Some states were still counting ballots weeks after Election Day in accordance with their regulations, state officials and an election law expert said. But an Instagram post misleadingly implied that the ongoing vote counts were evidence of some unspecified election malfeasance.
An ad from Vice President Kamala Harris features a Pennsylvania farming couple who say they are “lifelong Republicans” but are voting for Harris. Social media users, citing a video from an Australian news site, falsely claim the couple are “actors” and Democratic donors. The news site has corrected its report.
In an interview, Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said some people in his state think former President Donald Trump is a “terrible person” but they say “I will still vote for him.” A social media post misrepresents Fetterman’s comments to claim he supports Trump. The senator supports Vice President Kamala Harris.
Vice President Kamala Harris has said that she will not attempt to ban fracking if elected president, a reversal of a position that she took during her 2020 presidential campaign. But a TV ad from Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick claims that Harris “will make” hundreds of thousands of fracking-dependent jobs in Pennsylvania “disappear.”
A viral video showing President Joe Biden briefly donning a campaign hat for Donald Trump has been used to suggest that Biden is endorsing Trump. He isn’t. He had exchanged hats with a Trump supporter at a 9/11 memorial in an effort to show unity.
Conspiracy theories and misinformation on social media began clouding coverage of the July 13 attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump almost immediately after it happened. We addressed several of those claims.
Viral online posts make the unfounded claim that a woman at former President Donald Trump’s July 13 rally acted “suspicious,” suggesting that she might have been involved in a plot to assassinate Trump, and that a QAnon-related character may have also been involved. The FBI has said that the “investigation to date indicates the shooter acted alone.”
Extensive media coverage of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally shows his injury and the immediate response of Secret Service agents. But social media posts make the unsupported claims that Trump wasn’t shot and the agents’ response indicates the incident was “staged.”
Posts from the anonymous online forum 4Chan have been spreading the false claim that Secret Service officials prevented an agent named “Jonathan Willis” from shooting former President Donald Trump’s attempted assassin. The Secret Service has no employee by that name, and the claim is “categorically false,” the agency said.
The actions of the Secret Service at the Pennsylvania rally where former President Donald Trump was wounded in an assassination attempt are under review. But social media posts show an altered photo to falsely claim agents were smiling while moving Trump to safety. The original Associated Press photo shows the agents weren’t smiling.