Presidential Debate

Did a long list of celebrities all say "He will never leave, we have to make him leave, it's up to us to get rid of him" about President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: Actor Robert De Niro was the only celeb who did this, appearing on "The Best People with Nicolle Wallace." False claims that Cher, Pink, Tom…

Did Barack Obama say that he wants to return to the White House in 2028 as president through "legal avenues" or as a "proxy candidate"? No, that's not true: Contrary to the posts citing his "exclusive interview on a major news network" on December 7, 2025, the former president did not talk to any TV stations on that day. He…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris say "If we elect Trump, we will be at war within 6 months" as multiple viral memes claim she did? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available proof she said it. None of the multiple versions of the meme provides the time or place when she is supposed to have said it. Had…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump propose a bill that bans all lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, from re-entering the U.S., if they leave? No, that's not true: As of June 11, 2025, Lead Stories found no such bill on the website of Congress. An earlier June 2025 White House proclamation about new travel restrictions did not…

Did Carrie Underwood win a billion-dollar defamation lawsuit against "The View" or did she even sue them? No, that's not true: The story alleging there was a lawsuit involving comments on "The View" about Underwood's performance at President Trump's inauguration was put out by a number of clickbait channels on YouTube, but it was not backed up by any sources…

Did an executive order signed by President Donald Trump reverse "the plastic straw ban"? No, that's not true: No such national "ban" was enacted by Congress. Trump's order counters policies of former President Joe Biden aimed at gradually phasing out single-use plastic items in the future, which affected only the operations of federal agencies. While some localities do have restrictions…

Did President Joe Biden err in saying "end of quote" during his farewell address on January 15, 2025, as some social media posts suggested? No, that's not true: Speakers often say "end of quote" to show they've finished quoting someone else. Biden has used this phrase in his speeches before to clarify things. Public speaking experts told Lead Stories that…

Lead Stories was surprised and disappointed to first learn through media reports and a press release about the end of the Meta Third-Party Fact-Checking Partnership of which Lead Stories has been a part since 2019. On January 7, 2025, Joel Kaplan, the newly-appointed Chief Global Affairs Officer at Meta, announced in a press release that Meta will be ending the…

Is a social media post from a supposed California Republican congressman called Jack Kimble about the "liberal" media ignoring the U.S. vice presidential debate an authentic, predebate post? No, that's not true: There is no Jack Kimble who represents California or any other state in the U.S. House of Representatives. The post originally appeared on a self-described parody account from…

Does a video show Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz "flipping off" a heckler at a Michigan football game? No, that's not true: A still photo taken at the same event shows that Walz was pointing his index finger at bystanders. His middle digit remained firmly folded in his hand. The claim appeared in a video on X (archived here)…