had so many overreaching regulations in our nation is because the church complied. The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church," Boebert said. "That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it, and I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk. That’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does." Boebert is accurate that the words "separation of church and state" do not appear in the Constitution, but her statement glosses over what the Constitution does say about religion. Historians and legal scholars said her assertion that the nation’s founders intended for the church to direct the government is categorically wrong. You can hear Boebert’s entire remarks here: What does the Constitution say? The relevant part of the First Amendment reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…" This is known as the "establishment clause." It was included because European settlers came from a number of religious backgrounds, and the Constitution’s framers wanted to ensure that the country had no nationally established church like the Church of England, legal scholars Marci Hamilton and Michael McConnell wrote for the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan project that brings together scholars from multiple perspectives to publish articles on the U.S. Constitution. The words "separation of church and state" come from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. In it, Jefferson wrote that the First Amendment had essentially built "a wall of separation" between church and state. The passage read: "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State." Asked for more information about the congresswoman’s statement, Boebert’s spokesperson, Benjamin Stout, told PolitiFact that "Christian principles have informed and guided lawmakers in America since its founding. The Congresswoman believes that that should continue." "The Congresswoman does not believe in a theocracy, or an established religion set by the state," Stout added. "That’s exactly what the establishment clause protects against." What the experts said The limits of the establishment clause have been debated for centuries, experts said. "I do not think that the metaphor used in (Jefferson’s) letter accurately conveys the meaning of the establishment clause," said Nicole Stelle Garnett, a law professor at the University of Notre Dame. "But the original understanding of the establishment clause — other than the fact it prohibited a national church — is contested." Jefferson’s metaphor of a separation of church and state is one that courts and others have cited and "is one of the principles of religious liberty deeply entrenched in our constitutional order," said Nathan Chapman, a professor at the University of Georgia Law School and co-author of "Agreeing to Disagree: How the Establishment Clause Promotes Religious Pluralism and Protects Freedom of Conscience." "People of good faith have disagreed about its application in specific cases, but it remains a distinctive feature of American constitutionalism," Chapman added. Where experts generally agree is that Boebert was wrong to say it was the intent of the nation’s founders that "the church should direct the government." The Constitution is clear on that. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 29, 2022 in Instagram post Photo shows Stanford scientists' "3D model of how Joseph, the husband of Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ, might have looked.” By Michael Majchrowicz • November 4, 2022 "It is definitely not accurate to say that according to the Constitution ‘the church is supposed to direct the government,’ or even that such a thing would be permitted," said Nelson Tebbe, a professor at Cornell Law School. "We don’t know everything about what the establishment clause of the First Amendment disallows today, but we do know that it would not allow an official church, such as the Church of England. Nor would it be constitutional today to allow a church official or institution, as such, to have the authority to ‘direct the government.’" Tebbe pointed to the Supreme Court’s 1994 ruling in Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet. In that case, the New York state created a separate school district specifically for a community of Hasidic Jews, which would have given the group power to direct public funding. The community’s students attended private, religious schools but needed state funding to provide services for children with disabilities. The state’s attempt to solve the problem crossed "the line from permissible accommodation to impermissible establishment," the court said. Chapman called Boebert’s comments about the church directing the government a "statement of political theology." "Many Americans at the founding were Christians and very few, if any, believed" in the vision Boebert referenced, Chapman said. "The English model was of the king as the head of church and state. Americans uniformly rejected that. Some thought there should be more mutual influence, some less. But few thought the ‘church’ … should ‘direct’ the government, either as a matter of theology or politics." Steven Heyman, a law professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, said the whole point of the establishment clause is that there’s no national church, so "then there's no way for it to ‘direct the government,’ as Rep. Boebert claims." How courts have interpreted the establishment clause While the establishment clause is open to interpretation, the Supreme Court in recent years has used what’s known as the "Lemon test" when considering cases involving government and religion, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. That refers to a 1971 ruling in Lemon v. Kurtzman, which established a three-part test to determine whether a state action violated the establishment clause: 1) Whether the state aid had a secular purpose; 2) Whether it promoted or hindered religion; and 3) Whether there is excessive entanglement between church and state. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in 1984 proposed a modification of the Lemon test called the endorsement test, which asks whether the challenged government action endorses or disapproves of a religion, a test that many lower courts apply. The Supreme Court, now led by a conservative majority, three of whom were appointed by former President Donald Trump, has made several recent rulings in religious plaintiffs' favor, includng one that specifically rejected both the Lemon and endorsement tests. One came June 27, a day after Boebert’s comments. The court ruled 6-3 in favor of a Washington state public high school football coach who was disciplined after refusing to stop praying on the field after games. Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority that the coach, Joseph Kennedy, was not praying as part of his job duties. He said that "both the Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect expressions like Mr. Kennedy’s. Nor does a proper understanding of the Amendment’s Establishment Clause require the government to single out private religious speech for special disfavor." Gorsuch wrote that "in place of Lemon and the endorsement test, this Court has instructed that the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’" In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that the coach’s prayers may have a coercive effect on students, and that the ruling prioritized the free exercise clause over the establishment clause. Another recent ruling came June 21, when the court ruled 6-3 that religious schools couldn’t be excluded from a program in Maine that offers tuition aid for private education. In that ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that "Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment." Our rating Boebert, in a talk to churchgoers, said the Founding Fathers intended that "the church is supposed to direct the government." While some of the framers were more open to the mixing of religion and the state, the Constitution as adopted did not go anywhere near what Boebert describes, constitutional experts say. The part of the First Amendment that reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion," makes clear the founders’ desire to avoid the establishment of a national church, such as the Church of England, that could direct government. That establishment clause has been interpreted by the court and scholars in various ways, but we find no interpretation suggesting its meaning to be that a church should direct the government. We rate that statement Fals

An image shows a “UFO photographed on June 21, 2014 by the pilot from the cockpit of an F-16 military plane flying near Lackland Air Force Base of the United States located in San Antonio, Texas. A viral Facebook post falsely claims to show an image of a U.S. military fighter pilot looking out the cockpit window at UFO — all in broad daylight. "UFO photographed on June 21, 2014 by the pilot from the cockpit of an F-16 military plane flying near Lackland Air Force Base of the United States located in San Antonio, Texas," said one June 28 Facebook post. An identical post from a different account went viral in March. 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.) There’s no evidence the image shows an authentic photo of an Air Force pilot flying beside a real UFO, as the Facebook caption claims. PolitiFact found no reports in Google or the Nexis news database about any such sighting near San Antonio. Rather, the image is just one iteration of a years-old meme, edited in each instance with different art to depict various objects flying in the sky outside the pilot’s cockpit window. 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 Reverse image searches turned up several other variations of the meme, including versions from as early as 2008 that depict the same pilot looking out the window at a giant cat riding atop a fighter jet. That’s six years before the date the Facebook post claimed the photo was taken. The earliest version of the image PolitiFact found featuring the supposed UFO was from 2016. Multiple commenters under the Facebook posts sharing the image depicting the pilot alongside a UFO claimed the UFO resembled the fictional UFOs from the 1970s British TV show "UFO." PolitiFact reached out to the show’s producer, Gerry Anderson, but we did not hear back. The Lackland Air Force Base also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. We rate these Facebook posts Fals

J.K. Rowling tweeted, “If you American birds could keep your legs closed then maybe you wouldn’t need abortions in the first place? Wizarding icon Harry Potter’s stance on abortion was not a likely question on readers' minds. That is, perhaps, until an image of a supposedly deleted tweet from "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling spread on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram on June 26, 2022. The purported tweet reads, "If you American birds could keep your legs closed then maybe you wouldn’t need abortions in the first place?" The image is made to look like it shows a real tweet. It shows Rowling’s current Twitter photo, her Twitter handle, and a blue verified check-mark. But according to her current Twitter feed and archived versions of it, Rowling never sent the tweet in the image. (Screenshot from Twitter) PolitiFact reached out to Rowling, but we did not hear back. However, a spokesperson for Rowling told Snopes and Reuters that the tweet was fake. The fake tweet spread in the wake of the June 24, 2022, U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade. The court’s decision eliminated federal protection of abortion access and turned the decision of how to regulate abortion over to the states. 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 Rowling has a history of controversial tweets about the LGBTQ community, and specifically transgender people. But she has tweeted several times in support of abortion access. On June 28, 2022, she shared a video of a British politician showing support for the Roe v. Wade decision. "More proof, as though it were needed, that women's rights are under attack across the developed world. #RoeVsWade," Rowling wrote. On May 6, 2022, following the leaked draft of the Supreme Court opinion, she tweeted that she believes, "women all over the world should have access to safe, legal abortion." We rate this viral image False

This is the 911 call placed by the migrants trapped in the truck found in San Antonio Read this fact-check in Spanish. Audio of a 911 call is being shared on Facebook incorrectly claiming it’s linked to the dozens of migrants found dead in a truck on June 27 in San Antonio. A Facebook user published the recording on June 28 with a caption in Spanish that translates to:"CALL FOR HELP RELEASED. The call for help from a migrant to 911 alerted officials over the abandoned group in the trailer,, minutes later authorities found them lifeless in San Antonio Texas United States." 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 Facebook.) In the audio, a man can be heard asking for help as he tells the operator that there are 80 people in a white tanker truck and that they cannot breathe. The operator is heard as voices cry out in the background. After searching the words "white tanker truck" PolitiFact found a video with the 911 call from the immigrants. However, the call is not from the victims of the incident in San Antonio. The audio is from a recording published on YouTube by Noticias Telemundo on Feb. 11, 2021. That reporting was about a group of immigrants who were trapped in a tanker truck. In the video, the time stamp of Feb. 8, 2021, can be seen as a white tanker truck is captured passing along the road. President Joe Biden said initial reports indicate that the incident was caused by smugglers or human traffickers and announced the beginning of a federal investigation. 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 Yesterday's loss of life in San Antonio is horrifying – my prayers are with those who lost their lives, their loved ones, and those still fighting for their lives.My Administration will continue to do everything possible to stop criminal smugglers from exploiting migrants.— President Biden (@POTUS) June 28, 2022 Federal officials say they’ve arrested four men and charged one with human smuggling resulting in death; another faces a conspiracy charge and two others face "one count of possession of a weapon by an alien illegally in the U.S." A Justice Department press release said one of the men was found at the scene of the crime where he acted as if he was one of the immigrants but was later identified as the driver of the truck by Border Patrol agents. Phone investigations linked the other three men to the incident and they were later arrested. According to the Justice Department, San Antonio police arrived at the scene after receiving 911 calls from concerned citizens. On June 27, officials discovered 48 people dead at the scene, days after, the number jumped to 53 people. Our ruling A recording published on Facebook claims to show a 911 call placed by the migrants trapped in the truck found June 27 in San Antonio. However, the recording is from an incident that occured in Feb. 8, 2021, when 80 immigrants were trapped in a tanker truck. The post wrongly identifies the incident. We rate this post False

J.D. Vance "wants to defund law enforcement." In the Ohio Senate race, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan portrays himself as a candidate that supports the police and his Republican opponent J.D. Vance as someone who does not. A Ryan TV ad features uniformed Stark County Sheriff George T. Maier standing in front of a squad car. Maier says that when Vance "calls law enforcement corrupt, it makes me angry, that makes my job harder. So does J.D.’s plan to eliminate an agency that combats violent drug traffickers." Then a message on the screen makes this claim: "J.D. Vance wants to defund law enforcement." No particular agency is identified, but the ad cites a Vance tweet from Feb. 1. In that tweet, Vance wrote that he would "fight to abolish the ATF." That’s a reference to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a law enforcement agency within the Justice Department. In the ad, Maier then makes this comparison: "Tim Ryan knows defunding the police is ridiculous," Maier says. "He’s brought back $467 million to put good cops on the street." Ryan has served in Congress for nearly 20 years. Vance, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, wants to get rid of one law enforcement agency, ATF, but he has not campaigned against defunding all law enforcement agencies. The Senate seat is opening because Republican Rob Portman is not seeking reelection. The Nov. 8 race is rated as "leans" Republican, "likely" Republican and "solid" Republican. The outcome could decide party control of the Senate, which is now split 50-50. Vance’s calls to abolish ATF The mission of the ATF is "to protect communities from violent criminals, criminal organizations and illegal use and trafficking of firearms," among other things, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Vance, an author and venture capitalist, has called several times for getting rid of the agency, including in a February opinion article published by the Cincinnati Enquirer, in tweets and in a campaign ad. His Feb. 2 tweet included a video clip of himself at a campaign event alleging that the ATF is "spying on lawful gun owners" by keeping a database of gun transactions. Joe Biden's ATF is illegally collecting information on the gun transactions of millions of law-abiding citizens & putting them into a digital database.As Senator, I'll not only lead the fight against Biden's unconstitutional gun database, I'll fight to ABOLISH the ATF. pic.twitter.com/cNY9wQ9OpW Featured Fact-check Kanye West stated on October 16, 2022 in an interview Suggests fentanyl, not Derek Chauvin, killed George Floyd By Gabrielle Settles • October 18, 2022 — J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) February 2, 2022 Vance falsely claimed in a February ad that President Joe Biden "uses the ATF to illegally track your gun transactions." The Government Accountability Office found that ATF is following the law in how it manages gun transaction records. A joint fundraising committee that raises contributions for Vance’s campaign and for his leadership PAC also ran an ad on Facebook and Instagram calling for the ATF to be abolished. Vance’s criticism of the FBI Vance has been critical of the FBI, calling for an investigation of its "corrupt leadership," accusing it of botching investigations and of spying on Trump. We found that in January, Vance retweeted a tweet that said: "The FBI is an irreparably corrupt and broken agency that needs to be defunded and eliminated." We searched Google and Vance’s Twitter feed for any other statements by Vance directly calling for abolishing or defunding the FBI, but did not find any. Vance does not list law enforcement or crime generally on the issues section of his campaign website. His campaign did not provide comment for this article. Calls to "defund the police" emerged soon after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, murdered George Floyd, a Black man, in May 2020 by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. Some of those proposals seek to eliminate police departments, others want to keep police departments while rerouting some of their funds and responsibilities to other agencies. We found no record of Vance supporting proposals to defund police departments. Our ruling Ryan said Vance "wants to defund law enforcement." Vance wants to defund the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a federal law enforcement agency. In January, he retweeted a tweet that said the FBI "needs to be defunded and eliminated." Broadly, Vance has not said he wants to defund all law enforcement agencies. We rate Ryan’s claim Half True. PolitiFact staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 campaigns RELATED: Ohio fact-checks

Esta grabación muestra una llamada al 911 de los migrantes atrapados en un camión en San Antonio, Texas Lea este artículo en inglés. Una grabación de una llamada dirigida al 911 publicada en Facebook está siendo erróneamente vinculada con el hallazgo de docenas de inmigrantes muertos en un camión el 27 de junio en San Antonio, Texas. Un usuario en Facebook publicó la grabación el 28 de junio con el comentario: "DIFUNDEN LLAMADA DE AUXILIO. La llamada de auxilio de un migrante al 911 alertaba sobre el abandono del grupo en un tráiler, minutos más tarde las autoridades los ubicaron sin vida en San Antonio Texas Estados Unidos". El post fue marcado como parte del esfuerzo de Facebook para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Facebook.) En el audio se escucha a un hombre pedir auxilio asegurando que 80 personas se encuentran en una "pipa", un camión de cisterna, de color blanca y no pueden respirar. También se escucha a la operadora y algunas voces sollozando al fondo. Una búsqueda de las palabras "una pipa blanca" conlleva a un video que presenta una llamada al 911 de parte de unos migrantes. Sin embargo, la grabación no es de las víctimas migrantes del incidente en San Antonio, Texas. El audio es una grabación de una llamada publicada en YouTube por Noticias Telemundo el 11 de febrero de 2021. Ese reportaje es sobre unos migrantes que se encontraban atrapados en un camión de cisterna. En el video se observa un camión de cisterna blanco captado por la cámara que dicta la fecha 8 de febrero de 2021 al borde en una carretera mientras el audio corre al fondo. El presidente Joe Biden dijo que los primeros reportes indican que el incidente de San Antonio es atribuido al contrabando o trafico de personas y anunció el comienzo de una investigación. 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 "La pérdida de vidas ayer en San Antonio es horrible – mis oraciones están con aquellos que perdieron la vida, sus seres queridos y aquellos que aún luchan por sobrevivir.Continuaré haciendo todo lo posible para evitar que los traficantes criminales exploten a los migrantes." https://t.co/jy7nQPgf2C— La Casa Blanca (@LaCasaBlanca) June 28, 2022 Funcionarios federales anunciaron que arrestaron a cuatro hombres y acusan a uno de ellos de contrabando de personas resultando en muerte; uno es acusado de conspiración y los dos otros son acusando de delitos de armas. Un comunicado de prensa del Departamento de Justicia aclaró que uno de los hombres fue encontrado en la escena del crimen donde se hacía pasar por un migrante antes de ser identificado como el conductor del camión por la patrulla fronteriza. Los otros tres hombres fueron detenidos luego de ser vinculados con el incidente en investigaciones telefónicas. Según el Departamento de Justicia, la policía de San Antonio llegó a la escena después de recibir llamadas al 911 de ciudadanos preocupados. Oficiales el 27 de junio descubrieron a 48 personas muertas en la escena; días después, la cifra de muertos subió a 53 personas. Nuestra calificación Una grabación publicada en Facebook dice que muestra la última llamada de un migrante al 911 antes del accidente de un camión en San Antonio, Texas el 27 de junio que cobró la vida de más de 50 personas. Sin embargo, la grabación publicada pertenece a un incidente ocurrido el 8 de febrero de 2021, cuando 80 inmigrantes estaban atrapados en un camión de cisterna sin poder respirar. La publicación identifica erróneamente la grabación. Calificamos la publicación como Falsa. ACLARACIÓN: Este artículo se actualizó poco después de su publicación para reflejar los cargos atribuidos a las cuatro personas arrestadas en relación con el incidente en San Antonio, Texas. También se actualizó para señalar que el presidente Joe Biden dijo que los primeros reportes indican que el incidente fue causado por contrabandistas o traficantes de persona

"The Supreme Court ruled that border agents can enter anyone’s home within a 100-mile radius of the border without a warrant for any reason and federal courts cannot do anything about it. Amid the flurry of June Supreme Court rulings, an alarming post gained traction on Instagram claiming that the court gave border agents unfettered permission to enter the homes of nearly 200 million Americans. "The Supreme Court ruled that border agents can enter anyone’s home within a 100-mile radius of the border without a warrant for any reason and federal courts cannot do anything about it," read the June 21 post. "2 out of 3 Americans live in this radius." 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 Facebook.) (Screengrab from Instagram) The post, which was deleted while we were checking its claim, featured an orange map of the U.S. with a thick yellow line denoting a "border enforcement zone" and highlighted cities within that area. We found similar posts on Facebook and Twitter. The post gets some small details correct: There is a 100-mile zone where agents have certain unique permissions, and nearly two-thirds of Americans live within it, according to the ACLU. But the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution still protects "against unreasonable searches and seizures" without probable cause — including by Border Patrol agents. And the Supreme Court’s ruling in Egbert v. Boule did not change what Border Patrol agents are permitted to do. The ruling addressed how citizens can legally respond if they are victims of constitutional violations. While critics of the decision argue that the ruling makes it more difficult for agents to be held accountable when they do violate people’s rights, the Instagram post’s characterization of its effect misses the mark. Scope of Border Patrol agents’ powers Limits on what exactly federal Border Patrol agents can and can’t do are outlined in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The act, first passed by Congress in 1952 and amended in 1965, serves as the primary immigration legislation in the U.S. Among its many provisions, the law outlines several unique powers of Border Patrol agents that were established "for the purpose of patrolling the border to prevent the illegal entry of aliens into the United States." The law specifies that within "100 air miles" of any "external boundary" of the U.S. border (which includes coastlines), Border Patrol agents can, without a warrant, "board and search for aliens any vessel within the territorial waters of the United States and any railway car, aircraft, conveyance, or vehicle." This means that within 100 miles from the border, Customs and Border Protection agents can board buses and trains and request immigration documentation from passengers without a warrant or probable cause. Agents may also pull over vehicles if they have "reasonable suspicion" of an immigration violation according to the ACLU. The provision continues, stating that within 25 miles of the border, agents are allowed "to have access to private lands, but not dwellings," for the purpose of preventing illegal immigration. So, while agents do have access to vehicles (within 100 miles) and private lands (within 25 miles) the law explicitly excludes access to people’s homes. And the Fourth Amendment still protects "against unreasonable searches and seizures" without probable cause. To search a vehicle or a dwelling, Border Patrol agents still need to demonstrate probable cause, or reasonable belief that a crime has been committed. 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 So, although CBP agents do have some unique powers within the 100-mile zone, those powers don’t include the ability to enter people’s homes without warrants, as the claim states. "The Supreme Court did not alter the border search exception law in any way" said Art Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at the Center for Immigration Studies, an organization that supports low levels of legal immigration. What did Egbert v. Boule do? On June 8, 2022, the Supreme Court released its 6-3 ruling in favor of Erik Egbert, the Border Patrol agent named in Egbert v. Boule. Robert Boule sued Egbert after he said the agent in 2014 entered his business, the Smuggler’s Inn on the U.S.-Canada border in Blaine, Washington, to investigate a guest suspected of entering the country illegally. Boule, who had previously served as a confidential informant for CBP, asked Egbert to leave. He claimed Egbert then "became violent, and threw Boule first against the vehicle and then to the ground." Boule sued, seeking monetary damages for violations to his constitutional rights, claiming use of excessive force and retaliation. The court found that Boule was not entitled to seek damages for the excessive force and retaliation of Egbert. But the court "did not sanction the agent’s unconstitutional actions or grant agents permission to violate people’s rights in the future," according to the ACLU. The court’s decision ultimately limits the scope of what is called a "Bivens action" — "a lawsuit for damages when a federal officer who is acting in the color of federal authority allegedly violates the U.S. Constitution," according to a definition from Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute. Bivens actions have been used in federal courts since 1971, but "the Supreme Court… has so many times said that Bivens really has limited application. And if you follow the trend of Bivens, then it is not that surprising to see what [the Supreme Court] did in this case," said Muzaffar Chishti, senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. For people seeking damages due to a violation of constitutional rights, suing an individual CBP agent through a Bivens action in federal courts is no longer a viable option, Chishti said. The majority opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas said that, except for rare circumstances, it is the job of Congress, not the courts, to address these claims. In the dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor disagreed with the ruling writing that thousands of "CBP agents are now absolutely immunized from liability in any Bivens action for damages, no matter how egregious the misconduct or resultant injury…including those engaged in ordinary law enforcement activities, like traffic stops, far removed from the border." The ACLU similarly expressed concern that the limiting of Bivens actions removes important deterrents to misconduct and limits accountability for federal agents. "They have been given more of a green signal to act aggressively in the pursuit of their job than they did before Egbert," Chishti said. Our ruling An Instagram post claimed that the Supreme Court ruled that Border Patrol agents can enter any home within 100 miles of the border without a warrant and that federal courts have no way to address it. The Supreme Court ruling in Egbert v. Boule does not grant any new powers to Border Patrol agents, who still cannot enter any home without a warrant or probable cause under the Fourth Amendment. The ruling did narrow the path that victims of excessive force and other constitutional violations have to seek monetary damages from those agents through federal courts. Critics of the decision argue the ruling makes it more difficult for agents to be held accountable when they do violate people’s rights. We rate this statement Mostly False.

“The four big meat packers are raking in record profits … Meat prices are soaring and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) wonders whether there’s been collusion among the nation’s largest meat-packing corporations. "The four big meat packers are raking in record profits," she wrote in a June 16 guest column for Fox News, which was co-authored by Brooke Miller, president of the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association. We fact checked Spanberger’s claim about profits and found it is correct. Top executives of the four major meat packing companies have sworn to Congress that they are not fixing prices, saying their record profits are instead the result of unusual economic circumstances brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Meat prices rose 12.3% over the 12-month period ending on May 31, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That outstrips the 8.6% inflation rate and a 10.1% increase in overall food prices. Spanberger introduced in April, a bill that would establish an office at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate possible antitrust violations in the meat industry. The measure, backed by Democrats, passed the House on a largely partisan vote earlier this month on June 16. A similar bill passed the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee on June 22 with broad bipartisan support. The four major meat conglomerates are JBS Foods, Tyson Foods, Cargill and Marfrig. They are the middlemen in 55% to 85% of all the beef, pork and poultry sold in the U.S., according to White House analysis released in November 2021. They buy livestock, slaughter it and process the meat, and sell it to retailers. All of them operate internationally. Profits JBS had a record net profit of $4.4 billion for the 12-month period ending March 31, 2022 — a 70% increase over the previous 12 months. Tyson had a record $4.1 billion net profit for the year ending March 31, 2022 — a 91% increase over the previous 12 months. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 13, 2022 in a post on Facebook If a sealed bag of raw poultry appears “puffy,” it means the protein is not safe to consume. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 14, 2022 Cargill is a privately-held company and isn’t required to publicly report its financial information. Bloomberg reported last August that confidential financial documents showed Cargill delivered a record $4.9 billion in net income for its fiscal year ending May 31, 2021 — up 60% over the previous 12 months. Marfrig reported a net profit of $820.1 million in 2021, a 32% increase over 2020. "This was our largest profit ever," the Brazilian-based company said in its annual report. Net income dropped during the first quarter of 2022 due to the company’s $360 million stock purchase in BRF, a Brazilian poultry and pork processor. Even so, Marfrig’s chief financial officer said it was the company’s "best operational first quarter." While profits have been soaring for the large meat packers, many ranchers and cattle farmers complain that livestock prices have remained stagnant as their business costs have increased. Many Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have accused the four conglomerates of setting prices. High-ranking executives of the four corporations, testifying before the House Agriculture Committee on April 22, said the meat industry is cyclical and a confluence of economic events have led to record profits. They said an oversupply of cattle in recent years pushed down meat prices and left farmers with more livestock than they could sell. At the same time, they said coronavirus outbreaks caused work disruptions at processing plants, leading to increases in the demand and price for meat. The CEOs also said that inflation has increased processing and transportation costs and those added expenses have been passed on to consumers. Our ruling Spanberger wrote, "The four big meat packers are raking in record profits." The big four are JBS Foods, Tyson Foods, Cargill and Marfrig. Each of the four reported record net income in the latest year-over-year financial information we could find. We rate Spanberger’s statement True.

“Joe Biden just resigned from the White House. The Jan. 6 hearings have reinvigorated national conversations about the 2020 presidential election, and fueled some stubbornly wrong claims about its outcome. For the record: President Joe Biden fairly won the election and former President Donald Trump has not continued on as commander-in-chief, despite persistent misinformation online. Another old chestnut is getting renewed attention on social media: claims that Biden is abandoning his post. "Joe Biden just resigned from the White House," one June 27 Facebook 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 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’ve previously debunked several other claims over the past year and a half that Biden resigned or was going to resign. RELATED VIDEO This new claim is also wrong. There’s no evidence that Biden has resigned. His public schedule is full of events, such as meeting other world leaders in Germany on June 28. Biden continues to make public remarks as president and his office is releasing statements on his behalf. We rate this post Pants on Fire!

No one “with a concealed carry permit ever committed a mass shooting. Weeks after massacres in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, Fox News host Greg Gutfeld falsely claimed that nobody with a concealed carry permit had ever committed a mass shooting. The comment came as Gutfeld and the co-hosts of "The Five" discussed the Supreme Court’s ruling striking down a New York law that put limits on carrying a concealed firearm in public. "I think about mass shooters," Gutfeld said June 23. "I don't believe — and someone correct me later, I won't listen — but I don't believe anybody with a concealed carry permit ever committed a mass shooting. So I think the ban itself had no role in preventing these things, right?" Now more than ever, it’s important to sort fact from fiction. Please donate to support our mission. Here’s the correction Gutfeld asked for: His claim is wrong. Concealed carry laws, which are on the books in about half the states, are laws that require a permit to carry a firearm in public. Jaclyn Schildkraut, who researches mass shootings as an associate professor of criminal justice at the State University of New York, Oswego, said there is no national registry of concealed carry permits across those states. But a "two-second Google search" shows Gutfeld’s claim is "inaccurate," Schildkraut said. "Absolutely, wholly inaccurate," added Kristen Rand, government affairs director for the nonprofit Violence Policy Center, which tracks such cases as part of its focus on reducing gun violence. Citing news reports that indicate when a mass shooter had a concealed carry permit — including articles from Fox News’s own website — the Violence Policy Center counted 37 mass shootings by concealed carry permit holders between May 2007 and May 2022. 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 The list includes the accused shooter who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in October 2018. It includes a 2017 shooting that killed three people at a Florida airport, and a 2019 shooting in which 13 people, including the shooter, died in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Violence Policy Center defines a mass shooting as a killing of three or more people; that’s in line with the definition used under a 2013 federal mandate to investigate such attacks following the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. There is no legal definition of a mass shooting, PolitiFact previously reported. Fox News did not respond to a request for comment. Gun rights advocates have often pointed to research showing that people with concealed carry permits have used their firearms to stop likely mass shootings. Daniel Webster, who co-authored a 2020 study from Johns Hopkins University, told NPR in May that his research does not support the argument that carrying guns for self defense can help stop mass shootings. "The data do not bear that out at all," said Webster, co-director of the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health. "If anything, it shows higher rates of fatal mass shootings in response to weaker regulations for concealed carry by civilians." A report Schildkraut wrote in 2018 said handguns were used in about three out of every four mass shootings. "It’s difficult to conceal anything other than a handgun due to size," she told PolitiFact. Our ruling Gutfeld said, "I don't believe anybody with a concealed carry permit ever committed a mass shooting." That’s inaccurate; there have been several such cases, including the 2018 mass shooting that left 11 dead at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. Citing media reports, the nonprofit Violence Policy Center has counted 37 mass shootings that were committed by concealed carry permit holders since 2007. We rate this claim Fals

A Texas GOP lawmaker recently introduced a bill that would allow the death penalty for women who have an abortion Social media users set off the alarm bells after seeing a news report that women in Texas could be in jeopardy of the death penalty for having an abortion. "GOP Texas lawmaker introduces bill to allow death penalty for women who have abortions," read a screenshot of the headline. An Instagram user posted the screenshot on May 7, 2022, with an added message: "When you’re so pro-life that you’re pro-death." The screenshot was also shared on Twitter. The headline began circulating after a Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked May 3, 2022. When the court released its official decision June 24, it ended the federal right to seek legal abortion, leaving regulation to the states. The Instagram post was flagged by Facebook, as part of their efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The headline is real, but it’s from a 2021 article. The underlying Texas bill died in a legislative committee. 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 The headline comes from a March 9, 2021, report in The Hill about Texas Rep. Bryan Slaton’s bill, HB 3326. That bill would have criminalized abortion as homicide, a crime that can be punishable by death. "The bill will end the discriminatory practice of terminating the life of innocent children, and will guarantee the equal protection of the laws to all Texans, no matter how small," Slaton said on Twitter March 9, 2021. HB 3326 moved to the House Committee on Public Health on March 22, 2021, but did not progress past that point. Following the release of the Supreme Court’s official ruling June 24, 2022, Slaton pledged that he would reintroduce the bill. But he hasn’t done it yet. The next legislative session in Texas will begin in January 2023. Our ruling In May 2022, social media posts shared a screenshot of a headline that said a Texas GOP lawmaker introduced a bill that would criminalize abortion through the possibility of the death penalty. That headline was true at the time, though the story was published in March 2021, not this year. The bill did not get out of committee last year. The statement is accurate but needs clarification or additional information. We rate it claim Mostly True

Photo shows a trashed venue in Glastonbury after climate activist Greta Thunberg spoke there Climate activist Greta Thunberg recently gave an impassioned speech at the annual Glastonbury Festival in England about the dangers of unmitigated climate change. In the days since, some social media users have been sharing a photo that seems to suggest Thunberg’s fans aren’t actually so serious about the environment. "The very same people who cheered and applauded Greta when she went on stage at the Glastonbury Festival and told them to ‘save the environment’ left Glastonbury looking like this," said one post sharing a picture of a field in front of a stage littered with trash in debris. But a reverse image search turned up the same image published seven years ago. 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 Facebook.) 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 Daily Mail published it with an article on June 29, 2015, with this caption: "Detritus: a reveller gingerly steps through the sea of rubbish near the Pyramid Stage as the 45th Glastonbury Festival comes to an end." We didn’t find evidence that Thunberg appeared there that year. We’ve previously fact-checked other posts seeking to contrast climate change activists' avowed values with their eco-unfriendly actions. One photo shared in 2019 was described as showing the aftermath of a climate strike demonstration. In reality, it showed a mess left after an event held months earlier for 4/20, a cannabis culture celebration. Thunberg has also been a frequent target of misinformation. Inaccurate conspiracy theories have made claims about her personal life and activism, such as one allegation that her efforts are part of a PR stunt being coordinated by her parents and a businessman, Poynter reported. That among other claims has been debunked. We rate this post False.

The Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade "made the United States an outlier among developed nations in the world" on abortion rights President Joe Biden claimed that the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade made America an aberration when it comes to abortion access. "With this decision, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court shows how extreme it is, how far removed they are from the majority of this country," Biden said a couple hours after the ruling was released on June 24. "They have made the United States an outlier among developed nations in the world." While the high court’s decision leaves in place state laws that permit abortion, it removes the national right to an abortion — something that is widely guaranteed by laws or court rulings in other developed nations. RELATED VIDEO: </div>"> See Figure 2 on PolitiFact.com With few exceptions, legal abortion is available in "peer nations," including in countries comparable to the U.S. in terms of development or in their use of a common law system, said Martha Davis, a law professor at Northeastern University who filed an amicus brief in 2021 with the court arguing that Roe should not be overturned. In U.S., abortion acccess varies The high court ruled 6-3 to uphold a restrictive Mississippi law and 5-4 to reverse Roe, with the majority opinion saying "the Constitution makes no express reference to a right to obtain an abortion." The decision ended nearly 50 years of federally protected access to abortion and returned power to individual states to set their own laws. That means access to abortion varies widely in the U.S.: Sixteen states, including California and New York, plus the District of Columbia, have passed laws allowing access to abortions. Eighteen states, including Michigan and Wisconsin, are about to see abortion become illegal soon, if not immediately. These states either have pre-Roe laws restricting abortion that snap back into effect if Roe is overturned, or they have "trigger" laws that were written to take effect in the absence of Roe. In the remaining 16 states, the legality of abortion is currently unclear, for various reasons. This includes such states as Minnesota and Pennsylvania. This lack of uniformity sets the U.S. apart from other countries. Most developed countries have a national standard for access to abortion or consistency across subnational entities rather than wide variations in laws amongst states, Davis said. In the U.S., "we’re going to have some places that are at no abortion at all," which is "clearly an outlier" among other nations, she said. Abortion in G7 nations Developed nations consisting of the world’s leading economies are sometimes referred to as the G7, or the Group of Seven, which includes the U.S. and six other industrialized nations. Unlike the U.S., those six have national laws or court decisions that allow access to abortion, with various restrictions. Canada: Allows abortion on request and there is no federal gestational restriction, but subnational governments have a variety of restrictions. United Kingdom: Allows abortion until 24 weeks of pregnancy with the authorization of two doctors — or later than that if continuation of the pregnancy past 24 weeks involves risk of grave physical and mental injury or if there are severe fetal abnormalities. In Northern Ireland, elective abortions are allowed until 12 weeks, up to 24 weeks in cases of physical and mental health of the pregnant woman (and with doctors' authorization), and afterward in such circumstances as fetal impairment. France: Restricts elective abortions after 12 to 14 weeks, but has exceptions for specific economic or mental health reasons that extend the cutoffs. 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 Germany: Restricts elective abortions after 12 to 14 weeks. Italy: Restricts elective abortions after 12 to 14 weeks. Japan: Allows abortions up to 22 weeks for socioeconomic reasons and in cases of rape, though spousal permission is required. Other developed nations also have national laws that allow abortion access. Nations that allow elective abortion until 20 weeks of pregnancy include China, the Netherlands and New Zealand. In 2020, Argentine lawmakers voted to legalize abortions up to 14 weeks. In February, Colombia legalized abortion during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. In Australia, laws vary by state or territory, but the three largest states permit abortions up to 22 to 24 weeks. Laws "vary widely from place to place," said Davis of Northeastern University, and in some countries, you might need to obtain an additional doctor's note after certain stages of pregnancy. But in many such situations "those sorts of regulations are not significant hurdles to people." "They're not used as kind of weapons in the way that sometimes they are in the United States, as a way of preventing people from from getting an abortion," she said. The three dissenting justices argued that the global trend "has been toward increased provision of legal and safe abortion care." A number of countries, including New Zealand, the Netherlands and Iceland, permit abortions up to a roughly similar time as Roe did (up to 24 weeks), and most Western European countries "often have liberal exceptions" to time-limit restrictions, including to prevent harm to a woman’s physical or mental health, they wrote. Comparing abortion laws globally, a 2022 Council on Foreign Relations report said the past 50 years have seen "an unmistakable trend toward the liberalization of abortion laws, particularly in the industrialized world." By its review, 38 countries have changed their abortion laws since 2008, and all but one of those changes "expanded the legal grounds on which women can access abortion services." The Center for Reproductive Rights said that over the past several decades, nearly 50 countries had liberalized their abortion laws. Our ruling Biden said the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade "made the United States an outlier among developed nations in the world" on abortion rights. The ruling eliminates the national right to an abortion, which puts the U.S. at odds with other developed nations, including the other six G-7 nations, most of which have laws or court rulings that provide for abortion access on a national basis, though with restrictions. The U.S. ruling does leave in place state laws that permit abortion. We rate Biden’s statement Mostly True. CLARIFICATION, June 27, 2022: This story has been clarified to reflect that the United Kingdom, which contains Northern Ireland, is a G-7 nation. It has also been updated to describe current abortion laws in Northern Ireland. RELATED VIDEO: RELATED: Fact-checking 5 claims in the final Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade RELATED: What would state laws look like in a post-Roe world? RELATED: Fact-checking Lindsey Graham on the US allowing abortions at 20 wee

“We’ve got a parole board right now that has released 20 cop killers in the last two years under Hochul. Rob Astorino, a Republican running to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul in November, said 20 people who had been convicted of killing police officers have been released on parole in the last two years. "We’ve got a parole board right now that has released 20 cop killers in the last two years under Hochul. They should all be fired," Astorino said during a June 13 GOP primary debate. Republican candidates for governor -- former Trump White House official Andrew Giuliani, businessman Harry Wilson, Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island and Astorino -- have talked extensively about crime during their campaigns. We wondered if Astorino, a former county executive in Westchester County, was correct. We reached out to the Astorino campaign, and it sent a list of 19 people convicted of killing police officers who had been released on parole dating back to December 2017. The campaign also sent a news report that quoted a union leader who said there had recently been 23 such parole board releases. Hochul became governor on Aug. 24, 2021, following the resignation of Andrew Cuomo. Hochul had been lieutenant governor since 2015, having run on a ticket with Cuomo, although lieutenant governors are elected independently of their running mates. Astorino’s campaign spokesperson, Bill O’Reilly, said that Astorino was counting all of the releases while Hochul served as lieutenant governor and governor. Of the campaign’s list of 19 parolees, three were released during Hochul’s governorship. Six were released in the last two years. We also contacted the New York City Police Benevolent Association, which tracks these releases, and John P. Nuthall, a spokesperson, sent us a list of 34 people convicted in connection with the deaths of law enforcement officers, though the union said the list may not cover every such case statewide. Like Astorino’s list, the union list went back to late 2017. On the union’s list, five people had been released since Hochul became governor, and 15 were released in the last two years. PolitiFact confirmed the names on the list by using the state's inmate and parolee look-up databases, as well as news reports about the crimes. In one case, a parolee released in April 2020 on the union list was not convicted with the murder of a police officer, but was convicted in a robbery connected to the crime. In at least two cases, the parolee was deported after release. Parole board members are appointed by the governor, and must be confirmed by the state Senate. They serve six-year terms, and can be re-appointed. There are 19 spots on the board, though not all are filled. Many were appointed by prior governors, though Hochul had a recent appointment. Featured Fact-check Levar Stoney stated on October 26, 2022 in a news conference. “I don’t get involved in the hiring and firing of police chiefs.” By Warren Fiske • November 2, 2022 We spoke with Martin F. Horn, a former executive director and chief operating officer of the New York State Division of Parole, who said that the governor's influence is indirect, and the board works independently. However, members generally want to get re-appointed, and tend to follow the governor’s political preferences. If they sense the governor is tough on crime, then they tend to be tough on crime too. But Horn said that governors generally don’t have influence on a case-by-case basis, and cannot remove members based on individual decisions. He could not recall a time when a governor asked for a certain ruling from the board for an inmate. The board sits in panels of three, and the panels are randomized, so it would be difficult to engineer a predetermined outcome for a specific inmate, Horn said. Lieutenant governors do not have influence over the board, he said. The state Parole Board falls within the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Spokespeople for the department declined to speak on the record about the number of people recently released on parole who had been convicted in connection with the death of a law enforcement officer. A Freedom of Information Act request for this information was not immediately fulfilled. Our ruling At the GOP debate, Astorino said 20 people convicted of killing law enforcement officers were released in the last two years, under Hochul. Hochul became governor less than a year ago. Before that she was lieutenant governor. The governor appoints members of the parole board, and they must be confirmed by the Senate. The members are not appointed by the lieutenant governor. Asked for evidence of his claim, Astorino's campaign provided a list of 19 people who had been convicted of killing a law enforcement officer and had been released on parole since late 2017. Only six had been paroled in the last two years, and only three had been paroled since Hochul became governor. A more comprehensive list from a police union showed 15 had been paroled in the last two years, and five since Hochul became governor. Astorino’s campaign said the candidate included all of the parolees convicted in a police officer’s death since Hochul was lieutenant governor or governor. While Astorino’s tally of those parolees was 19, a police union list showed 34 such releases dating back four and a half years. But that is not what he said at the debate. Astorino said parole releases in the past two years, giving listeners the wrong impression about the time frame of these releases. We rate this claim False

Recent research suggests that 15% of abortions are the result of coercion What leads women to seek abortions? A statistic shared by a pro-abortion group suggested one alarming reason: coercion. As the United States Supreme Court on June 24 handed down its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case that gave women the constitutional right to an abortion, PolitiFact sought to learn more about the source of claims like this one. In this case, the coercion statistic came from the United Kingdom — and it didn’t show what a tweet from the pro-abortion group suggested. Its source was a poll commissioned by the BBC in February that sought to evaluate how common it is for women to experience what is called "reproductive coercion." That’s a term used to describe a number of scenarios, including forcing people to have abortions they don't want, or damaging or hiding contraceptives to force a pregnancy. The survey, which involved 1,060 women in the United Kingdom aged 18 to 44, found that 50% of participants said they had experienced at least one type of reproductive coercion, according to the BBC. An anti-abortion group in the U.S. elevated one aspect of the survey’s findings. "We know that many babies are alive today because their mothers did receive that unexpected help," the National Right to Life Committee tweeted May 25. "With recent research suggesting 15% of abortions are the result of coercion, that support is even more critical." The tweet links to a Right to Life UK story and is a shortened version of a quote by a spokesperson for Compassion Scotland, a group that campaigns against the implementation of buffer zones around clinics and hospitals that offer abortion. Spokesperson Hannah McNicol was quoted saying that women facing unplanned pregnancies deserve "emotional and practical support" and added that research suggests "15% of abortions are the result of coercion." In the poll, 158 women — about 15% of the survey’s participants — said they had experienced pressure to terminate a pregnancy when they didn't want to. But these women did not indicate whether they got abortions, and the survey doesn’t reveal the source of the coercion. "I definitely think that statistic has to consider a bit more context," said Kamila Alexander, a nurse clinician and researcher of reproductive coercion at Johns Hopkins University. "The challenge with the way we measure (reproductive coercion) is that we ask women (in this case) to report the intentions of another party. Essentially, we are asking them to get into the mind of the person using the behaviors towards them." We couldn’t find any study on the percentage of coerced abortions in the United States. 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 The National Right to Life Committee told us the comments from their tweet are from Right to Life UK, and that the two organizations are unrelated. "The qualifying word in this quote and the tweet is ‘suggesting’ because that is what the study does. It suggests this is the case, but Right to Life UK can't say it definitely because it was only a survey and was limited," the committee told us in an email. Women who are actively seeking an abortion in the U.S. are not asked if they are coerced into doing so, the group said. Reproductive coercion and BBC’s survey Reproductive coercion is when someone uses pregnancy, contraception and sex as control. This type of coercion can take many forms and can come from different people, but the acts are often carried out by a person’s intimate partner, researchers have found. Examples of this type of coercion include threatening to have a baby with someone else if the person doesn’t conceive, using violence to coerce a pregnancy, purposely breaking a condom, forcing a partner to terminate a pregnancy when they don’t want to, or injuring them in a way that may cause a miscarriage. It can also involve destroying contraceptives or creating barriers to birth control. The survey’s question about abortion coercion asked the women to answer whether they had experienced "pressure to terminate a pregnancy when you did not want to." Respondents were able to select among four answers: "have experienced," "have not experienced," "don’t know" or "prefer not to say." Alexander, the nurse clinician and researcher at Johns Hopkins University, said she looked at the data in the U.K. study and saw that the root of the question — about pressure to terminate a pregnancy — doesn’t specify the source of the coercion. Some studies show that family members, particularly mothers and mothers-in-law, can be influential "around abortion decision-making," Alexander said. According to the BBC, a third of women who completed the survey said they had experienced pressure to have sex without contraception, making it the most common form of reproductive coercion in the survey. One-fifth said they had been forced to have sex without contraception. The survey also found that 1 in 10 of the women said they had experienced someone hiding, withholding or damaging their contraception, like poking holes in a condom on purpose. One in 10 also said they had experienced someone removing a condom during sex without consent, or "stealthing." Our ruling Tweets claimed that research suggests that 15% of abortions are the result of coercion. The figure is based on a survey of about 1,000 women in the U.K. About 15% of the survey’s participants said they had experienced pressure to terminate a pregnancy when they didn't want to. Contrary to the tweet, the women did not confirm whether they got an abortion. The survey also found that some women had been forced to have sex without contraception, had contraception damaged or withheld from them, and felt pressured to continue a pregnancy. The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False

“In Virginia, Black people are eight times (8X) more likely than white people to die of gun homicide. Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney recently lashed out at State Health Commissioner Colin Greene for dismissing racism as a public health issue and characterizing gun violence as a "Democratic talking point." "It is offensive and severely out of touch to call ‘gun violence’ a Democratic talking point — especially when, on average, 1,065 people die by guns per year in Virginia," Stoney tweeted June 16. "Moreover, according to the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], firearms are the leading cause of death for children nationally, and in Virginia Black people are eight times more likely than white people to die of gun homicide. EIGHT TIMES," Stoney wrote. We fact-checked Stoney’s figure about the increased probability Black Virginians face of being murdered by a gun when compared with white people. His spokesperson pointed to research from the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety that indeed found Black people in Virginia were eight times more likely than white people to be victims of firearm homicides between 2016 to 2020. Everytown attributed the statistic and others in its report to the CDC. So, we went to the CDC’s national database of underlying causes of death to examine the numbers. Here’s what we found about Virginia from 2016 to 2020: White people comprised 63% of Virginia’s population; Black people made up 20%. There were 1,814 gun homicides, killing 1,269 Black people and 518 white people. In other words, 70% of victims were Black and 29% white. Out of every 100,000 Black people living in Virginia, 14.3 were killed in a firearm homicide. Per 100,000 white Virginians, 1.7 were killed in that manner. The firearm murder rate for Black people was 8.4 times higher than the rate for white people. Everytown accurately rounded down to eight times, the number Stoney used. 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 Nationally, Black people were 11.2 times more likely than white people to be murdered by firearms. The rates were 21.3 per 100,000 for Black people and 1.9 per 100,000 for white people. The racial disparity is even wider among males, who were victims in 85% of U.S. firearm homicides from 2016 to 2020. Nationally, 39.7 per 100,000 Black males were killed in gun homicides compared with 2.8 white males per 100,000. Black males were 14.2 times more likely to be murdered by firearms. In Virginia, 26.1 per 100,000 Black males were gun homicide victims compared with 2.4 per 100,000 white males. Black males were 10.9 times more likely to be murdered by firearms. In Richmond, 65.6 Black males per 100,000 were firearm homicide victims. The CDC does not have a corresponding figure for white males. We should finally note that Greene, the health commissioner, has been roundly criticized for his comments, including by the person who appointed him: Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Greene has tempered his statements dismissing the role of structural racism in public health since they were first reported by The Washington Post on June 15. Our ruling Stoney said, "In Virginia, Black people are eight times (8X) more likely than white people to die of gun homicide." CDC figures show that 14.3 out of every 100,000 Black Virginians were killed in gun homicides from 2016 to 2020. The rate for white people was 1.7 per 100,000. In other words, Black people in Virginia were 8.4 times more likely than white people to be murdered by firearms. A report cited by Stoney accurately rounded the figure down to eight times more likely. We rate Stoney’s statement Tru

“American oil is … more affordable” than foreign oil For House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., President Joe Biden’s planned meeting with Saudi Arabian leaders — including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, who U.S. intelligence concluded ordered the murder of a Saudi dissident — was proof of a flawed policy. "A 12-hour, non-stop international flight," McCarthy tweeted June 17. "That’s how far President Biden would rather travel to plead for Saudi Arabian oil rather than simply issue more drilling permits to producers here at home. American oil is cleaner. More reliable. And more affordable. Put America FIRST!" We focused on the pocketbook issue in that tweet. Americans are struggling with gas prices that top $5 a gallon, and McCarthy’s pitch that oil from home is more affordable might seem like common sense. Shipping oil across an ocean sounds more expensive than pumping it here at home. But the power of global market pricing and the cost of getting oil out of the ground and to refineries undercut McCarthy’s claim. Gas prices in brief McCarthy’s spokesperson Mark Bednar said the proof lies in the law of supply and demand. "If we had more American energy production, we could lower the global price by increasing supply," Bednar said. McCarthy’s tweet didn’t say domestic production would lead to lower prices. It said domestic oil was, in itself, more affordable compared with Saudi Arabian oil. But even accounting for Bednar’s explanation, McCarthy’s statement runs into a problem of scale. The global market is huge, and American production is relatively small, said analysts with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a branch of the Federal Reserve System. "Even under the most optimistic view, U.S. production increases would likely add only a few hundred thousand barrels per day above current forecasts," the analysts wrote in May. "This amounts to a proverbial drop in the bucket in the 100-million-barrel-per-day global oil market." Global markets matter because the single biggest factor behind the price of gasoline is the price of crude oil. Refineries change crude oil into petroleum products to fuel vehicles. In April, crude oil accounted for 60% of the price of gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Since the initial economic wallop from the coronavirus in the spring of 2020, demand for oil has risen steadily as business activity has increased. Supply hasn’t been able to keep up due to delays in restoring drilling capacity, higher transportation costs, and sluggish production increases. And the price of oil on the global market is what American gasoline producers have to deal with. "The first thing to know about oil is that it is set on a GLOBAL market," MIT energy economist Christopher Knittel tweeted in March. "There is, effectively, one price. So, any supply disruption, anywhere, affects that price and therefore prices in the U.S." It’s not as though increased domestic production would have no impact, but Knittel said it would be diluted. If American production rose by a whopping 10%, it would add over 1 million barrels a day to global supplies. 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 "Sadly, that's only 1% of world production," Knittel wrote. "Would it lower prices? Sure. But not by as much as people often think." And a production hike would take time. Today, the U.S. produces 11.7 million barrels a day. Government forecasters estimate it will take about another year before the country adds another million barrels to that. For those who argue that trend is because of Biden administration policies, it’s oil producers who have held back investments, as they balance financial goals against the future price of oil. Domestic oil costs more Looking at what McCarthy actually said — that domestic oil is itself more affordable — the numbers don’t back that up. Saudi oil is easily produced, and transporting it is not a major factor. "The costs of importing oil from Saudi Arabia are very low," said Eric Lewis, an energy economist at Texas A&M University. "Shipping overseas from a place that has oil export facilities is easy." In talking about affordability, McCarthy introduced an ambiguous concept. Affordability could be limited to the cost of just getting the oil out of the ground. It could mean that cost, plus the expense of moving the oil to a refinery. The Energy Information Administration tracks how much refiners pay for domestic and imported oil. In the past 10 years, domestic oil has cost more. You have to go back to November 2012 to find a month when the cost of a barrel of domestic oil was less than a barrel of imported oil. In April, the most recent month for which we have numbers, a barrel of domestic oil cost $7.13 more than a barrel of imported oil. Since February 2021 — the month when the price returned to its pre-pandemic level — domestic oil has cost an average of $4.06 more per barrel. !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"); It doesn’t help McCarthy’s case if we look solely at the cost of getting oil out of the ground. In terms of data, this is a tricky area. Particularly for the world’s second largest producer, Saudi Arabia, energy analyst Lutz Kilian at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said there is no official source. "Saudi Arabia’s numbers are a closely guarded state secret, but are thought to be very low," Kilian said, referring to Saudi production costs. The private energy research firm Rystad Energy has a unique way of measuring what it takes to produce oil in different regions. Rystad’s yardstick looks at future costs, and so might not match other methods of estimating production costs. But if nothing else, it helps show how different production regions stand relative to each other. In Rystad’s 2020 analysis, at $31 a barrel, onshore Middle Eastern oil fields have the world’s lowest production cost. For deepwater wells, which would include some U.S. production, the number is $43 a barrel, and for North American oil produced through fracking (hydraulic fracturing), the cost is $44 a barrel. Other North American sources cost even more. Again, U.S. oil costs more than oil from Saudi Arabia and its neighbors. Our ruling McCarthy said that domestic oil is "more affordable" than foreign oil. His spokesperson said that was true because more oil from the U.S. would increase global supplies and lead to lower prices. That isn’t what McCarthy’s tweet said, but even if that’s what he had in mind, experts said any impact on the price of gasoline would take about a year to materialize and would be modest even then. Taking McCarthy’s words at face value, domestic oil is not more affordable. Whether looking at the price paid by refineries, or the simple cost of production, domestic oil costs more than imported oil. We rate this claim False.

According to International Olympic Committee data, “an average of 29 athletes under the age of 35 suffered sudden death per year from 1966 to 2004. From March 2021 to March 2022, 769 athletes have died or suffered cardiac arrest. Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome, also known as SADS, has been studied for years. The syndrome is caused by an undetected genetic heart condition and often occurs in young adulthood. But ever since COVID-19 vaccines were released in late 2020, people have continually suggested that the shots are making SADS more common. Articles and social media posts have highlighted instances of young athletes collapsing during games, with claims that the rate of these occurrences are way up since the vaccines came to market. Take this Instagram post: "SADS — according to International Olympic Committee data, an average of 29 athletes under the age of 35 suffer sudden death per year from 1966-2004. From March 2021 to March 2022, 769 athletes have died or suffered cardiac arrest." 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.) There are a number of issues here. First: the data itself. While the study that the post described as "International Olympic Committee data" only reflects sudden deaths, the 769 figure it is being compared with incorporates deaths and cardiac arrest episodes that did not result in death. PolitiFact’s review of some of the reports that were counted in that figure also found the number included reports of cases that didn’t involve any emergency medical episodes at all. Second, the study that the Instagram post said looked at sudden cardiac deaths in athletes from 1966 to 2004 wasn’t, as it suggested, conducted by the International Olympic Committee. Rather, the findings were presented at a Dec. 7, 2004, committee meeting by researchers affiliated with the University Hospital Center in Lausanne, Switzerland. We were unable to get in touch with researchers involved in that study for more details or updated figures, and the International Olympic Committee told us that it doesn’t track this kind of data. The 769 figure, meanwhile, comes from an April 2022 segment on One America News Network, a conservative cable news service that in the past has shared problematic claims related to COVID-19. In the clip, reporter Pearson Sharp talked about how tennis players Jannik Sinner and Paula Badosa had to drop out of the Miami Open in 2021. Sharp then said the women were just two of "more than 769 athletes who have collapsed during a game on the field over the last year from March of 2021 to March of this year." However, Sinner and Badosa did not collapse during any match. Tennis officials confirmed that Sinner was suffering from foot blisters and Badosa had a viral illness at the time. We reached out to Sharp about the data he used to get the figure. He told us the deaths and injuries were taken directly from headlines collected over the past year from around the world and sent several examples. But PolitiFact — and others — have repeatedly investigated the incidents cited in these claims. The details of these episodes show that vaccines are neither causing athletes to collapse, nor are they connected to other sudden death episodes. A review of the articles Sharp sent over also showed that the reports aren’t consistent. Some cite medical professionals who ruled out vaccination as a cause. Others don’t include any information on the athlete’s vaccination status. And some were about athletes that neither collapsed nor experienced a cardiac event. One of the examples is Gilbert Kwemoi, a Gold medalist middle-distance runner from Kenya who collapsed in his home and died in August 2021. None of the reports about his death that we reviewed indicate whether he was vaccinated against COVID-19 or if it was a cardiac event that caused his death. His brother told news outlets that Kwemoi had developed an "illness" at a training camp. Another is French soccer player Franck Berrier, who died of a heart attack in August 2021 while playing tennis. But Berrier, before the vaccines were on the market, had acknowledged that he had a heart condition. 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 Berrier was quoted in 2019 to have said that his heart was only working "at 70%" "There is no danger in day-to-day life," Berrier said, "but if I put too much strain on it there's the risk that blood won't be pumped in fast enough and I'll have a heart attack." Sharp cited stories about the deaths of Ahmed Amin, an Egyptian soccer player, and Avi Barot, an Indian cricketer. But they make no mention of whether the men received a vaccine, or what their causes of death were. Sharp also pointed to the case of Kjeld Nuis, a Dutch speed skater. Nuis briefly developed pericarditis after receiving Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine but he didn’t collapse during any sporting event and he didn’t say whether his vaccination contributed to his heart problem or whether it was linked to his athletic activity. After experiencing some flu-like symptoms and chest pressure, Nuis said he was examined by his sports doctor and cardiologist. "Was immediately able to go the next day and after a heart film, ultrasound and an MRI. Everything seems to be fine! Now at training camp," the skater said on his Instagram page. Another popular example in claims like the one on Instagram is the collapse of Danish soccer player Christian Eriksen. But Eriksen, according to his team director, wasn’t vaccinated for COVID-19 when he suffered cardiac arrest during a match in June 2021. "To date, I am not aware of a single COVID vaccine-related cardiac complication in professional sports," Matthew Martinez, a sports cardiologist who works with the National Football League, National Basketball Association, National Hockey League and Major League Soccer and who is the director of sports cardiology at Morristown Medical Center in New Jersey told us in December. Martinez reaffirmed that observation when we reached out to him again in June. The same goes for Jonathan Kim, an associate professor of medicine and chief of sports cardiology at Emory University in Atlanta. "I am not aware of any reports that vaccines in athletes are causing cardiac issues," he said. Vaccines don’t increase deaths Studies and scientific reviews found no association between vaccination and deaths in anyone — adults or children — except in rare cases, according to a 2015 study. More recently, following the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, a 2021 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no increased risk for death among those vaccinated for COVID-19. According to the Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes Foundation, SADS conditions are genetic heart problems that can cause sudden death in young, apparently healthy, people. Warning signs of SADS conditions include family history of sudden, unexplained death under age 40, fainting or seizure during exercise, excitement or startle, and consistent or unusual chest pain and/or shortness of breath during exercise, the SADS foundation said. These conditions have been studied for decades, and the foundation told PolitiFact that there is "no evidence" suggesting that any of the COVID-19 vaccines cause people to develop SADS conditions, or make people’s conditions more severe. Dr. Michael J. Ackerman, director of the Long QT Syndrome Clinic and professor of medicine, pediatrics and molecular pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine said there is not a "single signal" of increased SADS events among diagnosed and treated patients who’ve been vaccinated. "Over two years into the pandemic, there’s been no indication in the largest programs in the world of an increase in death from these conditions," Ackerman said. Our ruling An Instagram post claims that an average of 29 young athletes suffered sudden death per year from 1966 to 2004, while 769 athletes have died or suffered cardiac arrest from March 2021 to March 2022, suggesting the COVID-19 vaccines have caused a spike in sudden deaths. A study published in 2006 found that an average of 29 young athletes experienced sudden deaths over a nearly 40-year span, but there is no comparable study to weigh it against. The 769 figure is based on a collection of articles that incorporate reports of athlete deaths, cardiac arrest incidents and various incomplete anecdotes that didn’t involve any emergency medical episodes or have any confirmed connection to the vaccines. Studies and scientific reviews have found no association between vaccination and sudden deaths, and officials with the SADS foundation, as well as sports cardiologists, say there is no evidence that suggests any of the COVID-19 vaccines cause people to experience sudden death. We rate this Fals

Adam Laxalt "wants to restrict" and "worked to limit access to birth control. Amid the anticipated reversal of Roe v. Wade by the U.S. Supreme Court, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., attacked her election opponent over access to birth control. In a race that could decide party control of the Senate, which is now split 50-50, Cortez Masto targeted Republican Adam Laxalt in a 15-second video ad on Facebook and Instagram. "Women’s health care is under assault, and Adam Laxalt is leading the charge," the narrator says as a Politico headline appears about the the Supreme Court’s leaked draft decision, which indicated the court is poised to overturn the national right to abortion. "He supports eliminating Nevada's protections for legal abortions. He even wants to restrict access to birth control," the narrator says. Text on the screen went further: "Laxalt worked to limit access to birth control," it said. Laxalt is endorsed by former President Donald Trump. The ad’s claim about Laxalt getting rid of Nevada's protections for legal abortions is Half True. We did not find evidence that Laxalt supports entirely eliminating protections for legal abortions. But when asked about presenting Nevada voters with a referendum that would restrict abortion access, he indicated he would support it. On the birth control claim, Laxalt has not campaigned on limiting access. But as Nevada’s attorney general, he participated in efforts to reduce access to contraceptives. Cortez Masto’s evidence Democrats hope that the leak of the draft opinion could energize their voters in the Nov. 8 race, which campaign watchers rate as a toss-up. Cortez Masto, a first-term senator, is the first Latina to serve in the Senate. As evidence for the ad’s claim, Cortez Masto’s campaign cited two legal briefs Laxalt joined and a letter he signed as attorney general. In 2015, Laxalt announced that he joined on behalf of Nevada, along with other state attorneys general, in filing a U.S. Supreme Court brief against a national mandate for employers to provide free contraception to employees. The amicus, or friend-of-the-court, brief was filed in support of a lawsuit filed by the Little Sisters of the Poor against the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Amicus briefs are filed by people or groups who are not parties to the case but have a strong interest in the case and want to persuade the court’s ruling. 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 Little Sisters, a Catholic order, sued to be exempted from the Affordable Care Act’s rule that employer health plans offer free contraceptive coverage. The litigation revolved around whether sincerely held religious or moral objections to contraceptives would allow the employer to sidestep that requirement. "This brief encourages the Supreme Court to take the necessary steps toward ensuring that our government and our courts do not force people of faith to violate their religious beliefs," Laxalt was quoted as saying in a press release announcing the filing. The case was eventually consolidated with several related cases and argued before the Supreme Court. Laxalt also joined in filing a brief in support of religious organizations in the consolidated case. In 2016, Laxalt acted on behalf of Nevada, joining a Supreme Court amicus brief in support of Washington state pharmacists who refused to, against regulations, dispense emergency contraception pills on religious grounds. In 2018, Laxalt and other attorneys general signed a letter to the secretary of Health and Human Services expressing support for regulations to protect health care workers who object to performing certain medical procedures. The letter said contraception, sterilization procedures, abortions and other procedures "all raise serious dilemmas for healthcare providers who hold a wide range of religious and moral convictions." Laxalt’s campaign did not respond to PolitiFact’s call and emails. His campaign website describes Laxalt as "pro-life" but does not address the topic of birth control. We searched Google, Newspapers.com, the Nexis news database and Laxalt’s Twitter account but did not find any statements by Laxalt since 2018 on birth control access. Our ruling Cortez Masto said Laxalt "wants to restrict" and "worked to limit access to birth control." As Nevada’s attorney general, Laxalt supported efforts that would have reduced access to birth control. We did not find that he has made any statements since 2018 on restricting access. We rate the statement Mostly True. PolitiFact staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 campaigns RELATED: What would state laws look like in a post-Roe world? RELATED: The race for the Nevada Senate seat: A guid

