If you wanted to assure the American public that a rising political star wasn&#8217;t a communist, you probably wouldn&#8217;t turn to an avowed socialist for his &#8220;expert&#8221; analysis.
But that&#8217;s what PolitiFact just did for Zohran Mamdani, who won the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City in a bombshell upset last month.
After his win, critics immediately raised the alarm that Mamdani would bring communism to the Big Apple. The self-described democratic socialist has proposed radical policies like government-run grocery stores, rent freezes, and <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/resurfaced-video-shows-nyc-mayoral-hopeful-saying-he-wants-replace-private-homes-communal-living">converting</a> housing from private to public.
President Donald Trump called Mamdani a &#8220;100% Communist Lunatic,&#8221; and New York Rep. Elise Stefanik and a number of conservative commentators branded him a communist as well.
So, PolitiFact geared up to defend him.
Two days after Mamdani&#8217;s victory, PolitiFact published a &#8220;<a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2025/jun/26/donald-trump/Zohran-Mamdani-democratic-socialist-communist-NYC/">fact check</a>&#8221; stating that claims he is a communist are &#8220;false.&#8221;
To support its claims, PolitiFact interviewed Geoffrey Kurtz, a political science professor who has <a href="https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/faculty/geoffrey-kurtz/">taught</a> for 18 years at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York.
&#8220;The idea that Mamdani is a communist is an absurd slander,&#8221; Kurtz told the outlet.
But Kurtz isn&#8217;t just a professor. He was a socialist activist <a href="https://ncfcatalyst.com/not-so-new-college-2/">in college</a> and remains a socialist today.
Kurtz was involved with the campus chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America while earning his bachelor&#8217;s at New College of Florida, <a href="https://ncfcatalyst.com/not-so-new-college-2/">according</a> to the school&#8217;s student newspaper.
The campus chapter&#8217;s pamphlets reportedly addressed members as &#8220;dear radicals.&#8221;
Kurtz continued to be involved with the organization after he graduated college, when he was an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM-vllyxKIw">editor</a> of the Democratic Socialists of America’s Religion and Socialism Blog.
The professor has also written <a href="https://www.dsausa.org/blog/what-religious-socialists-bring-to-our-table/">multiple</a> <a href="https://www.religioussocialism.org/a_socialist_reads_advent">times</a> about being a &#8220;religious socialist.&#8221;
The authors of the PolitiFact &#8220;fact check&#8221; did not respond to a request for comment.
In the end, PolitiFact concluded that Mamdani&#8217;s platform is &#8220;not akin to communism, a system in which the government controls the means of production and takes over private businesses.&#8221;
&#8220;We rate this statement False,&#8221; PolitiFact stated.
Hilariously though, PolitiFact failed to acknowledge Mamdani&#8217;s own social media posts talking about workers seizing the &#8220;means of production,&#8221; a key Marxist concept.
&#8220;If we want everyone to be full participants in the economy, we need worker ownership of the means of production,&#8221; Mamdani <a href="https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1333943646777913346">posted</a> on X in 2020.
On Thursday, PolitiFact added an editor&#8217;s note saying the White House had alerted them to Mamdani&#8217;s old posts. The outlet said it re-interviewed several experts, but still decided Mamdani still isn&#8217;t a communist.
&#8220;We found the significance of [Mamdani&#8217;s] comment inconclusive and not reflective of his 2025 mayoral platform, so our rating remains unchanged,&#8221; the editor&#8217;s note reads.
Go figure.
&#8220;I had the impression that Mamdani intended that phrase as lighthearted hyperbole. I see no reason to assume that the phrase conveys anything precise about what he thinks,&#8221; Kurtz, the socialist professor, <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/jul/03/seizing-means-production-Zohran-Mamdani/">told</a> PolitiFact when they interviewed him again.
Hyperbole, huh? Well, as Xi Van Fleet — a survivor of Mao&#8217;s Cultural Revolution in Communist China — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-lived-in-the-communist-world-zohran-mamdani-dreams-of-its-worse-than-you-could-imagine">wrote for The Daily Wire</a> last week, there&#8217;s nothing lighthearted about Mamdani&#8217;s political platform.
&#8220;The danger of Communism is not that it comes all at once, but that it creeps in gradually, wrapped in words like &#8216;justice&#8217; and &#8216;equity,'&#8221; Van Fleet wrote. &#8220;But behind the slogans lies a brutal reality: misery, scarcity, and repression.&#8221;

USA-WORKING-FAMILIES-PARTY-RALLY-FORT-GREENE-PARK

PolitiFact Says Mamdani Is Not A Communist. The Expert They Cite Is A Socialist.

