FAN Moderator

Quick Take 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 — […]

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. Raising the federal minimum wage has become an issue in recent weeks as Congress debated the American Rescue Plan. Photo […]

Quick Take 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. Full Story During her 2020 presidential campaign, then-Sen. Kamala Harris announced her plan to […]

Sen. Ted Cruz says only 9% of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan “focuses on health spending” and that the remaining “91% is a partisan wish list paying off the Democratic special interests that got them elected.” While arguably 9% of the bill is for COVID-19 health spending — depending […]

Quick Take 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. Full […]

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. Israel has administered about four times as many doses per 100 people […]

Quick Take 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. Full Story A baseless conspiracy theory held by […]

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. While knowledge gaps still remain, experts agree that masks should be used — and increasingly, they are emphasizing […]

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. Trump falsely claimed that since President Joe Biden took office there has been “a massive flood […]