Election

Did Lowe's CEO Marvin Ellison tell conservatives who "do not like our values" that they "should take their money to Home Depot"? No, that's not true: The company said the quote is false. Ellison's words from an interview with CNBC were digitally replaced in a post on X. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known…

Did Tim Walz mislead people about his dog being a black Labrador when a photo shows him with a completely different dog? No, that's not true: The image of Walz with a dog that is not a black Lab is one he posted on his own social media account, saying it was a nice day at the dog park. He…

Did the messaging service Telegram announce that Apple might be deleting the Telegram app from devices in August 2024? No, that's not true: No such announcement has ever been made by Telegram. A false social media hoax from 2021 resurfaced after Telegram's CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on August 24, 2024. It was debunked in 2021, and it's…

Did Kamala Harris's mother lie in her immigration application by saying she only had one child when she really had two at the time she applied for her visa? No, that's not true: Harris's mother had only one child -- Kamala -- at the time she filed the petition. The full document shows that Harris's mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, filed…

Did someone finally notice that Trump's raised fist has six fingers in the famous image from the aftermath of the Butler, Pennsylvania, assassination attempt -- indicating the image is a fake generated by AI? No, that's not true: This image is altered from the original news photo. The post pretending to expose an AI deception was made 40 days after…

Did Mexico's President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum hold up a menorah while making a speech? No, that's not true: The photo of Sheinbaum on X that shows her doing this has been edited. In the original photo, which dates back to 2017, her fist is raised high in the air, but she does not hold a menorah and is not wearing large…

Did Tim Walz respond to conservative commentator Ann Coulter on X after she described his son's behavior at the Democratic National Convention as "weird"? No, that's not true: A screenshot of this supposed response shows signs of digital manipulation. Lead Stories found no evidence confirming that Walz ever responded to Coulter on X. The claim appeared in a post (archived…

Did the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign propose a plan to put a 20 percent sales tax on all golf-related purchases in an effort to "Tax the Wealthy"? No, that's not true: The social media account that posted this message is self-described satire. A Google search found no results proving the campaign has suggested this. The claim appeared in a post…

Was an image of an August 6, 2024, Kamala Harris campaign rally at Pennsylvania's Temple University digitally altered to fake its crowd size? No, that's not true: Photos and videos of the event by numerous media outlets match the crowd size seen in the picture, including Lead Stories' own photos. An AI-detection tool found little evidence that the image of…

Did Elon Musk and Donald Trump team up to conduct a cryptocurrency scam that would violate election laws, as claimed in a post on X? No, that's not true: Footage from the 2024 Tesla shareholder's meeting, streamed live, was altered with a fake AI-generated voice and facial synchronizing animation. Musk's original presentation had no mention of "crypto", the altered video…