Blue Feed

Did Rep. Adam Schiff pay a "boy's family" $7.6 million in damages for "an incident"? No, that's not true: A 2022 article in a self-described satire website with the disclaimer, "Everything on this website is fiction" originated this. There is no evidence in public media that such a payment was ever made. The claim appeared in a post on X…

Is the Pentagon spending $86 billion on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives? No, that's not true: The most recent budget request in April 2024 asked for $162 million. The Fox News guest who originally suggested the much higher number has since retracted her statement. The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on November 18, 2024. It said:…

Did Fox News report that California Gov. Gavin Newsom will withhold California's $235 billion 2025 federal income tax? No, that's not true: A Fox News spokesperson told Lead Stories that this was not reported on Fox News. Also, the claim originally appeared on an account describing itself as "Raw Unfiltered Parody." The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, commonly known as AOC, delete her pronouns from her account on X shortly after the 2024 election? No, that's not true: It happened months earlier. According to archived copies of the lawmaker's account, pronouns were most likely removed between November 2023 and May 2024. Ocasio-Cortez publicly confirmed that it had happened long before the election. The…

Does a photo show President Joe Biden sporting a red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap during his meeting with incoming President Donald Trump at the White House? No, that's not true: Media coverage of the meeting shows that the two men were wearing different clothing than what's seen in the photo. Online image-analysis tools found substantial evidence that the…

Did Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez admit that undocumented immigrants vote in U.S. elections? No, that's not true: She actually said families of undocumented people vote, not the undocumented themselves. Her full quote in context comes from her own official TikTok page. The claim appeared in a post and video on X (archived here) on November 11, 2024. It said: AOC admits…

Did the Kamala Harris campaign say it could overturn Donald Trump's election victory with a recount? No, that's not true: There is no evidence of any such statement from the Harris campaign, nor evidence of any campaign staff making such a statement. Harris conceded the presidential election to Donald Trump the day after he won a majority of both the…

Were there 15 million, 18 million or even 20 million fewer votes in 2024 versus the election numbers from 2020, disproving reports of record turnout or implying cheating in vote totals? No, that's not true: As of November 7, 2024, final vote numbers had not been reported in any state. An election expert told Lead Stories that count would take…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris announce that she would not attend "the presidential induction ceremony" after Donald Trump won the November 5, 2024, election? No, that's not true: In a concession speech on November 6, 2024, Harris stated that she would "help" Trump transition to the White House and "engage in a peaceful transfer of power." As of this writing,…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris fail to outperform President Joe Biden's 2020 election results in any U.S. county in 2024? No, that's not true: A video on social media has been edited to make it look as if that's what CNN reported. The full version of CNN's coverage reveals that anchor Jake Tapper actually asked whether Harris had underperformed Biden…

Did Jill Stein's vote total jeopardize Kamala Harris' chances of winning in Virginia? No, that's not true: Harris did win in Virginia. The vote total showing Donald Trump in the lead in a social media post was earlier on Election Day, with just 52 percent of the ballots counted. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on…

Did the FBI post a video warning that Democrats had rigged voting by prisoners in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona ahead of the 2024 presidential election? No, that's not true: The FBI put out a bulletin calling this a "false narrative." It said the video was "not authentic" and its contents were "false." The claim appeared in a post for a…

Did Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin say "we won't be certifying the election" if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election? No, that's not true: Raskin posted on his verified X account that the quote was "fabricated." Lead Stories could not find any evidence that Raskin made this statement. His website did not have any links that corroborated the purported statement.…

Does an authentic video show Kamala Harris slurring her words during a campaign speech as if she were drunk? No, that's not true: The clip was altered and slowed down, giving the impression that the Democratic presidential nominee was speaking abnormally slowly. C-SPAN posted her original speech, at a rally in Philadelphia, which was at normal speed with no slurring.…

Does a "dot" in the Kamala Harris box on a Kentucky ballot invalidate any other 2024 choice for U.S. president? No, that's not true: The Kentucky State Board of Elections' general counsel told Lead Stories that both the elections board and the Kentucky attorney general's office were not "aware of any complaints from Kentucky voters" about "pre-printed marks" next to…

Does a photo of a ballot prove that a Canadian citizen was able to cast a vote for Donald Trump because there is no voter ID law in the United States? No, that's not true: The absentee ballot in the photo showing a vote for Trump was copied from a Florida voter's social media post. The post from a person…

Does a video show "illegal Haitians" saying they're voting for Kamala Harris in Georgia in Fulton and Gwinnett counties with driver's licenses they got after becoming citizens with just six months in the United States? No, that's not true: Names on the licenses flashed in the video were not found in the Georgia database of registered voters. The Georgia Secretary…

Does a photo on social media show people crowding the street outside Madison Square Garden in New York in 2024 for a Trump rally? No, that's not true: Images from the street scene first appeared in 2011, showing people in Dublin lined up for an event attended by then-President Barack Obama. Actual photos from Trump's Madison Square Garden rally in…

Did Tim Walz tell Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that his administration would make her Speaker of the House if Democrats win the election? No, that's not true: Walz suggested Democratic lawmakers should make her chair of a House committee, not the speaker. Walz is running for vice president, a position that has no direct role in picking House officers. The claim appeared…

Are Progress 2028 ads on Facebook authentic ads supporting Kamala Harris' presidential campaign? No, that's not true: These ads are not affiliated with the campaign or its supporters; instead, a conservative group paid for them to misrepresent her stance on controversial issues like gun buy-back programs and fracking. A Harris campaign aide told Lead Stories that Progress 2028's ads lie…