President Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden from serving time for gun- and tax-related crimes. But contrary to claims on social media, Hunter Biden’s gun charges did not stem from a 1994 “crime bill authored” by then-Sen. Joe Biden.
President Joe Biden granted pardons and commutations to more than 1,500 individuals on Dec. 12. Social media posts wrongly claim those pardoned included a Chinese national, Shanlin Jin, imprisoned for child pornography. Jin was granted clemency as part of a prisoner swap last month that freed three Americans held for years in China.
Fox News health commentator Dr. Kelly Powers was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer, in July 2020, months before COVID-19 vaccines were made available in the U.S. But social media posts are baselessly linking her death on Dec. 4 to the vaccines. There is no evidence that the vaccines cause or worsen cancer.
President-elect Donald Trump has renewed his call to end birthright citizenship for children born in the U.S. whose parents are not in the country legally. Online posts falsely claim this would strip four of Trump’s children of citizenship because of their mothers’ citizenship status when they were born.
In his first post-election, sit-down broadcast interview, President-elect Donald Trump outlined his priorities for a second term. But in the interview, Trump continued to repeat inaccurate information related to immigration, crime, trade, health care and the election.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s suggestion that vaccines might cause autism because “there’s not been a direct study on each individual vaccine” misunderstands what’s known about autism, the extensive research on the subject and how science works.
President Joe Biden is one of only a few presidents who have granted pardons to a relative. But social media posts falsely claim that former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush also pardoned family members. While Billy Carter and Neil Bush faced controversies, neither was criminally charged nor received a pardon.
On Dec. 1, President Joe Biden provided a blanket pardon for his son Hunter for any potential crimes committed over nearly an 11-year period. In the statement Biden provided to justify his reversal of position, he left out a few inconvenient facts.
Elon Musk trolled President Joe Biden on X after Hunter Biden’s pardon, sharing a community note mocking the president’s previous post that said, “No one is above the law.” Soon after, a Threads post falsely claimed Musk threatened “anyone glorifying” the pardon “will be suspended from X permanently.” There’s no evidence Musk made such a statement.
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