Conservative social media posts misleadingly claim the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was not an “armed” insurrection, citing FBI testimony that no guns were seized from suspects that day. But 23 people have been charged with having deadly or dangerous weapons during the assault — including a loaded handgun found on a man arrested on Capitol grounds.
A reader sent us comments on our article on President Joe Biden’s statements about increasing the federal minimum wage.
Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia wrongly said “very few … if any” states have a minimum wage at the federally mandated $7.25 per hour. In fact, 21 states do.
Posts circulating on social media falsely claim that Vice President Kamala Harris supports deep cuts to veterans’ programs, telling them to “get a job.” It’s a fabricated quotation that originated on a satirical website.
Sen. Ted Cruz says 91% of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “is a partisan wish list” for “Democratic special interests.” But he ignores that Republicans offered an alternative $618 billion bill that included many of the same elements of the Democratic plan, albeit in smaller amounts.
In a 2010 TED Talk focused on developing new technologies to drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Bill Gates briefly mentioned reducing the rate of population growth. A conspiratorial video circulating on Facebook misleadingly edits Gates’ talk to suggest his “wish” was to depopulate the planet through vaccines.
President Joe Biden boasts that the U.S. is on pace to be the first country in the world to vaccinate 100 million people. That’s true, but per capita the U.S. is not tops in the world in vaccinations.
Facebook posts use faulty claims to baselessly suggest that President Joe Biden isn’t really the president. For example, some point out that he hasn’t delivered a State of the Union address. But new presidents typically don’t in their first year.
Since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending that members of the public mask up last spring, additional research has backed the use of face masks to combat the coronavirus, but knowledge gaps still remain. Here, we summarize the evidence.
In his first public speech since leaving office, former President Donald Trump delighted his audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference with numerous false and misleading claims, many of them criticisms of his successor.