Did Nancy Pelosi divert $2.4 billion from social security to cover the cost of impeaching President Donald Trump? No, that's not true. The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to mislead Trump supporters and Republicans into sharing made up stories that are clearly marked as satire when you actually click them. Articles from the site are frequently copied by foreign-run fake news websites that present them as real. The people liking and sharing these stories are enriching foreign website operators (or a liberal from Maine) via the ad revenue generated with the content which is probably not what they expected or wanted.
The story originated from an article published by Patriots Unite on October 4, 2019 titled "Pelosi Diverts $2.4 Billion From Social Security To Cover Impeachment Costs" (archived here) which opened:
Freedom isn't free, the saying goes. And neither is the opposite of freedom, which for today's purpose, is the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Counting legal fees for a slew of legal teams, experts, time, maintenance, and constant deliveries of Chardonnay, you and I, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, are looking at about 2 and a half billion dollars. Hope your boss can give you a raise.
Speaker of the House Pelosi isn't too keen on having that number creep out into the public eye, so yesterday, as evidenced by the filing of re-appropriation form 77-A in the Congressional Budget office, she quickly moved the amount from the Department of Social Security to cover the cost. Are you retired? Well get ready to pay, bitch.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Pelosi Diverts $2.4 Billion From Social Security To Cover Impeachment Costs
Freedom isn't free, the saying goes. And neither is the opposite of freedom, which for today's purpose, is the impeachment of President Donald Trump. Counting legal fees for a slew of...
The site that originally posted the story put it in following categories to indicate it was all fiction: "Satire That Makes You Horny" and "The Continuing Saga of Nancy Pelosi's Fictional Alcoholism". In addition to that there were several satire warnings and disclaimers present on the site.
And of course there is no "Department of Social Security" in the U.S. government (there is a "Social Security Administration" instead).
The site that made up the story is part of the "America's Last Line of Defense" network of satire websites run byself-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. Blair has been in a feud with fact checking website Snopes for some time now and has also criticized other fact checkers in the past who labeled his work "fake news" instead of satire. In reaction to this he has recently rebranded all his active websites and Facebook pages so they carry extremely visible disclaimers everywhere.
Every site in the network has an about page that reads (in part):
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with "comedy":sat·ire
ˈsaˌtī(ə)r
noun
The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
Articles from Blair's sites frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up.
Here is a video of Blair explaining how his process works:
If you are interested in learning more about Blair and the history of his sites, here is something to get you started:
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List | Lead Stories
STORY UPDATED: check for updates below. Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and occasionally even made a living out of it.
If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer, assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes potatriotsunite.com as:
A site that publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news, part of a network named America's Last Line of Defense run by hoax perpetrator Christopher Blair.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
We wrote about potatriotsunite.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Source Did NOT Say Epstein Implicated High-Powered Democrats In Suicide Note
- Fake News: Judge in Epstein Case NOT Found Dead of Apparent Suicide
- Fake News: Judge Did NOT Award Sasha and Malia Obama's Biological Father $14 Million
- Fake News: Ross Perot Did NOT Leave $100 Million to the Trump 2020 Campaign
