Q: Did climate change cause the wildfires out West?
A: Scientists say a hot and dry summer — conditions more likely in a warmer world — caused widespread wildfires in Western states. But land use changes also have played a role.
President Donald Trump misleadingly claimed Sen. Bob Corker “gave us the Iran Deal.” Corker, who opposed the nuclear deal with Iran negotiated by the Obama administration, helped craft a bipartisan bill that allowed the House and Senate to review the agreement.
Stories claiming that the Las Vegas shooter was linked to antifa, a loosely organized group of anti-fascist activists, are proliferating online. But his purported links to antifa are either false, fabricated or unsubstantiated.
Sen. Chris Murphy urged politicians to stand up to the National Rifle Association because while “[t]he gun lobby is certainly politically powerful … it loses as many races as it wins.” But the NRA has won the vast majority of recent congressional races in which it heavily invested.
In 2009, we wrote an Ask FactCheck item for readers who wanted to know, “Did gun control in Australia lead to more murders there last year?” The answer at the time was “no,” and that’s still the case.
Democrats have used outdated or inflated figures to attack the GOP tax plan, when sticking to the facts would have served them just as well.
Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt criticized former President Barack Obama for leaving “us with more Superfund sites than when he came in.” This is misleading for multiple reasons.
Q: Did the NFL fine players who protested during the national anthem? Was a player fired for it? Are some players asking the league to host a month of anti-police activism? Will Fox Sports stop airing NFL games?
A: No. Three of those stories were made-up, and one is a gross misrepresentation.
In calling for the repeal of the estate tax, President Donald Trump repeated a popular myth that a farmer’s heirs often have to “sell the farm” in order to pay the tax. In fact, less than 1 percent of the heirs of farm owners are expected to have to pay any estate tax.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie is airing a misleading TV ad in Virginia that says Democrat Ralph Northam was the “deciding vote” in “favor of sanctuary cities that let dangerous illegal immigrants back on the streets.”