Adam Laxalt "supports eliminating Nevada's protections for legal abortions. Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is drawing on fears about abortion restrictions to repel a challenge from Republican Adam Laxalt in a tossup race that could decide party control of the Senate, which is now split 50-50. "Women’s health care is under assault, and Adam Laxalt is leading the charge," the narrator said in a 15-second video ad Cortez Masto shared on Facebook and Instagram. On screen, a Politico headline appears about the U.S. Supreme Court draft decision that, if finalized, would overturn abortion rights. "Laxalt supports eliminating Nevada's protections for legal abortions," the narrator continues. "He even wants to restrict access to birth control." Text on the screen went further: "Laxalt worked to limit access to birth control," it said. We rated the claim about Laxalt and restrictions to birth control as Mostly True. As Nevada's attorney general, Laxalt supported efforts that would have restricted access to birth control. But he hasn’t spoken publicly about this issue during his Senate campaign. On the abortion claim, we didn’t find that Laxalt has said he would entirely eliminate abortion protections. But he supports holding a referendum asking Nevada voters to restrict abortion after 13 weeks of pregnancy. That would be a tighter restriction than under current Nevada law. Laxalt’s campaign did not respond to our call and emails. His campaign website describes Laxalt as "pro-life" and says he opposes taxpayer funding for abortions." It also says he opposes codifying "barbaric partial-birth abortion practices as federal law." Roe and abortion rights in Nevada Abortion rights became a pivotal election issue after the May 2 leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case. If the draft is finalized, it would effectively eliminate the national right to an abortion and leave it up to each state to decide their own policies. Nevada is one of 16 states, plus the District of Columbia, that has passed laws protecting access to abortions. Nevada law allows abortion through 24 weeks of pregnancy and after 24 weeks, if it is to preserve the woman’s life or health. Nevada’s law was passed by the state legislature and later adopted by voters in a 1990 referendum, which passed with 63% of the vote. In Nevada, when a statute is affirmed by voters in a referendum, it can only be changed by another referendum. So the state’s abortion protections would stay in place even if Roe were overturned. Nevada’s law would be superseded, however, if there were a national law banning abortion. Laxalt on abortion referendum After Politico published the Supreme Court draft, Laxalt said in a statement that if the draft reflects the court’s ultimate ruling, it would be an "historic victory for the sanctity of life." But, alluding to the 1990 referendum, he said that even if Roe were overturned, Nevadans had "already voted to make abortion rights legal in our state," and that the matter is "settled law." Laxalt has not campaigned on restricting abortion access but, he has indicated support for going to Nevada voters with a new referendum that would restrict abortion after 13 weeks. 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 Cortez Masto’s campaign cited as evidence for its claim a May 14 opinion article by a Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist giving advice to Nevada Republicans. "Propose sending voters a 13-week abortion ban with exceptions for physical health, rape and incest. The Legislature could pass and the governor could sign a 13-week ban that goes into effect only if voters support it," Victor Joecks wrote. When asked, Laxalt said he "would support this," the column said. "This position is much more in line with the vast majority of Nevadans," the column quotes Laxalt as saying. In 2018, while running for governor, Laxalt was asked by a Reno TV reporter if he would pursue a referendum to change the 1990 referendum. "We’re going to look into it," he replied. This is not the only time Cortez Masto, a first-term senator and the first Latina to serve in the Senate, has attacked Laxalt on abortion rights. Another ad claimed, without citing evidence, that Laxalt would vote for a nationwide abortion ban. A Las Vegas TV station asked Laxalt on May 13 whether he would support an effort to ban abortion nationally if Roe were overturned. "Roe was wrongly decided … I think this needs to go to the states and, as I said, Nevada is obviously decided in their referendum," he said. As attorney general, Laxalt filed court briefs supporting efforts to restrict abortion access in other states, and one in support of crisis pregnancy centers, which counsel women against getting abortions. Those cases would not have affected abortion access in Nevada. Our ruling Cortez Masto said Laxalt "supports eliminating Nevada's protections for legal abortions." Laxalt has said that the matter of abortion rights in Nevada is settled law. Nevada law allows abortion through 24 weeks of pregnancy and after 24 weeks, if it is to preserve the woman’s life or health. However, Laxalt has also said that if the Supreme Court overturned Roe, it would be a "​​historic victory for the sanctity of life." Additionally, he has expressed support for a referendum that would ask Nevada voters about restricting access to abortions in the state. Cortez Masto’s claim about Laxalt is partially accurate. We rate it Half True. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 campaigns RELATED: What would state laws look like in a post-Roe world? RELATED: The race for the Nevada Senate seat: A gui

“When you have unemployment below 4% and inflation above 4%, recession always follows within two years. Amid the public outcry over inflation hitting 40-year highs, Harvard economist Larry Summers — one of the earliest and most vocal figures to warn that inflation was more worrisome than many policymakers believed — has become something of an oracle on the topic, appearing frequently in print, on television, and even sharing a phone call with President Joe Biden. Summers, a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations but considered something of a centrist, has taken to articulating a clear message. Summers says the current high inflation rate needs to be taken seriously, but he adds that trying to combat it necessarily risks another problem: tipping the economy into a recession. On June 17, Summers told Barron’s that "when you have unemployment below 4% and inflation above 4%, recession always follows within two years." (Summers used the same formula in an interview with NBC’s "Meet the Press" two days later.) Currently, the unemployment rate is 3.6% and the inflation rate is 8.6%, so if Summers’ rule is correct, then the U.S. should be facing a recession sometime in the next 24 months. Economists told us that the theory behind Summer’s broader point is solid: To tackle inflation, the Federal Reserve needs to hike interest rates, and doing so will inevitably hamper business expansion, which increases the likelihood of layoffs and slower economic growth. Even if Summers’ logic is sound based on economic theory, we found that Summers’ formula, at least as stated in media appearances, is at best oversimplified and under-nuanced. Summers’ premise — that there are a decent number of time periods when unemployment was below 4% at the same time inflation was above 4% — has problems from the start. In reality, there haven’t been many such periods. Let’s start by looking just at the periods when unemployment was below 4%. Since 1948, unemployment has been this low only on four general occasions. • January 1951 to November 1953, or 35 months. • February 1957 to April 1957, or three months. • February 1966 to December 1969, or 47 months. • April 2000, and September 2000 to December 2000, or five months. So, before mid-2018, there were a grand total of five months since 1970 in which unemployment was under 4%. That's less than 1% of the months over the past half century or so. Unemployment has also been below 4% between mid-2018 and the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, and also from December 2021 to the present. But the pandemic recession was an oddity caused by an external factor, and it is this recent period of employment that Summers is using to predict the next recession, so it can’t also be used as historic precedent. Meanwhile, this is before we factor in high inflation. We cross-checked the months of sub-4% unemployment with inflation rates and found that none of the five months in 2000 also had inflation above 4%. 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 In other words, during the nearly half-century from 1970 to 2018, there was not a single example of Summers' stated condition — unemployment under 4% and inflation over 4% — ever existing. There are some earlier examples, at least in a limited way. For about a year in 1951, unemployment was under 4% while inflation was above 4%. But inflation then dropped to 1.1% or less for the six months immediately before a recession in 1953, so this is not unequivocal evidence for Summers’ larger point about high inflation being a precursor to a recession. We found only one clear example of Summers’ rule holding — a two-year period in 1968 and 1969 when unemployment was under 4% and inflation was above 4%. That came in the immediate run-up to a recession. Still, this means there’s just one example of Summers’ rule holding over nearly 75 years of economic data. That’s not exactly ironclad empirical evidence. This is known in data analysis as the "small-n" problem, short for "small number of examples." Social scientists and economists generally warn against drawing sweeping conclusions based on small numbers of examples. So what’s going on with Summers’ rule? We didn’t hear back from Summers, but we did hear back from a research collaborator of his, Alex Domash of the Harvard Kennedy School. When Domash walked us through the supporting data, it became clearer to us that the research upon which Summers was basing his formula had more nuances than his talking point to journalists indicated. Domash pointed us to a blog post that is the source of Summers’ talking point. In it, he and Summers examined data similar to what PolitiFact used, although they used quarterly figures rather than monthly figures. A chart in the blog post breaks down the data in some detail. It covers every quarter from 1955 to 2019, or 256 separate quarters. Using the thresholds cited by Summers in his media interviews — inflation above 4% and unemployment below 4% — they found that the likelihood of a recession was 100%. However, these conditions existed only in seven quarters out of 256, or less than 3% of the time. Domash told PolitiFact that the "small-n" issue "is a valid critique," and one that he has since sought to improve upon by enlarging the base of research. He said he recently used the same analysis to study 30 member nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of richer nations, and found that low unemployment and high inflation made the probability of an impending recession "around 90%." Still, Summers’ offering of a straightforward formula in the media obscures the reality that there’s barely any historical precedent, making it less than a robust method for extrapolating into the future. Our ruling Summers said, "When you have unemployment below 4% and inflation above 4%, recession always follows within two years." His prediction of a future recession is well-supported by economic theory and common sense, and it may come to fruition. However, his statements in the media go beyond that: They seek to elevate a prediction based theory into an empirical certainty based on lived history. He’s saying that if the current unemployment and inflation rates meet an ironclad threshold, a recession is historically guaranteed. A big reason why the likelihood of a recession is 100% under these conditions is that these conditions almost never occur. During the nearly half-century from 1970 to 2018 — the part of the data set that is most similar to today’s economy — there was not a single example of Summers' stated conditions occurring. That’s not much of a basis for this sweeping formula. We rate his statement Mostly Fals

“Joe Biden’s margin of the less than 21,000 votes in Wisconsin was the tightest of any state in 2020. The 2020 election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden has been an ever-lasting topic for the Wisconsin Republicans running for governor. Indeed, at least one of them is trying to raise money based on how tight the election is, noting money is needed to return a Republican to the governor’s office. "Joe Biden’s margin of the less than 21,000 votes in Wisconsin was the tightest of any state in 2020," former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch noted in a June 8, 2022 email. "Make no mistake, the Left knows exactly what’s on the line in the Badger State this year." Was Biden’s win in Wisconsin the tightest of any state? That’s not how we remember it. Third smallest margin in 2020 When asked for backup, Kleefisch’s team said the fundraising email contained an error and should read that the margin in Wisconsin was among the tightest in any state. Alec Zimmerman, communications director for the Kleefisch campaign, said the error was promptly corrected in a follow-up email, but when asked, did not share a corrected email – nor could Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff members who received the first email find any corrected one in their inboxes. Let’s go to the numbers. According to a December 2020 NPR article, two other states came in with a smaller margin than the 20,682 votes by which Democrat Joe Biden topped then-President Donald Trump in Wisconsin. 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 Arizona, Biden won by 10,457 votes, and in Georgia, he won by 12,670 votes. In some of the other battleground states, the margins were larger. In Michigan, Biden won by more than 154,000 votes, in Nevada by more than 33,000 and in Pennsylvania by more than 81,000 votes. The situation is similar if you look at the margin by percentage of the vote in the six states, according to a Cook Political analysis of the 2020 election. Here is a look at the states, and the margin by which Biden won the popular vote: Georgia: 0.2% Arizona: 0.3% Wisconsin: 0.6% Pennsylvania: 1.2% Nevada: 2.4% Michigan: 2.8% Barry Burden, director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Wisconsin is one of the most politically competitive states in the country, a fact that held true for the 2020 election. "But in 2020 Wisconsin was not the tightest in terms of either the raw number of votes or percentage of the vote separating the top two presidential candidates," he said in an email. "By both measures Wisconsin was the third most competitive state in 2020. The margins between Biden and Trump – in terms of both raw votes and the percentage difference between them – were actually tighter in Arizona and Georgia than in Wisconsin." Our ruling Kleefisch’s campaign claimed in a fundraising email that Wisconsin’s 2020 margin was the tightest of any state in the country. Though the campaign claimed to have sent a correction to the statement to note the margin was among the tightest, we weren’t able to find any evidence of a correction being sent out. The margin between Biden and Trump in many 2020 battleground states was narrow, but in two states – Arizona and Georgia – it was narrower than Wisconsin. 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' });

“Gas in Canada is $9.00 a gallon. As Americans face record-high gasoline prices hovering around $5 per gallon, many other nations have experienced even steeper costs at the pump. But despite what several Instagram posts have claimed, gas in Canada did not skyrocket to as much as $9 per gallon at the start of summer. The claim about the United States’ northern neighbor took off on Twitter June 11. "Gas in Canada is $9.00 a gallon," the tweet said. "It’s not (President Joe) Biden’s issue." The viral tweet spread in the following days to Instagram, where a pair of posts shared screenshots of the tweet over photos of Biden. Those posts racked up more than 15,000 interactions, according to data from CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. "This tweet is going viral on Twitter. Do you blame Biden for the gas prices?" said the first of the two posts, which was uploaded June 17. "Do y’all blame Biden for the gas prices or nah?" the second post said June 20. 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.) 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 U.S. federal data show that for the week beginning June 13, the average weekly national gasoline price was about $5.01 per gallon. On June 22, the national average was at roughly $4.96 per gallon, according to the American Automobile Association. Although the average price at the pump in Canada is higher than in the U.S., it is not as high as $9 per gallon — no matter if you measure it in U.S. or Canadian dollars. According to the Canadian Automobile Association, the average gas price in Canada as of June 22 rounds to about $2.02 in Canadian dollars per liter, or about CA$7.66 per gallon. Factoring in the currency exchange rate, that translates to about $5.89 per gallon. There are approximately 3.79 liters in one gallon, and $1 is worth about CA$1.30. Organizations that track gas prices across countries, such as GasPetrolPrices.com, have also put the average price in Canada far below $9 per gallon. The website’s most recent calculations, for June 20, show the lowest average gas price was in Venezuela, at about 8 cents per gallon. The highest price at that time was in Hong Kong, at more than $11 per gallon. Canadian gas prices weren’t near $9 per gallon around the time of the original June 11 tweet either, Snopes reported. Factors such as taxes on gas, how reliant countries are on cars for transportation, and whether those countries produce their own oil play a role in cost fluctuations from one nation to the next. Gas prices across the globe have also surged because of sanctions on Russian energy, pandemic-related changes in supply and demand, and increasing oil costs. We rate the claim that "gas in Canada is $9.00 a gallon" Fals

“Wisconsin's archaic abortion ban is older than 20 states. With a U.S. Supreme Court ruling near, which could overturn or substantially modify the decades-old Roe vs. Wade decision, abortion is a top of mind issue for many. At the center of the debate in Wisconsin is a 173-year-old law – one that nearly dates to the state’s inception — that, if Roe is overturned, would criminalize abortion except in cases where it is necessary to save the mother’s life. The re-election campaign for Gov. Tony Evers used a novel way to compare how old the law is in a June 13, 2022, email to supporters. Evers, a Democrat, is an abortion-rights supporter. On June 8, 2022, he called the Republican-controlled Legislature into session to address the old law, but GOP leaders met only briefly on June 22, 2022, and took no action. Republican lawmakers who control the state Legislature on June 22, 2022, rejected a special legislative session called by Evers to overturn the 1849 law that would outlaw abortion in the state except when necessary to save the life of the mother. "Wisconsin's archaic abortion ban is older than 20 states," senior press secretary Kayla Anderson said in the message. That caught our attention, so we thought others may be interested in it, too. Twenty states joined the union after 1849 When we reached out to Anderson, she sent us a link to the list of states’ dates of admission to the union from Encyclopedia Britannica. Wisconsin became a state in May 1948, the year before its abortion law was passed. Here is the full list of states granted statehood after the 1849 Wisconsin law: California, September 1850 Minnesota, May 1858 Oregon, February 1859 Kansas, January 1861 West Virginia, June 1863 Nevada, October 1864 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 Neraska, March 1867 Colorado, August 1876 North Dakota, November 1889 South Dakota, November 1889 Montana, November 1889 Washington, November 1889 Idaho, July 1890 Wyoming, July 1890 Utah, January 1896 Oklahoma, November 1907 New Mexico, January 1912 Arizona, February 1912 Alaska, January 1959 Hawaii, August 1959 That does tally 20. Our ruling Evers’ campaign said that Wisconsin’s abortion law, which would go into effect were Roe v. Wade overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, is older than 20 states. Indeed, 20 states were accepted after 1849, including California, Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. We rate this claim True. 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 every other major industrial country in the world … inflation is higher. When President Joe Biden sat down for an interview with the Associated Press, it was inevitable that the nation’s 40-year-high levels of inflation would come up. During the interview, Biden said his policies are not to blame. Instead, he pointed to global conditions to show that the United States is not alone in facing such challenges as high oil prices, lagging supply chains during the pandemic, and disruptions from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Biden said, "First of all, (a recession is) not inevitable. Secondly, we’re in a stronger position than any nation in the world to overcome this inflation. It’s bad. Isn’t it kind of interesting? If it’s my fault, why is it the case in every other major industrial country in the world that inflation is higher? You ask yourself that? I’m not being a wise guy." A reader noticed this statement and asked us to fact-check it. The statement can be read two ways. Is Biden (as the reader understood it) saying that every other "major industrial country" has a higher inflation rate than the U.S. does right now? Or is Biden saying that every other major industrial country has higher inflation than they normally do? The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this article. But we’ll look at both interpretations. The accuracy of his statement depends on how his words are interpreted. Do other advanced economies have higher inflation than the United States? If this is what Biden meant, he would be wrong. We turned to data collected by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of advanced industrialized nations. Looking at the most recent monthly inflation numbers, more than a dozen OECD members had a higher inflation rate than the United States’ 8.6%. These were predominantly Baltic and Eastern European nations, which have been hit especially hard by the consequences of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. But a larger number of OECD members had inflation rates lower than 8.6%, and these include all but one member of the G-7 group, which is limited to the world’s very largest democratic economies. Among the G-7 nations, Germany’s most recent inflation rate was 7.9%, the United Kingdom’s was 7.8%, Italy’s and Canada’s were 6.8%, and France’s was 5.2%. (The final G-7 member, Japan, hasn’t released current inflation numbers.) 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 So the United States has a higher inflation rate currently than its closest economic peers do. !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"); Do other advanced economies have inflation that’s higher than normal? If this is what Biden meant, he would be right. In the six G-7 nations for which current inflation data is available — including the United States — pre-pandemic inflation rates hovered around 1% or 2%, rather than the 5% to 9% being seen now. !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"); Some analysts would suggest that these two observations are consistent. They say that Biden’s coronavirus relief bill — the American Rescue Plan, which passed shortly after he took office in 2021 — drove inflation higher in the United States than it did in the other countries, which had no equivalent fiscal stimulus of that scale that late in the pandemic. "The Biden administration and its allies in Congress provided entirely too much stimulus into an economy that was already dealing with supply shortages," said Michael Faulkender, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. "This is necessarily inflationary and was totally predictable." That said, the U.S. may have benefited in other ways from its expansionary monetary and fiscal policy during the pandemic compared to other rich countries, said Brookings Institution economist Gary Burtless. The U.S. may have "obtained some advantage from those expansionary policies in terms of faster real economic growth" than its rivals, Burtless said. The downside, he added, is that these policies also seem to have produced the disadvantage of higher inflation. Our ruling Biden said, "In every other major industrial country in the world … inflation is higher." He’s right in one sense but wrong in another. Every other major industrialized nation has seen inflation spike well above pre-inflation levels. But the United States has seen its inflation rate spike higher than its most direct competitors. We rate the statement Half Tru

An image shows gas prices on Jan. 6, 2021 For many Americans, Jan. 6, 2021, is seared in memory as the day a crowd of President Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. But an image circulating on Facebook invokes what it claims is a different memory from that day: 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 "Never forget January 6th" read the words across an image of a Citgo gas station sign advertising regular gas at $1.99 a gallon. "Oh yeah, Jan. 6, 2021," the caption in the June 17 Facebook post said. "When Americans could still afford to get to work." (Screenshot from Facebook) But the image doesn’t actually show gasoline prices on Jan. 6, 2021. This photo was originally taken six years prior on Jan. 22, 2015, according to its caption on the Flickr photo sharing service. Federal data show the average national gas price was around $2.04 a gallon at that time. The Facebook 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.) Gas prices on Jan. 6, 2021, were averaging $2.25 to $2.32 per gallon, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Several factors have contributed to recent rising gas prices, including the increasing cost of oil, sanctions on Russian energy, and COVID-19 pandemic-related changes in supply and demand. This misleading image spread online as news organizations broadcast hearings from the House select committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Prices reached a national average of $5 a gallon on June 13, the last day federal data was reported before this post was made — and the day the House committee held its second public hearing. We rate the claim that this image shows gas prices on Jan. 6, 2021, Fals

A compilation of images shows what Joe Biden has “done to our country. A viral meme shared by conservative commentator Benny Johnson claimed to show images of empty stores, impoverished cities and overrun borders in the U.S. under President Joe Biden. Biden’s granddaughter, Naomi Biden, posted one of the photos in the meme — of the Biden family — on her Instagram account in November 2021. But the other three photos are mischaracterized by the meme: One was not taken in the U.S., another was taken before Biden became president and a third was taken outside of the U.S. and before Biden’s presidency. The meme was originally posted June 19 by a Twitter account that regularly shares content making fun of Biden. It showed four photos, each with text overlaying it. "Your stores," the text said over a photo of a supermarket with empty shelves. "Your cities," the text said over a photo of tents popped up along a street. "Your borders," the text said over a photo of migrants lining a fence at the southern U.S. border. "Their vacation," the text said over a photo of Biden with his family. Featured Fact-check Tucker Carlson stated on October 27, 2022 in a TV segment The United States is "about to run out of diesel fuel ... by the Monday of Thanksgiving week." By Andy Nguyen • November 7, 2022 "This is what they’ve done to our country," Johnson wrote in a June 20 Instagram post sharing the meme. 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.) But aside from the November 2021 photo of Biden with his family, none of the pictures highlighted in the meme depict the U.S. under Biden’s presidency, according to reverse image searches. The photo of empty shelves at "your stores" was actually taken at a supermarket in London in March 2020, before Biden took office and after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The photo of the encampment in "your cities" was actually a photo of a makeshift migrant camp in Tijuana, Mexico, just across the border from San Diego. It was captured in March 2021. The photo of migrants at "your borders" was actually snapped in March 2019, before Biden became president, south of the border fence in El Paso, Texas. Johnson, the chief creative officer at Turning Point USA and a Newsmax host, did not respond to PolitiFact’s requests for comment, but he deleted his post shortly after we reached out. We rate this Instagram post False. RELATED: Newsmax, Fox News air outdated, out-of-context photos of empty shelves in segments bashing Bid

Waiting periods for gun purchases may not make a difference, because "If somebody's decided that they're gonna take their life, they're gonna take their life. Editor’s note: If you or someone you know is dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at (800) 273-8255 or text "Hopeline" to the National Crisis Text Line at 741-741. The mass shooting at an Uvalde, Texas, elementary school in late May — the second-deadliest school shooting in the nation’s history — has resurfaced arguments for stricter gun laws in the Wisconsin Legislature. For years, Democrats have pushed to tighten restrictions around firearm purchases, such as expanding background checks to private sales and enacting red flag laws (which allow police or family members to petition a court to remove firearms from anyone deemed dangerous to themselves or others). Republicans who control the Legislature have largely resisted such measures, and after Uvalde, advocated for beefing up school security. From the mid-1970s through 2015, Wisconsin had another type of gun law on the books: one that prohibited a handgun-buyer from taking possession of the gun until 48 hours after the background check had been started. State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, introduced a 2015 bill — which was approved — that instead allows buyers to take possession of the gun immediately after they clear a background check. In a June 5, 2022 appearance on Capital City Sunday, Wanggaard was asked if that 48-hour waiting period should be reinstated. His response: "Absolutely not." "I don’t know that that saves anything," Wanggaard said of the waiting period. "If somebody’s decided that they’re going to take their life, they’re going to take their life." The senator’s remark is off-base. While research on the effectiveness of 48-hour waiting periods on reducing overall violence is mixed, studies show it can reduce suicide deaths in particular. Furthermore, experts say many suicide deaths are preventable. Let’s take a look. Suicide deaths widely recognized as preventable When asked for evidence to back up Wanggaard’s claim, a spokesperson from his office wrote that the remark was based on his three decades as a police officer and the experiences of several people he knew who died by suicide. Because early intervention with potentially suicidal people has shown effectiveness, the spokesperson wrote, Wanggaard also believes if a person thinks someone they know may be thinking of suicide, they should reach out and get that person help. Wanggaard’s staff cited a June 2005 study referenced in a more recent report from the medical journal BMC Psychiatry about the likelihood of a person who had attempted suicide trying to do so again. But the study’s results disprove Wanggaard’s claim that a person who decides they want to die by suicide will do so — in the five years following a previous attempt, 37% made at least one more attempt that did not result in death, and just 6.7% did die by suicide. That means that the majority of the people in that study had at one point decided they were going to take their own life and ultimately did not. 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 Suicide is widely recognized as preventable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it can be prevented through better treatment for people at risk of suicide, crisis intervention, stronger supports for mental health and financial stability and reduction of access to lethal means for people at risk of suicide, among others. In a 2008 report about guns and suicide, David Hemenway, director of Harvard University’s Injury Control Research Center, wrote that studies show that "most attempters act on impulse, in moments of panic or despair. Once the acute feelings ease, 90% do not go on to die by suicide." Can 48-hour waiting periods for gun purchases help reduce suicide deaths? Wanggaard’s spokesperson also sent a July 3, 2017 Reuters article about a study from the Annals of Internal Medicine where the lead researcher had written that "few" suicide deaths could be prevented by limiting firearm access for those with a substance abuse disorder, mental health condition or a history of suicide attempts. But the study isn’t saying that limiting firearm access won’t reduce suicide deaths. It’s saying that limiting access for that specific group of people won’t reduce them by much — and the researchers actually argue that those confines are too narrow. "We suggest that prevention of firearm suicide should be expanded beyond the current focus on these patients to include other persons at risk for suicide," the study says. It’s worth noting that it also calls for expanding attention to suicide prevention measures beyond an exclusive focus on firearms to include other common means of suicide. Evidence about whether 48-hour waiting periods on gun purchases can reduce overall violence is mixed, as laid out in a Feb. 2, 2022 fact-check from PolitiFact Wisconsin examining a state Democratic lawmaker’s claim about a similar issue. But recent studies have found a correlation between waiting periods and a reduction in suicide deaths specifically, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor John Gross told us. A March 2, 2018 analysis of previous studies of the relationship between waiting periods and suicides from the RAND Corporation found moderate evidence that waiting periods reduce suicides by firearm, and limited evidence that they reduce overall suicide deaths. And a March 24, 2018 fact-check of Doug Jones, a Democrat and then-U.S. senator from Alabama, found the same: PolitiFact National rated Mostly True his claim that states that have implemented such waiting periods have seen significant decreases in suicides. Some professors said more research and different modeling may be necessary to make a final determination. Our ruling When asked whether Wisconsin should reinstate the 48-hour waiting period for handgun purchases, Wanggaard said no because he doesn’t know "that that saves anything," and "if somebody’s decided that they’re going to take their life, they’re going to take their life." But research shows a link between waiting periods and reduced suicide deaths, especially suicides by firearm. Separately, evidence suggests that the majority of people who at one point sought to die by suicide do not do so. We rate his 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' });

"The impact of President Biden being beholden to the Green New Deal radicals in his party has electricity costs through the roof in Texas. Temperatures in Texas are rising amid a June heatwave, testing the state's power grid and driving up demand for electricity. In a June 4 tweet, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Texans can blame their higher electric bills on supporters of the Green New Deal, a-yet-to-be-passed congressional plan touted as a strategy for tackling climate change. "The impact of President Biden being beholden to the Green New Deal radicals in his party has electricity costs through the roof in Texas," Cruz wrote in his tweet. He included a link to a Dallas Morning News article that tied electricity costs to the price of natural gas, which has been on the rise. Texas accounts for 15% of the U.S. total natural gas consumption and is the country's top natural gas consumer, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration under the Department of Energy. In 2020, the amount of natural gas used for electricity generation was greatest in Texas compared to other states. So, what (or who) exactly is to blame for sky-high electric bills? Cruz says the progressives who champion measures to reduce the impact of climate change are at fault, but energy experts say Russia's war on Ukraine is driving up the cost of natural gas, which in turn impacts electricity costs. Let's explore. Biden's campaign promises Michael Webber, a University of Texas professor with research specializing in clean energy technology, said the article Cruz tweeted undercuts his claim, because it attributes rising electricity costs to the price of natural gas, with no mention of the Green New Deal. Webber said the Green New Deal has not passed, so it has no influence over the current energy situation. The measure calls for the federal government to take steps to reduce pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Webber, who responded to Cruz's tweet online, called Cruz's claim "fundamentally flawed." But Steve Guest, a Cruz spokesperson, said in an email that Cruz's tweet "is completely accurate." Guest said that Biden's campaign website touts his support for the Green New Deal as "a crucial framework for meeting the climate challenges we face." Guest pointed to campaign trail and debate stage promises Biden made that aligned with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on November 2, 2022 in a video Video suggests GOP voters denied access in general election. By Gabrielle Settles • November 8, 2022 Biden paused new oil and gas leases on federal lands, but the pause on new leasing did not impact current oil and gas production. In April, the Biden administration announced that it would resume selling leases for drilling on public lands — with some limitations on the number of acres available and an increase in fees companies must pay to drill. Natural gas prices rising Carey King, assistant director at the University of Texas Energy Institute, said North America has been shipping more natural gas abroad over the last few decades. With the U.S. and North America more interconnected in that global trade, natural gas prices in Europe and Asia affect prices more in the U.S. Europe is seeking to import natural gas from countries other than Russia due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Europe is paying more money for natural gas, including liquefied natural gas from the United States. "And if LNG (liquefied natural gas) exporters in the United States can charge a higher price to sell to Europe, then they will," King said. "Because they're buying at a higher price, that affects the price of gas throughout the continent." U.S. exporters shipping more to Europe for a higher price puts pressure on natural gas prices in North America, King said. U.S. liquefied natural gas exports to Europe increased this year, according to the Energy Information Administration. The U.S. exported 74% of its liquefied natural gas to Europe through April this year compared to the annual average of 34% in 2021. At the same time, exports to Asia decreased through April. While investors could invest in more natural gas infrastructure for production and export, King said, that could take multiple years — and it's not certain whether natural gas demand from Europe will remain at higher levels. Our ruling Cruz tweeted, "The impact of President Biden being beholden to the Green New Deal radicals in his party has electricity costs through the roof in Texas." However, Green New Deal legislation has not passed. Rising electricity costs are tied to natural gas prices, which in turn are impacted by European nations turning away from Russia as a major supplier of natural gas. We rate this Fals

“Zach Nunn took money from Adventureland’s CEO, then sponsored legislation to loosen amusement park safety rules. A child died. Zach Nunn put his big donor first, ahead of the safety of Iowa families. It took just one week for the first attack ad to appear in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District campaign between incumbent U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne and state Sen. Zach Nunn, the Republican nominee challenging her. On June 14, 2022, a week after Nunn won the Republican primary to oppose the two-term Democrat, Axne’s campaign released a video ad that begins with news reports about a fatal amusement park ride accident on July 3, 2021. Michael Jaramillo, 11, of Marion, Iowa, died after being trapped underwater at Adventureland Park. The park is in Altoona, Iowa. The ad’s narrator says: "A tragedy that could have been avoided. But Zach Nunn took money from Adventureland’s CEO, then sponsored legislation to loosen amusement park safety rules. "A child died. Zach Nunn put his big donor first, ahead of the safety of Iowa families." Unfair and inaccurate, Nunn responded. "Beyond the heinous exploitation of a family’s tragic loss, the ad is false on several points," he said to PolitiFact Iowa in a text. Jaramillo did not die because of the legislation, Nunn said. His campaign also issued a statement that said in part, "Nunn and bipartisan legislators passed the law to improve workforce opportunities across Iowa, delivering Iowa as one of the lowest unemployment states in the country." News reports show the amusement park industry nationwide was struggling post-COVID to find workers in 2021. Axne’s communications chief, Paige Godden, defended the ad’s message. "The park had a lengthy history of safety violations and dangerous conditions that resulted in injury to guests and workers, but when it lobbied for loosened safety regulations, Zach Nunn went ahead and sponsored that legislation," Godden wrote in an email to PolitiFact Iowa. "Nunn took money from then-Adventureland executives and did their bidding." The legislation in question was House File 558, which lowered the minimum age for amusement park ride operators from 18 to 16, subject to carnival ride and safety training. Reps. Ras Smith, D-Waterloo; Brian Lohse, R-Bondurant; Megan Jones, R-Sioux Rapids; and John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, co-sponsored the bill. Nunn, Smith, Lohse and Wills represent counties that have amusement parks and Jones’ district covers the southern part of the Lake Okoboji region that includes one. Featured Fact-check Ashley Hinson stated on October 18, 2022 in a tweet Nancy Pelosi gave “$30,000 … to boost @LizMathis1’s campaign” By Jami Martin-Trainor • November 4, 2022 Nunn introduced a companion bill in the Senate but it was dropped in favor of the House bill, which Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law April 30, 2021. The House bill passed the Senate with a bipartisan 29-to-15 vote after the House approved it by a 76-to-17 vote. The House vote was also bipartisan. Nunn, an Air Force aircrew intelligence officer, was absent when the Senate voted because he was on an active military deployment, he said. Democrats voting for the law, Nunn’s campaign accurately pointed out, included the state party’s chairman, Rep. Ross Wilburn, and House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst. Asked about the Democratic votes, Godden wrote: "Cindy Axne is not responsible for the votes of individual state senators or House members, and cannot speak to how they voted for this legislation." Adventureland Park is located in suburban Des Moines. State Labor Division amusement ride investigators found 17 safety violations on July 6, 2021, at the park’s Raging River ride, where the accident occurred. Michael Jaramillo’s brother, David Jaramillo spent time in a coma as he recovered; he was 15 when the accident happened. The boys’ father, also named David Jaramillo, was also injured in the accident. The ride did not reopen this year. Former Adventureland CEO and co-owner Michael Krantz, of Des Moines, gave Nunn’s campaign for the Legislature two $2,500 donations — one in 2018 and one in 2020 — for a total of $5,000, Iowa campaign finance disclosure records show. He gave Nunn’s 3rd Congressional District campaign $11,100 in August 2021, Federal Election Commission records show. Krantz family members, who sold the amusement park at the end of 2021, collectively have donated about $34,000 to Nunn’s congressional campaign, the Des Moines Register reported. Nunn, who lives in Bondurant, outside of Des Moines, said he has known the Krantz family since the age of 14 and that Krantz was the owner of a business in his state legislative district. "Axne makes the verifiable false accusation in the attack ad that the legislation resulted in putting donors before families and the end result of the legislation caused the death of a child – verifiably incorrect," he wrote in his text to PolitiFact Iowa. Operators at the Raging River ride when the July 2021 accident happened were older than 18. But the ride had been the site of another death, of a 68-year-old ride operator who fell in 2016. The park closed the Raging River ride in 2020 to replace a control board in an effort to prevent such an accident from happening again, a park attorney told the Des Moines Register. Our ruling The Axne for Congress ad said, "A tragedy that could have been avoided. But Zach Nunn took money from Adventureland’s CEO, then sponsored legislation to loosen amusement park safety rules. A child died. Zach Nunn put his big donor first, ahead of the safety of Iowa families." Nunn sponsored a bill in the Iowa Senate that was the counterpart of one that became law in 2021. The law reduced the minimum age for running an amusement park ride in Iowa from 18 to 16. In addition, he has accepted $34,000 in campaign donations collectively from the family that owned the park at the time. However, the ad oversteps when it suggests that the Adventureland death could have been avoided if the law hadn’t passed. The operators of the ride that led to the teenager’s death were older than 18. We rate the statement Mostly False.

