Joe Biden

Did Donald Trump admit in an Oval Office ceremony on March 7, 2025, that the 2024 election was rigged so that he could become president again? No, that's not true: President Trump was claiming the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden was rigged, not the 2024 election. If he had won in 2020, he would not be president when…

Did the U.S. Justice Department just release the 1998-2004 flight logs for Jeffrey Epstein's Boeing 727? No, that's not true: We've had then since early 2015 and have embedded copies of the flight logs in several Lead Stories fact checks. This reporter investigated allegations of Epstein's abuse of young females as a national correspondent for American Media Inc. in January…

Did the former administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Samantha Power, see her net worth increase by $23 million in three years? No, that's not true: Public financial records don't show anything close to that kind of an increase between 2021 and 2024. Based on Lead Stories' calculations, her net worth was essentially in the same range during…

Did the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rule that 84 of President Joe Biden's last-minute pardons were unconstitutional and did the opinion of "Judge Joe Barron" appear on a court website? No, that's not true: The ruling originated on a satirical Facebook page. The owner of the page is known for tricking conservatives into liking and sharing made-up content.…

Did an executive order signed by President Donald Trump reverse "the plastic straw ban"? No, that's not true: No such national "ban" was enacted by Congress. Trump's order counters policies of former President Joe Biden aimed at gradually phasing out single-use plastic items in the future, which affected only the operations of federal agencies. While some localities do have restrictions…

Does an image in a social media post show one of the Black Hawk helicopter pilots killed in the January 2025 Washington, D.C., aircraft collision as she worked on the White House staff for two years "instead of flying"? No, that's not true: The person singled out in the image is not Rebecca Lobach, one of the soldiers participating in…

Did the Fraternal Order of Police rescind its endorsement of President Donald Trump in response to the sweeping January 6 pardons he gave after his 2025 swearing-in? No, that's not true: The Fraternal Order of Police issued a letter that criticized pardons by both Trump and former President Joe Biden of people convicted of violence against law enforcement officers, but…

Does U.S. law allow for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be extradited to Russia? No, that's not true: A notoriously unreliable website that published a story about Putin supposedly demanding such an extradition did not offer any named sources or specifics regarding alleged charges. Lawyers who specialize in extradition told Lead Stories that there's no legal basis to send an American…

Does a video show President Donald Trump saying "I don't care" about the economy in an interview with Fox News? No, that's not true: Trump's response of "I don't care" to Sean Hannity was not about the economy, he was saying it didn't matter to him that the TV host was running out of time and wanted to change the…

Did Instagram and its parent company, Meta, force users to follow Vice President JD Vance and President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The accounts in question are reserved for the sitting vice president and president, respectively. Ownership was transferred to the leaders shortly after they assumed office. The claim appeared in a post on Instagram on January 21, 2025.…