#politifact

[contemplatingoutlander]

Lies, half-truths, and rascist attitude

Below is a partial video transcript of Karoline Leavitt's lies, half-truths, and not-so-subtle racist attitude in her comments about the FAA and DEI:

If you are an American who has spent many years studying aviation and you…graduate from school, and you're an air traffic controller, based on skills and merit, and then you apply for a job, and you're forced to fill out a biographical questionnaire asking you the color of your skin and asking you where you're from in details that aren't relevant at all to the job description, I think that deteriorates the morale of people in this industry. And if you talk to people in this industry they'll tell you that in fact many of them filed a lawsuit against the FAA a couple of years ago under Joe Biden's administration, because they were denied positions because of this DEI hiring practice that was putting identity politics over merit and skills. That's unacceptable. […] When you are flying on an airplane with your loved ones… do you pray that your plane lands safely and gets you to your destination or do you pray that the pilot has a certain skin color? I think we all know the answer to that question. And as President Trump said yesterday, it’s common sense. ___________________ Red emphasis = Lies and half-truths Blue emphasis = Not-so-subtle racist attitude

The Debunk

Well, PolitiFact pretty much debunked Leavitt's (and Trump's) lies and half-truths. For instance, the biographical questionnaire that Leavitt mentioned was used from 2014 - 2018 during parts of BOTH the Obama and Trump administrations. It was NOT used during the Biden administration.

And contrary to Leavitt's claim that the questionnaire asked about "the color of your skin," PolitiFact claimed that it "did not ask specifically about race," although it was designed to create a more diverse group of trainees.

[edited]

[See more of the debunk under the cut.]

Looking at when the lawsuit was filed (10/23/18), it was first filed during the Trump administration--NOT the Biden administration, as Leavitt claimed. Furthermore, PolitiFact maintains that BOTH the Trump and Biden administrations "defended the Transportation Department" against the lawsuit, and "both denied in court that the process favored nonwhite applicants." [emphasis to partial quotes added]

Finally, according to PolitiFact, Trump's FAA kept the same recruitment efforts for people with "targeted disabilities" that Obama's FAA had used, and Trump's administration seemed to have even doubled down on it:

Yet in 2019, also under Trump’s first term, the FAA launched a program that aimed to hire 20 people with disabilities to be air traffic controllers, including people who have these "targeted disabilities." [emphasis added]

So there you have it. The arrogant Trump and his arrogant mouthpiece Leavitt are lying about the first Trump administration's own involvement with DEI, and doing so in a way that is cringe worthy given its not-so-subtle racism.

’Do You Pray Your Pilot Has A Certain Skin Color?': Leavitt Defends Trump Admin.'s Anti-DEI Push

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about hiring polices at the Federal Aviation Administration in the wake of the deadly collision between a plane and helicopter over Washington, D.C., earlier this week.

[destielmemenews]

PolitiFact

[elfwreck]

Fact-Check on the Presidential Debate

Source:

End result:

Donald Trump: 0 true, 13 false 3 of which are "pants on fire" level

Kamala Harris: 1 true, 5 false only 1 of which is just plain false; the others contain at least some truth

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Maria Ramirez Uribe and Amy Sherman at PolitiFact:

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — Underlying 2024’s most outrageous political lie was a truth — some might even argue a confession — voiced by an accomplice: To get media attention, then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance acknowledged, sometimes "I have to create stories." And so, with a brazen disregard for facts, Donald Trump and his running mate repeatedly peddled a created story that in Springfield, Ohio, Haitian immigrants were eating pet dogs and cats. With this claim, amplified before 67 million television viewers in his debate against Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump took his anti-migrant, the U.S. border-is-out-of-control campaign agenda to a new level.

