Did U.S. Marines in Maui "tactically abort a gunfight with National Guardsmen"? No, that's not true: The website this claim was made on carries a disclaimer stating that it publishes satirical content.
The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on September 11, 2023, titled "Marines in Maui: "We're in the Shit!"" (archived here), which opened:
United States Marines in Maui had to tactically abort a gunfight with National Guardsmen blockading entry to homes the Maui fires had reduced to skeletal frames or smoldering ruins. The Guardsmen, part of the criminal Biden regime's illegal Joint Task Force 5-0, had held refugees at gunpoint while FEMA pilfered private belongings that survived the blaze from heaps of ash.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
Marines in Maui: "We're in the Shit!"
United States Marines in Maui had to tactically abort a gunfight with National Guardsmen blockading entry to homes the Maui fires had reduced to skeletal frames or smoldering ruins. The Guardsmen, part of the criminal Biden regime's illegal Joint Task Force 5-0, had held refugees at gunpoint while FEMA pilfered private belongings that survived the blaze from heaps of ash.
A Google News search using the keywords "United States Marines in Maui had to tactically abort a gunfight with National Guardsmen" produced no results substantiating this claim.
Lead Stories previously found the claim that U.S. Marines Neutralized "Fleeing FEMA Convoy On Maui" to be false.
Lead Stories reached out to the Office of the Secretary of Defense for a statement concerning this claim and will update this fact check if a response is received.
Real Raw News
Real Raw News is a website that consistently publishes made-up stories about U.S. politics. The well-written English and news-style layout of the website make it look like a legitimate news source, so it often fools people into believing the stories are real. Screenshots and copies of the stories regularly turn up on other websites or on social media where they are presented as real.
It bills itself as "humor, parody and satire" on the "about" page (archived here):
Disclaimer:
Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on legal counsel.
The same "about" page claims the main author is a man named Michael Baxter. In 2021 a PolitiFact article (archived here) identified the writer as a "Michael Tuffin" in Texas based on records found in a GoFundMe campaign set up to support the site.
NewsGuard, a tool that provides credibility ratings for websites, published a five-page PDF report (archived here) in 2021 describing realrawnews.com as, "An anonymously run website that has published baseless and debunked conspiracies about COVID-19 and U.S. politics." It cautioned that the website severely violates basic journalistic standards."
Lead Stories has covered claims published by Real Raw News in the past. Previous Lead Stories debunks of Real Raw News items are collected here.
