Election

Did Donald Trump issue a statement on Peanut the Squirrel saying the animal was "executed" by the State of New York? No, that's not true: The Trump campaign said a viral image that is supposedly a Trump statement is fake. Lead Stories found no posts mentioning squirrels on Trump's accounts on X and Truth Social as of this writing. One…

Did The Atlantic publish an article with the title "How A Squirrel Became A Rallying Cry Of The Far Right"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no such story on the magazine's website. The X account that posted a fake screenshot of the article later described it as a "meme." The story appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Does a video show an informant, who allegedly was once an aide to Arizona's secretary of state, telling about state plans to rig the election in favor of Kamala Harris? No, that's not true: This video is fabricated disinformation from a Russian propaganda network. A media forensics expert has identified it as one more example of the effort to spread…

Did Joe Rogan say "he will not be voting for Trump after having him on the podcast"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories reviewed Rogan's podcasts and public statements in the days after Donald Trump's appearance. Neither subsequent episodes of Rogan's podcast, his social media accounts nor credible news reports included any statements by Rogan that he had decided not…

Did the FBI publish a video reporting that it had apprehended three linked groups that had committed election fraud with mail-in ballots on behalf of the Democrats? No, that's not true: The FBI has published a statement on X that these videos are not authentic, are not from the FBI, and the content they depict is false. This bogus video…

Was Donald Trump's name misspelled or misprinted on ballots in Hamilton County, Ohio, and could this result in votes for him not being properly counted? No, that's not true: An image on social media seems to show an irregularity in the "m" of his last name, but county election officials say they have not seen another ballot with a similar…

Did former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney post on X that Donald Trump "is now literally threatening" to kill her? No, that's not true: That post came from a self-described parody account. It attributed a fake screenshot of another, nonexistent account on X to Cheney. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on November 1, 2024. The post…

Were 180,000 new Amish voters registered in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, for the 2024 general election, with the implication being that these are Republicans? No, that's not true: This figure is "completely false," according to a college professor who's an expert on the Amish. Only 10,546 more people in the county registered as Republicans since January 1, 2024, Pennsylvania Department of…

Is an ABC News affiliate's airing of apparent Pennsylvania election results that declared Vice President Kamala Harris the winner proof of election interference? No, that's not true: The station, WNEP-TV, already stated online that the displayed election results were from a test and were not real numbers. The station broadcasted them accidentally. The person who posted a social media video…

Did a voting machine in Arkansas cause a vote for Donald Trump to be cast instead for Kamala Harris? No, that's not true: Elections authorities at the state and local level plus the voting machine manufacturer told Lead Stories the voter accidentally touched the wrong name because they used their finger rather than the stylus provided. Even so, they said…