Photo shows Kim Jong Un’s weight los North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s weight drew scrutiny in October after South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers that he had recently lost 44 pounds. But a pair of what look like before-and-after-photos of Kim that are being shared online don’t reflect reality. One photo that shows a heavier Kim waving is labeled 2019. The second image labeled 2021 shows a much thinner man. Posts sharing these images 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.) 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 first photo shows Kim in Pyongyang, North Korea in March 2019. The second photo shows him taking part in a parade in the city in September 2021. But the 2021 photo has been altered in the Facebook post to make him appear thinner than he looks in the original image. Claims that this photo shows how much weight Kim lost are False.

Soviet and Chinese communists have “grabbed control” of U.S. entertainment, movies, television, music, academia, K-12 education and the news media During a recent interview with Fox News, Monica Crowley, a conservative commentator and longtime foreign policy specialist, made a bold claim: Overseas communists have controlled key institutions of American life for decades. Crowley, who served as assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department during the Trump administration, was interviewed on the June 12 edition of the weekly Fox News show "The Next Revolution With Steve Hilton." Guest on Fox claims the President is intentionally destroying the US and says it began as a KGB operation in the 1930’s pic.twitter.com/1azWQMrOCR— Acyn (@Acyn) June 13, 2022 In the interview, she accused President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party of running the United States into the ground on purpose. She said such America-destroying efforts by liberals are part and parcel of a longstanding plan hatched by the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Crowley began by saying, "It’s tough for most Americans to understand that their president and a whole major political party in the U.S. is intentionally destroying and crippling the United States. But that’s exactly what is happening here. And unless and until we understand that, we’re not going to be able to counter it in an effective way." Hilton expressed agreement with Crowley’s analysis, then asked her where Democrats’ desire to hurt the country has come from. Crowley responded: "This has been a long-term project by the left. It actually began in the 1930s, and it came out of the KGB (the former Russian secret police agency). It was a KGB operation to destroy the country. And then after World War II, the Soviets actually changed their tactics. And what they decided to do, and it’s been very effective for many decades, is infiltrate and grab control of the major pillars of U.S. life. They grabbed control of the culture — so entertainment, movies, television, music. They grabbed control of academia, at the university level and now it’s all the way shot down through kindergarten and even younger. And they grabbed control of the news media. "With those pillars, they have been able to inflict tremendous damage over many decades. And now we are at a tipping point where the useful idiots on the left -- the Soviet Union collapsed, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) stepped in to take over this grand project to destroy the country from within -- that’s exactly what’s happening. And now when you have useful idiots in the highest levels of power, including in the White House, including in Congress, you’re seeing an acceleration of the tipping point, to the point where we’re almost at the point of no return." We interviewed more than a dozen experts in the history of communist influence in the United States and they offered a unanimous answer: While the Soviet Union did seek to control major pillars of the United States, and while the USSR chalked up a few scattered successes decades ago in attracting support in the U.S., Crowley is flat-out wrong to say the USSR or China has ever controlled entertainment, education, or media, much less that they are doing so today. Multiple experts told PolitiFact that Crowley is rehashing arguments spread since the 1950s by the John Birch Society and other groups. If anything, they said her exaggeration of widespread overseas communist control of U.S. institutions is more extreme and less accurate. "The claim that Soviet and Chinese communists ever controlled or now control (such institutions) is nonsense," said Harvey Klehr, a retired Emory University historian whose books include "The Soviet World of American Communism" and "In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage." Klehr is an adviser to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Kevin Boyle, a Northwestern University historian and author of "The Shattering: America in the 1960s," agreed. "Soviet and Chinese communist governments – or any communist governments – never controlled American education, entertainment, or the media. To claim that was ever the case is not only false but absolutely ludicrous." Asked about Crowley’s theory, Andrew Hartman, a historian at Illinois State University and author of "A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars," offered "a resounding no. It’s absurd and doesn’t really merit serious discussion." Attempts to reach Crowley through social media and through the Richard Nixon Foundation, where she is on the board of directors, were unsuccessful. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, R-Wis., displays a file to reporters on July 25, 1950, after declaring on the Senate floor that an "important" State Department official is a communist. (AP) What did communists attempt to do in the United States? Experts were careful to distinguish between nefarious things that communists did accomplish in the U.S. and the notion that they ever controlled key American institutions. For instance, both the USSR and communist China used spies against the United States. "Soviet spies did penetrate the atomic bomb project, and Alger Hiss (who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union) was at State Department," said William I. Hitchcock, a University of Virginia historian and author of "The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s." Featured Fact-check Joe Biden stated on October 23, 2022 in a forum with Now This Student loan forgiveness is “passed. I got it passed by a vote or two. And it’s in effect.” By Louis Jacobson • October 25, 2022 The USSR also exerted influence over the (relatively small) Communist Party of the USA, said Jon Shelton, a University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor and author of "Teacher Strike!: Public Education and the Making of a New American Political Order." The highest-profile battles involved Hollywood. In the 1930s and 1940s, "there were Communist Party USA members and sympathizers who were writers, directors, and actors," said Victor Devinatz, a labor historian at Illinois State University. During World War II, some of these figures helped make films that were anti-fascist, at a time when the U.S. was allied with the Soviet Union, and films that had working-class themes, though the films did not explicitly advance communist politics. In the 1950s, Sen. Joe McCarthy and other sympathetic members of Congress used hearings to root out communists from public life. Some 300 Hollywood figures who refused to cooperate – whether or not they were actual communists – were blacklisted from 1950 to 1960. Why communist influence fell well short of ‘control’ One reason Crowley is misguided, experts said, is that even the USSR’s limited successes in achieving American influence petered out decades ago. The Smith Act, passed in the 1940s, essentially outlawed membership in any organization that advocated the overthrow of the government, and leaders of the Communist Party of the USA were prosecuted under it after World War II, Shelton said. Also, he said, the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 forced any union that sought recognition by the National Labor Relations Board to ensure that its leaders signed affidavits that they had never been members of the Communist Party. "Most unions, including those in Hollywood, complied," Shelton said. Communist Party USA leader Gus Hall in custody at La Guardia Airport in New York, with a deputy U.S. marshal on Nov. 2, 1951. (AP) But the biggest factor was McCarthy and his allies. "Whatever influence (communists) had vanished in the 1940s," with the rise of McCarthy-style, anti-communist efforts, Klehr said. Ironically, the USSR had already backed off most of its activities by the time McCarthy’s efforts were under way. After 1945, Soviet intelligence officials grew terrified that their entire network of Americans would be hauled before the FBI, Allen Weinstein, author of "The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America," said in a 1999 interview. "So they literally stopped all work," Weinstein said. "Knowing this, it’s ironic to think that four to five years before Sen. Joe McCarthy began his escapades, the spies had stopped their work." Despite this, in each of the sectors cited by Crowley, the anti-communist backlash was swift. "Virtually any time communists won any level of influence, they were dramatically repressed, by many layers of government and civil society," Shelton said. In K-12 education, for instance, "hundreds of communist elementary and high school teachers were dismissed from their jobs" in the 1940s and 1950s, Devinatz said. And the communist-led Teachers Union in New York City was expelled from both the AFL and the CIO, the key labor umbrella groups. While communists did exist in colleges and universities, Klehr said, "they never constituted more than a small minority. Higher education today suffers from many ills, including a suffocating left-wing orthodoxy, but much of it is linked to identity politics and is not driven by communists." And in the media, a few journalists also lost their jobs over Communist Party membership or alleged membership decades ago, Devinatz said. Today, the idea that communists "control the academy, or the news media, is off the wall," Klehr said. Ultimately, even the limited success the USSR had in wooing Americans in key professions should not be confused for overseas communist "control" of these institutions, said Larry Tye, author of "Demagogue: The Life and Long Shadow of Senator Joe McCarthy." The long history of purges of alleged communists is clear evidence that the individuals who led these institutions were anti-communist, not communist. "Crowley would claim that anyone with left or liberal ideas is a communist puppet," said Jonathan P. Hunt, a professor of rhetoric and language at the University of San Francisco and author of "Communists in the Classroom: Radicals in U.S. Education,1930-1960." "So if I am in favor of racial equality, or workplace safety regulation, or a 40-hour work week, or any of a hundred other political or social positions, then I must be a communist." Our ruling Crowley said that Soviet and Chinese communists have "grabbed control" of U.S. entertainment, movies, television, music, academia, K-12 education and the news media. The USSR, and to a lesser extent communist China, have sought to influence the U.S. over decades, including through spying and ideological persuasion. Some individual Americans in entertainment, education, and the media were sympathetic to those ideas, primarily in the 1930s and 1940s. But even these examples are a far cry from proving that each of these pillars of U.S. society were directly controlled by overseas communists. The real-life examples of communist influence are scattered and decades-old. And in each of the sectors Crowley cited, active efforts by anti-communists purged those sympathetic to communism. That couldn’t have happened if these institutions were actually controlled by communists. We rate the statement Pants on Fir

“U.S. House of Reps. votes 226-194 to criminalize disassembling, cleaning, and re-assembling your gun without a firearm manufacturer’s license, including 8 Republicans! The Democratic-led U.S. House passed a bill restricting access to firearms on many fronts in response to the May mass shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead in Uvalde, Texas. The Protecting Our Kids Act includes regulations against selling firearms to people under 21, criminal offenses for gun trafficking, and more. It’s almost certain not to progress in the U.S. Senate, where lawmakers are working on a less restrictive set of proposals. An organization that supports easier access to firearms raised alarms about the House legislation, though the group overstated how far the measure would really go. "U.S. House of Reps. votes 226-194 to criminalize disassembling, cleaning, and re-assembling your gun without a firearm manufacturer’s license, including 8 Republicans!" tweeted Gun Owners of America. U.S. House of Reps. votes 226-194 to criminalize disassembling, cleaning, and re-assembling your gun without a firearm manufacturer’s license, including 8 Republicans!— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) June 8, 2022 The group’s claim received thousands of retweets and comments, and a screenshot was shared on Instagram and Facebook. The post wasn’t specific about what legislation it was referencing. But when we reached out to Gun Owners of America, a spokesperson there pointed us to the Protecting Our Kids Act, or H.R. 7910. That full bill passed by a 223-204 vote, with five Republicans voting in favor, but a portion of the bill dealing specifically with "ghost guns" did receive a 226-194 vote with eight Republicans in favor. But does that bill really ban someone from cleaning their gun without a manufacturer’s license? In a word, no. The bill aims to stop a workaround for people who haven’t passed background checks from assembling their own from untraceable parts. Scenario presented by Gun Owners of America is unlikely, expert says Walter Smoloski, spokesperson for Gun Owners of America, directed us to Title III of the bill, which requires that all firearms be traceable with a serial number. This is an effort to prohibit "ghost guns," or, according to a definition in the legislation, guns that lack "a unique serial number engraved or cast on the frame or receiver by a licensed manufacturer or importer." Practically speaking, "ghost guns" are often assembled at home from a kit or from a 3D printer. The finished gun often "lacks a serial number or other identifying information that is typically required for traditionally manufactured guns," said Alex McCourt, director of legal research at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University. "So it’s a privately made, untraceable gun." Ghost guns have been a point of contention for lawmakers — in April 2022, the Justice Department announced a rule to better regulate ghost guns. The Biden administration said that last year the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported about 20,000 ghost guns had been recovered by law enforcement during criminal investigations — a tenfold increase from 2016. But Smoloski said the House’s bill would regulate parts of a gun that aren’t usually serialized, like the "upper receiver of an AR-15," and thus label the entire firearm as a ghost gun. It’s true that AR-15 weapons typically have serial numbers on the lower part of the firearm’s receiver. But McCourt said if people bought this type of firearm legally, they are not the target of this bill. 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 "The target is not to trick people into committing a crime," McCourt said. Gun Owners of America also takes issue with the bill’s definition of manufacturing a gun, which includes "assembling a functional firearm or molding, machining, or 3D printing a frame or receiver, and shall not include making or fitting special barrels, stocks, or trigger mechanisms to firearms." "H.R. 7910 prohibits anyone from ‘manufactur(ing) a ghost gun,'" Smoloski said, "even though ‘manufacturing firearms’ includes anyone disassembling, cleaning, and then ‘assembling’ common gun parts back into ‘a functional firearm.’" Rukmani Bhatia, senior federal affairs manager at the Giffords anti-gun violence organization, told fact-checkers at The Associated Press that this is not so: "There is nothing in Title III that would bar a law-abiding gun owner who has a firearm that is serialized from taking that gun apart, cleaning it, and putting it back together in their home." McCourt also said this section isn’t meant for private owners. "I think the bill is pretty clearly talking about making ghost guns from kits or other individual parts that lack serial numbers and/or more people that are engaged in the business of firearm manufacturing," he said. John Donohue, a law professor at Stanford University and a statistical analyst on topics such as guns and crime, said the Gun Owners of America suggests the worst-possible scenario of what could happen under the bill. The definition of what manufacturing a gun means may be vague, he said, but the scenario that gun owners would be criminalized for cleaning their weapons would be unlikely. Ultimately, the bill’s goal is to prevent people who could not pass a background check from skirting the law and buying gun parts to assemble into a working firearm. "Obviously, if you bought the gun and went through a background check, there wouldn’t be any problem about taking it apart and putting it back together," Donohue said. "Judges would understand this and would presumably apply the law appropriately." If there was any fear about ambiguity in the law, Donohue said, a simple tweak would solve it. "Of course there is plenty of opportunity to provide that tweak because the House bill would not go into effect unless the Senate passed a similar bill," he said. House Judiciary Committee spokesman Dan Rubin said that the purpose of Title III is to prevent people from building guns at home that lack the "proper, legal tracking mechanism" — like a serial number — that every other legal firearm has. "So, if you currently own a gun that you purchased legally from a federally licensed gun store, it is not a ghost gun and has absolutely nothing to do with this title, and you could clean it, disassemble it or do whatever else you want (in accordance with state and federal laws, of course), and this bill in no way would affect that," Rubin said. We found no instances in which Democrats said the measure would ban gun-cleaning. On June 12, a bipartisan group of senators announced it had agreed on the framework for a package that would encourage states to pass "red flag" laws to remove firearms from possibly dangerous people, as well as provide finances for mental health resources and school security. Our ruling A tweet from Gun Owners of America said, "U.S. House of Reps. votes 226-194 to criminalize disassembling, cleaning, and re-assembling your gun without a firearm manufacturer’s license, including 8 Republicans!" The Protecting Our Kids Act passed by a 223-204 vote, with five Republicans in favor; a portion dealing with ghost guns was approved 226-194, with eight Republicans in favor. The bill is unlikely to take effect. As written, it would prevent people who can’t pass a background check from buying untraceable firearm parts and assembling them into a ghost gun. Legal experts said it’s a misreading to suggest the bill would criminalize disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling a gun. We rate this claim Fals

Three mass shootings were meant to distract from Hillary Clinton controversies People often claim that horrific tragedies are staged to distract attention from other news stories. When doing so, it’s wise to check the dates first. A June 14 Facebook post shared by conservative rocker Ted Nugent shows a screenshot implying that three separate mass shootings were timed to distract from various controversies involving former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But a simple Google search shows that the timelines between the shootings and the stories involving Hillary Clinton don’t closely match. 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.) Here’s what the post says: — "Remember when Hillary was testifying about Benghazi? Probably not. You were too busy watching the elementary school massacre in Connecticut." — "Remember when Hillary got tattled on by Blumenthal for using illegal servers in the White House? Probably not. You were too busy watching the Charleston church shooting." — "Remember that time Hillary’s campaign lawyer went to trial for lying to the FBI about Trumps-Russia collusion? Probably not. You’re too busy watching the Uvalde school shooting massacre." Let’s address the claims one by one. Clinton’s Benghazi testimony and the Sandy Hook school shooting The first reference is to Clinton’s testimony about the attack on Sept. 11, 2012, by Islamic militants on U.S. sites in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Clinton testified before Congress on two separate occasions about the attack. The first was on Jan. 23, 2013, when she testified separately before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In 2014, the House established a select committee to further investigate the attack. Clinton, a leading candidate at the time for president, again testified before Congress on Oct. 22, 2015, in a lengthy hearing that was carried live on major news networks and drew wide coverage. 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 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, where gunman Adam Lanza first killed his mother, then traveled to the school to kill 20 children and six adults before killing himself, happened on Dec. 14, 2012. That’s over a month before Clinton’s first Benghazi testimony and nearly three years before her 2015 testimony. Clinton’s email server and the Charleston church shooting Another claim is a reference to the news that Clinton used a private email address instead of a government account during her time as secretary of state. That news first gained widespread attention after an article in The New York Times on March 2, 2015, but according to The Washington Post, the details first came out in 2013, when a hacker named "Guccifer" leaked emails from Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime friend of Clinton who worked as an adviser to President Bill Clinton. The website The Smoking Gun mentioned Clinton’s use of a private email address in its 2013 report about emails sent to her by Blumenthal. The FBI opened an investigation on July 10, 2015, and news coverage of it dogged Clinton for much of her campaign, even after then-FBI Director James Comey announced on July 5, 2016, there would be no charges. On June 17, 2015, a white supremacist named Dylann Roof killed nine Black people during a Bible study at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The shooting happened more than three months after news of Clinton’s private email address first gained widespread attention, three weeks before the FBI announced its investigation, and more than two years after Blumenthal’s emails were first leaked by a hacker. The Sussmann trial and the Uvalde, Texas, School shooting Jury selection began on May 16, 2022, for Michael Sussmann, a Democratic attorney who represented Hillary Clinton’s campaign. He was facing charges that he lied to the FBI by saying he was not working on behalf of a particular client when he gave the FBI information about possible ties between Donald Trump’s campaign and a Russian bank. He was acquitted on May 31 after a two-week trial. On May 24, 2022, Salvador Ramos walked into Robb Elementary school in Uvalde and killed 19 students and two teachers. That shooting took place eight days after Sussman’s trial began. Mass shooting conspiracies are common The recent tragedy in Uvalde prompted a flurry of misinformation online, much of which PolitiFact has already debunked. Such theories are common after mass shootings, and people often make fantastical claims that they are false flags meant to further an agenda like gun control or to distract from another news event. Our ruling A Facebook post implied that three separate mass shootings — Sandy Hook, Charleston and Uvalde — were timed to distract from various controversies involving Hillary Clinton. There’s no evidence to suggest any of the shootings were staged. And the timing of the shootings do not match up with the events from which they were supposedly meant to distract. Nugent already has two Pants on Fire ratings from us. This ridiculous claim makes it three: Pants on Fir

$3 million per day in "your tax dollars" are being spent to guard "unused border wall materials. Republicans, including members of Congress from Iowa, continue to criticize President Biden for how he is handling the U.S.-Mexican border. Rep. Ashley Hinson went to the border as June started to bring attention to her opposition to Biden's handling of border security. Sen. Chuck Grassley says he too is fighting Biden’s border policies. U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has been especially active on border policies, writing in a May 28 newsletter: "Well here’s something you may not know your tax dollars are being spent on: unused border wall materials." This has been happening since Biden terminated construction of President Trump’s wall on the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 20, 2021, Ernst wrote. Grassley said he agrees with her assessment. Ernst’s claim raises questions about responsible federal spending, so we took a look at it. The claim, which her office said comes from a 2021 Senate Republican staff report criticizing spending on unused materials at the border, made the rounds in conservative media in conjunction with Ernst introducing the BUILD IT Act in May. That act would terminate contracts relating to building the border wall and transfer unused fence material to Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas state government on the southwest border. In total, Trump had planned to spend $16.5 billion on the border wall: $10 billion from funds diverted from the Defense Department, $5.8 billion from a congressional appropriation and $600 million from forfeitures collected by the Treasury Department, a May 2021 Congressional Research Service report stated. In the days before Biden was inaugurated in 2021, Trump ramped up construction of the border wall by extending for one year a national emergency he had declared in February 2019 to build the wall. Biden suspended all construction on his first day in office, leaving unused steel panels and piping at construction sites along the border. Most estimates place the value of surplus material at $265 million, with some estimates as high as $350 million. Some of the material intended for the border wall is being used elsewhere. In February 2022, more than 1,700 unused panels were donated by the federal government to Texas to help build Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s state-funded border wall. A Defense Department spokesman said the total value of all the donated panels was $6 million, the Arizona Daily Star reported. The Daily Star reported that federal agencies receiving materials include U.S. Customs and Border Protection, along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). But representatives from neither agency responded to questions about how much material was received. The Interior Department also received nearly $1 million in bulk packaging and miscellaneous construction materials. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security authorized in December 2021 use of some of the remaining materials to close breaches in a Texas levee along the Rio Grande River and to backfill erosion in San Diego. The Biden Administration said wall construction created these problems. A Department of Homeland Security press release said other clean-up projects at construction sites have been approved, including road repair and installing drainage systems. Ernst wrote in her newsletter that guarding these materials costs "millions of dollars per day." Her staff cited for PolitiFact Iowa the Interim Minority Report issued in July 2021 from the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management. That Republican report states that, at the time of publication, the Defense Department continued to spend $3 million per day "to guard steel, concrete, and other materials in the desert." 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 The estimate of $3 million in costs per day has not been confirmed independently. The Republican report stated that the cost was determined through communications with the Defense Department and the Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management. The Republicans’ 2021 congressional report does not state if the costs for clean-up projects is included in the $3 million daily figure. Canceled contracts still cost taxpayers because the Defense Department has to negotiate its withdrawal from seven remaining contracts, the Republican report states. Department estimates show the federal government could spend at least $798 million and $1.048 billion by the end of 2022 on leaving contracts for the seven projects, the report states. A February 2021 U.S. Government Accountability Office report said the Defense Department spent about $1 billion helping at the border in fiscal years 2018 through 2020. But, the report stated, the department was late in providing more accurate costs for that time period and was not tracking internal costs. Military personnel at the border may only support Homeland Security officers and cannot make arrests. Homeland Security officials wanted the military to stay in the region three to five years, the 2021 report stated, but reliable cost estimates for doing so were not available. About $5.3 billion of the Defense Department’s diverted funding had been spent on wall construction and about $4.75 billion remained committed when Biden took office, the May 2021 non-partisan Congressional Research Service report stated. News reports in June 2021 said Biden returned the last batch of diverted funds – more than $2 billion – to the Defense Department. Defense Department leaders estimated it would cost the federal government around $1.4 billion to suspend and terminate contracts, pending negotiations with contractors to cancel them, an internal department memo stated. We asked Ernst’s Senate staff whether or not the costs of these clean-up projects are accounted for in $3 million daily costs. Staff responded in an email that these are projects "that the Biden administration is currently spending taxpayer money on as a result of President Biden’s decision to cancel the border wall, which was already under construction." Ernst’s office also did not answer if the $3 million per day cost has changed since last July. Our ruling Ernst’s May 28 newsletter claims that unused materials remain at construction sites, and that taxpayers are footing the bill to guard these materials. How much waste exists is a judgment call but Ernst is correct that around $265 million dollars in manufacturing materials, including panels, electrical supplies and light poles, were left at construction sites along the southern border with Mexico after Biden halted border wall construction. However, some of these materials are being used to repair gaps at insecure points in the barrier, while others have been sent to other government agencies, including the state of Texas for wall construction. No independent source has confirmed the $3 million daily cost that Ernst cites, and a nonpartisan government agency says reliable cost estimates for Defense Department work at the border are lacking or late. News organizations still are waiting to learn actual costs. We rate the claim to be Half True. Editor/Reporter Lyle Muller contributed to this stor

Blake Masters “unironically quoted a Nazi, called World War II an unjust war, called the Unabomber one of his intellectual influencers, and shared an article attacking Israel as the North Korea of the Middle East. Displeased that his competitor in the Arizona Republican primary for U.S. Senate won an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, Jim Lamon took to social media to lay out why that was the wrong call. Blake Masters, Lamon argued, would be unelectable in a general election against Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Kelly. "Blake Masters would be shred to pieces by Mark Kelly and the Democrats as someone who has unironically quoted a Nazi, called World War II an unjust war, called the Unabomber one of his intellectual influencers, and shared an article attacking Israel as the North Korea of the Middle East," Lamon tweeted June 2, the same day Trump issued his endorsement. Under the banner of America First, Lamon and Masters share many common policy positions. They both have questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. They say tougher border security is a matter of public safety, and see China as a key threat to American jobs. They oppose "critical race theory" in schools, although it isn’t part of K-12 school curricula. Neither man has run for office before. Lamon chairs a solar power company and served in the Army as an airborne officer. Masters recently stepped down as an executive in a venture capital investment fund overseen by billionaire PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Thiel has put more than $13 million into a Super PAC to promote Masters, and lobbied Trump to endorse him. Fox News host Tucker Carlson called Masters "the future of the Republican Party." Here, we look into Lamon’s four claims about Masters, Nazis, World War II, the Unabomber and Israel. ‘Someone who has unironically quoted a Nazi’ Hermann Goering, right, pictured with Adolf Hitler, center, during the ceremony in Berlin on June 6, 1939. (AP) Yes, Masters quoted a Nazi, but context here matters. It appeared in a 2006 essay Masters wrote while in college at Stanford University. The essay was 19-year-old Masters’ take on how the government uses propaganda to win popular support for war. (Masters is now 35.) In the piece, Masters argued that "government creates war for no good reason." War, he said, enriches the wealthy and does nothing for the average citizen. Masters described how President Woodrow Wilson built the case for America’s entry into World War I, and how the largest banks profited from it. The essay ends with a quote from Hermann Goering, convicted war criminal and Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man during the Nazi regime. "The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders," Goering said in an interview with American psychologist Gustave Gilbert, who published the statement in his book, "Nuremberg Diary." "That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." The quote highlighted the sort of manipulative messaging that Masters condemned in his essay. ‘Called WWII an unjust war’ Masters’ use of "unjust" came from the same college essay. Masters wrote: "Unjust wars (and the U.S. hasn’t been involved in a just war in over 140 years) always benefit certain groups and ultimately serve the aspirations of the political class in general at the expense of thousands and millions of lives." 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 The span of 140 years would include World War II. Masters has since stepped back from that part of his essay. "I was 19, writing in opposition to the Iraq War — a stance that turned out to be prescient," Masters said in a statement published in to Jewish Insider in April. "I went too far and stated that no recent American wars have been just." Amalia Halikias, a spokesperson for Masters’ campaign, said Masters has made it clear that "he believes American involvement — and victory — in WWII was just." ‘Called the Unabomber one of his intellectual influencers’ In this file photo from April 4, 1996, Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, is flanked by federal agents as he is led to a car from the federal courthouse in Helena, Montana. (AP) In an interview published March 16, 2022, Masters was asked if he has a "subversive thinker" that he thinks is "underrated and would influence people in a good direction." Masters spoke of Ted Kaczynski, the man who was known as the Unabomber after mailing booby-trapped packages that killed three people and injured 23 between 1978 and 1995. Kaczynski has written about industrialization in multiple books and in his published manifesto, where he argued that destroying industrial society is necessary for restoring the environment and human satisfaction. "He’s a terrorist, you shouldn’t hurt people, obviously," Masters said in the interview. "There’s a lot that I disagree with, right, like this is not an endorsement, but there’s a lot of insight there that is correct." Masters said he broadly agreed with Kaczynski's criticisms of industrial society and his view that the political left "fundamentally hate(s) anything like goodness, truth, beauty, justice." Masters never named the Unabomber as one of his "intellectual influencers," but he did say "everybody should read" Kaczynski’s work and decide what they agree and disagree with. ‘Shared an article attacking Israel as the North Korea of the Middle East’ In 2010, Masters shared to his father’s Facebook page a link to an article that likened Israel to North Korea. The 2010 article on a libertarian website (the same one that republished Masters’ 2006 college essay) detailed the plight Gazans and Palestinians face under the "unjust rule of the Israeli military." In it, the author wrote, "Israel is increasingly the North Korea of the Middle East." The Facebook post is no longer public, but the April Jewish Insider article included a link to a screenshot. The image shows Blake Masters shared the article link with his father, Scott Masters. The Masters campaign didn’t challenge Laman’s assertion that Masters had shared the article. Halikias said "Blake is a strong defender of Israel." On his website under his first priority, "Make America Safe Again," Masters promises to "get rid of ‘wokeness’ in our military" and then to "support military action only in defense of the U.S. and our allies like Israel." He also promises to "get tough on China, by far our top geopolitical rival." Our ruling Lamon said Masters quoted a Nazi, called World War II unjust, named the Unabomber as one of his intellectual influencers, and shared an article attacking Israel as the North Korea of the Middle East. Each of these statements has some truth, but leaves out key details. Lamon left out that it was in a college essay in which Masters used a Nazi quote to highlight how governments use propaganda to win support for wars that don’t help their people. In the same essay, Masters implicitly called World War II an unjust war. He has since acknowledged that the statement "went too far." Masters did praise Kaczynski's thoughts, but it was in response to a question about a "subversive thinker," and Masters condemned Kaczynski’s actions, calling him a "terrorist." Lamon said Masters "shared an article attacking Israel." Masters shared the article on his father’s Facebook page. We rate Lamon’s statement Half True.

