Former President Donald Trump’s newly selected running mate, JD Vance, accepted the Republican Party’s vice presidential nomination on the convention’s third night, which featured claims about the economy, immigration and foreign policy.
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.”
On a night when the focus was on safety and unity at the Republican convention, a number of GOP leaders also offered up some misleading and false claims we have seen before.
In an interview two days after an attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden drew contrasts between himself, his Republican challenger, and Trump’s newly selected vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. We found that Biden made some claims that were misleading, exaggerated or out of context.
In the days following an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, social media swirled with misinformation about the shooter. The 20-year-old gunman was a registered Republican and there is no evidence he had a criminal record, contrary to popular claims online.
We fact-checked the first night’s speeches, which mainly focused on economic issues.
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.
In a press conference in which President Joe Biden was repeatedly asked about whether he would — or should — stay in the presidential race, Biden made a few remarks that were misleading or could use more context.
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