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Did President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris personally oversee the plea deal with accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other defendants? No, that's not true: Both the U.S. National Security Adviser and the U.S. Office of Military Commissions stated that the White House was not involved in any way. There is no evidence that either the…

Did Michelle Obama wear a gold necklace with the letters "MIKE" in 2020? No, that's not true: The former first lady's gold necklace had the four letters "VOTE" on it at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. Publicly available images of Obama wearing the VOTE necklace are easily found on the internet. Multiple news outlets covered the necklace she wore and…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris suggest that young people "should not have children due to climate change," as implied by a post on X? No, that's not true: In the clip, she described how "young leaders" define climate anxiety. She did not suggest that young people "should not have children." A version of the claim appeared in a post on…

Does the Georgia Voter Registration Cancellation Portal automatically cancel voter registration based solely on entry of a voter's first initial, last name, county and date of birth? No, that's not true: These data points are only the first step in the process. A spokesperson for Georgia's Secretary of State, which oversees elections, told Lead Stories the system asks for more…

Did majority X owner Elon Musk share a public message on July 30, 2024, that users of the social-media platform would be punished for calling supporters of former President Donald Trump weird? No, that's not true: As of this publication, no such post was available on Musk's verified X profile, and an archive of his profile page did not reflect…

Did President Joe Biden grow mysteriously taller after spending time away from the public eye recovering from COVID-19? No, that's not true: The video footage used by people claiming this on social media shows Biden from a lower level, which gives an illusion of greater height relative to the people and architecture behind him. Different camera angles of the same…

Did an authentic photo show Vice President Kamala Harris with Jeffrey Epstein, embracing at the beach? No, that's not true: Lead Stories ran the image through AI detection tool True Media, which found "substantial evidence" the image was generated using AI, with 100 percent confidence. A reverse image search does not offer results older than mid-July 2024, almost five years…

Does a scene from an episode of "The Simpsons" show that Lisa Simpson would win an election against former President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: An image from an episode in which Trump did not appear was altered to substitute Trump's likeness, including the bandage he wore after a July, 2024 assassination attempt. The episode actually features a different,…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris say, "Today we celebrate the Olympics. Because Olympians are Olympic, & they are at the Olympics being Olympian, so it's more important now than ever to support their Olympianism"? No, that's not true: Harris' spokesperson said that's not something she said. It is a parody of a manipulated Harris quote that Lead Stories debunked previously.…

Did Netflix's stock drop almost 40 percent after a "big campaign donation announcement"? No, that's not true: The story originally came from a network of satirical websites and Facebook pages. A representative for Netflix confirmed public records showing the company's stock had not dropped 40 percent. Reed Hastings, Netflix's co-founder and executive chairman, did make a major personal donation to…

Does an old photo show Vice President Kamala Harris practicing prostitution? No, that's not true: The professional photographer who took this shot in New York City told Lead Stories that the young Black woman in the picture was not Harris. Also, news reports with photos of Harris in the 1980s showed that she did not resemble the woman in the…

Did Taylor Swift announce they were scheduling a fundraising concert with Beyonce to support Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate? No, that's not true: Neither the singers, nor Harris has announced a fundraising concert. The stadium named in the article announcing the concert shows no such scheduled event on its website. The claim appeared in an article (archived here)…

Did the wristwatch President Joe Biden was wearing show a time other than the current local time during a live address on July 24, 2024, indicating the speech was prerecorded or edited? No, that's not true: Biden's watch was visible showing the correct local time at various moments during the address, filmed and photographed by several cameras. The time of…

Did GovTrack delete only Vice President Kamala Harris' 2019 report card, which rated her as the most liberal senator that year? No, that's not true: GovTrack told Lead Stories that it consolidated and deleted everyone's 2019 report card. Her 2020 report card, which covers two years, rated Harris as the second most liberal member of the Senate. Founder Joshua Tauberer…

Did Sen. John Fetterman wear a suit for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress despite "refusing to wear a suit to literally everything else?" No, that's not true: Fetterman wears a suit whenever he goes to the House or Senate floor and "wears a suit once a week to preside in the Senate," his spokesperson told Lead Stories.…

Does a video in a social media post accurately convey Vice President Kamala Harris' full position by using a clip of her saying "more schools, less jails"? No, that's not true: A transcript of her 2013 speech shows the post snipped away the part where Harris said she agrees in concept that schools are a priority, but that there needs…

Does a clip of Vice President Kamala Harris saying that young adults "are stupid" accurately reflect what she said in a 2014 speech about crime prevention? No, that's not true: The full transcript shows that when she said 18- to 24-year-olds "are stupid" and "make really bad decisions", she was including her college-aged self. A social media video snippet stripped…

Did former President Jimmy Carter die on July 23, 2024? No, that's not true: The owner of the account that posted a fake letter about Carter passing away told Lead Stories he carried out the hoax to show how sensationalist news spreads. The Carter Center, a human rights organization founded by the 39th president, also denied that Carter had died,…

Do memorandums by President Joe Biden prove he is transferring his presidential power to others in advance of his death? No, that's not true: The delegation of powers to lower-level officials is a common practice in the federal government. There are dozens of examples during the Biden, Trump and Obama administrations where each president delegated limited "functions and authorities" to…

Does an image of President Joe Biden with solid black eyeballs wearing a black protective face mask support a rumor that he died? No, that's not true: The image is fake, with several flaws typical of AI-generated images, and Biden is alive as of this writing on July 23, 2024. A browser extension from Hive Moderation determined the image was…