PolitiFact's 'Fact Check' Says Mamdani Is Not A Communist. Their Expert Is A Socialist.

New York

New York City

PolitiFact

Zohran Mamdani

Far-Left fact-checking outfits are in full-blown panic mode after Meta CEO <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> announced on Tuesday that Facebook will drop its current fact-checking system, thereby cutting off funding for the partisan organizations.
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which includes signatories like PolitiFact and MediaWise, called an emergency meeting &#8220;specifically&#8221; over Zuckerberg&#8217;s announcement, a Business Insider report <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/metas-fact-checking-exit-prompts-urgent-ifcn-meeting-2025-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revealed</a>.
&#8220;This program has been a major part of the global fact-checking community&#8217;s work for years,&#8221; IFCN&#8217;s director Angie Holan said. &#8220;People are upset because they saw themselves as partners in good standing with Meta, doing important work to make the platform more accurate and reliable.&#8221;
One PolitiFact employee said they &#8220;found out this morning at the same time as everyone else&#8221; about Zuckerberg dropping the partnership.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/zuckerberg-says-meta-restoring-free-speech-will-get-rid-of-fact-checkers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zuckerberg said in a video</a> posted Tuesday that Meta will no longer work with third-party fact-checkers, will end restrictions on topics like gender and immigration, and scale back filters that censored people for innocuous posts. The CEO added that Meta would focus on ensuring free expression, saying that the recent election seemed like a “cultural tipping point.”
Zuckerberg started the controversial partnership with left-wing fact-checking sites back in 2016, following the election of President Donald Trump. Conservative news sites, including The Daily Wire, quickly saw the suppression of their content for supposedly posting &#8220;misinformation.&#8221; However, information that was merely contrary to the mainstream narrative was often rated false or misleading.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The same with Daily Wire. We were literally the number one informational source on Facebook before the censorship regime decreased our reach by fully 90%. <a href="https://t.co/NMavyWtScT">https://t.co/NMavyWtScT</a>
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1876731953820336326?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
Even satire from Right-leaning sites, such as The Babylon Bee, was rated &#8220;false&#8221; by these supposedly independent fact-checking outfits.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/">JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN ’25 WITH 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Fact checking almost killed The Babylon Bee. So many of our jokes were rated &#8220;false&#8221; that the media began to characterize us as &#8220;traffickers in misinformation under the guise of satire.&#8221; Ironically, that was misinformation.
Fact checking safeguards narratives, not truth.
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) <a href="https://twitter.com/SethDillon/status/1876755011079741615?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
Holan, though, shifted blame to Facebook for the actual censorship of posts. &#8220;It was never about censorship but about adding context to prevent false claims from going viral,&#8221; she said. Notably, Facebook made the decision to censor posts based on the fact-checking ratings.
Now that Meta &#8212; a leading funding source for IFCN members &#8212; is no longer using these fact-checkers, these operations will have to size-down, Holan indicated.
&#8220;The IFCN was here before Meta&#8217;s program, and we&#8217;ll be here after it,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We may look different in size and scope, but we&#8217;ll continue promoting the highest standards in fact-checking and connecting organizations that want to collaborate worldwide.&#8221;
&#8220;We&#8217;re here to help them figure out the best way forward,&#8221; Holan added.

US-TECHNOLOGY-META-DISINFORMATION

Facebook Fact-Checkers Freak Out, Call Emergency Meeting After Zuckerberg Pulls Funding

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg

Media

U.S.