95-item list of food-destroying incidents demonstrates that “you are duped if you think they aren’t planning a food shortage. It’s a frighteningly specific list of 95 agricultural incidents involving fires and "destroyed" poultry — and it’s all over social media. It begins: "1 — 4/30/21 Monmouth Smithfield Foods pork processing plant "2 — 7/25/21 Memphis Kellogg plant "3 — 8/13/21 JBS beef plant" And it ends: "93 — 5/29/22 200,000 Chickens killed in fire in Minnesota "94 — 5/31/22 3,000,000 chickens destroyed at Forsman egg farm facility in Stockholm Township, Minnesota "95 — 6/2/22 30,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania." "You are duped if you think they aren’t planning a food shortage," read a version we found posted June 7 on Facebook. "Far too many reasons to make sure you are stocked up for when things get much tighter." 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.) PolitiFact wondered if there was anything to this lengthy claim, so we reviewed each of the incidents cited and found no merit to the suggestion that anything nefarious is afoot. More than half are the result of a raging poultry epidemic. Seven incidents on the list were duplicates — sometimes repeated within a few lines of each other. And out of roughly 30 fires listed, PolitiFact found only one was determined to have been intentionally set. Others didn’t happen when the list said they did. The post said a fire destroyed a meat plant in Fayetteville, Illinois, in February, for example. But that fire actually happened on Jan. 11, 2021, and officials said it was not considered suspicious. Similarly, in April 2020, a chicken processing plant in Delaware killed nearly 2 million chickens as a result of COVID-19 related staff shortages. The post wrongly claimed those chickens were killed in April 2022. We were unable to find evidence that two incidents — 76,400 turkeys being destroyed in Osceola County, Iowa, in March and 2 million chickens being destroyed at an egg laying farm in Minnesota in April — happened at all. Here’s what we learned about the other 84 incidents listed in the post: Avian influenza outbreak Fifty of the incidents listed involved birds such as chickens, turkeys or ducks being killed to contain an ongoing outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza. It is very contagious and often fatal among birds. Using local news reports and a U.S. Department of Agriculture database that tracks confirmed detections of highly pathogenic avian influenza, PolitiFact verified that 50 of the items on the list refer to incidents where the virus was detected, which resulted in — or will result in — the impacted flocks being killed. Rick Coker, a spokesperson for the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said that the virus is currently spreading across the U.S. "primarily due to the migration of wild birds." Once the virus is detected, the goal is to humanely kill infected flocks within 24 hours of diagnosis to reduce the presence of the virus in the environment, he said. Avian flu doesn’t usually spread to humans but there have been some rare cases, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 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 Nearly 38 million birds have died or been killed to contain the virus in the 2022 outbreak so far. Even so, Coker said, "there is no reason to believe that this or any other (highly pathogenic avian influenza) outbreak was suspicious or that any entity is targeting the U.S. poultry supply." "Avian influenza is ubiquitous in the environment and when conditions are favorable the virus can spread quickly unchecked," he said, adding that the virus detected in the United States closely matches genetically with the virus that has been circulating in wild bird populations in Europe since 2021. Officials don’t suspect foul play for most fires The post included 30 additional fires at places such as farms, food processing plants and storage facilities. As of June 14, PolitiFact found only one fire that investigators said was set intentionally — and the fire destroyed a food pantry, not a "food plant" as the post claimed. Garrard County Food Pantry in Kentucky was destroyed by a fire on Nov. 14, 2021, and law enforcement officials arrested a woman and charged her with second degree arson and first degree criminal mischief, according to news reports. A majority of the fires listed — 18 — weren’t suspicious and were instead accidental or caused by typical malfunctions you might expect at farms and food manufacturing facilities, according to local officials. For example, a fire caused significant damage to a building at the Shadow Brook Farm and Dutch Girl Creamery in Lancaster County, Nebraska on Feb. 28. The state fire marshal said it was an accidental electrical fire. Nine fires remained under investigation as of June 14, but some early reports indicated that officials did not suspect foul play. Two fires had unknown causes, and it was not clear based on news reports whether they were being investigated. Birgitte Messerschmidt, the director of research for the National Fire Protection Association, said fires are more common than most people realize. "It can sound like a lot when you hear about several of these fires," Messerschmidt said. "But it really is nothing out of the ordinary." She said she’s researched fires in food manufacturing and food storage for years and "they’ve been happening around the globe, regularly." Messerschmidt said she has not noticed a notable uptick in fires at food production sites in 2022. After looking into the recent fires, she said she has found nothing to indicate there is a link between the fires or that a group might be trying to intentionally create food shortages. In addition, we found that the post relayed incorrect information about some of the fires. The post claimed a "barn full" of cows burned in March, implying the animals died, for example, but local farmers actually rescued 42 cows from a Pennsylvania dairy farm blaze on March 13. Planes, trains and chemical leaks The post also included a few other incidents, most of which remain under investigation as of June 14. It is unclear what impact, if any, some of these incidents had on food production. People were exposed to an ammonia leak at Lincoln Premium Poultry in Fremont, Nebraska, on Feb. 19. Plant operations were put on hold. A pilot delivering packages for UPS died on April 13 after her plane crashed into a Gem State Processing Plant. Officials are investigating the crash. The plant did not appear significantly damaged, photos of the scene show. On April 21, a plane crashed into an isolated area of a General Mills cereal plant, killing two aboard. No one on the ground was injured. The cause of the crash had not yet been determined, and the investigation could take up to two years. A Florida East Coast Railway cargo train carrying limestone derailed on May 19. Officials said the derailed cars were empty and the cause of the derailment had not been determined. Our ruling Facebook posts sharing a 95-item list of alleged food-destroying incidents said the list demonstrates that "you are duped if you think they aren’t planning a food shortage." Most of the incidents listed involved chickens or turkeys being killed because they were exposed to a highly contagious avian influenza and many referenced fires that officials said weren’t suspicious. The post relayed incorrect information about some of the incidents, and we found no evidence that two incidents happened at all. Experts in fire research and avian influenza said the list’s legitimate incidents do not demonstrate that there is an ongoing effort to create food shortages. We rate this post False. PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. RELATED: No, food-plant fires aren’t attempt to create food shortages RELATED: Looming food shortages? Probably not in the

A doctor at the Mayo Clinic is misdiagnosing pregnancies of Trump supporters so they have abortions A 2018 tweet that claimed a doctor was targeting Trump supporters is back in the spotlight — now making the rounds on Instagram as a screenshot, since the Twitter account that made the original claim was suspended. The claim is still false. The tweet from user @drnifkin says, "When Trump supporters come to my office at the Mayo Clinic, I love misdiagnosing their healthy pregnancies as ectopic so they have to abort their white fetuses." An ectopic pregnancy is when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the uterus. That type of pregnancy is not viable because the "fertilized egg can't survive," according to the Mayo Clinic. A screenshot of the tweet was posted June 13 on Instagram by Young America’s Foundation, a conservative group. 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 Facebook.) But the information is false, just as it was in 2018 when it was first shared. In June of that year, the Mayo Clinic tweeted that a parody account was posting the baseless claim. "We strongly condemn the posts and have asked Twitter to remove the account," the June 29, 2018, tweet from the Mayo Clinic said. Twitter suspended the @drnifkin account. 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 Later in 2018, conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos shared the misinformation on Facebook, the Associated Press reported. At that time, a spokesperson for the Mayo Clinic told the AP there was no doctor by that name at the clinic and the information was false. The Mayo Clinic tweeted in October 2018: "In June, a troll w/no relationship to Mayo Clinic tweeted a false, inflammatory message that led Twitter to suspend his account until he deleted the tweet. Images of that tweet are again circulating on various social networks. It's a hoax." We reached out to Young America’s Foundation for comment but did not receive a reply. Our ruling An Instagram post that’s a screenshot of a tweet says a doctor at the Mayo Clinic is targeting Trump supporters for unnecesary abortions. The false tweet originated in 2018. The Mayo Clinic said at that time there is no doctor by that name at the clinic and the information had come from a troll operating a parody account. Twitter suspended the account that initially tweeted the information. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

The Pentagon "finally comes clean" and "admits...that there are 46 U.S. military-funded biolabs in Ukraine The Pentagon released a new fact sheet about the government’s efforts to lessen the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, Russia and other former Soviet countries — and internet conspiracy theorists took off running. While the document largely repeats information about the programs’ accomplishments and efforts over the last several years, that didn’t stop some internet users from claiming that it contained a bombshell admission. "US Department of Defense Finally Comes Clean – Admits in Public Document that There Are 46 US Military-Funded Biolabs in Ukraine," a June 12 Gateway Pundit headline read. "US asked to explain after Pentagon admits to operating 46 biolabs in Ukraine after months of denial," read another June 12 headline by the Morning Star, a socialist newspaper published in Great Britain. But these are mischaracterizations. The document doesn’t contain any evidence — new or otherwise — of U.S. biolabs in Ukraine. The 46 facilities referenced in the articles and in the government’s fact sheet are owned and operated by Ukraine, and information about the facilities’ existence has been made publicly available by the Pentagon for some time. The stories 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.) When Russia first invaded Ukraine in February, false claims took hold online that Russian President Vladimir Putin was targeting the country over its alleged abundance of U.S.-run biological weapons laboratories. At one point, the claims took on a new twist as some alleged that President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, had funded the supposed labs. But fabricated stories from Russia proclaiming bioweapon use by the U.S. aren’t new, and allegations of a network of such labs along Russia’s border were shared in its state-run media before the invasion. PolitiFact reached out to the Pentagon for comment but did not hear back. The Pentagon’s program Since 2005, the U.S. has partnered with Ukraine through the Pentagon’s Biological Threat Reduction Program. The purpose is "to support peaceful and safe biological detection and diagnostic capabilities and to reduce the threats posed by pathogens," according to a March 2022 government fact sheet. Andy Weber, a member of the Arms Control Association Board of Directors and a former assistant secretary of defense for nuclear, chemical, and biological defense programs, previously told us there are no U.S. military-run labs in Ukraine but rather health labs to help detect, prevent and mitigate infectious disease. 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 The Defense Department’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program "has provided technical support to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health since 2005 to improve public health laboratories, whose mission is analogous to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," Weber said. Also known as the Nunn-Lugar program, the initiative began after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 as a project aimed at dismantling and securing leftover weapons of mass destruction programs in former Soviet countries. The facilities in Ukraine The Pentagon hasn’t said anything new about the 46 facilities — we reported about them in April. In fact, the June 9 release at the center of these claims specifically states that Ukraine "has no nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons programs." With regard to the 46 facilities, the government fact sheet said the U.S. has: "Worked collaboratively to improve Ukraine’s biological safety, security, and disease surveillance for both human and animal health, providing support to 46 peaceful Ukrainian laboratories, health facilities, and disease diagnostic sites over the last two decades. The collaborative programs have focused on improving public health and agricultural safety measures at the nexus of nonproliferation." In March, the Pentagon said much of the same, adding that the program has invested about $200 million in Ukraine, "supporting 46 laboratories, health facilities and diagnostic sites" and that it has "improved Ukraine’s biological safety, security and surveillance for both human and animal health." While the U.S. is providing support for Ukraine, the labs are owned and operated by the Ukrainian government, Robert Pope, director of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Department, previously told PolitiFact. "Specifically, we make the labs more secure from accidental or intentional release, provide diagnostic equipment, train personnel on the use of the equipment, and train them how to detect potential outbreaks," Pope said. "DTRA not only does this with Ukraine, but also with partners in over 30 countries, at their request, to assist with safe disease detection and diagnosis." Our ruling A Gateway Pundit article said, "US Department of Defense Finally Comes Clean – Admits in Public Document that There Are 46 US Military-Funded Biolabs in Ukraine." There was no "coming clean" — and the government made no such admission. The document referenced in the stories repeated known information about 46 Ukrainian-owned-and-operated laboratories, health facilities and diagnostic sites that have received support from the U.S. The document specifically states that Ukraine "has no nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons programs." We rate this claim False. RELATED: There are no US-run biolabs in Ukraine, contrary to social media posts RELATED: The facts behind the Russian, right-wing narratives claiming Hunter Biden funded biolabs in Ukraine

Republican politicians are pushing a plan "that could raise taxes on almost one in three Wisconsinites and sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years. Social Security, Medicare and taxes are among the hair-trigger topics in American politics. Even a hint of trying to modify, change or raise any of the three can ignite a firestorm. Enter the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which had this to say in a May 2, 2022, news release: "Wisconsinites are fed up with Republican politicians pushing a disastrous agenda that could raise taxes on almost one in three Wisconsinites and sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years. The Republican agenda would threaten the hard-earned benefits that Wisconsin seniors rely on and hurt working families across the state." That sounded a tad familiar. We previously rated Mostly False a claim from Alex Lasry, a Democrat hoping to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, that said Johnson "is supporting the Republican plan that phases out Social Security and Medicare." The election is still about five months away. Can the campaign already be in reruns? Let’s look again: Are Republicans pushing a plan "that could raise taxes on almost one in three Wisconsinites and sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years"? "Rescue America" plan rises again When asked for backup, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin staffers pointed – as Lasry did – to the "Rescue America" plan, released in February 2022 by U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida. Scott is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. His 11-point plan addresses a range of issues, including education, crime and safety, immigration, government finances and what it labels "fair, fraud free elections" and "Religious liberty/Big tech." Point number five in the plan – "Economy/Growth" — states: "No government assistance unless you are disabled or aggressively seeking work. If you can work, but refuse to work, you cannot live off of the hard work and sweat of your fellow Americans. All Americans should pay some income tax to have skin in the game, even if a small amount. Currently, over half of Americans pay no income tax." So, that’s where the tax portion of the Democrats’ claim comes from. A May 13, 2022 CNN report says that — if enacted — that would mean a tax increase for millions of people. According to estimates from the Tax Policy Center think tank, about 75 million American households in 2022, or 42% of the total, did not pay federal income tax. Americans who don’t pay federal taxes include the jobless as well as employed people who don’t earn enough money to file tax returns; and some retirees, people with disabilities and stay-at-home parents. A state-by-state analysis released March 7, 2022, by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy said it found that in Wisconsin, 32% of residents would see their taxes go up under the proposal. Meanwhile, as we have noted before, point number six in the plan — "Government Reform and Debt" — states: "All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again." The proposal does not specifically say Medicare and Social Security would be phased out, but does refer to "federal legislation." And both programs were created generations ago through federal legislation. So, that’s the Social Security and Medicare piece. 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 Taken together, the two areas show there’s at least some truth to the claim. Republicans and the plan The biggest problem with the claim, however, is not whether the details can be extracted from the plan – it’s whether the document is, as stated, broadly endorsed by Republicans. For his part, Scott — his position as head of the Senate GOP campaign arm notwithstanding – has said: "It’s not the Republican plan. It’s more what I believe in." He also told The Washington Post that "everybody’s got a different approach. That’s mine." In an email to PolitiFact Wisconsin, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin said many GOP candidates across the country have declined to explicitly repudiate Scott’s plan. But that’s different than endorsing it. As we noted in our March 18, 2022, fact-check of the Lasry claim, there is dissension among Republicans. Notably Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky opposes key parts of of the plan. "Let me tell you what would not be a part of our agenda," McConnell said, according to The Associated Press. "We will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half of the American people and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years." Here’s a sampling of what some GOP senators have said about the plan. Mike Braun of Indiana: "I’m glad Rick did it. Nothing is going to be perfect" but "we’ve got to be for something." Marco Rubio of Florida: "I have not seen the plan. I’ve read about it, but I think it’s good that people offer ideas. I’m not sure I agree with all of them. I don’t know all of the details of the plan." John Cornyn of Texas: "This is not an approach embraced by the entire Republican conference. We’re going to keep our focus on inflation, crime, the border and Afghanistan. And some of these other things are things to think about … after the election is over." Tommy Tuberville of Alabama: Said he’s "on board" with Scott’s blueprint and said Republicans need to be thinking about "a universal plan that we need to sell to the American people." Finally, in a news release, Johnson offered praise to Scott for presenting a plan, but stopped short of endorsing it: "I think it’s important for elected officials to tell their constituents what they are for, and I support Senator Scott for doing so." Johnson has said elsewhere he does not agree with all of what is in the plan, and his staff noted that in the past Johnson has said Social Security and Medicare need to be preserved for future generations. Our ruling The Democratic Party of Wisconsin said Republican politicians are pushing a plan "that could raise taxes on almost one in three Wisconsinites and sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years." There is an element of truth to the claim, in that the plan from Scott has those elements. But the claim goes awry by framing it as a plan endorsed by Republicans. Far from it. Scott has said it represents his ideas, not a platform. And McConnell has explicitly said the two areas the Democrats hammered on will not be part of any GOP agenda. For a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, our rating is 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' });

Justin Bieber’s Ramsay Hunt syndrome and Hailey Bieber’s blood clot were caused by COVID-19 vaccines Justin Bieber was forced to postpone dates on his world tour this month after announcing that he was diagnosed with a rare illness. The singer took to Instagram on June 10 to tell his fans that he had Ramsay Hunt syndrome, which caused full paralysis on one side of his face. "For those who are frustrated by my cancellations of the next shows, I’m just physically, obviously, not capable of doing them," the 28-year-old said as he spoke to the camera. "This is pretty serious, as you can see." The news, coupled with recent health struggles by Bieber’s wife, Hailey, who was hospitalized in March after a blood clot traveled to her brain, has many people on social media tying the couple’s conditions to the COVID-19 vaccine. "Hailey Bieber had a blood clot in her brain. Justin Bieber now has Ramsay Hunt syndrome," read a June 11 Facebook post. " Both issues have been linked to (vaccines)." The post — which featured a needle emoji in place of the word "vaccines" — 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 appears to be entirely speculative; we found no evidence to support its claims. Justin and Hailey Bieber each posted videos to social media detailing their recent illnesses. Neither mentioned COVID-19 vaccines as being a factor. It’s also not publicly known if either of them have even received a vaccine. Justin Bieber has been open about his health issues in the past, telling fans on his YouTube series "Seasons" in 2020 that he suffered from Lyme disease and Epstein-Barr virus. What is Ramsay Hunt syndrome? Ramsay Hunt syndrome is caused by the varicella zoster virus, the same virus that causes chickenpox and shingles. If someone has chickenpox as a child, the virus lays dormant and can reactivate when the person reaches adulthood, causing shingles. In some people, shingles develops into Ramsay Hunt syndrome. It affects the facial nerve near the inner ear and can cause swelling, irritation, a painful rash and facial paralysis, among other symptoms. It is not common, affecting about 5 in every 100,000 people, but can happen to anyone who has had chickenpox. It’s treated with antivirals and steroids, and treatment within three days of symptoms leads to better outcomes, according to health officials. It can take weeks, sometimes months, to recover, and sometimes damage can be permanent. Justin Bieber and COVID-19 We don’t know whether either of the Biebers have received COVID-19 vaccines. We could not find any public comments from them about getting — or not getting — a vaccine. We reached out to Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun through his company’s website, but have not received a response. In December, the Twitter account for updates on the singer’s recent tour, tweeted that multiple tour dates would require attendees to be fully vaccinated. It’s not clear if that decision was made by Bieber and his team, or if it was due to policies of individual venues or local laws. In February, the singer was diagnosed with a mild case of COVID-19, resulting in the postponement of a show in Las Vegas, according to CNN. COVID-19 vaccines, shingles and Ramsay Hunt syndrome Researchers have documented cases of people developing shingles, or Ramsay Hunt after vaccination, but no causal link has been established to the vaccines, experts told PolitiFact. There have also been reports of people developing shingles or Ramsay Hunt after a COVID-19 infection. Bernard Man Yung Cheung, a professor at the University of Hong Kong, and co-author of one case report being used by some to make a connection between the vaccines and Bieber’s illness, said that report should not be taken as evidence against vaccination, in which he and his colleagues are "firm believers." The report was about a healthy 37-year-old man who was diagnosed with Ramsay Hunt syndrome two days after his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in July 2021. Oscar Chou, one of the paper’s authors and a researcher under Cheung, sent responses prepared by the authors in response to questions from PolitiFact. 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 They said the report provides no "definitive causation relationship between Ramsay Hunt syndrome and COVID-19 vaccines," but it’s an area worthy of further research. Shingles have also been reported after other common vaccines, so any reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus may not be specific to COVID-19 vaccines. There is also not a definitive link between the COVID-19 vaccine and shingles, and more large-scale studies are required, they said. Separately, Cheung said all drugs, including vaccines, come with the risk of adverse effects, "some of which are frequent but harmless, and some of which are rare but harmful." He said there’s a "learning curve" early in a vaccine’s use where side effects would be monitored and "it was in this spirit that our report was written." Other health experts we spoke with said that despite these case reports, there is no evidence of an increased risk for shingles or Ramsay Hunt syndrome after getting a COVID-19 vaccine. "Shingles — of which Ramsay Hunt is a type — has been reported to occur after COVID vaccines, but it would occur within a few weeks of vaccine, if it were to be considered potentially related," said Dr. Anna Wald, director of the University of Washington’s Virology Research Clinic. "Thus far, it is not clear whether there is an increased risk for shingles after COVID vaccine. However, there is for sure an increased risk for shingles after COVID-19." One study published in March found that people 50 and older with even mild cases of COVID-19 were 15% more likely to develop shingles than those who had not been infected. That risk grew to 21% among people who were hospitalized with COVID-19. Wald said that shingles would develop within a few weeks of a COVID-19 infection, so Bieber’s February illness doesn’t seem related to the virus, unless he was recently reinfected, and it is "unlikely due to vaccine." Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said some have hypothesized that reports of post-vaccination reactivation of varicella zoster virus are because immune system changes induced by vaccination "may lead to less control of latent VZV." "Shingles has rarely been reported post-vaccination, but has been reported post-COVID, post-influenza, post-rabies, post-hepatitis A and post-Japanese encephalitis vaccination," Adalja said. "It is difficult to establish causation because shingles is a very common infection and there is a baseline rate that just occurs, especially with advancing age." Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said it's possible, but unlikely, that a vaccine could have contributed to Bieber's condition. "If you ask any scientist, 'is it possible?' almost everybody will say, 'well, perhaps,' because, as you know, COVID and COVID vaccines, particularly COVID itself, have thrown us lots of curveballs. Do I think it's likely? The answer to that is no," he said. That's because of the strength of the U.S. vaccine surveillance system, which Schaffner called "probably the best in the world." "There are no data from the surveillance systems that would indicate that the vaccines are out there provoking shingles," Schaffner said. "This question has been asked, not specifically about Ramsay Hunt that I'm aware of, but certainly about shingles. And these surveillance systems have not produced anything like that." Curtis Gill, a spokesperson for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the agency "has detected no unusual or unexpected patterns of Ramsay Hunt syndrome following immunization that would indicate COVID-19 vaccines are causing or contributing to this condition." What happened to Hailey Bieber? In March, Hailey Bieber went to the hospital after experiencing stroke-like symptoms when a blood clot traveled to her brain. Doctors there told her she had a transient ischemic attack, or TIA, she said in a YouTube video detailing her condition. She received further testing after being discharged and she said doctors told her she had a patent foramen ovale — a hole in her heart that didn’t close the way it’s supposed to after birth. She said doctors told her the clot escaped through that hole and traveled to her brain. As for how she got the blood clot in the first place, Bieber said in the video that "all of the doctors came to the conclusion that it was a perfect storm that led to me having a small blood clot." She said they cited three factors: recently starting birth control pills despite a history of migraines, a recent COVID-19 infection and traveling on long flights to and from Paris in a short amount of time. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have not been linked to blood clots, although the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been linked to a rare clotting disorder called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, which is not what Hailey Bieber had. Our ruling A Facebook post claimed that Justin Bieber’s diagnosis of Ramsay Hunt syndrome and Hailey Bieber’s blood clot were caused by COVID-19 vaccines. We could find no evidence via public statements that either have been vaccinated. Each of them detailed their health conditions to fans in social media videos, and neither tied them to vaccines. Experts we spoke with said there is no evidence that vaccines are causing or contributing to Ramsay Hunt syndrome. And Hailey’s condition was caused a hole in her heart which allowed a blood clot, possibly caused in part by a COVID-19 infection, to travel to her brain. We rate this claim False. Correction, June 15, 2021: A previous version of this fact-check misspelled Hailey Bieber's name. Update, June 16, 2021: This story has been updated to include responses received after publication from Bernard Man Yung Cheung and other authors of a study used by some to link the COVID-19 vaccines to Bieber’s condition. The rating is unchanged.

"President Biden confirm(ed) everyone will receive their $1k gas checks this week!! Americans squeezed by high gas prices might be tempted to believe a social media post that says federal relief is on its way, but the claim is running on empty. "President Biden confirm(ed) everyone will receive their $1k gas checks this week!!" says a June 12 post on Facebook. The post continues, "Long as you don’t owe da state you will get the full amount which is $1k this week!! Most of you should have gotten it on yesterday. This is for all states!!!" 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.) It’s not true. The federal government is not issuing gas stimulus checks. A few bills have been introduced that would provide federal rebates to taxpayers, but they were both proposed in March and have not yet made it out of congressional committees. 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 Ten states have approved tax rebate payments, ranging from $75 in Idado to $850 in Maine, and six other states are considering similar measures, according to Forbes Advisor. Other states have had a gas tax holiday. Congressional Democrats have been trying to garner support for a bill that would give the Federal Trade Commission more power to combat price gouging for gas, but it remains to be seen if the legislation will have the necessary support. We rate the claim that the federal government will send $1,000 checks for gas price relief False.

When Joe Biden “walked into this administration … 20 million people were on unemployment insurance benefits. During a recent press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre played down the impact of President Joe Biden’s policies on inflation. Inflation has recently been at a 40-year high. Many economists say the American Rescue Plan — the coronavirus relief package that Biden, with only Democratic support in Congress, signed into law shortly after taking office in 2021 — has contributed to the rise in prices. Critics say putting more money in Americans’ pockets when they didn’t need the assistance has been a contributor to inflation, along with pandemic-related supply-chain troubles and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, both of which have disrupted flows of energy, food and other goods. At a June 13 press briefing, Jean-Pierre played defense against the notion that the American Rescue Plan had a role in worsening inflation. The issue came up when a reporter asked about the precipitous drop in the stock market that day; by the end of the day, the benchmark Standard & Poors 500 had fallen by nearly 4%, pushing stocks into bear market territory, which is defined as the markets losing at least 20% of their value from recent highs. "We know that the high prices are having a real effect on people's lives," Jean-Pierre said. "We get that. And we are incredibly focused on doing everything that we can to make sure that the economy is working for the American people. But we are coming out of the strongest job market in American history, and that matters. And a lot of that is thanks to the American Rescue Plan, which only Democrats voted for, and Republicans did not. It led to this historic economic boom that we're seeing with jobs." The reporter followed up by asking, "Didn’t it also lead to historic inflation?" Jean-Pierre responded, "That is not how we're seeing the American Rescue Plan. … We have to remember what the president walked into. When he walked into this administration, the economy was at a standstill. Schools were closed. Businesses were shutting down. Twenty million people were on unemployment insurance benefits. That is what he walked into." A reader asked us whether Jean-Pierre was correct to say that when Biden "walked into this administration … 20 million people were on unemployment insurance benefits." Jean-Pierre’s figure is way off. To check what Jean-Pierre said, we looked at two federal statistics. The first is the number of unemployed Americans, estimated every month from a federal survey of households. The unemployment level did peak at about 23 million people in April 2020, right when the economy was closing down due to the coronavirus. But that was nine months before Biden took office — and the number fell significantly before Biden was sworn in. !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 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 By January 2021, when Biden was being sworn in, the number of unemployed Americans had fallen by more than half, to 10.2 million. So according to this metric, Jean-Pierre cited a figure roughly double the actual number. But there’s an even better metric to describe the number of Americans who "were on unemployment insurance benefits." And using this metric, Jean-Pierre is even further off base. Like the unemployment level, the number of Americans collecting continuing unemployment benefits peaked at 23.1 million in early May 2020, only a few weeks into the pandemic’s initial burst. But this figure fell even further than the unemployment level did. (The difference stems from the fact that not everyone who is unemployed qualifies for unemployment insurance.) On the eve of Biden’s inauguration, the number of Americans collecting continuing unemployment insurance was a little under 4.9 million. That was still higher than the typical level prior to the pandemic — about 1.8 million — but less than a quarter of the 20 million figure that Jean-Pierre cited. !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"); Jean-Pierre argued that the economy was so terrible that the American Rescue Plan was a must. But this glosses over the fact that the worst economic hit from the coronavirus-driven shutdowns occurred in the spring of 2020. Nine months later, when Biden took office, the economy was rebounding. The White House did not respond to an inquiry for this article. Our ruling Jean-Pierre said that when Biden "walked into this administration … 20 million people were on unemployment insurance benefits." The number of unemployed Americans did crack 20 million early in the pandemic, but Donald Trump was president at the time. By the time Biden was sworn in and was seeking passage of the American Rescue Plan, the number had fallen by about half, to 10 million. An even more appropriate statistic for evaluating Jean-Pierre’s statement — the number of Americans continuing to collect unemployment insurance benefits — had fallen even further by the time Biden took office, to less than 5 million, or just a quarter of what Jean-Pierre had said. We rate the statement Fals

Image shows Paul Pelosi, bruised, in a booking mugshot A viral image purports to show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband looking badly bruised in a mugshot snapped following his May arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence. Napa County authorities released and shared with PolitiFact an authentic mugshot of businessman Paul Pelosi, 82, on June 13. But the image ricocheting around the internet for several days before that — in which Pelosi appears disheveled and with a black eye — is not real. "​It's a complete fake," said Larry Kamer, a spokesperson for Paul Pelosi. The fake mugshot appears to have been created using digital editing. Snopes reported that an image of Pelosi from Getty Images was altered to add bruising around his eye, a prison uniform and other distortions to create what looks like a genuine booking photo. According to Snopes, the original, unaltered photograph shows Paul Pelosi in a suit beside Nancy Pelosi. It was taken in 2016 at a gala before the Grammy Awards, according to a Getty Images caption. The first iteration of the fake mugshot PolitiFact could find cropped up June 8 on patriots.win, a far-right message board. A screenshot of that post spread quickly to Truth Social, former President Donald Trump’s social media app, and the messaging app Telegram, where it was shared among some promoters of the QAnon conspiracy theory. Soon, screenshots of those posts were on Twitter and Facebook. 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 This PolitiFact illustration shows how a fake Paul Pelosi mugshot spread from the patriots.win message board to Truth Social and Facebook. The Facebook posts were flagged as part of the platform’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Paul Pelosi was arrested close to midnight on May 28 after a two-vehicle collision, according to the California Highway Patrol’s collision report, a copy of which was obtained by PolitiFact. The report says Pelosi was driving a 2021 Porsche into an intersection when his car was hit by a 2014 Jeep. The 48-year-old Jeep driver was not arrested and no injuries were reported. Pelosi was arrested in connection with driving under the influence and driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08% or higher, according to the Napa County Department of Corrections. His court date has been set for Aug. 3, at which time he would be arraigned if charges are filed, per the Napa County District Attorney’s Office. He was released the morning after his arrest. Other viral misinformation relating to Pelosi’s arrest claimed that all charges had been dropped. PolitiFact rated this claim False. We rate this viral image showing a bruised Paul Pelosi Fals

“Not a single person in the crowd on January 6 was found to be carrying a firearm. Not one. As the first House hearing dedicated to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol aired, Fox News host Tucker Carlson repeated the debunked claim that no one in the crowd was found with a gun. "Just to be clear on terms, an insurrection is when people with guns try to overthrow the government," Carlson said during his June 10 segment. "Not a single person in the crowd on January 6 was found to be carrying a firearm. Not one," Carslon said. That’s wrong. Court documents, video evidence and news coverage directly contradict this characterization. Several rioters had firearms and dozens more wielded knives, bats and other real and makeshift weapons. We reached out to Carlson for comment but did not hear back. PolitiFact reviewed the case files for hundreds of defendants who were arrested and charged for their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and found several defendants who police say were found to have brought firearms. Some were charged with having firearms on Capitol grounds while others stashed them nearby: Lonnie Coffman of Alabama was found with multiple weapons in his vehicle and on his person. Coffman’s truck, which he had parked in the vicinity of the Capitol on the morning of Jan. 6, was packed with weaponry, including a handgun, a rifle and a shotgun, each loaded, according to court documents. Also, the truck held hundreds of rounds of ammunition, several large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, a crossbow with bolts, machetes, camouflage smoke devices, a stun gun and 11 Molotov cocktails. When Coffman was detained, questioned and searched, police found two more handguns on his person. None of the weapons were registered, documents state. Coffman pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April to 46 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Guy Reffitt of Texas was charged with bringing a handgun onto Capitol grounds. Court documents showed that Reffitt, reported to be a member of the Three Percenters militia group, told his family he brought his gun with him and that he and others "stormed the Capitol." A jury found Reffitt guilty of five felony charges in March, and he remains detained pending sentencing. Christopher Michael Alberts of Maryland also brought his handgun onto Capitol grounds. An officer saw that Alberts had a gun on his hip and alerted fellow officers. When Alberts tried to flee, officers detained him and recovered the loaded handgun, along with a separate magazine. He has been indicted on ten felony counts. 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 his conspiratorial documentary series "Patriot Purge," Carlson featured Mark Ibrahim, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent, and falsely claimed that Ibrahim was forced from his job and indicted for simply being near the Capitol protest. But court documents show that Ibrahim had already submitted his intent to resign from the DEA weeks before Jan. 6 and was indicted because he brought a gun with him onto Capitol grounds and made false statements to federal agents. The number of people who carried firearms with them that day may not ever be fully accounted for because the majority of those involved in the siege weren’t arrested on-site but were tracked down by law enforcement days, weeks and months later. It’s also important to note that an insurrection is a violent uprising against the government, and the definition of "armed" is not legally limited to guns; it refers to any weapon used for defense or offense and as a means of protection. Other items used as weapons on Jan. 6 included bats, crutches, flagpoles, skateboards, fire extinguishers and chemical sprays. Our ruling Carlson claimed that no one in the crowd on Jan. 6 was found with a firearm. That’s inaccurate. Many of those involved in the attack were armed, and several had guns that police later seized. We rate his claim False. PolitiFact reporter Bill McCarthy contributed to this repor

There are more females on Facebook than alive in the world A recent Facebook post suggests that you might be getting duped online if you’re befriended by a woman on the social media platform. "World’s female population: 3.52 billion," the June 9 post says. "Female on Facebook: 5.77 billion. Security alert. So next time you get a request from Sonia..beware..it could be Srinivasan." 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 Facebook.) Facebook didn’t respond to our questions about the post. According to data and projections from the Population Division of the United Nations, there are an estimated 3.94 billion females in the world and about 4 billion males. 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 That’s more than the Facebook post says, but the claim in the post has also been circulating online for several years, since at least 2018. But according to the 2022 first quarter report for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, Facebook had only 2.94 billion monthly active users as of March 31 — about half the number of users the post claims identify as female, and a billion fewer females than there are in the entire world, according to the United Nations. According to a March 24 post from Hootsuite, users who identify themselves as female make up 43.4% of Facebook users that could be reached via advertising on the social media platform. We rate this post False.

