Did Sen. Chuck Schumer have an affair in 1977 with his daughter's best friend from high school? No, that's not true. Neither of Schumer's daughters was born until the 1980s. The story was published by a satire site set up to bait conservatives with unbelievable claims, then shaming them when they believe them and share them online, which is what happened. It's all made up. The claim comes from a fake article from 2017, from the America's Last Line of Defense network of satirical websites.
The spoof was repeated as a real claim in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on October 5, 2020, under the title "What a horrible human." It opened:
1977 - The alleged affair between Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his daughter's best friend from high school has been confirmed by the girl's mother and by medical records obtained by subpoena from Planned Parenthood.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Oct 6 18:06:34 2020 UTC)
The whole meme read:
1977 - The alleged affair between Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his daughter's best friend from high school has been confirmed by the girl's mother and by medical records obtained by subpoena from Planned Parenthood. The young girl, just 16-years-old when she was seduced by Schumer, committed suicide before her 20th birthday.
Facebook Fact Checkers have found this story to be 100% true.
Schumer paid for not one but two abortions and was the "responsible party" who picked the girl up after funeral preparation was performed. Schumer's own wife, Kaitlyn, paid the girl's mother nearly $2 million to go away. RE: Article - Daily Post"
The original story appeared in December 2017 on a satire website with the headline "Chuck Schumer's Daughter Breaks Her Silence About Her Dad's Affair With A High School Cheerleader." The byline is "Flagg Eagleton," one of the many pen names used on stories published by the satirical America's Last Line of Defense network of sites.
The website archive version carries a note saying the story was a "whimsical playland of conservative satire."
The made-up story claims in 1977 Schumer's wife Kaitlyn paid the girl $2 million with "Schumer's daughter, Lisa," saying he had an affair with her best friend Rebecca. Schumer's wife is named Iris Weinshall and his daughters are Jessica and Alison, according to his senate bio. Neither daughter was alive yet in 1977. Jessica was born in 1984 and Alison was born in 1989.
The meme's claim "Facebook Fact Checkers have found this story to be 100% true," is a fabrication. The Associated Press, Snopes, FactCheck.org and Politifact all debunked the saatire in 2017 and 2018.
The story is one of many from the America's Last Line of Defense network of satire websites run by self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair from Maine along with a loose confederation of friends and allies. He runs several websites and Facebook pages with visible satire disclaimers everywhere. They mostly publish made-up stories with headlines specifically created to trigger Republicans, conservatives and evangelical Christians into angrily sharing or commenting on the story on Facebook without actually reading the full article, exposing them to mockery and ridicule by fans of the sites and pages.
Every site in the ALLOD 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.