"In Springfield, they're eating the dogs," Trump said Sept. 10. "The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating, they're eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what's happening in our country. And it's a shame." City and county officials said repeatedly that it was not happening.  Rebuttals did not diminish the consequences: Dozens of bomb threats at schools, grocery stores and government buildings. Pleas from locals to leave them alone. A continued lack of constructive debate on immigration and border control issues. After the threats subsided, some Haitians didn’t want to go in public or send their children to school. The police department sent an officer to protect churchgoers at a Haitian Creole Sunday afternoon mass. Haitian restaurant owners and schoolchildren heard taunts from people using Trump’s words. 

"‘Dad, do we eat dogs at the house?’" Jacob Payen, a Haitian Community Alliance spokesperson and business owner, recalled his 7-year-old son asking. The Haitian population in Springfield had swelled since 2021 as people fled Haiti’s violence and instability. City officials estimated 12,000 to 20,000 Haitians had come to this city of about 58,000 residents in 2020, after hearing about jobs and low living costs. Most Haitians live in the U.S. legally under a temporary federal protection President Joe Biden extended. The sudden population surge came with growing pains on housing, health services, road safety and schools. When the local conversation turned to unfounded rumors and fearmongering, Trump and Vance seized an opportunity.

[...]

In choosing the 2024 Lie of the Year, the claims by Vance and Trump about Haitians eating pets stood out. 

It was an absurd statement that Trump raised unprompted on the debate stage. 

And neither Trump nor Vance stopped there. They stuck with the narrative for the rest of the campaign, over the objections of allies who debunked it and pleaded with them to let it go. When challenged by voters and interviewers, Trump said he heard it on TV; Vance said constituents had called his office with the claim.

[...]

Emboldened by Vance’s embrace of the rumor, Trump’s debate outburst cemented lasting consequences, stigmatizing a town and its residents in the name of campaign rage. For those reasons, Trump and Vance own the 2024 Lie of the Year.

[...]

Anatomy of a lie: How real strains primed voters for a baseless rumor

Haitians in Springfield fled their home country after their family members were killed, their businesses were burned down and their lives were endangered. The country was thrown into chaos, its capital city controlled by gangs, after the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, an earthquake and a tropical storm.  As their population grew in Springfield, the Haitian immigrants filled jobs and opened restaurants and stores.  Some longtime residents grew irritated by the strain on city services, such as wait times for public health services, a housing shortage and rising rents. 

In August 2023, a tragedy deepened the resentment: Hermanio Joseph, a Haitian who is in the U.S. legally and lacked a valid driver’s license, drove a minivan into a school bus, injuring about 20 children and killing Aiden Clark, 11. It was the first day of school. Joseph was found guilty of vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to prison. Angry residents attended city commission meetings over the next year to ask questions about how so many Haitians ended up in Springfield. They said the Haitians didn’t know driving laws or cultural norms and didn’t speak English.  Local leaders acknowledged the road dangers and overburdened public services. They described steps they and the state had taken to mitigate the strains, such as hiring interpreters and launching drivers’ education classes. City Manager Bryan Heck said Springfield had struggled with housing scarcity for years before the Haitians arrived. 

On July 8, Heck sent a letter to the leadership of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, copying Vance, requesting federal help. The next day, at a banking committee meeting, Vance highlighted Springfield’s housing shortage and demands on hospital and school services among the "very real human consequences" of immigration. Trump announced Vance as his running mate about a week later. 

Discussion of real tension quickly turned to hearsay molded by racist tropes. The earliest rumors PolitiFact found of Haitians stealing and eating pets and geese came in August amid a neo-Nazi group’s protest. On Aug. 10, a dozen people carrying swastika flags marched downtown, protesting the city’s Haitian immigrants. The national white supremacist group Blood Tribe, which has opposed immigration around the country, posted on Gab, a social networking platform used by far-right groups, to take credit for the march. "Once haitians swarm into a town animals start to disappear," an anonymous user commented.  That post garnered only a few likes and comments.  On Aug. 26, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office received a call from someone who said he saw four Haitians carrying geese. Wildlife officials found no evidence to corroborate the claim.

