Did Rep. Jim Jordan play a video downloaded from Hunter Biden's laptop that incriminated House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff? No, that's not true: The video with this claim shows Jordan criticizing Schiff over matters that have nothing to do with Hunter Biden or the contents of a computer hard drive that media reports have linked to him. The claim…

Does this video show Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez getting "thrown out" of Congress during a congressional hearing? No, that's not true: The footage is from a 2019 hearing and does not show her being ejected. The transcript from this hearing also does not show anyone asking Ocasio-Cortez to leave or be escorted out of the room. The headline is clickbait. The…

Can former President Donald Trump be reinstated by a Supreme Court decision in the case of Moore v. Harper? No, that's not true: Lead Stories asked legal experts about the claim and they said there's no chance that Trump could be reinstated as president because there's no constitutional mechanism for doing so. Also noted, the case has no bearing on…

Does the presence of "QR code signature mismatch" error codes reported in some Dominion voting machines in Tennessee invalidate Georgia election results? No, that's not true: Experts with whom Lead Stories spoke said there is no connection between error codes found in Tennessee voting machines and Georgia election results, and that such error codes are generic indicators election administrators use…

Does a video show Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana "exposing Biden's dirty secret" in Congress? No, that's not true: The video in a post making this claim shows unrelated clips of Kennedy questioning Labor Secretary Marty Walsh during an appropriations meeting, and speaking about inflation during a floor speech in 2021. The post has a clickbait headline, apparently to draw…

Did President Joe Biden order the replacement of the U.S. dollar with a trackable spyware version of digital money that will give the government control over the bank accounts of all Americans? No, that's not true: None of that language appears anywhere in the order, a spokesman for the U.S. Treasury told Lead Stories. Biden did sign a March 2022…

Did former President Barack Obama "expose" himself by referring to his wife Michelle as "Michael"? No, that's not true: While he did say the words, he was not talking about himself -- he was citing another person's experience. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on September 24, 2022. It contained a video with a TikTok logo. The caption is:…

Did Fox News revisit a "theory" about a "huge Trump and military white hat sting operation" in 12 states about the 2020 U.S. presidential election? Did this include a statement that the Biden family, elected officials, bureaucrats, social media managers and media members "are being arrested & detained for ballot fraud" and will face "military tribunals" off the coast of…

Did President Joe Biden tell Americans to get COVID vaccinations as Hurricane Ian was bearing down on Florida in late September 2022? No, that's not true: A post suggesting he did uses a video recorded in August 2021, not on the eve of Ian's landfall. Biden made no mention of vaccines when he spoke about Hurricane Ian at the White…

Did a crowd in central London chant "F*** Joe Biden" when the U.S. president's motorcade got stuck in traffic on the way to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II? No, that's not true: The original video from September 19, 2022, the day of the funeral, was overdubbed with audio from another place and time. The claim appeared in a TikTok…

Did Joe Biden's granddaughter, Naomi Biden, say he "died 4 years ago"? No, that's not true: The woman speaking in a video that makes this claim is not Naomi Biden, but a social-media user with a TikTok account labeled "satire." Joe Biden is alive and well, as of September 15, 2022. One version of the claim appeared in an Instagram…

Does a video show Sen. John Kennedy "exposing" Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, in Congress? No, that's not true: The video in a post making the claim shows an unrelated clip of Kennedy questioning voting rights activist Stacey Abrams of Georgia in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The post has a clickbait headline apparently to draw attention to…

Does a "leaked video" show Hillary Clinton leading a space cult in an "annual Earth ritual"? No, that's not true: This video shows a space-themed birthday party that took place over Labor Day weekend 2022. The video and an article published by nextnewsnetwork.com play on conspiratorial beliefs about Satan-worshiping elites but eventually reveal that the "annual ritual" was just a…

Did President Joe Biden use "crisis actors" to portray U.S. Marines for a speech? No, that's not true: Real Marines were standing guard when Biden delivered a speech on September 1, 2022, that called out former President Donald Trump and his "Make America Great Again" ideology. The claim was made on a website known for fictitious content. The claim originally…

Is ivermectin recommended by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the U.S. government for the treatment of COVID-19 as of September 2022? No, that's not true: Neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Food and Drug Administration recommend the antiparasitic as treatment or prevention. As of this writing, the National Institutes of Health listed ivermectin as…

Did President Trump extend his power as president by law on January 6, 2021, and is the National Guard activated to Federal Duty and in complete control? No, that's not true: There is no constitutional authority under which a president can extend his legal authority past the end of his term. Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president…

Were mental health professionals at the Wisconsin Pride festival in August of 2022 "just handing out" letters declaring patients' readiness for gender affirmation surgery? No, that's not true: letters were not handed out. A photograph of a booth at the Magic Pride Festival in Madison offering free "Letters of Readiness," service is real. But, the letters were not handed out…

Did Hallie Biden, the widow of the president's son Beau Biden, start a new Twitter account? No, that's not true: Twitter has taken down this account, but while it was up it did not have a checkmark confirming that it's authentic. It tried to lure people into donating money to a PayPal account. Screen grabs of the account are still…

Does a video show Sen. Ted Cruz telling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi she is guilty? No, that's not true: The video shows a clip of Cruz speaking about various political topics but not about Pelosi. The video's headline does not match the footage. It appears to be clickbait to draw attention to a Facebook page. The claim appeared in a…

Did 44 percent of pregnant women in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine trial have miscarriages? No, that's not true: Author/activist Naomi Wolf incorrectly analyzed public information when making the claim that "out of 50 pregnant women, 22 of them lost their babies." Wolf and two publishers have all retracted the claim, which continued to circulate nonetheless. Jeffrey Morris, professor of biostatistics at…