Facts Check

Quick Take A doctored image spread on Facebook erroneously shows former President Barack Obama giving Harvey Weinstein the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The actual photo showed Obama bestowing the honor upon former Vice President Joe Biden. Full Story  Amid the criminal trial of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein — and his […]

Former Vice President Joe Biden distorted the facts in two interviews in the wake of the Nevada caucuses: He claimed that one of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders, “was opposed to Obamacare.” Sanders voted in favor of the bill in 2009, saying it was “not […]

Quick Take A viral meme falsely claims Sen. Bernie Sanders “supported” Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis and “accused” the hostages of “being CIA spies.” Sanders was affiliated with a political party that criticized U.S. policy on Iran, but there’s no evidence he expressed those beliefs. Full Story A meme […]

Railing against a Fox News guest who said Donald Trump won the presidency despite poor debate performances, Trump held up a series of opt-in online surveys to misleadingly claim that “polls” showed he “won every single debate.” Scientific polls showed otherwise. In an extended riff that lasted more than 10 […]

Quick Take A viral post claims, falsely, that Sen. Bernie Sanders at a recent debate called for a tax rate of 52% on incomes of $29,000 or more to pay for his Medicare for All plan. He didn’t. That figure was floated as a potential marginal tax rate for income […]

A misleading Spanish-language TV ad from a group backing President Donald Trump claims that then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden “separated families and put children in cages” while it shows images of minors who were temporarily detained after crossing the southern border on their own — without a […]

Quick Take A Virginia bill that would have banned the sale of “assault firearms” has been tabled for a year, but misinformation about it continues to circulate online — including a false claim that the state will confiscate guns. Full Story Thousands of demonstrators from around the country, some of […]

Q. Is it true that federal agents arrested Harvard professor Charles Lieber for creating the coronavirus? A: No. Lieber, a nanoscientist, was charged for lying about his participation in a Chinese recruitment program and his affiliation with a Chinese university. He is not accused of being a spy and has […]

Quick Take A story circulating online misleadingly claims Stacey Abrams “boasted that Democrats can ‘jerry-rig the system and go around the Constitution’ to win the 2020 election.” Her comments about moving to a national popular vote system were not about the 2020 election or securing a Democratic victory. Full Story  […]

We examine four claims from the Feb. 19 Democratic debate in this video: Former Vice President Joe Biden wrongly said of the stop-and-frisk policing policy under former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg: “The reason that stop and frisk changed is because Barack Obama sent moderators to see what was […]