African Americans

Is it true that asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 who die of other medical problems will be added to the coronavirus death toll? No, that's not true: Many asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 are not getting tested in the first place, so that assertion doesn't hold up. Lead Stories reached out to the president of the National Association of Medical Examiners (NAME),…

Did 60 Senate Democrats vote against a coronavirus stimulus bill, meaning nobody is getting checks? No, that's not true: For one thing, there are not 60 Democrats in the U.S. Senate. Second, the Democrats voted on March 22, 2020, against a key procedural vote that would have advanced the bill because they said they were unhappy with worker protections. However,…

Facebook users have been seeing some strange headlines lately, thanks largely to a clickbaiter from Pakistan. "It's Official: Fox Information Terminates Decide Pirro's Contract" There is a large network of websites using political content to draw an audience to the sites where some dubious advertising techniques are being employed. All of the content published on these websites is lifted from…

Did President Trump say at a recent town hall forum that he will cut Social Security and Medicare? No, that's not true: According to a transcript of the event on March 5, 2020, Trump never specifically mentioned those entitlement programs by name. The headline and subheader of an article claimed that the president specifically said those were programs for which…

Did Sen. Bernie Sanders support Ayatollah Khomeini during the Iran hostage crisis? No, that's not true: Sanders, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, did not support Ayatollah Kohmeini during the crisis, when 52 Americans were held for 444 days, as suggested by a popular meme. The meme has been shared repeatedly in recent weeks on Facebook (archived here)…

Did U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer say, "It's racist to only allow citizens to vote"? No, that's not true: Schumer never said that. Several sites are wrongly attributing this quote to him, but he did not say it. Lead Stories has traced the claim back to its original source, and the quote was entirely made up. The story recently…

Did a U.S. federal judge just release Benghazi evidence that puts former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in "deep trouble"? No, that's not true: This didn't just happen. The claim being shared is based on a foxnews.com article from 2018, and the story keeps getting copied and pasted more than a year later without anyone updating the timeframe. The latest…

Did Ben Carson, the Housing and Urban Development Secretary, offer to do brain surgery on U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters? No, that's not true: Although Carson and Waters, a California Democrat, have shown great disdain for one another in the past, Carson, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, never made such a statement. The claim, which has been making the…

Did Colin Kaepernick lobby to remove the American national anthem from being played before professional football games? No, that's not true: The NFL quarterback, who is currently a free agent, made no such effort. The article is a work of satire that has been stolen by other websites without noting the satirical nature of the story. The story originated from…

Are seven women shown in this meme off of food stamps and now with great jobs, thanks to President Trump? No, that's not true: These were all Ivy League students who were interviewed by Essence magazine in 2015 for a story about successful African immigrants. The meme creator stole the photo and used it to falsely claim these women had…