On social media the same day, users amplified similar claims with thirdhand accounts. In an Aug. 26 Facebook post, a woman said her work partner’s brother-in-law saw a Haitian man cut the heads off geese in front of children. She tagged Springfield resident Anthony Harris, who told the story at a city commission meeting the next day, adding that the man ate the beheaded geese. On a private Facebook group about crime in Springfield, a resident said Haitians stole and ate a neighbor’s daughter’s friend’s cat. (The woman later took down the post and said she regretted it.) In the first week of September, verified accounts on X, sent the claim viral when they posted a screenshot of the Facebook post.  "Springfield is a small town in Ohio. 4 years ago, they had 60k residents. Under Harris and Biden, 20,000 Haitian immigrants were shipped to the town," End Wokeness, a pro-Trump X account with more than 3 million followers, posted Sept. 6. "Now ducks and pets are disappearing." End Wokeness’ X post, which has 5 million views, included a photo of a Black man holding what appears to be a dead goose. The photo was taken in Columbus, Ohio, about 48 miles east of Springfield, according to a July Reddit post. 

PolitiFact names the “they’re eating the pets” lie in Springfield, Ohio amplified by then-Senator and VP-elect JD Vance and “President”-elect Donald Trump as its 2024 Lie Of The Year. The pet-eating hoax served to fuel anti-Haitian prejudice.

[hornedchick]

PolitiFact is live fact checking the VP debate. Check it out!

[tomorrowusa]

There is an enormous amount of competition for PolitiFact's 2023 Lie of the Year award. But the decision has been made and the dubious honor goes to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

As pundits and politicos spar over whether Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign will factor into the outcome of the 2024 election, one thing is clear: Kennedy’s political following is built on a movement that seeks to legitimize conspiracy theories. His claims decrying vaccines have roiled scientists and medical experts and stoked anger over whether his work harms children. He has made suggestions about the cause of COVID-19 that he acknowledges sound racist and antisemitic. Bolstered by his famous name and family’s legacy, his campaign of conspiracy theories has gained an electoral and financial foothold. He is running as an independent — having abandoned his pursuit of the Democratic Party nomination — and raised more than $15 million. A political action committee pledged to spend between $10 million and $15 million to get his name on the ballot in 10 states.  Even though he spent the past two decades as a prominent leader of the anti-vaccine movement, Kennedy rejects a blanket "anti-vax" label that he told Fox News in July makes him "look crazy, like a conspiracy theorist." But Kennedy draws bogus conclusions from scientific work. He employs "circumstantial evidence" as if it is proof. In TV, podcast and political appearances for his campaign in 2023, Kennedy steadfastly maintained:

Vaccines cause autism.

No childhood vaccines "have ever been tested in a safety study pre-licensing."

There is "tremendous circumstantial evidence" that psychiatric drugs cause mass shootings, and the National Institutes of Health refuses to research the link out of deference to pharmaceutical companies.

Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine were discredited as COVID-19 treatments so COVID-19 vaccines could be granted emergency use authorization, a win for Big Pharma. 

Exposure to the pesticide atrazine contributes to gender dysphoria in children.

COVID-19 is "targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese."

His off the scale and totally unsupported conspiracy theories are not confined to autism, vaccines, immunity, and COVID-19.

For Kennedy, the conspiracies aren’t limited to public health. He claims "members of the CIA" were involved in the assassination of his uncle, John F. Kennedy. He doesn’t "believe that (Sirhan) Sirhan’s bullets ever hit my father," Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y. He insists the 2004 presidential election was stolen from Democratic candidate John Kerry. News organizations, including PolitiFact, have documented why those claims, and many others, are false, speculative or conspiracy-minded. Kennedy has sat for numerous interviews and dismissed the critics, not with the grievance and bluster of former President Donald Trump, but with a calm demeanor. He amplifies the alleged plot and repeats dubious scientific evidence and historical detail.  Will his approach translate to votes? According to polls since November of a three-way matchup between President Joe Biden, Trump and Kennedy, Kennedy pulled 16% to 22% of respondents. Kennedy’s movement exemplifies the resonance of conspiratorial views. Misinformers with organized efforts are rewarded with money and loyalty. But that doesn’t make the claims true. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign based on false theories is PolitiFact’s 2023 Lie of the Year.