“U.S. military at the White House arresting Congress. A few hours before the members of the House select committee investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol commenced their first primetime hearing, a Facebook post alerted readers to a wild development: "U.S. military at the White House arresting Congress," the title of the June 9 video said. But it’s not real. 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 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 video itself offered no credible evidence to support the claim, and there’s no evidence elsewhere — online or in news reports, for example — that this is true. The Twitter account of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued to tweet as normal, and not about the arrest of her fellow House representatives. Pelosi and President Joe Biden were in California for the Summit of the Americas the night of the post. Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who delivered the committee’s opening statement, has also not indicated on social media or her House website that anything was amiss. Nor have branches of the military announced the arrest of any lawmakers—or the entire Congress. We rate this post Pants on Fire!

“Military take over on May 11 confirmed! QAnon claims that the military is poised to take over the U.S. government have long proliferated online, and a recent June 9 post is no exception. "Military take over on May 11 confirmed!" the post said. But it seemed to raise the hackles of some former QAnon faithful who sounded dispirited by the forever-forthcoming promise of a coup. "We’ve (been) hearing all this for months now but yet no one can show any proof of anything people like you are saying," one commenter said. "So provide truth or stop trying to get people’s hopes up. It just makes everything worse." 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 Facebook.) Here’s the truth: There’s no confirmation that the military is taking over the government on May 11. This claim is unfounded. Were it valid, there would be news reports and statements from lawmakers about the radical action. There are none. We rate this post Pants on Fire.

“Donald Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol" before Jan. 6, 2021, but was "rejected" by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer Twenty million Americans tuned in June 9 as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol described how then-President Donald Trump fueled the mob with bogus claims of a stolen election. The audience watching Fox News got a different story from its hosts: a litany of conspiracy theories from Tucker Carlson and a defense of Trump by Sean Hannity. Hannity repeatedly claimed that Trump authorized 20,000 National Guard troops for the Capitol before the riot, and that the former president’s efforts to secure the building were thwarted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "If Donald Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol, how does it make sense that they are there on national television blaming Donald Trump for wanting to start an insurrection?" Hannity said on his June 9 show. He repeated the claim several times in the hour, often blaming Pelosi and Schumer, and again the following night. Trump similarly claimed on June 9 that he "offered up to 20,000 National Guard" prior to the event and that "crazy Nancy Pelosi turned down the offer." There was no evidence to support such a claim in February 2021, when Trump said on Fox News that he had requested 10,000 National Guard troops but was rebuffed by Pelosi. There’s still no record of any such authorization being made, or of Pelosi standing in the way. The D.C. National Guard reports "solely to the president of the United States," per its website. "This is not true," Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, told PolitiFact June 10. "The Speaker of the House doesn’t have the power to do this. No request was made for the National Guard before Jan. 6." "No congressional official, or body, has the authority to activate the National Guard to the U.S. Capitol. Only the president," added Jane. L Campbell, president and CEO of the U.S. Capitol Historical Society. "If the president calls the National Guard to the U.S. Capitol, no congressional official has the authority to decline its service." In fact, about 20 minutes before Hannity went on air, the House committee noted that then-Vice President Mike Pence had called for the National Guard on Jan. 6 — not Trump. Fox News did not respond to a request for comment. No basis for 10,000, 20,000 number As PolitiFact previously reported, what Trump described in February 2021 as a formal request for 10,000 troops was actually an offhand remark to then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller. Miller said he took it as hyperbole based on Trump’s expectation for a massive crowd. There’s no evidence the remark was handled as an official authorization. A Vanity Fair reporter who followed Miller during the last week of Trump’s administration detailed the remark in a report. The report said that on Jan. 5, 2021, Miller and his chief of staff Kash Patel were meeting with Trump about an issue related to Iran. (A Defense Department inspector general’s report appeared to place the meeting on Jan. 3.) The Vanity Fair report said the conversation suddenly "switched gears": "The president, Miller recalled, asked how many troops the Pentagon planned to turn out the following day. "We’re like, ‘We’re going to provide any National Guard support that the District requests,’" Miller responded. "And (Trump) goes, ‘You’re going to need 10,000 people.’ No, I’m not talking bullshit. He said that. And we’re like, ‘Maybe. But you know, someone’s going to have to ask for it.’" At that point Miller remembered the president telling him, "‘You do what you need to do. You do what you need to do.’ He said, ‘You’re going to need 10,000.’ That’s what he said. Swear to God." 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 Miller chalked it up at the time to Trump being "hyperbolic," Vanity Fair reported. He told lawmakers months later that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for 340 members of the D.C. National Guard for traffic and crowd control was approved, but the Defense Department "received no further request for different or additional support until the Capitol was breached." Before the attack, Miller had signaled opposition to stationing the military outside the Capitol, according to the Defense Department’s inspector general report. "No other requests were made," then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said the day after the riot. The Washington Post reported that the 10,000 figure did not get relayed to anyone outside of the Defense Department, citing unnamed former officials. A Defense Department spokesperson previously told PolitiFact that there was "no record of such an order being given" by Trump. It’s not clear how or when the number claimed jumped from 10,000 to 20,000 — a number of troops that would have rivaled some of the largest National Guard deployments in history. Texts between Fox News host Sean Hannity and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany are displayed at the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, hearing on June 9, 2022, in Washington. (AP) On his show June 9, Hannity brought on Patel, who has helped drive falsehoods in the past and has shared social media posts related to the QAnon conspiracy theory. In contrast to what Miller told Vanity Fair and lawmakers, Patel told Hannity that in the pre-Jan. 6 meeting between Miller and Trump, Trump officially authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops. Patel then claimed that they went to Pelosi and "she refused it all," but he spoke only in vague terms when Hannity pressed for more information. When PolitiFact emailed Patel for evidence that Trump had formally authorized 20,000 troops and Pelosi had refused it, a spokesperson pointed to the Defense Department’s IG report and to the department’s timeline for security planning on Jan. 6, 2021. Those documents, along with a bipartisan report from the Senate, indicate that members of the Capitol Police Board did have conversations in advance of the Jan. 6 attack about the possibility of seeking more National Guard support. The Pentagon communicated with the Capitol Police to see if they would require further assistance, the documents show, but no additional requests were made; the Senate report said the Capitol Police Board members "did not appear to be fully familiar with the statutory and regulatory requirements for requesting National Guard support." The Capitol Police Board includes the Capitol Police chief and the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms, who report respectively to the House speaker and the Senate majority leader. But neither document makes any reference to a request or authorization of 20,000 National Guard troops, or to Pelosi blocking one. Paul Irving, then the House Sergeant at Arms, testified in February 2021 that he did not speak with congressional leadership about potentially bringing in National Guard support until Jan. 6. Plus, the Senate majority leader at the time was Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. — not Schumer. "Had President Trump ordered 20,000 National Guard soldiers to the Capitol before Jan. 6, it would have happened," said Dwight Stirling, the founder and CEO of the Center for Law and Military Policy. "No one can prevent a presidential order from being followed with regard to where troops go or what they do. That it didn’t occur is evidence that no such order was issued." Our ruling Hannity said, "Donald Trump authorized up to 20,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol" before Jan. 6, 2021, but was "rejected" by Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. There is no record of Trump formally authorizing 20,000 National Guard troops prior to the Jan. 6 attack. There is also no record of Pelosi rejecting such an authorization — and experts said she would not have had the authority to do so as House speaker. We rate Hannity’s claim False. PolitiFact staff writer Grace Abels contributed research and reporting to this fact-chec

“Bennie Thompson actively cheer-led riots in the ’90s.” U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., said members of the House committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, have "insurrectionist roots," namely Democratic chair Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi. Thompson used the select committee’s June 9 primetime hearing to show Americans new footage of rioters overwhelming police officers guarding the Capitol as they clobbered their way into the building. Thompson introduced Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who testified about her experience of fighting rioters in battle-like conditions. But Gaetz said Thompson is in no position to criticize attacks on police. "Bennie Thompson actively cheer-led riots in the ’90s," Gaetz said during a June 7 appearance on U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s podcast. "So, he had no problem with violence against the police then." We wondered whether Gaetz’s characterization of Thompson’s background was accurate. So, we put his comments on the Truth-O-Meter. Gaetz’s claim about Thompson being a cheerleader for riots in the ’90s is similar to one made in an article published by Breitbart on June 6 about how Thompson "declined to oppose riots in 1992." The story referred to an "unearthed" 1992 report in the Clarion-Ledger, a local Mississippi newspaper, which described correspondence between the leader of the Hinds County Bar Association and Thompson, then a district supervisor for Mississippi’s Hinds County. The association’s president, Hal Miller Jr., asked Thompson to speak out "in favor of the principle of law" and push back against the philosophy that "if I do not agree with the law, I may take it into my own hands," per the Clarion-Ledger. Miller’s letter invoked unrest that erupted in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of four police officers who were captured on video severely beating Rodney King, a Black man. Miller feared that Hinds County could experience similar unrest if Byron De La Beckwith — a white supremacist who murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers — was acquitted. (Beckwith was convicted, and PolitiFact found no evidence of riots.) According to the newspaper story, Thompson said, "I do not understand what the Hinds County Bar requests of me in your June 23 letter … so please provide me with another letter explaining your request in greater detail." 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 Thompson also asked that Miller explain the association’s record of inaction regarding the lack of Black elected officials and trial judges. The 1992 report did not show Thompson supporting violence in response to a judicial decision. Nor did Breitbart. When we asked Gaetz about his remark, a spokesperson pointed to the Dec. 2, 2021, episode of Gaetz’s podcast, Firebrand. In it, Gaetz referenced a purported connection between Thompson and a Black liberation movement called the "Republic of New Afrika," which was prominent in the 1970s and had several armed confrontations with the police. The podcast largely relied on reporting from John Solomon, a journalist whose reports have given false credence to conspiracy theories about President Joe Biden and Ukraine. The bulk of Solomon’s evidence comes from news clippings and archival footage that show Thompson pushing back against an attempt by law enforcement to, in Thompson’s words, "stop the republic from building their community." "My position is that people are entitled to live as they choose, so long as they are law-abiding and peaceful," Thompson said in footage from 1971, published online by Just the News. When Gaetz asked whether Thompson was a member of the group, Solomon said, "At this point, the public evidence is that he sympathized with the group, he stood up for them — but he wasn't a member." Thompson’s involvement with the group is distinct from Gaetz’s reference to Thompson encouraging riots in the 1990s. Our ruling Gaetz said, "Bennie Thompson actively cheer-led riots in the ’90s." We found no evidence to suggest that Thompson praised the unrest that erupted in Los Angeles in 1992. Gaetz’s assertion mirrored one made in an article by Breitbart, which highlighted an exchange between Thompson and the president of a bar association in Mississippi. However, Thompson did not express support for rioting in his correspondence with the bar association — he questioned its inaction regarding a lack of Black elected officials and judges. We rate Gaetz’s claim Fals

“A quarter of the entire acreage in the country that is under hemp production is here in North Carolina. Advocates for medical marijuana secured a small victory recently when North Carolina state senators passed a bill to legalize it, sending legislation to the state House. While the bill had broad support in the Senate, an Asheville-area senator called on lawmakers to amend it so that more local farmers can grow and sell the product. Sen. Julie Mayfield, D-Buncombe, said proposed regulations would exclude a large swath of local farmers because the bill requires licensees to produce the drug, process it and sell it at its own dispensaries. "Indeed, a quarter of the entire acreage in the country that is under hemp production is here in North Carolina," Mayfield said in a speech on the senate floor. "A quarter of the entire production in the country. These farmers and small business owners literally plowed the ground in North Carolina to make it fertile for the legalization of marijuana when we got to that point." Mayfield’s claim suggesting that North Carolina is home to 25% of the nation’s hemp-producing acreage was included in stories by WRAL, the News & Observer, the North Carolina Insider newsletter and others. But it’s not true. Shortly after emailing Mayfield, PolitiFact NC was contacted by a hemp policy advocate who took responsibility for the inaccurate statistic. Nicolette Baglio, who owns a hemp business in western North Carolina, said she and other hemp advocates have been tracking North Carolina’s proposal. Baglio said her group didn’t learn about the Senate’s scheduled vote until just hours beforehand. In a rush to compile information about North Carolina’s hemp industry, Baglio said her team miscalculated the state’s hemp production and then included it in an email sent to every senator. Speaking to PolitiFact, Mayfield argued that, despite the error, her broader point is valid because, although her percentage was off, North Carolina remains a top producer of hemp. "This bill, while taking a long overdue step, shuts out N.C. businesses and farmers and will make already large, wealthy, out of state companies larger and wealthier at the expense of small hemp farmers and businesses," Mayfield said in an email. "We should work harder to figure out a way to let our homegrown businesses benefit from this new market and keep our dollars in-state rather than let our dollars flow to out-of-state cannabis corporations." Featured Fact-check Senate Leadership Fund stated on October 11, 2022 in a political ad Cheri Beasley “backs tax hikes — even on families making under $75,000.” By Paul Specht • October 31, 2022 Federal report The U.S. Department of Agriculture in February released a report on hemp production across the country during 2021. The department tracked hemp that was planted and harvested in each state. North Carolina planted 4% of the nation’s industrial hemp last year – accounting for 2,150 of the U.S.’s total 54,152 acres of hemp planted. Seven other states planted more: Colorado, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, California, Minnesota and Utah. North Carolina was an even larger producer of harvested hemp. North Carolina harvested 5.5% of the nation’s industrial hemp — 1,850 of the nation’s 33,480 acres. North Carolina and Oregon are tied for sixth in harvesting industrial hemp, behind Montana, Colorado, Minnesota, California, and Utah. Baglio said her team initially thought that North Carolina accounted for 25% of U.S. hemp production because they compared a statistic from Hemp Industry Daily — which said the state has 14,016 acres available for hemp growth — with the USDA report that 54,152 acres of hemp was planted last year. Mayfield said she wrote Baglio’s talking point in her notes, which she can be seen reading from in video footage of the senate debate. Baglio apologized for providing Mayfield with the wrong stat, saying the rest of the group’s information is accurate and that Mayfield is a trustworthy lawmaker. "She has truly been one of the only legislators that I feel like has listened to her constituents and has taken up some of the main issues at hand and that [the bill] is essentially cutting out the entire industry that paved the way" for medical marijuana, Baglio said. Our ruling Mayfield said "a quarter of the entire acreage in the country that is under hemp production is here in North Carolina." That’s not true. North Carolina has planted about 4% of the nation’s hemp and harvested about 5.5% of it, according to a USDA report released in February. We rate this claim Fals

“U.S. military arrests Michael Sussmann. On May 31, Michael Sussmann, a lawyer who worked for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, was found not guilty of lying to the FBI in 2016. The charge stemmed from an investigation by special counsel John Durham, who was appointed during the Trump administration to investigate the FBI’s probe of the former president’s ties to Russia. But another narrative is unfolding online. "U.S. military arrests Michael Sussmann," read text in a video posted on Facebook on June 8. It said that Sussmann had been arrested by JAG on charges of treason. 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 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 This story originated on Real Raw News, a website that regularly publishes false information and describes itself as a satire site. The post cites a single anonymous source. Spokespeople for Sussmann’s legal team and the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps told Reuters that the statements in the blog post are "false." Such an arrest, especially considering the widespread coverage of Durham’s investigation and Sussmann’s acquittal, would be big news, but we found no such reports. We rate claims Sussmann was arrested by the military Pants on Fire.

The official pride flag was altered to include Ukrainian colors An image of an LGBTQ pride flag that incorporated Ukraine’s yellow and blue colors is circulating on social media as if it were an official gay pride flag, with users sharing the image and mocking the addition. "They officially added Ukraine to the pride flag," one Facebook user wrote alongside the image and another graphic that said "I sexually identify as Ukrainian!" "I’m starting to think this isn’t about gay rights anymore," a person on Twitter said. It even caught the attention of Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who shared the image on Twitter as if it were legitimate and wrote: "Do the Nazis in the Ukrainian army know?" But the flag is fake — it was created as satire. We reached out to Greene’s office for comment. Her spokesperson responded that the pride flag "itself isn’t real." The image appears to have originated with a Twitter account with a gay slur in its handle as a means of mocking LGBTQ activists’ efforts to demonstrate inclusivity. Many people are familiar with the rainbow flag as a symbol of gay rights and the LGBTQ community. June is the traditional month when gay pride is celebrated and rainbow flags abound. Featured Fact-check Tucker Carlson stated on October 27, 2022 in a TV segment The United States is "about to run out of diesel fuel ... by the Monday of Thanksgiving week." By Andy Nguyen • November 7, 2022 In 2018, trans activists added a chevron and more colors to the rainbow flag and called it the progress pride flag, to specifically include transgender people, people of color and AIDS patients. Flags associated with and used by the LGBTQ community have been in a state of evolution since the original rainbow flag was created by Gilbert Baker for the 1978 Gay Freedom Day Parade in San Francisco. It’s important to note that there isn’t one official gay pride flag. Activists created other flags over the years to represent different groups of the LGBTQ community. These include a trans pride flag, which has five horizontal stripes that are light blue, light pink and white, and a bisexual pride flag, which has pink on the top, royal blue on the bottom, and a purple stripe in the middle. While the image with Ukraine’s colors originated as a joke and isn’t affiliated with any official LGBTQ organizations, Snopes reported that Dublin’s LGBTQ Pride Festival used a different flag on a flyer with Ukrainian colors on the top and bottom to welcome displaced refugees from the country. Our ruling Greene and others shared an image that showed the pride flag altered to incorporate the colors of the Ukrainian flag as if it were real. This isn’t a genuine flag used by the LGBTQ community. It originated as satire. We rate this Fal

A “public health warning” was recently issued for fluoride toothpaste Fluoride has long been good fodder for misinformation on the internet. Among the claims we’ve previously debunked: that fluoride added to drinking water is toxic and that the process of adding fluoride to water originated with the Nazis. We’ve also fact-checked and found Mostly False the claim that toothpaste contains "the poison substance of fluoride." Many toothpaste brands contain fluoride, a substance known to prevent cavities. But because fluoride can cause illness if ingested alone, such products are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which limits how much fluoride is allowed. So we were intrigued by a recent Facebook post that is being shared widely online. "Public health warning issued for fluoride toothpaste," the June 6 post said. "Avoid these brands at all costs." That’s also the title of a blog post the Facebook poster provided a link to. 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 Facebook.) First, the blog post is from August 2018, which would make this warning nearly four years old. But reading the post, it becomes clear that the blog is talking about a warning label that the FDA started requiring on fluoride toothpaste in 1997. 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 "According to the CDC, children should use no more than a pea-sized amount and kids younger than 3 should use no more than the size of a rice grain," the blog post says. "The warning by the agency has to do with the fluoride most conventional toothpaste brands contain. If you look closely, you will notice that fluoride toothpastes have a warning on their label stating ‘If you accidentally swallow more than used for brushing, seek professional help or contact a poison control center immediately.’" General warnings started appearing on toothpaste tubes in 1991, cautioning people not to swallow toothpaste and to "use only a pea-sized amount for children under age 6," according to the Washington Post. The FDA warning that followed in 1997 was "not because some new study suggested more serious side effects," the New York Times said at the time, "but because it believes that any product that contains a substance classified as a drug should be labeled with a recommendation to seek professional help in cases of excess ingestion." PolitiFact looked at a recently-purchased fluoride toothpaste from Colgate and saw this warning: "Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age. If more than used for brushing is accidentally swallowed, get medical help or contact a Poison Control Center right away." Of course, people generally don’t eat and swallow toothpaste. But as we’ve previously reported, even if they did, it would take a massive amount to be at risk from fluoride poisoning, and experts say children would vomit out the toothpaste long before that point. This post gives the misleading impression that a recent public health warning was issued for fluoride toothpastes, but that’s not the case. Rather, 25 years ago the FDA started requiring companies to put a warning on such products to advise people to seek help if they swallow more toothpaste than was used to brush their teeth. We rate this post False.

"Gavin Newsom reportedly intervened at the request of Nancy Pelosi and directly ordered the California Highway Patrol to drop all charges" against Paul Pelosi for his DUI arrest An Instagram post is pushing a false claim that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi used her political connections to get DUI charges dismissed against her husband, Paul Pelosi, who was arrested in late May. "BREAKING: All charges have reportedly been dropped against Paul Pelosi for his DUI crash," the June 7 Instagram post says. "Gavin Newsom reportedly intervened at the request of Nancy Pelosi and directly ordered the California Highway Patrol to drop all charges." The post is a screenshot of a tweet made by "The Sly Show," an internet radio show describing itself as "unfiltered, inappropriate, irreverent, unpredictable and insane." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. Instagram is owned by Facebook. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Paul Pelosi was arrested in Napa County on May 29 on suspicion of DUI after being involved in a two-car collision. CNN reported his blood alcohol content was above the legal limit of 0.08%. Officials in Napa County have mostly remained quiet about the arrest, but claims like the ones featured in the Instagram post began to circulate on social media. Generally, the posts suggest that charges were dropped because of Pelosi’s prominence and that his booking photo was withheld from the public. A spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol told PolitiFact the agency is not responsible for filing charges, and that responsibility falls on the Napa County District Attorney’s Office. Fran Calder, CHP’s director of communications, said the agency is also not responsible for releasing booking photos, which are maintained by the Napa County Corrections Department. 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 "The CHP has treated this incident in the same manner as it does in any case. Any claims to the contrary are patently false," Calder said. Napa County District Attorney Allison Haley said in a June 9 statement that her office was still reviewing Pelosi’s case and no charges have been filed. He has a court hearing set for Aug. 3 and, if criminal charges are filed, Pelosi would be arraigned at that time. "This is standard protocol for any DUI case that is referred by a law enforcement agency in Napa County," Haley said. "No decision has been made at this time. Any speculation to the contrary is incorrect." PolitiFact also reached out to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, and a spokesperson said, "The governor and the governor’s office had no involvement in this incident." We’ve found no evidence to contradict the statements of the highway patrol, the district attorney’s office or the governor’s office. Our ruling An Instagram post claims DUI charges against Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul were dropped by the California Highway Patrol after direct intervention by Newsom. In actuality, charges have not been filed against Pelosi for his DUI arrest and the Napa County District Attorney’s Office continues to review the case. A highway patrol spokesperson said the agency does not file charges and a representative for Newsom said neither he nor his office is involved in Pelosi’s case. We rate this claim Fals

Joe Biden approved a “new card” that “gives free health insurance to Americans” who are 25 and older Health insurance premiums have leapt in the past decade, making what looks like breaking news shared in a recent Facebook post quite appealing: free health insurance for Americans 25 and older. "Biden approves new healthcare card that gives $0 health, vision & dental benefits to those 25 and older," a June 5 Facebook post says. "Claim Before the Deadline" The post also shows an image of what looks like a still from a live news broadcast of Biden delivering remarks at a podium. "LIVE," reads text in the top left corner of the image. Below, it says "BREAKING NEWS" and "BIDEN APPROVES $0 HEALTH CARD." There’s also a time stamp — 10:47 — and text that says "new card gives free health insurance to Americans 25+." 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 Facebook.) While a health care card providing free health, vision and dental benefits sounds attractive, PolitiFact found no evidence that one is actually available. 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 In April 2021, after the passage of the American Rescue Plan, a COVID-19 relief package, nearly 7 million uninsured Americans qualified for free health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, Vox reported at the time. That’s because the plan expanded eligibility for the Affordable Care Act’s premium subsidies, which help people pay for insurance plans purchased on the health insurance marketplace. But that was only about a quarter of the 29 million people without health insurance in the United States. Unless Congress acts, those expanded subsidies expire at the end of 2022, according to Politico, which published a story in March about how "the president’s ambitious health care plans are faltering." The image that appears in the post was doctored to make it look like Biden is announcing free health insurance for most adult Americans. But a reverse image search shows that the photo was actually taken by Associated Press photographer Evan Vucci in February 2021, when Biden gave a foreign policy speech at the State Department. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken can be seen standing to Biden’s right. We rate this post False

“Bennie Thompson objected to the 2004 Presidential election. As the House Jan. 6 Committee was beginning its first prime-time hearing on June 9, the House Republican Conference sought to undercut the legitimacy of the panel and its chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. In a tweet highlighted by four siren emojis, the House Republicans’ official caucus said, "REMINDER: Bennie Thompson objected to the 2004 Presidential election." 🚨🚨REMINDER🚨🚨Bennie Thompson objected to the 2004 Presidential election,— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) June 10, 2022 Thompson was a member of the House on Jan. 6, 2005, when a joint session of Congress met to formally count the electoral votes from the 2004 presidential race, in which the incumbent, George W. Bush, defeated his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts. This is the same task that would be undertaken 16 years later to the day, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol and disrupted the certification of the election — the event that prompted the House select committee’s hearing. The 2005 election was close; a shift of 118,601 votes in Ohio from Bush to Kerry would have flipped the state to Kerry and enabled the Democrat to win the Electoral College. A Democratic House member from Ohio, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, offered an objection during the counting of the electoral vote. She was joined in the objection by a member of the Senate, Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., which is enough to trigger a formal vote by each chamber on whether the electoral votes in question were valid. This was the last time an objection vote was held prior to 2021. Then-Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D-Ohio, presents an official objection to the certification of Ohio's electoral votes on Jan. 6, 2005. (AP) The motion to object said, "We, a member of the House of Representatives and a United States senator, object to the counting of the electoral votes of the State of Ohio on the ground that they were not, under all of the known circumstances, regularly given." The critics behind the motion had cited a report by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee that had found "numerous, serious election irregularities," particularly in Ohio, that led to "a significant disenfranchisement of voters." "How can we possibly tell millions of Americans who registered to vote, who came to the polls in record numbers, particularly our young people ... to simply get over it and move on?" Tubbs Jones told reporters, CNN reported. When the House cast its votes, the motion failed by a large margin: Only 31 Democrats voted to object, with 88 Democrats joining all 178 Republicans in opposing the motion. 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 Thompson was one of the 31 Democrats who voted to object, so on this point, the Republicans have a point. But that’s not the end of the story. One problem is that the wording of the Republicans’ tweet is a bit off-base. Officially, the 31 Democrats did not vote to object to the "2004 presidential election" but rather to object to the electoral votes of one state, Ohio. A more important difference has to do with the context surrounding the vote. The 2005 objection was essentially a protest opportunity. Some Democrats were frustrated: It was just four years after the weeks-long Florida recount of 2000, which had resulted in Bush becoming president despite Al Gore’s victory in the popular vote, the first time that had happened in more than a century. This, combined with Kerry’s narrow loss, led some Democrats to publicly vent their frustration with the Electoral College, using the counting of the electoral votes as a forum. All parties in 2005 knew that this vote was moot. That’s because two days after the polls had closed in November, Kerry conceded the election to Bush, saying, "I spoke to President Bush and I offered him and Laura our congratulations on their victory. We had a good conversation, and we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity, for finding the common ground, coming together. Today I hope that we can begin the healing." And not long before the counting of the electoral votes, Kerry made clear that he did not support an electoral-vote challenge. "Our legal teams on the ground have found no evidence that would change the outcome of the election," Kerry said in the letter. The contrast with the weeks after the election of 2020 were stark. Trump never conceded his election loss. To the contrary, he aggressively pushed a legal battle to overturn the election, offered regular statements that claimed widespread voting fraud, and tried to convince his vice president, Mike Pence, to throw out slates of electoral votes. Pence refused. In the middle of the count of the electoral votes, rioters overran the Capitol building. They finished the job after the building was cleared. The bottom line is that the possibility of an impact from electoral vote objections was real in 2021 in a way that it was not in 2005. On Jan. 6, 2021, six Republican senators objected to counting the Biden slate for Arizona, joined by 121 Republican House members. A second objection, involving Pennsylvania, drew the support of seven GOP senators and 138 GOP House members. Our ruling The House Republican Conference tweeted, "Bennie Thompson objected to the 2004 Presidential election." Thompson was one of 31 Democrats who voted to object to Ohio’s slate in 2005, when the electoral votes from the 2004 election were officially counted in a joint session of Congress. That said, the 2005 objection had different implications, since Kerry had both conceded the election to Bush and had stated his opposition to the objection effort in Congress. By contrast, the loser in 2020, Trump, was aggressively pursuing a campaign to overturn the election, including by efforts to convince Pence to reject electoral vote slates. As a result, the objections in 2021 could have overturned the presidential election. With that clarification, we rate the statement Mostly Tru

The Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol “was a dust-up. Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio joined a chorus of denial and deflection about the U.S. Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, when he dismissed the assault as a "dust-up." In the 18 months since the attack, some conservatives have downplayed the riot as nothing more than a protest or even a "normal tourist visit." PolitiFact named these claims the 2021 Lie of the Year. Del Rio’s claim came a day before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack prepared to hold its first hearing of the summer. Reporters covering the NFL team asked Del Rio after practice about a recent tweet he made that questioned why racial justice protests over the 2020 death of George Floyd were "never discussed but this is???" Del Rio doubled down. "Let’s get right down to it. What did I ask, a simple question," Del Rio said in the June 8 interview. "Why are we not looking into those things? I can realistically look at it. I can see the images on T.V. People’s livelihoods are being destroyed. Businesses are being burned down. No problem. And then we have a dust-up at the Capitol. Nothing burned down, and we’re gonna make that a major deal. I just think, it’s two standards. And if we apply the same standard and we are going to be reasonable with each other, let’s have a discussion." His claim that the events that unfolded at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, amounted to "a dust-up" is disproven by evidence of violence described in hundreds of court filings against participants that day, hours of video footage, and testimony from police and other witnesses who were overtaken by rioters and sustained injuries. The summer protests that swept across the country in the wake of Floyd’s death resulted in over 13,500 arrests, according to the Prosecution Project. Del Rio apologized for the "dust-up" comment later in the day, calling his remark "irresponsible and negligent." A spokesperson for the Commanders told PolitiFact that the team had no further comment. 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 Here are some of the things that rioters did on Jan. 6, 2021: They scaled walls, forced their way through barricades and past law enforcement to breach the building. They smashed windows and broke doors. They ransacked offices. They chanted "Hang Mike Pence!" They attacked police officers. They caused the House and Senate to shut down for several hours on the day they were certifying the presidential election. Court documents outlining conspiracy charges show members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group, posted messages on social media discussing plans to show up on Jan. 6 "incognito." Some of the rioters grabbed a police officer, dragged him and struck him in the head and body with various objects, according to charging documents. Another rioter used a metal flagpole to attack a police officer. Over 850 people across the U.S. face charges in the riot that include obstruction, assault, violence with a deadly weapon and destruction and theft of government property. Our ruling Del Rio dismissed the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as a "dust-up." It was much more than that. Extensive evidence shows that the crowd of Trump supporters broke down barricades, attacked police, scaled walls, shattered windows and broke into offices in a violent effort to disrupt the transition of presidential power. We rate this claim False. RELATED: The 2021 Lie of the Year: Lies about the Jan. 6 Capitol attack and its significance RELATED: PolitiFact’s Jan. 6 covera

