Facts Check

CNN’s “State of the Union” and FactCheck.org this week review three claims that President Donald Trump made at a campaign rally in Kentucky. Speaking in Richmond, Kentucky on Oct. 13, the president said he was putting coal miners “back to work like never before.” As we wrote in “Trump’s Numbers,” not ...
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Q: Is Sen. Robert Menendez on trial — and was his co-defendant convicted on prostitution charges — as an online meme says? A: No. Menendez was tried on corruption charges last year, but was not convicted. His co-defendant was found guilty of defrauding Medicare in an unrelated case. FULL QUESTION Bob ...
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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is airing ads across the country to boost Democrats’ chances of taking control of the House. But we found several ads that ran afoul of the facts. An ad in Iowa misleadingly says that “50 percent” of the nonelderly in the 3rd District “have preexisting ...
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Q: Were three pedophiles killed in one week in Macomb County, Michigan? A: No. The county sheriff’s office said that viral story is false. FULL ANSWER Equipped with grim details, a false story about a supposed “vigilante” who killed three pedophiles in the span of a week in Macomb County, ...
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Q: Did Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg say she would “resign” if Judge Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court? A: No. There is no evidence to support that claim made in a viral meme. FULL ANSWER Speaking at a New York City event in August, Supreme Court ...
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In two recent interviews, President Donald Trump said he is not convinced that climate change is due to human activity, and he suggested that any changes will reverse themselves — two ideas that lack scientific backing. He also claimed in a third interview that there are scientists “on both sides” ...
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Several Republican TV ads attacking Sen. Joe Donnelly have claimed the Indiana Democrat has “missed 1 in 5 committee hearings” since he took office in 2013. Actually, Donnelly attended nearly 95 percent of public committee and subcommittee hearings during that time. The “1 in 5” figure in the ads was ...
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Q: Was the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade made because Jane Roe said she was raped? A: No. “Jane Roe” falsely claimed she was gang raped, but that accusation was not a factor in the court ruling. FULL ANSWER A viral video is circulating online framed by text ...
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In a wide-ranging interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” President Donald Trump repeated several false and misleading claims, while putting a new twist on some of them: Trump falsely claimed Russia “wouldn’t be able to help me at all,” even if he had called Russia “to help me with an election” in 2016 ...
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Q: Is it true that “pro-choice activist” Elena Travis has received a “world record” number of abortions? A: No. This story was made up by a satirical website. FULL ANSWER World News Daily Report, a self-described satirical website, published an article on Oct. 9, stating that a California woman received a record-breaking ...
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Congressional Leadership Fund, the highest-spending super PAC seeking to sway House races in the upcoming midterms, has been flooding TV airwaves around the country with ads attacking Democrats running in close races. But we found that some of those ads are misleading. In Ohio, a CLF ad misleadingly suggests that ...
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Political leanings: Conservative/Libertarian Spending target: Part of a network aiming to spend $400 million Americans for Prosperity is a “social welfare” organization that belongs to an influential network of politically active groups backed by Charles Koch, the libertarian billionaire owner of Koch Industries. In June, company officials announced that David Koch, ...
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