Toward the end of every year, fact-checking organization <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/politifact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PolitiFact</a> announces what has been selected as the &#8220;Lie of the Year&#8221; — and the outlet&#8217;s 2024 selection, at best, strains credulity.
&#8220;A lie marked a town and its residents in the name of campaign rage. It was absurd. It was consequential. Our Lie of the Year goes to Donald Trump and JD Vance for false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats,&#8221; a post on X read when the selection was announced.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A lie marked a town and its residents in the name of campaign rage. It was absurd. It was consequential. Our Lie of the Year goes to Donald Trump and JD Vance for false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats. <a href="https://t.co/tNXV83hk3T">https://t.co/tNXV83hk3T</a>
&mdash; PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolitiFact/status/1868995250208850339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But the outlet&#8217;s &#8220;Lie of the Year&#8221; is not even something they can definitively prove is untrue. Earlier in the year, a number of reports had circulated about the small town of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ohio-town-overrun-by-haitian-immigrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Springfield, Ohio</a> — a town which had been inundated with large numbers of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-the-fact-that-made-us-angriest-this-year-politifact-trashed-over-bogus-lie-of-the-year">Haitian migrants</a> — suggesting that migrants had taken and eaten ducks they found at local parks. Other reports indicated that some of the migrants were eating domesticated animals such as dogs and cats. Trump &#8212; and Vance, who served as a U.S. Senator from Ohio &#8212; had simply repeated the reports as they heard them.
But what about the lies that have been proven to be untrue? Which of those might rise to the level of &#8220;Lie of the Year?&#8221;
If one were to take a consensus on the matter from X, the answer might be one of President Joe Biden&#8217;s more obvious whoppers: his repeated insistence that he would not issue a pardon for his embattled son, Hunter Biden.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Biden: I won’t pardon Hunter
Biden a few months later: pardons Hunter
This is a straight up lie.
Politifact’s “lie of the year” is a claim that they have no evidence to prove is false. <a href="https://t.co/8SRRKOboaZ">https://t.co/8SRRKOboaZ</a> <a href="https://t.co/Ff9tufDAhy">pic.twitter.com/Ff9tufDAhy</a>
&mdash; Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1869081115476234530?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Not only is it clear that Biden lied about his plan to pardon Hunter, it was also later revealed that the White House made a coordinated effort to push that lie until the last possible moment. But while a handful of the most loyal Democrat mouthpieces continued to defend Biden and gaslight the American people — claiming that it wasn&#8217;t really a lie — Biden&#8217;s promise not to pardon Hunter does not quite rise to &#8220;Lie of the Year&#8221; status.
An honorable mention should go to Biden&#8217;s claim that he would not drop out of the 2024 presidential race — a statement that was proved false when he did just that in late July, foisting Vice President Kamala Harris on the party that had rejected her bid for the 2020 presidential nomination.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I feel like Biden&#39;s &quot;I&#39;m not dropping out&quot; was more consequential but what do I know? <a href="https://t.co/TXAXkkorVp">https://t.co/TXAXkkorVp</a>
&mdash; Noam Blum (@neontaster) <a href="https://twitter.com/neontaster/status/1869032510447140889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Kamala Harris is not and never was the Border Czar&#8221; should also rate a mention, particularly because left-leaning media <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/axios-clarified-2021-report-in-desperate-attempt-to-distance-vp-harris-from-border-czar-gig" target="_blank" rel="noopener">outlets like Axios</a> were forced to undermine their own reporting — which had labeled her the Border Czar when she was first charged with addressing the &#8220;root causes&#8221; of the crisis at the southern border — in their effort to claim that she had never, in fact, had that job.
The real &#8220;Lie of the Year&#8221; wasn&#8217;t just one lie, but a whole litany of lies, all based on a carefully coordinated deception authored by the White House and eagerly parroted by Democrats and their media surrogates: Joe Biden is fine.