Baby boomers didn’t have autism, seizures, allergies and other ailments when they were kids We accepted a challenge put forth by a recent Facebook post suggesting that children today suffer from more diseases than baby boomers did when they were kids. "Baby boomers had measles, mumps and chicken pox," said a post shared in a group advocating for "vaccine rights." "Today’s kids have SIDs, autism, seizures, allergies, diabetes, cancer, speech delay, colic, ear tubes, HFMD, eczema and RSV. Time to start researching why…" 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 Facebook.) Let’s get to it. Measles, mumps and chickenpox Before measles vaccines became available in the United States in 1963, an estimated 3 to 4 million people caught the virus each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Widespread use of a vaccine protecting against the measles virus has led to a greater than 99% reduction in cases compared with the pre-vaccine era, the CDC says. Mumps is a similar case. Once a common childhood disease, caes decreased more than 99% after its vaccine program started in 1967. Chickenpox was also once common in the United States. In the early 1990s, about 4 million people in the U.S. caught it each year. Now, fewer than 350,000 people get it annually. That’s because a chickenpox vaccine became available in the United States in 1995, drastically cutting the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) The term "sudden infant death syndrome" was first proposed in 1969, but it’s not a modern phenomenon, according to a book by a neuroscientist and a forensic pathologist about the past, present and future of SIDS. Today, SIDS refers to the death of a seemingly healthy infant younger than 1 who dies under inexplicable circumstances, even after an investigation and autopsy. Cases of sudden death of healthy infants have been recorded for thousands of years, the book says. Some academics cite as the example of an Old Testament story about an argument between two mothers, one of whom discovered her baby dead in the night. Autism Autism has been a diagnosis for decades, though its definition has changed over time, and it didn’t feature in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, a handbook used by clinicians to diagnose illnesses and disorders, until 1980. Donald Triplett, born in 1933, was the first person diagnosed with autism, appearing in child psychiatrist Leo Kanner’s 1943 paper "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact" as "Case 1, Donald T." Hans Asperger, a pediatrician at the University of Vienna, described numerous children he observed as "autistic" in 1938. Other cases elsewhere in the world went undetected. The Smithsonian describes a man from the mid-1800s who was considered an "idiot" in the parlance of the time but who today would likely be diagnosed with autism. Autism is being diagnosed more today than in previous generations, but it wasn’t foreign to the baby boomers. Seizures Anti-epiletic drugs, used to combat seizures, have been around since the early 1940s, when baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) started to come on the scene. But children were having seizures well before that. In England, for example, children were first admitted to a colony for people with epilepsy starting in 1909. Child neurology is a relatively new medical specialty, according to a 2003 article in the journal Pediatric Research, but it "traces its origins to the Hippocratic descriptions of seizures and other neurologic conditions in children. Its true beginnings can be traced to the 1600s and 1700s with classical descriptions of chorea, hydrocephalus, spina bifida, and polio." Allergies In 1859, a doctor in England who suffered from what were then called "summer colds" — seasonal sneezing, runny nose — experimented on himself and discovered his symptoms were caused by pollen, according to a 2018 National Geographic article on the history of allergies. Our understanding of allergies has changed over time, particularly in the early 1950s with the discovery of mast cells that are packed with different chemicals, such as histamine, which produce symptoms of an allergic reaction. But "allergies are not new," the article says. "Such reactions have been described in historical documents with asthma symptoms recorded in ancient China, Rome, Egypt and Greece." 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 Still, food allergy rates among children have risen in recent decades, the BBC reported, and some researchers suspect this is because of diet and pollution, among other factors. Diabetes Diabetes dates back to 1500 B.C., though instances of childhood Type 1 diabetes started increasing in multiple countries around the late 1950s. Type 2 diabetes, meanwhile, was previously unheard of in children and teenagers, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine but is increasingly being diagnosed in young people. Many public health experts say childhood obesity is the culprit. Cancer Cancer did not skip the baby boomer generation when they were children. There are well-documented accounts of cases in the 1940s. According to the National Cancer Institute, incidence of childhood cancer has been rising slightly in recent decades. (Survival rates have also increased by 18 to 27%, depending on the age of affected children and teens, from the mid-1970s to the 2010s.) Speech delay Speech pathology as a field has grown over the years, but language delay is not a new condition. Before 1940, according to a 1990 dissertation on the development of speech pathology in the United States, nine states recognized speech delays legislatively, and in 1925, four universities had awarded 20 degrees to graduate students with theses focusing on the scientific aspects of speech. "Speech and its defects have been treated or mistreated for centuries by a variety of professions," the paper says. "Records describing defective speech and its treatment have been traced back to the fifth century B.C." Colic Colic, or intense and frequent fussiness in infants, also isn’t new. Opium was once used to treat excessive crying, and in the 1800s, it was an ingredient in a syrup used to quiet babies. RELATED VIDEO Ear Tubes Ear tubes, developed to relieve infection in the middle ear, were first used in the late 1890s and reinvented in the 1950s, the Virginian-Pilot reported. In 2007, NPR warned that while about 500,000 children have ear tubes implanted surgically every year, experts think about one-third don’t need them. Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) HFMD was first reported in New Zealand in 1957, and the first recognized outbreak happened in Singapore in 1970. It’s a common and usually mild childhood illness. Eczema The term atopic dermatitis — better known as eczema — dates back to 1933, but "despite its recent introduction into our medical lexicon, historical precursors of atopic dermatitis date back to at least as early as 69-140 CE," according to a 2017 paper on its history. That was during the Roman Empire, well before baby boomers were born. A 2003 study found that the rate of children who suffer eczema had tripled since the 1970s, though the reason was unclear, according to the Guardian. "Improvements in hygiene may mean that there are fewer chances for babies to develop immunity to the condition, and genetics, environment and diet may also be factors," the paper said. Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) RSV, a common respiratory virus that can be dangerous for infants and older adults, was first discovered in 1956 "and has since been recognized as one of the most common causes of childhood illness," the CDC says. In the United States, hospitalization rates have risen during previous decades, according to a 2016 history of the disease. Our ruling This post wrongly suggests that baby boomers only suffered measles, mumps and chickenpox while children today endure a slew of new ailments. While cases of some of these diseases and disorders are more prevalent now than they were in children born in the 1940s to the mid-1960s, these are not new illnesses. Some people commenting on the post also connected the supposed new medical problems to vaccines, but there’s no credible evidence to support that. Meanwhile, vaccines have reduced cases of measles, mumps and chickenpox among children today. We rate this post Mostly False.

Ray Liotta died because of the COVID-19 vaccine On May 26, actor Ray Liotta died in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting a movie. His publicist, Jennifer Allen, told reporters that Liotta died in his sleep and that his fiancee, Jacy Nittolo, found him dead that morning in his hotel room. At the time, Allen said that a cause was not yet known. And yet, a predictable rumor quickly started to spread: People claimed, without evidence, that Liotta’s death was caused by a COVID-19 vaccine. "Ray Liotta is for sure another victim of the so called ‘vaccines,’" one tweet said. "Ray Liotta got the vaccine and now he’s dead," said another. "Interesting." 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 We asked Allen about these kinds of posts, and she told us claims that Liotta died from the vaccine are "100% not true." "The family has not released the cause of death yet, but I do know the cause, and (it) has nothing to do with COVID or the vaccine," she told us in an email. RELATED VIDEO We’ve previously debunked statements connecting the COVID-19 vaccine to the deaths of comedian Bob Saget, actress Betty White, comedians Louie Anderson and Gilbert Gottfried, and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. Claims that Liotta died of the vaccine are also baseless. We rate these tweets Pants on Fire.

“There are fewer Iowans working today than when Gov. Reynolds took office. State Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls, D-Coralville, marked the end of the 2022 Iowa legislative session last month reviewing a few items Democrats liked about the Republican-led Legislature’s efforts, but especially the long list of things Democrats disliked. Lamenting laws like the one cutting the amount of time Iowans are eligible for state unemployment benefits and forcing unemployed people to accept lower paying jobs after a specific period of time while drawing unemployment, he wrote this in an end-of-session newsletter: "There are fewer Iowans working today than when Gov. Reynolds took office, even as the U.S. has added more than 10 million new jobs." Iowa’s most recent numbers support Wahl’s claim about fewer workers, by the thin margin of about 200 workers that could fall within a margin of error. Current preliminary Iowa Workforce Development data show that 1,646,800 Iowans had jobs in April, the most recent month for which data existed when he made the comment. That compares with 1,647,000 working in May 2017, when Reynolds became governor. When eligible, non-working Iowans are added to the mix, the 1,697,700 people in the labor force in April amounted to 1,900 fewer than the 1,699,600 in the labor force in May 2017, the data show. Iowa’s April unemployment rate was 3%, near the 3.1% in May 2017. But the survey operates with a margin of error. The unemployment rate at a 90% level of confidencefor April is between 2.5% to 3.5%, for example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Updated numbers that include May are scheduled to be released June 16, 2022. How close the April data are to the most accurate reflection of actual jobs in the state won’t be known for a while. Jobs data – which come from a nationwide U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics survey of employment, hours worked, and earnings – are recalculated in the following month when more data are known. They are recalculated again at the end of a year when the state’s unemployment insurance data and other factors are figured into the jobs count, the bureau says in its frequently asked questions summary. Moreover, data for the previous five years are recalculated when more factors are known, the bureau states. Updated data are released each March. Reynolds became governor in 2017 to finish a term by Terry Branstad, who was appointed the U.S. ambassador to China by former President Donald Trump. She was elected in 2018 and faces re-election this year, thus Wahls’ jab at the governor, who touts a pro-business record that includes getting a fixed state income tax for individuals and businesses, international trade efforts, and less business regulation. Wahls’ and other Democrats’ goal is to show Reynolds’ performance in a negative light but several other factors go into growing jobs. They include trends affecting a state’s large industries, such as inflation and buyers’ habits; business owner preferences on where to locate; competition at the interstate level and globally; available transportation; and economic pressures such as those provided by recessions. Starting in March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic also played a role in the number of jobs as businesses closed and workers were laid off. For example, non-farm employment in Iowa was down in April by an estimated 1.1% – or 18,000 workers – since March 2020, state jobs numbers show. 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 Mike Maciag, a former staff writer for Governing magazine, wrote for the publication in 2017 that several factors affect jobs creation more than what governors do. Five years later, he hasn’t changed his mind, he wrote to PolitiFact Iowa in an email. "Governors certainly play a role in job creation, but their influence on a state’s overall net change in jobs is relatively minimal in the short term," Maciag, now an analyst with the Pew Charitable Trusts, wrote. "Most of what drives job growth or losses, particularly business cycles, is far beyond their control. If their policies do spur job growth, much of the gains generally won’t be realized until after they leave office. "One area where governors can have a more immediate effect is the public sector. This might include allocating additional funding for state employee staff or pay, along with budget increases for schools and other units of government relying on state support." The National Governors Association, consisting of both Republican and Democrat governors, issued a report in 2019 that said governors can better connect workers to good jobs in their states by bringing schools and businesses together, increasing learning opportunities for mid-career workers, and spending money on digital and workforce development efforts in rural areas. Data Differences Different kinds of data exist to show what is happening in the jobs market. The state’s labor pool data show how many people in Iowa work or are available for work. Another measure, for seasonally adjusted non-farm employment, shows how many jobs exist in the state. Non-farm employment comes from regular surveys of how many jobs Iowa employers have filled in the state, regardless of where the workers live. For example, a worker along Iowa’s border with another state – the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities, for example – could live in Illinois and show up in non-farm job data in Iowa but not data showing how many Iowans have jobs. Iowa Workforce Development data show that 1,565,700 non-farm jobs existed in Iowa in April 2022, down 4,000 from 1,569,700 workers holding non-farm jobs in the state in May 2017, although up from 1,529,400 in April 2021. While Iowa has been adding jobs in that 12-month period starting in April 2021, its 2.4% growth rate during that time for non-farm employment ranked 43rd among the 50 U.S. states, the Arizona State University’s Seidman Research Institute reports. The institute is a consulting enterprise at the university’s W.P. Carey School of Business that Wahls cited when PolitiFact Iowa asked him to back his claim about jobs creation. A new national jobs report was issued June 3. The Bureau of Labor Statistics report showed that non-farm employment grew nationally by 390,000 people in May 2022. The Iowa numbers are to be reported later in June. Our ruling Iowa’s top Democrat in the state Senate says fewer Iowans have jobs now than when the Republican governor took office in May 2017. The numbers back this up, at least until they can be verified better. Additionally, Wahl’s point about a slow jobs creation rate for Iowa gets an assist from rankings that show the state 43rd for jobs growth among the 50 U.S. states in April this year. But numbers based on survey estimates that will be adjusted when more data are known leave open possibilities that the 200-jobs margin reflected now could change, downward but also upward. That uncertainty, combined with current reports showing slow jobs creation when compared with other states, leads us to rate the statement about Iowa losing jobs during Reynolds’ time in office to be Mostly True.

Joe Biden resigned and “Trump is the new president. Former President Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974 following the Watergate scandal, and it’s not a distinction he shares with any other person to serve as commander in chief of the United States. And yet, a recent Facebook post claims that President Joe Biden has not only resigned — former President Donald Trump has succeeded him. "Resign has been confirmed Trump is the new president," the June 7 Facebook 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 Facebook.) 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 RELATED VIDEO Biden has not resigned. In fact, the day of this Facebook post he spoke publicly and signed several pieces of legislation. As for Trump, while speculation continues to abound about whether he might run for another presidential term, he is, as of now, a former president, and he hasn’t replaced Biden. We rate this post Pants on Fire!

“USDA is predicting egg prices will be $12 a dozen by fall 2022. Social media users have yolk on their faces after making false claims about egg price predictions. "BREAKING NEWS: ‘USDA is predicting egg prices will be $12 a dozen by Fall 2022,’" says one June 6 post on Facebook. 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.) But the U.S. Department of Agriculture did not make that prediction, according to Jennifer Smits, director of communications for the agency’s Economic Research Service. The Economic Research Service — tasked with anticipating trends and emerging issues in agriculture and food in the U.S. — does not publish retail egg prices, Smits said. We also did not find any predicted retail egg prices in a review of recent USDA publications. The USDA publishes forecasts of wholesale egg prices, as well as forecasts of changes to the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index for foods, Smits said. The May report about price indexes indicated that retail egg prices are expected to rise between 19.5% and 20.5% in 2022. 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 Egg prices have also been increasing because of an ongoing outbreak of avian influenza, which has reduced the number of chickens laying eggs in the U.S., the price index report notes. In April, the price of a dozen large Grade A eggs was $2.52, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from $1.93 in January. A 19.5% to 20.5% increase in the April retail price translates to $0.49 to $0.52, or between $3.01 and $3.04 for a carton — far below the claim of $12 per dozen eggs. Our ruling A Facebook post says, "BREAKING NEWS: "USDA is predicting egg prices will be $12 a dozen by Fall 2022." USDA did not make that prediction, according to a spokeswoman. The agency does not publish retail egg prices. As of last month, egg prices were $2.52 per dozen, and the price is expected to increase between 19.5 and 20.5% in 2022. That is well below $12 per dozen eggs. We rate whether the USDA made such a prediction False.

“Public schools are now as segregated by race and class as they were in the 1960s. The United States is backtracking on integrating public schools, according to Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.). "Yesterday marks the 68th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education decision, which struck down the unlawful school segregation," Scott said during a May 18 meeting of the House Education & Labor Committee. "Yet we know public schools are now as segregated by race and class as they were as they were in the 1960s." Scott represents Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District, which spans from Norfolk north through Newport News and west through Isle of Wight County. He’s chairman of the education committee and made the claim about segregation in comments supporting a bill he proposed that would authorize $130 billion in federal grants and loans to high-poverty areas to improve school facilities. Have public schools resegregated to 1960 levels? A fact-check shows Scott is mostly right. It’s important to note that modern school segregation is not the same as the government-ordered social system that the Supreme Court struck down in 1954. Segregation today refers to the level of isolation of nonwhite students or, conversely, the level of exposure students of different races have to one another in school. A problem with Scott’s claim is that it doesn’t hold true for the better part of the 1960s. Despite the Brown decision, Jim Crow laws remained in the South until the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In 1960, 0.1% of Black students in the South — 1 in 1,000 — attended a majority-white school, according to a study by the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. That increased to 14% in 1967. Scott’s statement is on strong legs, however, if the measurement begins in 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court — in a case involving New Kent County, Virginia — ruled that school district integration plans must meaningfully reduce segregation. "School segregation is now more severe than in the late 1960s," says a 2020 UCLA report, the latest research we found. In 1968, 77% of Black students across the nation attended majority non-white schools, the UCLA report said. That sank to 63% in the 1980s but rose to 81% in 2018, the latest year available. A pair of 2020 studies found Central Virginia schools are becoming more segregated, too. A key reason for the backslide is a 1991 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended court-ordered desegregation, which often took the form of busing. The court ruled that school desegregation was a temporary remedy, not a permanent obligation. Featured Fact-check Joe Biden stated on October 23, 2022 in a forum with Now This Student loan forgiveness is “passed. I got it passed by a vote or two. And it’s in effect.” By Louis Jacobson • October 25, 2022 Another reason, according to UCLA researchers: "The White birthrate has fallen below the reproduction levels of about a half century ago; consequently, the share of the White population and their school enrollment has sharply declined." In 1970, 79% of public school students were white. That fell to 47% in 2018. "This is not because of transfer to private schools, which have a declining share of total enrollment and have themselves become somewhat more diverse," the report stated. "The white decline reflects historically low birth rates and immigration patterns that are overwhelmingly nonwhite." Black students have comprised about 15% of public school students since 1970. But they are no longer the second largest population of students, as they were until the turn of the century. Latinos grew from 5% of the public school population in 1970 to 27% in 2018. Asian Americans have increased from 0.5% to 6% in that same span. School segregation is intrinsically tied to the racial gaps in housing and income. The end of court-ordered integration in 1991 led to the reemergence of color lines in school districts. "Whereas Black and Hispanic students are more likely to be concentrated in high-poverty schools, Asian students, like their white counterparts, are most frequently found in middle-class schools," researchers from the Washington Center for Equitable Growth wrote in a 2019 report. Another team of UCLA researchers found that in 2010, half of the public schools that were 90% or more Black and Hispanic also had a student population that was 90% or more from low-income households. At the time, a low-income student was defined as one who qualified for a free or reduced-price school lunch. Since then, changes to the federal lunch program have made it impossible to know how many students are impoverished. Our ruling Scott said, "Public schools are now as segregated by race and class as they were in the 1960s." Scott’s claim doesn’t hold up for most of the 1960s, when Jim Crow still breathed and Southern states circumvented the Supreme Court’s 1954 order to integrate public schools. But he has a point, if we start in 1968, when 77% of Black students in the nation attended majority non-white schools. That dropped to 63% in the 1980s and then rose to 81% in 2019, the last year data is available. The ups and downs followed Supreme Court decisions that first toughened, then ended, integration mandates. The Civil Rights Project at UCLA, which has extensively studied school integration, wrote in 2020, "School segregation is now more severe than in the late 1960s." So, we rate Scott’s statement Mostly True.

Gun manufacturers are “the only industry in the country” that have immunity from lawsuits In the wake of the deadly elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, President Joe Biden repeated an inaccurate talking point in his push for gun control legislation, saying that gun manufacturers represent the "only industry" with liability immunity. "We should repeal the liability shield that often protects gun manufacturers from being sued for the death and destruction caused by their weapons," Biden wrote in a June 2 tweet. "They’re the only industry in the country that has this kind of immunity. It’s outrageous. It must end." He said the same thing in a speech about gun violence (around the 18:28-minute mark). This isn’t the first time Biden has made this claim. He’s made it repeatedly, including April 2021 remarks about gun violence after a man went on a shooting rampage at three spas in the Atlanta area, killing eight, and another gunman killed 10 people at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. He said it again in his 2022 State of the Union address. But the claim is inaccurate. The gun industry is susceptible to some lawsuits, and there are federal laws restricting liability for a number of other types of businesses. We reached out to the White House for comment but did not hear back. Gun industry protection The legislation at issue is the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which was signed into law in 2005 by President George W. Bush. The law says gun dealers and manufacturers cannot be sued when their products are misused. But the law lists several situations that are not protected from liability. It doesn’t protect gun dealers who transfer a gun knowing it would be used for criminal purposes, nor those who knowingly break state or federal law if the violation results in harm. Gun manufacturers can also be sued for certain injuries due to gun design defects. Supporters say the law protects gun dealers and manufacturers from frivolous and expensive proceedings, while opponents argue that the broadness of the law and its narrow exceptions stops some victims from having their day in court. 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 But this is different from saying the gun industry is immune to all lawsuits. For example, in 2019, the Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit brought by nine Sandy Hook victims’ families against gun manufacturer Remington Arms Company to continue. Remington Arms manufactured the gun used in the mass shooting and the plaintiffs sought to hold the company partly responsible by targeting its marketing practices. The families settled with the gunmaker in February for $73 million. Not the only industry Other industries have exemptions in liability. For example, a 1980s-era law states that vaccine manufacturers cannot be held liable in civil suits brought by victims of injuries that they saw were caused by defective vaccines. This differs from the gun legislation, however, because it established the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, through which alleged victims can make a claim and receive compensation. This money comes from the government, not the companies. It’s also important to note that, until 2024, pharmaceutical companies that make the COVID-19 vaccines will have liability immunity under a 2005 public health law. There’s also some liability protection in the medical devices and airline industries, Walter Olson, senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute and expert in tort law, previously told PolitiFact. For example, the 1994 General Aviation Revitalization Act said that small aircraft manufacturers cannot be sued for accidents involving aircraft more than 18 years old. "It’s not at all unique to the gun industry. It’s a version (of liability law) Congress developed for an industry that was under very heavy attack," Olson said, referring to the slew of litigation against gun sellers and makers that prompted Congress to pass the law. Our ruling Biden said that gun manufacturers represent the only industry in America that is exempt from being sued. This isn’t accurate. The gun industry is not entirely exempt from being sued and is susceptible to some lawsuits. Further, there are federal laws that restrict liability for a variety of other business sectors. We rate it False

BBC News edited out boos in footage of Boris Johnson arriving at the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee thanksgiving service British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who prevailed this week during a vote of no-confidence by British lawmakers, arrived to boos and jeers at the Queen’s platinum jubilee thanksgiving service on June 3. But social media users claimed that BBC News glossed over the chilly reception for the politician. One June 4 tweet says BBC News edited out boos in footage of Johnson’s arrival. "The BBC showed footage of Johnson being booed later in the day with the boos edited out. WTF!" says the tweet. "Hey BBC, North Korea called, they said you’re nicking their f---ing propaganda methods." The tweet included a 43-second video clip that shows the arrival of Johnson and his wife, Carrie, as royal historian Anna Whitelock provides commentary while talking with BBC presenter Jane Hill. It’s common for TV news to show video without sound while a commentator is speaking. But BBC News did not change or edit the sound, a spokesperson told PolitiFact via email, adding that the outlet’s coverage clearly showed the crowd’s reaction to Johnson’s arrival. 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 were multiple BBC News crews filming, the spokesperson said. Hill was filmed commentating live at the service, and other BBC coverage used a so-called "clean feed" of the arrivals, which is sound and pictures from another crew that did not have commentary on top, according to the spokesperson. In another clip from BBC News, when Johnson arrived around 10:40 a.m., BBC presenter Hill notes there is "quite a lot of booing," which is audible in the video. We rate the claim that the BBC edited out boos False.

"In Zimbabwe, people have started selling their toes for thousands of dollars due to (the) high cost of living. Would you cut off your big toe for a new Range Rover? That’s what some people may be asking after false claims of an illicit toe trade happening in Zimbabwe spread widely on social media across Africa. "In Zimbabwe, people have started selling their toes for thousands of dollars due to (the) high cost of living," reads a May 31 Facebook post. The toes can bring in $20,000 to $40,000 "depending on size," it said. 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.) According to news reports from the BBC and Agence France-Presse, as well as multiple fact-checks, the claims that have gone viral apparently started as a joke, and a Zimbabwe government official denounced them as an attempt to harm the country’s image. It’s not clear where the claims began, but AFP fact-checkers tied it to a May 30 tweet that said big toes were going for $40,000. A BBC report said the "apparent ruse" began with a "tongue-in-cheek" blog post saying the sales were going down at the Ximex Mall in Harare, the country’s capital city. Claims spread widely across Africa on social media, including a video showing a man supposedly getting his big toe cut off in exchange for a Range Rover. The video cuts away before the man’s toe is cut. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 In Zimbabwe,people have started to sell their toes for thousands of dollars due to high cost of living. Each toe goes for around 20000$-40000$ depending on size. This guy is getting a Range for his toe! Question is what the hell are they going to use the toe for ?! Would u do it? pic.twitter.com/hKCYwgWEWc— Stream RAYOE’s Music 🙏🏾🔥🎤 (@GhanaSocialU) May 31, 2022 Another video features a man showing off a new vehicle he got in exchange for his toe, but it’s not clear from the video if he’s missing any digits. The South African news site News 24 reported that it was this video, filmed as a joke, that started the rumors. The claims have also sparked multiple memes mocking the supposed toe trade, with many referring to it as "cryptoe-currency." But the claims were being taken seriously enough that Kindness Paradza, the deputy information minister in Zimbabwe, visited the mall in Harare where the sales were alleged to be happening. He’s quoted in multiple news reports denying that the claims are real. According to The Herald, a Zimbabwe newspaper, Paradza said the claims are false and are "social media reports aimed at tarnishing the image of the country." The Herald, as well as AFP, also talked to vendors at the mall who denied people were buying and selling toes there. We reached out to Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services, but have not gotten a response. Our ruling A Facebook post claims that people in Zimbabwe are selling toes for money, up to $40,000, depending on their size. The claims appear to have started as a joke, according to multiple news reports and fact checks. The country’s deputy information minister said they are not true after visiting a mall to investigate. We can find no evidence showing this is really happening, so we rate this claim Fals

A BP oil executive named Brice Cromwell blamed the Biden administration for high gas prices Frustrated by high gas prices, Facebook users are sharing a lengthy message purportedly written by Brice Cromwell, a BP oil executive who claims to have 10 years of experience in the industry. "What everyone needs to understand is that the high gas prices are not because of some conflict overseas — prices were high well before that," the post reads. "The prices are not high because our American supply simply vanished. The prices are high because the people who run our country have decided to import oil from another country instead of using our very own American made product." Screenshot of one of the Facebook posts that attributes a message about gas prices to Brice Cromwell, a fake BP Oil executive. 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.) A couple of things about this post show there’s something afoot. Usually, a message from a top company executive can be traced to a credible source and not just found in a message copied and pasted on Facebook. But even more striking is this: There is no executive named Brice Cromwell at BP. PolitiFact searched the list of executives found on BP’s website and did not find anyone named Brice Cromwell. A Google search also did not turn up that name in connection with the company. "We can confirm we do not currently have an employee with that name, and this text did not come from BP," said Megan Baldino, head of corporate communications for BP America. In an initial search, we found that the message was shared more than 50 times on Facebook within the last week. By conducting a search on CrowdTangle, a social media search tool from Meta, the earliest version of this post we could find was shared in a Facebook group on March 8, 2022. It doesn’t include the name Brice Cromwell. Beyond the attribution, there is an issue with the substance of the post. While it claims the Biden administration is responsible for high gas prices by allowing oil imports, the truth is that gas prices have little to do with the president, no matter who is in office. We’ve reported previously that gas prices are largely caused by the global supply and demand of oil, in addition to international events and inflation. Also, prices are heavily influenced by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which controls most of the world’s oil supply. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 18, 2022 in an Instagram post Kamala Harris said, “We have to acknowledge gas is high which is the opposite of low.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 And while the Facebook post claims that low gas prices were the work of former President Donald Trump, the truth is that it was due largely to the COVID-19 pandemic, when people traveled far less and pushed down demand. At that time, the ​​U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that the price of oil hit a record low of $9.12 per barrel. That translated to around $1.80 per gallon at American gas pumps. "The price of oil has gone from below $10 a barrel, during depths of a pandemic, to about $120 a barrel right now," said Alan Gin, associate professor of economics at the University of San Diego. "And so, you get the price of oil going up. That’s going to cause the price of gas then to be higher as well." Prices had started to increase as pandemic recovery slowly began. But the sharp uptick came when Russia invaded Ukraine, and in response, global nations cut back on importing Russian oil. Prices had spiked to a national average of $4.92 as of June 7, according to the American Automobile Association. Gin also highlighted another portion of the claim stating that the amount of oil in the U.S. hasn’t changed between 2016 and 2020. The post said using these reserves can supply the country’s needs and lower the price of gas. That’s not true, said Gin. He stated that in 2019-2020, the U.S. supply of oil shale, which is used to produce oil and gas, plummeted after producers first borrowed to increase production and then slashed their output due to decreased demand. "The price of oil was driven downwards as a result of the pandemic and the declining demand," he said. "Basically, a lot of companies just went under." Our ruling Facebook posts claimed to share a written message from a BP oil executive named Brice Cromwell. The text blames the Biden administration for high gas prices, stating that they’re due to America choosing to import oil from other countries. The text is phony — BP oil confirmed that no one named Brice Cromwell works for the company. In addition, the Facebook post has appeared as early as March without naming Cromwell. Fluctuations in oil and gas prices are not caused by the president, no matter who is in office. Experts and data show that the rise and fall of gas prices is due to the global supply and demand, inflation and worldwide events. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

