Did The Associated Press fact check a story that said Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz had his stomach pumped because he consumed "a gallon of ... semen" from a horse or a human? No, that's not true: AP's media relations manager denied that the outlet fact checked the claim. Lead Stories could not find any evidence that Walz has had his stomach pumped, nor that AP published a report about the story. The image with the fake fact check went viral shortly after Walz had made a reference to a false story involving JD Vance and a couch during a speech at a rally.
The claim appeared in a post on X (archived here) on August 6, 2024. The caption read:
'JD Vance is weird'
This is what the X post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Aug 7 16:01:17 2024 UTC)
The post displayed a purported screenshot of the Associated Press' (AP) website where the following text was shown:
THE CLAIM: Walz once had his stomach pumped because he drank a gallon of human semen
THE FACTS: It was horse semen
Lead Stories contacted AP's communications department. On August 7, 2024, we received an emailed response from Nicole Meir, the outlet's media relations manager. She wrote:
The screenshot circulating on social media is not an AP fact check. AP did not report on this.
The post on X does not include a link to the supposed AP story. We searched AP's website for evidence that the outlet published this fact check and did not find it (archived here).
Lead Stories did not find any evidence from a Google News search that Walz had his stomach pumped due to consuming "a gallon of ... semen" (archived here).
This claim came after a post on social media said that Republican running mate JD Vance described having sexual relations with a couch in his memoir, "Hillbilly Elegy" (Lead Stories debunked it). Walz said at an August 6, 2024, rally in Philadelphia with Vice President Kamala Harris, "I can't wait to debate JD Vance. That is, if he's willing to get off the couch and show up." He said that at 6:46 p.m., according to a Lead Stories reporter. Two hours and 16 minutes later, the post on X appeared.
Lead Stories debunked the claim regarding Vance's memoir here.
Lead Stories has also contacted Walz and will update this article when a response is received.
Other Lead Stories fact checks surrounding JD Vance are here.