Biden, by his own admission, has never been the most eloquent of speakers. But when his routine verbal foibles crossed the line from simple gaffes to obvious cognitive impairment, his administration either pretended nothing had happened, made excuses, or simply edited the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-harris-admin-altered-transcript-of-bidens-garbage-insult-could-have-broken-law" target="_blank" rel="noopener">White House transcript</a> to &#8220;fix&#8221; what he&#8217;d said.
When anyone dared to question Biden&#8217;s fitness for office, friendly media personalities like the hosts of ABC&#8217;s &#8220;The View&#8221; complained of &#8220;ageism&#8221; and then reminded their audience that President-elect Donald Trump is almost as old as Biden.
In March of 2024, MSNBC host <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/joe-scarborough-praises-best-biden-ever-says-to-critics-f-you-if-you-cant-handle-the-truth" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Scarborough</a> went to the mat for Biden, saying, &#8220;Start your tape right now, because I’m about to tell you the truth. And F you if you can’t handle the truth. This version of Biden, intellectually, analytically, is the best Biden ever. Not a close second, and I’ve known him for years, the Brzezinskis have known him for 50 years.&#8221;
When Biden was caught on video wandering away from other world leaders — when he was supposed to remain where he was for a photo — the White House referred to the uncut and unedited video as a &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/media-goes-all-in-on-white-houses-cheap-fakes-narrative" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cheap fake</a>&#8221; designed to make Biden look bad. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/greg-gutfeld-takes-apart-legacy-media-for-gobbling-up-cheap-fakes-spin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Legacy media</a> could not pick up their buckets and carry the administration&#8217;s water fast enough.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
ORDERS RECEIVED: In the last 3 days, the corporate media has spent 49 hours circulating the White House&#8217;s &#8220;cheap fakes&#8221; talking point <a href="https://t.co/1R3tPmm7To">pic.twitter.com/1R3tPmm7To</a>
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1803468848319922636?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 19, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
After Biden&#8217;s disastrous debate performance on CNN, the White House claimed that he had been suffering from a cold — and despite a few calls from some in media suggesting it was time for Biden to step aside, the majority played along.
Even after longtime Democrat donor and actor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/george-clooney-joins-chorus-of-stars-telling-biden-its-time-to-drop-out-of-race" target="_blank" rel="noopener">George Clooney</a> called on Biden to step aside — and reports circulated that former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and former President Barack Obama were leading the charge to oust Biden as the candidate — the White House insisted he was fine and was going nowhere. The ladies on &#8220;The View,&#8221; rather than acknowledging Biden&#8217;s obvious cognitive decline, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-view-scolds-george-clooney-for-op-ed-calling-on-biden-to-drop-out" target="_blank" rel="noopener">scolded Clooney</a>.
It was not until July 21 — when Biden issued a statement via social media announcing his plan to exit the race — that any real cracks began to form in the media&#8217;s protective wall around the 46th president.
And it wasn&#8217;t until after Vice President Kamala Harris had decisively lost her bid to succeed him in the White House that The Wall Street Journal published its lengthy report on just how deep the cover-up — in which Harris had certainly participated — had gone.
Despite all that, President Biden himself still appears unwilling to let go of the lie: The Washington Post reported recently that Biden has said he regrets dropping out of the race, and insists that he could have beaten Trump.
As CBS News correspondent Jan Crawford noted on Sunday, &#8220;I think that is either delusional or they are gaslighting.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: On CBS Face The Nation, <a href="https://twitter.com/JanCBS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JanCBS</a> Crawford calls out a report that Biden thinks he could have beaten Trump if he’d stayed in the race. “Incredibly, we read in the Washington Post that his advisors are saying he regrets dropping out of the race, he thinks he could have beaten… <a href="https://t.co/Vdma7JZN3K">pic.twitter.com/Vdma7JZN3K</a>
&mdash; TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TVNewsNow/status/1873687605478350891?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
PolitiFact, it should be noted, has made a few correct calls in the past — with the most obvious example being 2013. That year, the award went to former President Barack Obama&#8217;s Obamacare-pushing tall tale: &#8220;If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.&#8221;