“The N.C. GOP came out in support of Sen. [Rick] Scott's extremist policy to ‘Rescue America.’ A North Carolina congressional candidate says the state’s Republican Party wants to raise taxes through what it characterized as "extremist" legislation proposed in the U.S. Senate. Barbara Gaskins is a Democrat running against U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy in North Carolina’s 3rd Congressional District, which covers a large swath of the state’s coastline. On May 24, Gaskins’ campaign tweeted: "The N.C. GOP came out in support of Sen. Scott's extremist policy to ‘Rescue America," the post said, referring to Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.). It added that the plan would raise taxes on 40% of the state’s working class, dissolve Social Security and Medicare benefits after five years, close the U.S. Department of Education and enforce identification requirements for voting. The tweet stood out to PolitiFact North Carolina because the North Carolina Republican Party organization doesn’t regularly promote or endorse bills proposed at the federal level — especially those introduced by lawmakers from other states. And Scott’s bill is controversial, having been rebuked by GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. So, does the North Carolina Republican Party endorse Scott’s so-called Rescue America plan? No. Here are the key points of Scott’s bill and why the Democrats are trying to tie Republicans to it. Scott’s plan Scott is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which campaigns to elect Republican candidates to the Senate. On Feb. 22, he released what he calls "An 11-point plan to rescue America." The plan called for taxing all Americans and requiring a vote to continue all federal programs, a proposal that Republican leaders have opposed. So, Republican candidates have distanced themselves from it. McConnell said in a press conference that Senate Republicans "will not have as part of our agenda a bill that raises taxes on half the American people, and sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years." Nonetheless, Democrats have tried to elevate it during campaign season as a sign of things to come if the GOP gains control of Congress in the November midterm elections. PolitiFact has reported on the plan and fact-checked multiple misleading claims about it. Here’s a brief explanation of the proposals mentioned in Gaskins’ tweet. A "tax increase on 40% of N.C.'s working class." Scott’s plan says "all Americans should pay some income tax." While Scott has denied that the plan calls for a tax increase, tax and policy experts previously told PolitiFact that Scott’s plan appears to target people who don’t owe any federal income tax because they don’t earn enough income. Featured Fact-check Senate Leadership Fund stated on October 11, 2022 in a political ad Cheri Beasley “backs tax hikes — even on families making under $75,000.” By Paul Specht • October 31, 2022 Experts said about 60% of taxpayers fell into that group in 2020, but that the group would likely shrink to about 40% in 2022. The left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy estimated Scott’s plan would affect 39.8% of North Carolina residents. "Dissolve Social Security and Medicare benefits after five years." Scott’s plan doesn’t specifically call for ending Social Security and Medicare, but says: "All federal legislation sunsets in five years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again." Sunsetting means programs would expire unless Congress votes to extend them. "Close the (U.S. Department) of Education." Scott’s plan specifically calls for dissolving the federal department of education. The plan says: "We will close the federal Department of Education. Education is a state function. If Congress wants to spend money on education, they can cut out the middleman and send it directly to schools and parents." "Enforce ID for voting." The plan says: "Voter ID, requiring a voter to validate their identity, must be the law." Scott and the N.C. GOP When we emailed Gaskins and asked her to provide evidence for her claim about the N.C. GOP, a campaign spokeswoman cited messaging from the North Carolina Democratic Party. Scott was a featured speaker during the state GOP’s annual convention in Greensboro, North Carolina, last month. In a May 23 press release, the Democratic Party said: "By hosting Scott, North Carolina Republicans signed on to a plan that could raise taxes on nearly 40% of North Carolinians and sunset Social Security and Medicare, which over four million North Carolinians rely on." Michael Whatley, the state GOP chairman, says that’s not true. He told PolitiFact NC that he was glad to have Scott speak because, as chair of the senatorial committee, Scott offers unique insight into how the GOP can retake Congress this fall. But that doesn’t mean the state party endorses his bill. "We’re not going to endorse that," Whatley said in a phone interview. Donna Williams, chair of the Wake County GOP, attended the event and didn’t recall Scott mentioning his bill or its details. If Scott had mentioned a call to increase taxes, "I would absolutely remember that," she said, saying it’s "ridiculous for anyone to suggest that inviting someone to come speak implies an across-the-board blanket endorsement of whatever legislation they have." Aside from Scott’s appearance at the North Carolina Republican Party convention, neither the party nor the Gaskins campaign provided any evidence that the organization had endorsed the Scott plan. In a phone interview, North Carolina Democratic Party spokeswoman Ellie Dougherty reiterated the claims from the email newsletter and said, "We think it's pretty clear where they stand." Our ruling Gaskins tweeted that "the N.C. GOP came out in support of Sen. (Rick) Scott's extremist policy to ‘Rescue America.’" Scott did release a plan that indicates support for raising income taxes and sunsetting federal programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Even McConnell rebuked the ideas. However, there’s no evidence that the North Carolina Republican Party has come out in support of Scott’s plan. We rate this claim Fals

"The tax carve out (Ron) Johnson spearheaded overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest, over small businesses. The general election for one of Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate seats may still be months away, but Democrats have been gearing up to defeat Ron Johnson for much longer. Johnson, an Oshkosh Republican and Wisconsin’s senior senator, has held the seat since 2011. Earlier this year, he announced he’d break with his initial pledge to only serve two terms and run for a third. In a news release, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin honed in on an action Johnson took at the beginning of his second term: He withheld his yes vote on the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act unless the bill included a tax break for companies called "pass-throughs" — those that pass all their income on to the owners or investors. Companies structured this way (often small, family owned businesses) are not subject to corporate income tax. And it worked. Once that tax break was added, Johnson voted yes and the bill passed. But Wisconsin Democrats argue it wasn’t those small, family-owned businesses that reaped the bulk of the benefits. "Multiple independent studies found that the tax carve out Johnson spearheaded overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest, over small businesses," the April 29, 2022, release said. Is that correct? Let’s break it down. Congressional report, other studies show how tax break benefits the wealthy When asked to back up the claim, Philip Shulman, Senate communications advisor for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, sent a list of analyses of the tax law from news outlets and research organizations. We’ll start with an April 2021 study from Treasury economists for the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study found that the top 1% of Americans by income have received nearly 60% of the tax savings created by the provision. Most of that amount went to the top 0.1%. That’s because even though there are many American small businesses that also function as pass-throughs, most pass-through profits flow to the wealthy owners of a small group of large companies, according to an Aug. 11, 2021, ProPublica analysis of the tax law. 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 small group of the ultrawealthy — made up of Republicans like Dick and Liz Uihlein, whose shipping supply company Uline is headquartered in Wisconsin, and Democrats like former presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg — received close to $25 billion in total tax savings in 2018 as a result of the pass-through tax break benefits, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research study. The rest of the top 10% of Americans by income received a little over $12 billion in total, and everyone else in the country, about $6 billion. An April 23, 2018, congressional report forecast the same breakdown. In 2018, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that roughly 53% of the pass-through deduction benefit, or about $21 billion, would go to a few hundred thousand Americans earning $500,000 or more a year. For comparison, the average salary for an American small business owner is about $61,000 per year, according to the salary comparison company Payscale. By 2024, just under $4 billion of the pass-through deduction benefit would go to Americans making less than $100,000 per year, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation Report. More than $31 billion would go to those making over a million dollars a year. To be sure, any broad-based tax cut will mostly benefit the wealthy because they already pay a large share of income taxes, something Johnson has acknowledged. In an April 28, 2022, interview with CBS 58-TV, Johnson said his efforts were "for the many, not the few" because most businesses function as pass-throughs, and that "when you start talking about taxation, if you cut taxes for everybody … people who make more money get more dollars cut, but that’s our tax system." Our ruling The Democratic Party of Wisconsin claimed that the pass-through tax break Johnson advocated for in 2017 "overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest, over small businesses." Multiple analyses show America’s millionaires and billionaires are receiving large chunks of those benefits. We rate their claim True. 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' });

The sale of more than 600,000 Wisconsin deer licenses shows that Wisconsin’s hunters are the “eighth largest army in the world. You might not picture a troop of Wisconsin deer hunters when thinking about global military powers, but some social media users are out to change that. "There were over 600,000 hunters this season in the state of Wisconsin," read a 2021 Facebook post. "Allow me to restate that number: 600,000! Over the last several months, Wisconsin’s hunters became the eighth largest army in the world." The post went on to claim that although 600,000 people were "deployed to the woods of a single American state, Wisconsin, to hunt with firearms … NO ONE WAS KILLED." The post began amassing more shares in recent days following a series of deadly mass shootings around the U.S. In addition to Wisconsin, the post said that 750,000 people hunted in Pennsylvania and another 700,000 people hunted in Michigan — all of whom took to the woods and later "returned home safely." 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 sweeping claims overstate what can be learned from deer hunting licenses and overlook what we know about the comparative size of military forces around the world. Deer hunting license sales and the number of firearm hunters in a state Wisconsin reported that 820,299 deer hunting licenses were sold for the 2020 season, which would have been the most recent season when the post was first shared on May 23, 2021. While this number surpasses the 600,000 figure shared in the Facebook post, it included bow and crossbow licenses, not just gun hunting licenses, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Of the total number of deer licenses sold, 569,203 were for gun privileges, according to the preliminary license sale figures released on Dec. 1, 2020. That’s almost 31,000 people short of the "army" of 600,000 deer hunters the Facebook post claimed live in Wisconsin. However, there’s no proof that each of the people who purchased licenses to hunt with firearms in Wisconsin are state residents. Wisconsin sells nonresident licenses for gun deer hunting. The department said nonresident license sales decreased in 2020, likely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but did not give an indication of the usual number of these sales. The department did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for finalized numbers or information about the number of Wisconsin residents who hunt with firearms. 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 The Facebook post also inflated the number of deer hunters in Michigan. Ed Golder, a spokesperson for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said that in 2020, Michigan had 616,235 unique deer hunters, or individuals who bought a deer license of any type for the season. Nearly 80% of them — or 488,422 hunters — participated in the regular firearm deer season, Golder said. We did not find data on the number of deer hunters in Pennsylvania in 2020, and the Pennsylvania Game Commission did not respond to PolitiFact’s information request. The post was also incorrect by suggesting that "no one died" while hunting. In Wisconsin, there were 18 hunting-related gun incidents that included one death during the 2020 hunting season. In Michigan in 2020, there were six hunting-related gun injuries, including two fatalities. The most recent incident report available for Pennsylvania was from 2019, when 21 hunting-related gun incidents were reported, including three deaths. Comparative size of world military forces Even if 600,000 armed hunters lived in Wisconsin, the group wouldn’t constitute a strikingly large global force, as the post claimed. There aren’t many country-by-country comparisons of military force size, but 2021 data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies indicates that more than 10 countries have at least 1 million military personnel. An army of 600,000 wouldn’t make the top 15 largest military forces when comparing estimated total military personnel, according to 2022 data from Global Firepower, an organization that evaluates military strength and assigns countries rankings. Global Firepower’s data shows that more than 10 countries have forces in which the total number of military personnel is estimated to exceed 1 million. This includes the organization’s highest-ranked militaries overall: the U.S., Russia and China. Based only on the number of military personnel, Bangladesh has about 7 million, India has about 5.13 million, and China has 3.13 million, per Global Firepower’s metrics. The next five are: Brazil, North Korea, the U.S., Venezuela and Taiwan — all with 1.5 million or more total military personnel. Our ruling A post claimed that the sale of more than 600,000 Wisconsin deer licenses shows that Wisconsin’s hunters are the "eighth largest army in the world." The post inflates the number of gun deer hunting licenses sold in Wisconsin for the 2020 hunting season by more than 30,000. There’s also no indication that each of the roughly 569,000 gun deer licenses sold were sold to residents of the state. Some were sold to non-residents. Even if Wisconsin had 600,000 deer hunters who use firearms, the group would not be the eighth largest army in the world. We rate this claim False. PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this repor

Biden gave Americans “the cheapest gas prices on Earth. President Joe Biden has faced a lot of criticism over the rising cost of fuel in the United States. But some social media posts have recently taken the opposite route, praising Biden for keeping gas prices low and claiming that fuel costs much more in other countries. On June 2, a Twitter user shared an illustration comparing gas prices around the world with a caption that read: "My plan is to thank President Biden for giving Americans the cheapest gas prices on Earth. I gassed up today for $4.29 a gallon at Exxon. Thanks Joe." The illustration shows expensive prices for gas in places like Hong Kong ($10.71 a gallon) and Norway ($10.19 a gallon). It lists the United States as the lowest at $4.46 a gallon. The prices aren’t far off, but the premise that the U.S. has the "cheapest" fuel in the world, and that it’s because of Biden, is wrong. "This is true if you only look at Western Europe," said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Houston. "The U.S. is right smack in the middle of the pack when it comes to gas prices. At one end, you have Western Europe, and at the other are Saudi Arabia and Iran." As of June 6, the average price of a regular gallon of gasoline in the U.S. is $4.87, according to the American Automobile Association. The average global price of gasoline, meanwhile, is $5.35 per gallon, according to data reported May 30 by energy tracking company GlobalPetrolPrices.com. The U.S currently ranks 67th out of the 170 countries that the company tracks. Venezuela is the least expensive at $0.08 per gallon while Hong Kong ranks the most expensive at $11.20 a gallon. "Just as I don't think you can blame Biden for high gas prices, I don't think you can give Biden credit for low gas prices compared with other countries," said Clark Williams-Derry, an energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. The Biden administration’s releases from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve are likely keeping prices down a little bit, experts said, but that effect is largely diluted across the global market. So while the government might be lowering American gas prices, they're lowering prices in other countries as well. 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 Multiple factors influence the difference of gasoline prices between countries; the two biggest are whether countries produce oil and the amount of taxes and fees they place on gas. The U.S. is the world’s top producer of oil, followed by Saudi Arabia and Russia, and the federal government levies very few taxes on fuel, which keeps American gas prices among the lowest in industrialized nations. "Compared to most other major developed nations, the U.S. has fairly low fuel taxes: 18.4 cents per gallon of gasoline at the federal level, plus taxes that vary by state. Compare that with Norway, where the tax is 4.95 Krone per liter, which works out to about $2 per gallon," Williams-Derry said. "It's been that way for a long time, not something that started a few years ago. Also, fuel taxes are set by Congress, and Biden has zippo to do with the current level of U.S. and state fuel taxes in comparison with other nations." European countries have imposed much higher taxes on drivers, surpassing $3 a gallon in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Italy, and topping $2 per gallon in Germany, France and Belgium, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. While the price of gas may be lower in the U.S. compared with some other countries, no other country is more dependent on automobiles — resulting in Americans spending more on fuel overall. U.S. motorists drive an average of 14,263 miles a year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. The second-highest country is Canada, where drivers average around 9,500 miles per year. Ultimately, Biden has little to do with the current volatility in the market. The most recent spike in gas prices stemmed largely from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. However, gas prices were rising before the Russian troop buildup around Ukraine became front-page news. Inflation, as well as growing consumer demand due to the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, had already been driving up gas prices. Our ruling A tweet claimed that Biden gave Americans the "cheapest" gas prices on Earth. This isn’t accurate. While gas prices in the U.S. are lower than in some European countries because of oil production and taxes, they certainly aren’t the lowest in the world. Biden has little to do with fuel prices. Oil is part of a global market that is impacted by a slew of factors — like pandemics, inflation and war — that are largely outside of the president’s control. We rate this False. RELATED: Ask PolitiFact: Why are gas prices going up? RELATED: How much blame does Putin deserve for high gasoline prices

The U.S. Justice Department “conservatively estimated that guns are used 1.5 million times per year to save lives. House Democrats are moving forward with a bill that would enact new restrictions on guns. During a recent hearing, Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said the bill would fail to reduce crime or make the U.S. safer. "Millions of Americans safely and responsibly own and use guns," Biggs said in the June 2 hearing. "The Department of Justice under Democratic administrations have done their studies and conservatively estimated that guns are used 1.5 million times per year to save lives." We contacted Biggs’ office to get the source behind that figure of 1.5 million lives saved by guns and did not hear back. The figure matches one used in a 2008 blog post by the group Gun Owners of America. That post linked to 1997 research published by the department’s National Institute of Justice. The research doesn’t say what Biggs presented. It talks about the defensive use of firearms, but it is silent about any lives saved. In many cases, lives were never at risk. Little evidence that guns saved lives The department’s research was based on a 1994 national telephone survey on gun ownership. If someone said they owned a gun, they were asked, "Within the past 12 months, have you yourself used a gun, even if it was not fired, to protect yourself or someone else, or for the protection of property at home, work, or elsewhere?" If they said they had, then they were asked up to 30 additional questions to determine the circumstances around the incident, such as where the incident took place, or if they had seen the person who they felt was a threat. Out of about 2,500 people reached, 45 people said they had used a gun for protection. After filtering out those who could not name the specific criminal threat they faced or had not seen the person they thought was a threat, 19 responses remained. Applying that fraction to the entire U.S. adult population, researchers estimated that guns were used defensively 1.5 million times a year. There’s a hot debate over whether that number is too high or too low, and what it might be today. Before we examine that, there’s one point on which independent researchers agree: The number does not represent the number of lives saved. Philip Cook, professor emeritus of public policy studies at Duke University and co-author of the Justice Department’s research article, said he was confident "that there were not 1.5 million lives saved in 1994 through defensive gun uses." "Many of the crimes being defended against would not have been fatal even without gun defense," Cook said. The people who study this area of gun use say that in the surveys, it’s impossible to know what would have happened if someone had not had a firearm. That’s why researchers wrestle with understanding the circumstances when people have used guns for protection. In a 2000 report, a group of researchers interviewed people who, in a random survey, reported using a gun defensively. They did not find examples when a gun saved someone’s life. In one case, a man said, "My alarm at my business went off so I went there to shut it off. Two men were outside my building, so from my car I shot at the ground near them." 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 Another told researchers, "Someone broke in; I woke up to the sound. I got my gun from the safe (loaded it) and went downstairs. The person left and I called the police." This person didn’t know if the burglar had a weapon. The burglar could have been armed, and the resident could have avoided a potentially deadly encounter. But the data doesn’t reveal the answer. Around the same time as Cook’s research, Gary Kleck, now professor emeritus of criminology at Florida State University, conducted his own survey, asking very similar questions. Kleck estimated that guns were used defensively about 2.5 million times a year. But Kleck distinguished that from saving lives. "I am not aware of any scientifically based estimates of lives saved," Kleck said. This said, stories appear in the news about people who have stopped shooters. To take a recent example, in late May 2022, a woman in Charleston, West Virginia, shot and killed a man who began firing an AR-15-style rifle into a crowd. It doesn’t take much of a leap of faith to conclude that the woman’s actions saved lives. A debate over the scale of defensive gun use The latest survey of gun owners and their use of firearms estimated that in 2021, guns were used 1.67 million times to protect people or property. That is consistent with the Justice Department study from 25 years ago. But it doesn’t prove that each use saved lives. In 2018, researchers at Rand Corp., a nonprofit consulting group, explored the studies that had been done on guns and self-protection and found a field rife with challenges. "We conclude that the existing evidence for any causal effect of defensive gun use on reducing harm to individuals or society is inconclusive," the authors wrote. One issue was a reliance on self-reporting, with no opportunity for independent confirmation. Surveys try to reduce this problem by including questions to ferret out inconsistent responses, but it’s not perfect. There is a running dispute over whether surveys aimed at detecting the defensive use of firearms over or undercount the actual events. The Rand group came down on the side of those who said that these surveys exaggerate defensive gun use. They also said that another widely cited survey, the annual National Crime Victimization Survey, might undercount defensive gun use. That survey suggested that guns were used about 116,000 a year. Our ruling Biggs said that the Justice Department "conservatively estimated that guns are used 1.5 million times per year to save lives." The Justice Department published a report with the 1.5 million figure, but that was an estimate of the number of times people used guns to protect themselves, their families or their property. The author said the research did not find that the use was to save lives. Another prominent gun researcher said he knows of no "scientifically based estimates of lives saved." A review of this kind of gun research concluded that there is no conclusive evidence that defensive gun use reduces harm to people. The Justice Department’s article did not say what Biggs stated. We rate this claim False.

Illinois high school to implement race-based grading system in 2022-2023 school yea An Illinois school district captured widespread internet attention when a surprising headline generated social media outrage: "OPRF to implement race-based grading system in 2022-23 school year." "Oak Park and River Forest High School administrators will require teachers next school year to adjust their classroom grading scales to account for the skin color or ethnicity of its students," the May 30 story said. "They can no longer be docked for missing class, misbehaving in school or failing to turn in their assignments, according to the plan." The story looked legitimate, but it was a misleading portrayal from an online publication called the West Cook News, one of a collection of local news sites that receive funding from Republican political campaigns and conservative organizations. The story and posts about it 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 West Cook News article cited a slide presentation from a May 26 school board meeting that read: "Traditional grading practices perpetuate inequities and intensify the opportunity gap." But neither the slide presentation nor information about the school district’s plans confirm this claim of race-based grading. The presentation was about professional development and grading. "OPRFHS does not, nor has it ever had a plan to, grade any students differently based on race," district officials said in a statement released on the district’s website May 31. The district urged the public to get reliable information from the district or other credible news sources. During the meeting, which was streamed on the school’s YouTube page, Laurie Fiorenza, assistant superintendent for student learning, talked to the board about the school’s efforts to establish a "building-wide, equitable grading philosophy." 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 know that traditional grading practices perpetuate the inequities," Fiorenza said. Ralph Martire, a school board member, predicted the presentation could give the wrong impression of what the school is doing, and tried to make clear what equitable grading means. "It’s not a dumbing down," he said during the meeting. "It’s finding a way to be objective about determining whether a student has mastered the academic content." Specifics of equitable grading and assessment were not discussed during the meeting. A memo from Fiorenza to board members described efforts school officials are making to make grading more equitable, including assembling a working group of teachers and administrators who read and discussed texts about equitable assessment and grading practices. Teachers are exploring and implementing some practices, such as eliminating zeros from the grade book, and encouraging and rewarding growth over time, the memo said. "Prior to implementing grading changes, if any, recommendations will be made to the Board at a public meeting," the statement from the school said. "Again, contrary to the title of the article, the district has not implemented, and has no intention of implementing, any grading and assessment policy based on race." West Cook News is part of Local Government Information Services, which claims to publish 20 digital editions and 11 print newspapers in Illinois. There are hundreds more of these sites around the country connected to conservative businessman Brian Timpone, according to the Columbia Journalism Review. A New York Times investigation in 2020 found that these news sites do not follow established journalistic principles for newsgathering and publishing, such as fairness and transparency. Our ruling A story from West Cook News claimed that a high school in Oak Park, Illinois, would use race-based grading in the 2022-23 school year. The school board and administrators discussed ways to more equitably assess students during a May 26 meeting. But there is no indication the district plans to grade students differently based on race. We rate this claim False

With the $53 billion spent in Ukraine aid, the U.S. “could pay five SWAT members $80,000 each and have them at EVERY school front door. After the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, some people on social media have called for hardening schools with armed officers. One post even suggested hiring a SWAT team for each school. "We've sent $53,000,000,000 to Ukraine. That's $404,796 per school. You could pay 5 SWAT members $80,000 each and have them at EVERY school front door. With almost $5k left over. They don't care about you … or your kids. Get angry," a photo shared on Facebook on May 26 claimed. 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 Facebook.) With about 130,930 public and private K-12 schools in the U.S., the math posited in this post works out. But the claim’s premise lacks context. Over the past two decades, more and more schools have opted to bolster their security measures. The amount of public schools with security cameras increased from 19% in 1999 to 91% in 2020, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The number of schools with locked or monitored building doors also went up during that time. While school budgets vary by state and school district, an estimated $2.7 billion was spent on U.S. school security equipment and services in 2017, according to Omdia, a market-research company. And billions more are spent each year to pay school resource officers, The Washington Post reported. Following the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, spending on school safety programs increased by $960 million across at least 26 states, according to education news site The 74. The federal government also allocated an additional $2.3 billion to school safety that year. The premise of the claim also falls short in that research shows no evidence that arming teachers — or in this case, hiring a SWAT team for each school — will protect students in future gun-related incidents. Following the tragedy in Uvalde, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, falsely claimed that having armed law enforcement on campus is "the most effective tool for keeping kids safe." But researchers and experts say that when it comes to preventing school shootings, there appears to be more evidentiary support for efforts that emphasize early intervention and support for students than there is for having armed law enforcement on campus. Why has the U.S. sent $53 billion in aid to Ukraine? Two weeks after Russia’s invasion began, Congress approved a $13.6 billion aid package to arm and equip Ukrainian forces and provide humanitarian and economic assistance to the region. Then, on May 19, as the invasion neared the three-month mark, the Senate voted 86-11 to approve the largest military and humanitarian aid package for the country to date, bringing the total spending to more than $53 billion. The $40 billion aid package included: About $24 billion to help Ukrainian forces finance weapons purchases, to replenish stocks of U.S. equipment sent to the country and to pay for U.S. troops deployed in nearby countries; More than $13 billion in humanitarian assistance and economic support for Ukraine and other countries affected by the war. With bipartisan support, the aid package was designed to sustain Ukraine for months, rather than weeks, as was the goal of the initial funding. 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 Do armed officers make schools safer? Half of all public K-12 schools in the country already employ law enforcement or school resource officers who routinely carry firearms, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Those in favor of having these armed officers at schools see them as the first line of defense against shooters and other threats. But the consensus among many experts is that armed officers don’t prevent mass school shootings. A 2021 study published by JAMA Network, the American Medical Association’s open access journal, analyzed mass school shootings from 1980 to 2019. The study found the data suggested "no association between having an armed officer and deterrence of violence in these cases." Another 2021 study by the Rand Corp., a nonprofit research organization, and the University at Albany, evaluated data from schools between 2014 and 2018 to determine the impact of school resource officers. It found that while school resource officers can protect students from some forms of violence, like physical attacks and fights, there is "no evidence that SROs prevent school shootings or reduce more serious firearm-related offenses." In 2018, the Rand Corp. launched a research initiative analyzing thousands of scientific studies to determine the effectiveness of 18 different U.S. gun policies. Through this, Rand found inconclusive evidence that any of these policies, including laws that allow armed staff at K-12 schools, have increased or decreased mass shootings. How can school shootings be prevented? Research and experts say there is no simple solution. One approach, though, is for schools to have effective early intervention and support systems for students who are experiencing distress. Students tend to show a range of concerning behaviors as their actions escalate to violence. A 2021 study by the U.S. Secret Service concluded that threat assessment — in other words, learning how to recognize behavioral warning signs and intervening effectively — is the best way to prevent targeted school violence. The Educator’s School Safety Network recommends schools take a comprehensive, all-hazards approach to planning for, preventing and responding to violent incidents. This includes threat assessment and security measures, as well as looking for potential vulnerabilities within the school and its daily operations. Often, there is "a big discrepancy between what the school has written down as a policy or procedure and what they actually do on a day-to-day basis," said Amy Klinger, co-founder of the Educator’s School Safety Network. "And that big discrepancy is a safety issue not just for active shooter (events), but for all kinds of potential safety issues." Our ruling A Facebook post claimed that with the $53 billion spent in Ukraine aid, the U.S. "could pay five SWAT members $80,000 each and have them at EVERY school front door." The U.S. has allocated about $53 billion in aid to Ukraine. And if one wanted to pay this amount to station five SWAT members at every public and private K-12 school in the country, it would also add up to about $53 billion over one year. But that statement alone lacks context about current security funding for schools and what research shows about the effect of such measures. More than $2.7 billion is already spent each year on school safety equipment and services nationwide. And this $53 billion, if spent as the claim suggested, would cover just one year of SWAT team coverage for schools. Additionally, research shows that the presence of armed officers on campuses does not help prevent school shootings from happening. We rate this claim Half True. RELATED: Research: Armed campus police do not prevent school shootings RELATED: How do we prevent school shooting

"We need to realize that people who think that ‘well, maybe if we could just implement tougher gun laws, it’s going to solve it,’ Chicago and LA and New York disprove that thesis. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, after a mass shooting at an elementary school in his state, pointed to Chicago as an example of how "real gun laws" fail to protect school children and teachers from shootings. "I hate to say this, but there are more people who were shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas," he said during a nationally televised news conference the day after the shooting. "We need to realize that people who think that ‘well, maybe if we could just implement tougher gun laws, it’s going to solve it,’ Chicago and LA and New York disprove that thesis. And so, if you’re looking for a real solution, Chicago teaches that what you’re talking about is not a real solution." Abbott’s remarks came amid the most recent flurry of demands for tougher gun laws after a gunman at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers on May 24. Abbott’s remarks also recalls a long-repeated Republican talking point that Chicago has the toughest gun laws in the nation. It doesn’t. PolitiFact has fact-checked multiple claims on this point. In every case, the reporting has shown Chicago and Illinois do not have the strictest laws compared to other states, although they are tougher than in Texas. Federal court decisions have loosened once-tough restriction, and many experts agree additional reform could have a positive impact. Since it is difficult to parse Abbott’s comparison of all Chicago shootings to shootings in Texas schools — or statewide Texas shooting deaths to various cities — we decided to compare statewide statistics, which in each state he mentioned are influenced most by urban gun violence. Abbott nor his communications staff returned a request for comment for this fact-check. Chicago’s gun ban struck down Chicago’s reputation for strict gun laws is rooted in its 1982 ban on handguns. By 2010, it was the only major city left with a blanket handgun ban. But the ban was struck down in 2010 in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling McDonald v. City of Chicago, which called such outright bans a violation of the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights. That decision left intact the statewide ban on concealed firearms until two years later when an appeals court declared that unconstitutional as well. Illinois then joined every other state in the nation in allowing licensed citizens to carry concealed firearms. In 2016, then-presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed that Chicago had the toughest gun laws in the United States and more gun violence than any other city. That was Mostly False. The fact check said cities like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco do more to regulate the concealed-carry permitting process, while Illinois simply processes applications through the Illinois State Police. Illinois gets an A- from gun control advocacy group Despite the 2010 and 2012 court rulings, Illinois still has tougher gun restrictions than Texas. According to Giffords Law Center, an organization which advocates for gun control, Illinois requires universal background checks, gun owner licensing, lost and stolen firearm reporting, waiting periods and has minimum age laws, open carry reporting, community violence intervention funding, risk protection orders and domestic violence gun laws. Texas has none of those. The state does however, have child access prevention laws, which Illinois also has. 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 Gifford’s gave Illinois an A- ranking on its 2021 Annual Gun Law Scorecard — meaning the state has strong laws to reduce the risk of gun-related crimes. Giffords said that while some changes were made in 2020, Illinois as a whole can take measures to improve gun control. Those improvements include: Prohibiting the sale of large-capacity magazines and enacting a gun accountability law. The gun control group also suggested Illinois could ban the manufacturing and selling of "ghost guns," firearms that law enforcement can’t track because they lack serial numbers — an issue Illinois has since addressed in state law enacted this year. Giffords gave Texas an F rating for weak gun laws, along with Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. The only neighboring state with a better grade is New Mexico with a C. At the same time, Illinois and Texas are roughly the same when it comes to gun deaths per capita, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2020, Illinois reported 14.1 gun-related deaths per 100,000, compared to Texas’ 14.2 rate, according to the latest available CDC data. Experts interviewed by the BGA suggest Abbott’s comparison to gun laws in Texas and Chicago are inherently misleading because gun laws in nearby states — such as Indiana and Wisconsin — more resemble those in Texas where less stringent gun laws allow easier access. "Many factors determine the rates of homicide and violent crime from city to city," said Daniel Webster, a co-director of Johns Hopkins’ Center for Gun Violence Solutions. "You assess the impact of policies by examining changes in homicides and violent crime after gun laws are enacted and contrast that with changes in places that didn’t adopt the policies." A 2017 Gun Trace Report released by the Chicago Police Department shows the majority of illegal guns came to Chicago from Indiana and outside of Chicago’s city limits. "The majority of illegally used or possessed firearms recovered in Chicago are traced back to states with less regulation over firearms, such as Indiana and Mississippi," the report said. "More than two of every five traceable crime guns recovered in Chicago originate with their first point of sale at an Illinois dealer." The remaining 60% of firearms come from out of state, with Indiana as the primary source for one out of every five crime guns. "This pattern also highlights Chicago’s challenge to address illegal guns within the loosely-regulated national gun market," the report said. Abbott’s claim also falls short when it comes to his comparisons to California and New York. In 2020, both California and the state of New York had lower gun death rates than did Texas. Both California and New York have tougher gun laws than Texas, and both are surrounded by states with tougher gun laws compared to a large portion of the rest of the country. Gifford’s classifies California as having the strongest gun laws in the nation. Our ruling Abbott said Chicago, New York City and LA are all examples of how tough gun laws do not work. While Chicago’s gun laws may be more strict than some states, Abbott’s statement ignores how regulations have been weakened after federal court reversals of the city’s once-tougher restrictions. He also ignores how the majority of firearms in Chicago are coming from neighboring states where gun laws more reflect those of his own state, illustrating the impact of the lack of national regulation. States like New York and California with lower gun death rates are for the most part surrounded by states with tougher gun laws. We rate this claim Mostly False. MOSTLY FALSE – The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impressio

Speedway is offering $500 fuel cards for $1.95 to help customers with rising fuel costs Bad actors online are trying to take advantage of high gas prices across the country. "The oil price is getting higher," one viral Facebook post begins. "Speedway is offering $500 Fuel Cards for $1.95 to help out! Answer only 3 questions to get a Card." Comments like "THANK YOU so much Speedway!! This will help my family a lot" and "I WON TOO!!!! so thankful. I am going to tell all my friends and family about this $1.95 deal," led some people to believe that the deal was real. It isn’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.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 18, 2022 in an Instagram post Kamala Harris said, “We have to acknowledge gas is high which is the opposite of low.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 18, 2022 This is a scam. Speedway, a convenience store and gas station chain owned by 7-Eleven, is not offering customers $500 fuel cards. "We have been made aware of a fraudulent offer for fuel cards circulating on the internet," 7-Eleven said in an email. "This is not a valid offer." Be cautious when social media posts make promises that seem too good to be true. In this case, the fake Speedway post asks users to "apply now" and answer a few basic questions. After clicking, it brings you to a row of gift boxes and tells you to choose a prize. From there, it asks you to turn over personal information to a suspicious website in order to "win." Don’t fall for it. We rate this Pants on Fir