Elections

Did the FBI say a ballistics test shows Donald Trump was not shot in the ear during a July 13, 2024, assassination attempt on the former president? No, that's not true: The agency told Lead Stories, "The FBI has not released a ballistics report." There are no verified reports or credible information indicating that the FBI has released any ballistics…

Does a video show former President Donald Trump playing golf with an undamaged ear 10 days after an assassination attempt on July 13, 2024? No, that's not true: The photo in a social media post was taken from a video recorded the week before the shooting, the video's creator said in a public statement. FBI records confirm Trump's injuries, which…

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…

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…

Did the would-be assassin who fired at former President Donald Trump use the roof of a building owned by investment firm BlackRock? No, that's not true: According to Pennsylvania property records, that building is owned by a different company, American Glass Research. No credible news organization reported otherwise, and BlackRock denied the claim in an email to Lead Stories. The…

Was President Joe Biden in hospice care as of July 23, 2024? No, that's not true: He was diagnosed with COVID-19, on July 17, 2024, then tested negative for COVID and was seen in public on July 23, 2024, returning to the White House. The social media account that first made the claim is not a reputable news organization and…

Did Donald Trump write on X that he was "regrowing" his ear after it was pierced by a bullet? No, that's not true: The creator of the fake Trump post admitted it was meant to be satirical. The X post does not appear on the former president's X account. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly…

Did Kamala Harris' simplistic explanations of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on a podcast demonstrate she has a limited understanding of geopolitics? No, that's not true: This claim leaves out key context. Her answer was in response to the host, who asked Harris to explain the conflict in "layman's terms." Layman's terms is defined as "simple language that anyone can understand,"…

When he dropped out of the race on July 21, 2024, was it too late for Joe Biden's name to be removed from general election presidential ballots across the country? No, that's not true: Biden was not yet on the ballot for this election cycle, as his primary election wins only made him the presumptive nominee. The party's official candidate…

Did Kamala Harris tell a group she was "a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit" for no reason during the normal course of starting a meeting? No, that's not true: Harris was describing herself and what she was wearing, which is considered good manners during a meeting with blind or visually impaired persons. She was speaking at…

Did Joe Biden's letter withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race require the presidential seal? No, that's not true: The letter was written by Biden in his capacity as then-candidate -- not by Biden as president. The seal is only used for official presidential correspondence. The claim was implied in a post (archived here) on X, the site formerly known as…

Does an authentic video show Vice President Kamala Harris saying "Today is today. And yesterday was today yesterday. Tomorrow will be today tomorrow. So live today so that future today will past today, as it is tomorrow"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories submitted the clip to two AI detection tools, which documented substantial manipulation of the video in the…

Did the man who tried to assassinate Republican nominee Donald Trump donate $15 to the Democrat online fundraising platform ActBlue or was it some other person as some people on social media claimed? Lead Stories confirmed through Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing reports that Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man identified as the shooter, did donate $15 to ActBlue in 2021.…

Did short selling for Trump Media "more than double" between July 1 and July 12, 2024, making the stock "plummet one day before the assassination attempt" against the company's co-founder, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The company, which owns the Truth Social platform, saw an upward trend that started on July 10, 2024 -- three days…

Does a photo on social media show Trump shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks wearing a yarmulke? No, that's not true: Representatives of the Congregation B'nai Abraham Synagogue in Butler, Pennsylvania, told Lead Stories they know the person in the photograph and that he's not Crooks. According to the congregation's statement, Crooks never "attended any event or service" at their synagogue. The…

Does video from the campaign rally where former President Donald Trump was shot show Janeen DiGuiseppi of the FBI? No, that's not true: The woman in the video is not DiGuiseppi, the FBI said. The FBI told Lead Stories that DiGuiseppi, assistant director of the Insider Threat Office at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., was not at the rally. The…

Did Donald Trump wear a bandage on the "wrong ear" -- the left one -- at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15, 2024? No, that's not true: The video that makes this claim has been flipped on a horizontal axis, reversing everything in the scene as a mirror would. The former president was wearing a bandage…

Did a photo of the attempted assassin of Donald Trump surface, showing that Thomas Matthew Crooks was transgender? No, that's not true: The person in the photo on social media is not Crooks. The photo appeared first on 4chan, posted by an anonymous user who replied to someone's questioning its truth that "spreading rumors is fun." A close-up photo of…

Did the Biden campaign or administration organize billboard trucks outside the Republican National Convention, calling former President Donald Trump a "DICTATOR ON DAY ONE"? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee said the trucks are not from the Biden campaign nor the Committee. There's also no evidence linking the trucks to President Joe Biden's administration or…