G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio De Janeiro

PolitiFact’s ‘Lie Of The Year’ … Wasn’t. Here’s What They Should Have Chosen.

PolitiFact's 'Lie Of The Year' ... Wasn't. Here's What They Should Have Chosen.

Donald Trump

Hunter Biden

Joe Biden

Politics

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/politifact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Politifact</a> took a virtual thrashing after announcing early Tuesday morning that their &#8220;Lie of the Year&#8221; was the report out of Springfield, Ohio, that migrants were eating domesticated animals like dogs and cats.
The outlet shared the announcement in a post on X, attributing the &#8220;lie&#8221; to President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.
&#8220;A lie marked a town and its residents in the name of campaign rage. It was absurd. It was consequential. Our Lie of the Year goes to Donald Trump and JD Vance for false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats,&#8221; the post read.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
A lie marked a town and its residents in the name of campaign rage. It was absurd. It was consequential. Our Lie of the Year goes to Donald Trump and JD Vance for false claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats. <a href="https://t.co/tNXV83hk3T">https://t.co/tNXV83hk3T</a>
&mdash; PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolitiFact/status/1868995250208850339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Politifact further defended the selection in a follow-up post, adding, &#8220;PolitiFact doesn&#8217;t use the word &#8216;lie&#8217; lightly. We save it to describe the most egregious falsehood we&#8217;ve seen in a year&#8217;s worth of fact-checking.&#8221;
But, as some critics noted, there was no way to definitively fact-check the claims — which were raised by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-ohio-town-overrun-by-haitian-immigrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Springfield residents</a> long before Trump or Vance mentioned the issue on the campaign trail — and no way to prove that migrants were not, in fact, eating cats or dogs.
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/gift-guide/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE</a>
One Springfield resident raised concerns at a city council meeting in late August, telling city officials, &#8220;Haitians are in the park grabbing ducks, cutting the heads off, and eating them.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;Haitians are in the park grabbing ducks, cutting the heads off, and eating them&quot;
Springfield resident to City Council: <a href="https://t.co/aZLsOT8v2b">pic.twitter.com/aZLsOT8v2b</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1832773191976014217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
On X, most offered suggestions regarding what might constitute a better &#8220;Lie of the Year&#8221; — from President Joe Biden&#8217;s promise not to pardon his embattled son Hunter Biden to the Democratic Party&#8217;s insistence that Biden was &#8220;sharp as a tack&#8221; and fit to not only win the 2024 presidential election but also to serve a second four-year term in the White House.
&#8220;I&#8217;d have gone with &#8216;Joe Biden is perfectly fine and fit to serve as president again&#8217; as my &#8216;Lie of the Year,&#8217; but that&#8217;s just me,&#8221; The Washington Free Beacon&#8217;s Chuck Ross posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I&#39;d have gone with &quot;Joe Biden is perfectly fine and fit to serve as president again&quot; as my &quot;Lie of the Year,&quot; but that&#39;s just me. <a href="https://t.co/awuOxIkStA">https://t.co/awuOxIkStA</a>
&mdash; Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChuckRossDC/status/1869029330065756325?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Actually, the lie of the year was Biden saying he wouldn&#8217;t pardon Hunter and then pardoning Hunter,&#8221; another added.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Actually, the lie of the year was Biden saying he wouldn&#39;t pardon Hunter and then pardoning Hunter. <a href="https://t.co/Znkeijmcoz">https://t.co/Znkeijmcoz</a>
&mdash; RBe (@RBPundit) <a href="https://twitter.com/RBPundit/status/1869030458035781700?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;I feel like Biden&#8217;s &#8216;I&#8217;m not dropping out&#8217; was more consequential but what do I know?&#8221; another suggested.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I feel like Biden&#39;s &quot;I&#39;m not dropping out&quot; was more consequential but what do I know? <a href="https://t.co/TXAXkkorVp">https://t.co/TXAXkkorVp</a>
&mdash; Noam Blum (@neontaster) <a href="https://twitter.com/neontaster/status/1869032510447140889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
Others noted that the choice likely had more to do with political preferences than with any actual fact check.
&#8220;Here&#8217;s the fact that made us angriest this year,&#8221; Jim Treacher posted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;Here&#39;s the fact that made us angriest this year&quot; <a href="https://t.co/PQfOwS82Bx">https://t.co/PQfOwS82Bx</a>
&mdash; jimtreacher.substack.com (@jtLOL) <a href="https://twitter.com/jtLOL/status/1869044760473944336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;You cannot hate the legacy media enough,&#8221; Kira Davis concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You cannot hate the legacy media enough <a href="https://t.co/Kgyk3hUKQS">https://t.co/Kgyk3hUKQS</a>
&mdash; Kira (@RealKiraDavis) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealKiraDavis/status/1869080547152236729?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 17, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sen. JD Vance (R-OH)

‘Here’s The Fact That Made Us Angriest This Year’: PolitiFact Trashed Over Bogus ‘Lie Of The Year’

'Here's The Fact That Made Us Angriest This Year': PolitiFact Trashed Over Bogus 'Lie Of The Year'