A Reminder: RFK Jr. has been politically disowned by other members of the Kennedy extended family. They do not support his bizarre conspiracy theories and other rantings. He is trying to capitalize on his family name even though he is a disgrace to the heritage of his uncles and father.

Nobody should vote for him thinking that he will bring back Camelot. RFK Jr. is basically an organic Trump without the makeup.

[timeless-orchid]

[saywhat-politics]

No, Trump didn’t sign an executive order to eliminate income taxes

If Your Time is short

President Donald Trump directed his Cabinet to explore the feasibility of creating an External Revenue Service to collect tariff revenues. Congress would need to pass a law to create the agency. 

Trump’s action does not eliminate the IRS or federal income taxes. 

Trump has proposed extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and further cutting taxes on certain income, including tips.

See the sources for this fact-check

[destielmemenews]

PolitiFact

[eyrieofsynapses]

Okay, fact-check: first, it's not a post-conviction meeting, it's a pre-sentencing interview. This has been covered by both USA Today and Politifact. Second, as shitty as Trump is, I can't find any information stating that the drug test is mandatory. This particular claim also isn't substantiated by any fully credible news outlets; it was initially started, as far as I can tell, by Newsweek, which isn't known for reliability. It looks like Stephen Colbert cracked a joke about it on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, at least according to a New York Times article (I know not everyone has access, sorry! But I can't find it anywhere else right now):

"“Unlike the vast majority of felons out there, Trump was allowed to do his interview at Mar-a-Lago over a video conference call. Must make the mandatory drug test kind of difficult — hard to get the pee right into the USB port.” — STEPHEN COLBERT"

But, well--comedian. I respect Colbert, but that doesn't mean he fact-checks all his jokes.

However: credible sources (including Reuters, Axios, CBS) are reporting that Trump's pre-sentencing interview occurred via Zoom last Monday on June 10th, which means that if you believe that a drug test is mandatory, you could could draw the conclusion that Trump got around it by not having to attend in person. This is probably how Newsweek came up with it. The actual sentencing isn't until July 11th, by the way.

Re: pre-sentencing interviews:

"A Judge uses a pre-sentence report to help decide the defendant’s punishment for the crime. The pre-sentence report is made by probation officers. The report is made after the conviction and before the date for Sentencing in felony and serious misdemeanor cases. A probation officer (or a social worker or psychologist working for the probation department) interviews the defendant and checks the defendant’s criminal record."

(Source: "Pre-Sentencing Report" from nycourts.gov; there's some more info worth reading too)

I can't find any government websites that cover requirements for drug testing in pre-sentence reports, but I did find an article from a law firm:

"Since the judge can request additional information, they may order a presentence investigation drug test. It’s especially likely when the crime was a drug-related offense."

(Source: "What Is a PSI Report? – Who Writes a Federal PSI & How Is It Used?" from kretzerfirm.com)

As far as I can tell, drug testing can be mandatory in a pre-sentence report, but the judge has to order it specifically. Trump's case doesn't deal with drugs directly or indirectly.

This does not mean that the power to request drug tests isn't abused by judges, nor does it mean that it isn't used to discriminate against defendants. Stay angry about that, because it's fucking wrong and we need to raise awareness to fix the system.

The spread of this claim means that some people on the left are starting to twist the facts, though, which hurts credibility and gives the right-wingers ammo.

What we need to be talking about in regards to Trump's trials is that he hasn't even been sentenced yet. Convicted, yes, but his sentencing isn't due until July 11th. And remember, this is only the Stormy Daniels case--it's not the two election interference cases (one federal, one from Georgia) or the classified documents case. (The Supreme Court gets to decide on whether he can be prosecuted for federal election interference, by the way.) None of them have set trial dates. They may not even go to trial until just before, if not long after, the November election. This case is a black mark on his reputation, but he's also using it to claim martyrdom to his base, and it's not that big in the grand scheme of things.

