Does the movie "2000 Mules" prove the 2020 presidential election was stolen by voter fraud? No, that's not true: The film's producers promote a theory that 2,000 people in five key swing states collected and delivered hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots on behalf of a "cartel" to throw the election in favor of Joe Biden. The cellphone geotracking data…

Did winning Kentucky Derby jockey Sonny Leon turn down a White House invitation, saying he didn't want to see "a horse's ass"? No, that's not true: This is a fake quote that has been recycled since at least 2018 and previously debunked by Lead Stories. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on May 8, 2022. Beside the image of…

Did King Township in Ontario, Canada, install new electric vehicle charging stations that are powered with a diesel generator? No, that's not true: A communications officer with King Township informed Lead Stories the generator that appears in the photo does not run on diesel, but natural gas. It is the back-up power supply for a critical piece of township infrastructure…

Did illustrator Lainey Molnar make a webcomic where the two panels compare "An Established And Complete Woman" with "A Victim Of Feminism"? No, that's not true: The original artwork has undergone several changes. Some changes were made by the artist. Other, trolling alterations were made by an unidentified person who also changed the intent of the original message with a…

Do fetuses have fingerprints at nine weeks? No, that's not true: According to the Mayo Clinic, fingerprints don't start to form until around week 23 of fetal development. This claim, along with a number of others, appeared in a Facebook post on April 30, 2022. It opens: DID YOU KNOW? MY HEARTBEAT STARTS AT 16 DAYS. This is what the…

Does the Netherlands have the lowest abortion rate in the world? No, that's not true: Although the Netherlands has a low abortion rate, with data showing that it has an estimated average annual rate of seven abortions per 1,000 women, it is not the lowest in the world. That title belongs to both Singapore and Switzerland, which, according to the…

Did entrepreneur Elon Musk announce that he tried to "buy the Bidens, but the Chinese wouldn't sell them"? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available evidence to suggest that Musk said or tweeted such a statement. The "tweet" in this post is fake. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on April 28, 2022. It has an image…

Is former President Barack Obama a Muslim? No, that's not true: He has spoken frequently about being a Christian, not a Muslim. He gave speeches about his Christian faith before and during his eight-year presidency. The site that posted the image and claimed Obama's religion is Sunni Muslim usually shares memes, jokes and military-related posts. The claim appeared in a…

Did the U.S. military destroy a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine warehouse? No, that's not true: The claim was made on the website Real Raw News, which has a history of publishing completely made-up and false stories. "There is no truth here," a Pentagon spokesperson told Lead Stories of the claim. The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News…

Did U.S. military "White Hats" arrest Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack on April 26, 2022? No, that's not true: The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of the Secretary of Defense told Lead Stories that Vilsack was not arrested. Vilsack also made public appearances on the day of the alleged arrest and in the days afterward. The only source…

Did an email about "otherkin" -- nonhuman entities in human bodies -- being integrated into Kokomo High School get leaked to the public? No, that's not true: This email is fake and did not come from the school but from a Facebook page called The Kokomo Press. A representative for the school in Kokomo, Indiana told Lead Stories that an…

Did American food processing facilities mysteriously and suspiciously begin to catch fire after President Joe Biden predicted that there could be real food shortages due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine? No, that's not true: Several incidents on a list of food processing facilities where incidents have occurred predate Biden's comments on food shortages and also predate Russia's invasion. Some…

Did a Justice Sandy Barron-Batt deny a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against Whoopi Goldberg filed by Kyle Rittenhouse? No, that's not true: For one thing, the lawsuit does not actually exist, it was invented by a liberal satire website. The news about the Motion to Dismiss was likewise invented by liberal satirists with a reputation for trolling conservatives and…

Were Anthony Fauci and Loretta Lynch hanged in a "double-header execution" at GITMO? No, that's not true. A Pentagon spokesperson told Lead Stories the claim was a "fabrication." Real Raw News, the website that published the story, is a self-described satire site that routinely makes up false stories about arrests and executions of politicians, celebrities and world leaders. It tells…

Are COVID-19 vaccines "killing people of color at twice the rate of white people," as Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said on April 14, 2022? No, that's not true: There's no evidence the vaccines are killing people in general, so there's no evidence that they're killing people of color at a disproportionately higher rate. Becerra misspoke when he…

Did the U.S. military sentence Dr. Anthony Fauci to hang at Guantanamo Bay? No, that's not true: A duty officer from the Pentagon said this story was fabricated. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made a public appearance on CBS News one day after this Real Raw News article was published. Real Raw News…

Was 80% of all U.S. dollars in existence created within the "last two months" as of April 16, 2022? No, that's not true: The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), the agency within the Department of Treasury responsible for producing U.S. currency notes, told Lead Stories that the claim is false. Additionally, other "evidence" discussed in the claim is based…

Will Social Security payments just now or in the near future be referred to as "federal benefit" payments? Not exactly: Payments from the Social Security program have been considered federal benefits since the federal government created the program in 1935. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on August 12, 2020. The post's graphic reads: The Social Security…

Did President Joe Biden try to "shake hands with thin air" and then wander around looking confused after he finished a speech at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro on April 14, 2022? No, that's not true: Some footage of the event was framed so that some members of the audience were just off-camera during the speeches…

Does a photo of President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden show a fake presidential seal? No, that's not true: A fuzzy photograph from the April 18, 2022, Easter Egg Roll at the White House does show the real presidential seal, as proven in clearer images in still photos and videos published by national news outlets. The claim appeared…