JD Vance

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fact-checking" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fact-checker</a>&#8216;s assessment of a claim about noncitizens registering to vote has prompted blowback from Republican lawmakers who are pushing election integrity legislation.
The spat took off on Tuesday after <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/politifact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PolitiFact</a> gave House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) a <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2024/may/20/mike-johnson/mike-johnsons-false-claim-that-immigrants-paroled/?utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1716295642-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;False&#8221; rating</a> for saying that migrants released on parole can register to vote at their local welfare office or the DMV.
&#8220;It&#8217;s illegal for noncitizens to vote. If parolees register, election officials would vet their applications,&#8221; the fact-checker said in a <a href="https://x.com/PolitiFact/status/1792924207136866347" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> to X summarizing the review.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Speaker Mike Johnson said immigrants who came to the U.S. under humanitarian parole programs can register to vote at DMV and “welfare” offices. It&#39;s illegal for noncitizens to vote. If parolees register, election officials would vet their applications. <a href="https://t.co/lM7WA42hoi">https://t.co/lM7WA42hoi</a> <a href="https://t.co/4InAxjndUM">pic.twitter.com/4InAxjndUM</a>
&mdash; PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolitiFact/status/1792924207136866347?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 21, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Johnson made the comment earlier this month while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGeQRt1WDRo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoting companion bills</a>, dubbed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, that <a href="https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-roy-leads-fight-save-american-elections" target="_blank" rel="noopener">would require proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration</a>.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), whose version of the legislation <a href="https://cha.house.gov/_cache/files/9/4/9481c1c3-fbbe-43da-be01-8160304debbd/7B3AAB700E4EC1DBC9A2D00FF651F2B8.notice-5.23.24.pdf.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">may be considered</a> by a committee later this week, fired back at PolitiFact on X while taking a shot at the Biden administration for its handling of the migrant crisis.
&#8220;Whether it’s at the DMV or welfare offices, non-citizens have myriad opportunities to register to vote, as non-citizens are obviously eligible for government benefits under current federal and state policies,&#8221; Roy <a href="https://x.com/RepChipRoy/status/1792963711805853842" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a thread on X.
&#8220;Biden&#8217;s mass release of millions of illegal aliens into the U.S. – including over 1 million via parole – will only make this worse,&#8221; he added.
&#8220;But even if the ideological operatives at Politi-&#8216;fact&#8217; want to torture the statistics to say that this somehow isn&#8217;t a problem, then nobody should mind if we put safeguards in place to prevent it from becoming one — that is, unless you actually want noncitizens voting in federal elections,&#8221; Roy concluded.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who introduced the Senate version of the SAVE Act, also took a crack at PolitiFact.
&#8220;Politifact rates a true claim false, yet again, simply because the writer doesn’t like it,&#8221; his verified senator account <a href="https://x.com/SenMikeLee/status/1792960860593484204" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said on X</a>.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
&#8220;Illegals can easily register to vote across America. Politifact wrongly pretends that &#8216;it is illegal&#8217; is somehow an argument against this fact,&#8221; the account continued.
The senator also responded through his <a href="https://x.com/BasedMikeLee/status/1792981567591059714" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;BasedMikeLee&#8221; personal account</a>.
&#8220;States are prohibited, under [the Supreme Court&#8217;s] interpretation of the [National Voter Registration Act], from requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections,&#8221; he said.
&#8220;So yes, while it is in fact &#8216;illegal for noncitizens to vote&#8217; in federal elections, that’s not the end of the matter,&#8221; Lee added. &#8220;#PassTheSAVEAct.&#8221;