Look: this sentencing isn't going to do much when it comes to keeping Trump out of office, if anything at all. We can still keep him out, but we're gonna have to work for it. Keep talking about the other cases. Keep voting blue. And don't spread misinformation, because you can't fight effectively when you don't know the facts.

Everyone needs to bring this up. Every TV appearance needs this question answered.

Why is Trump allowed to skip a mandated drug test?

[joe-england]

PolitiFact | What’s behind recent false claims about immigrants and crime?

[volunteerismandanarchy]

PolitiFact has fact-checked Harris 46 times since 2012. About 41% of her claims have landed on our rating scale’s bottom half: Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire!True 5

[sparky7u]

Former President Donald Trump closed the Republican National Convention by accepting the presidential nomination and offering a speech that began somber and turned combative.

[evil-fact-checker]

"BREAKING: Voters in Tarrant County, Texas are reporting that the voting machines are flipping their votes from Trump to Kamala Harris," the Oct. 21 X post said.

We found similar viral claims on Facebook and Instagram.

No, Tarrant County, Texas, voting machines are not changing Donald Trump votes for Kamala Harris

If Your Time is short

Only one person out of more than 100,000 voters in Tarrant County has reported having a vote for former President Donald Trump changed to Vice President Kamala Harris when the ballot was printed.

Local election officials said the voting machines are not flipping candidates and suggested the voter made a mistake when selecting preferred candidates.

That ballot was destroyed and the voter was allowed to vote again.

See the sources for this fact-check

More than 2 million voters have already cast ballots in Texas during early voting but, viral social media posts claim voting machines in one county are flipping people’s votes.

"For anyone voting in Tarrant County please triple check your paper ballots when voting!" an Oct. 22 Facebook post said. "Voters are voting for one candidate and the ballot is changing the vote to another candidate." The post included an X post screenshot that made more pointed claims. 

"BREAKING: Voters in Tarrant County, Texas are reporting that the voting machines are flipping their votes from Trump to Kamala Harris," the Oct. 21 X post said.

The claim originated from a voter named James Carpenter in White Settlement, Tarrant County, Texas. Carpenter claims his choice of former President Donald Trump came out changed to Vice President Kamala Harris when a voting machine printed his ballot. He told reporters he raised concerns to poll workers who offered him the chance to spoil his ballot and vote again.

The viral posts purport that multiple people have reported the same issue with their ballots, but so far only Carpenter's account has been reported by local news and addressed by election officials. 

Clint Ludwig, the county’s elections administrator, said in a video statement published Oct. 22 that nearly 102,000 people had cast early voting ballots. Ludwig said his office did not believe the machine changed the voter’s selection and suggested that the voter had made a mistake.

"What we believe to have occurred is that the individual did make a selection on the machine and that selection was printed on their ballot," Ludwig, who did not mention Carpenter by name, said. "When they went to cast their ballot, they checked it and realized that was not the vote that they wanted … He was issued a new ballot and able to vote." 

BREAKING: Voters in Tarrant County, Texas are reporting that the voting machines are flipping their votes from Trump to Kamala Harris

The voters are urging everyone else to check their printed ballots before submitting them.

"Reports were that people who selected Trump on the screen were seeing Harris on the printed ballot." - This is according to Tarrant GOP Chair

This stuff boils my blood. Why does Tarrant County utilize such an obviously vulnerable system? This also shows that it's not just Dominion machines that are corrupt. ALL voting machines are intrinsically evil. We need to go back to voting in person on election day, with human hands as the counting method. So far, we have seen reports of flips like this happening in Tennesee, Georgia, and now Texas. This sets a precedent for us to demand the publicizing of all the machine data and the proprietary software.

It's a good thing we're catching it before the election and NOT after. 🤔