Did Nancy Pelosi demand that a doctor hand over President Trump's medical records? No, that's not true: The claim that House Speaker Pelosi ordered the president's doctor to send the medical file to Congress is a work of satire, published by a liberal who is trolling conservatives. It did not happen. Still, many people read, believe, and share the article without awareness that it is a joke. Also, other websites steal the story for their own pages, but without the satire disclaimers.
The story originated from an article published by dailyworldupdate.us on November 26, 2019 titled "Pelosi Demands Doctor Hand Over Trump's Medical Records" (archived here) which opened:
Citing an official ongoing Congressional inquiry and an official suspicion that the President may be dangerously mentally handicapped, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has issued a demand to Donald Trump's physician to immediately turn over all of his medical records, including psychological evaluations, to a congressional investigation committee within five days.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Pelosi Demands Doctor Hand Over Trump's Medical Records
What right does she have?
The impeachment inquiry under way in November 2019 has not questioned President Trump's health. In fact, poor health is not impeachable. The constitution's 25th amendment does include provisions for removing a president from office for health reasons, but that is initiated in the executive branch and not in Congress.
The site 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 dailyworldupdate.us as:
A news site that publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news. The site is part of a network 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 dailyworldupdate.us before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:
- Fake News: Giuliani Did NOT Quietly File Suit Against Ilhan Omar for Blatant Prejudice on Behalf of White House
- Fake News: Nancy Pelosi's Military Budget Committee Did NOT Put 5 Aircraft Carriers Up For Sale
- Fake News: NO Ocasio-Cortez Bill Requires Seniors to Renew Driver's Licenses Monthly
- Fake News: NO Leading Democrats Facing Indictment for Orchestrating a Coup d'etat
- Fake News: Kamala Harris Did NOT Say "Our Military Are Soulless Cowards. Their Budget Must Be Cut."