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah

Republicans Dismantle Fact-Check On Non-Citizens Registering To Vote

Chip Roy

Congress

Fact Check

Media Bias

Migrants

Mike Johnson

Mike Lee

Voting

The group that runs the prominent fact-checking site PolitiFact is using money from Left-leaning activists to pay journalists “grants” of $10,000 or more to write about “extremism,” “anti-transgender groups,” and the successes of Joe Biden’s budget-busting American Rescue Plan.
The Poynter Institute, which holds itself out as a nonpartisan group of journalism experts, is using money from the Joyce Foundation, the Gill Foundation, and the Catena Foundation to fund classes for journalists across the country guiding them on how to cover topics such as &#8220;climate change&#8221; and &#8220;transgender medical care.&#8221; Some participants will then be paid grants, bankrolled by activist foundations, to write about particular topics for their employers.
Almost all the <a href="https://www.poynter.org/shop/reporting-editing/beat-academy-2024/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Beat Academy</a> classes have an apparent political bias, often mirroring the activism of the funders. On February 1, for example, participants in the “Extremist Politics” session will “learn how to background candidates for extremist ties,” including on “school boards.” They will “gain access to extremism resources and researchers.”
Three participants will be awarded “$10,000 reporting grants” to write about “extremism.”
The next session on February 29 trains journalists to write articles criticizing Joe Biden from the left, saying, “Biden promised to make life better in disadvantaged and marginalized communities by targeting them with billions of dollars tied to climate change, affordable housing… and more. Is it working?” The panelists will explain “the forces and factors that eased and impeded the ability of deserving communities to access these funds.”
Two journalists will be paid a total of $20,000 to write articles heralding the successes of Biden’s massive spending package the American Rescue Plan: “Enrollees can apply for one of two $10,000 reporting grants to capture how certain communities have used the funds to good effect.”
One of the foundations behind the journalism-for-hire program, the Joyce Foundation, “invest[s] in evidence-informed public policies and strategies to advance racial equity.” Vice President Kamala Harris <a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1322963321994289154" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defines</a> “equity” as the radical idea of forced equal outcomes, where “we all end up in the same place.”
The funds will be used to give journalists a “generous travel grant” and room and board to take 25 journalists on a group trip to the southern border to focus on, “How domestic labor demand and politically-driven immigrant busing expose flaws in the system.”
They will “see how the Texas busing program exposes the weak spots in the legal immigration system” and be steered to write stories saying businesses crave illegal immigrants by teaching them how to “identify the industries and employers who are seeking immigrant workers in your area.”
In April, journalists will be taking a subsidized class on “transgender coverage,” “Mapping out the landscape of anti-transgender groups and their funders.”
“Enrollees can apply for one of three reporting grants of $10,000-$15,000 to explore how the transgender debate has touched lives in their area,” Poynter said.
The program is funded in part by the <a href="https://gillfoundation.org/priorities/equal-treatment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gill Foundation</a>, a gay activist group dedicated to shaping state policies.
In July, a “voting systems” class “expands on our webinars on extremism” to “get the latest on election worker threats” and “zero in on the new rules in your state that might expand or limit the ease of casting a ballot.”
The last session focuses on convincing all local reporters to inject “climate change” into their coverage. “There is no facet of our lives that doesn’t overlap with climate change. People worry about AI run amok; it’s also a major energy hog. The value of your home could take a hit due to updated flooding maps. The fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global emissions. General assignment and beat reporters alike: There’s a climate change story waiting for you,” the description says.
The program is designed to cheerlead the effect of government programs, with Poynter advertising it as “the perfect complement to our earlier Beat Academy session on the impact of federal climate and energy programs on disadvantaged communities.”
Only the panelists on “extremist politics” are listed, but they consist almost exclusively of leftist activist reporters.
“Robert Downen is a reporter covering democracy and the threats to it, including extremism, disinformation and conspiracies,” one bio says.
Another panelist, Jennifer Dresden, “is a Policy Strategist at Protect Democracy,” an advocacy group that <a href="https://lawfortruth.org/litigation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sues conservative journalists</a>, including Project Veritas, One America News, and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza.
Protect Democracy says that “<a href="https://protectdemocracy.org/work/can-democracy-survive-racism-strategy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">right-wing and far-right violence</a> ranked highest among experts’ concern,” and that it “uses the tools of strategic litigation and public education to counteract those who intentionally or recklessly spread false information that undermines our democracy.” It advocates for “securing accountability for the January 6th Insurrection.”
A third extremism panelist, Christopher Jones, was “a reporter for 100 Days in Appalachia where, as a digital and forensic reporter, he focuses on white supremacists and their disinformation campaigns.” Jones wrote that &#8220;far right extremists have penetrated law enforcement,&#8221; that Ben Shapiro is &#8220;alt-right&#8221; and promotes fascism, and that Antifa should not be compared to right-wing &#8220;extremist&#8221; groups because there was &#8220;no such threat&#8221; of &#8220;violent far-left activists&#8221; and &#8220;no one has ever been charged with or convicted of a terrorist act on behalf of antifa.&#8221;
&#8220;During the 2016 election cycle and the ascension of Donald Trump, public displays of racism and fascist rhetoric that had caused the 1980s antifa movement emerged once again,&#8221; he wrote, while promoting the misinformation that he &#8220;watched as Brian Sicknick, a Capitol Police officer, was beaten to death with flagpoles with American flags affixed to them.&#8221;
Although Poynter was originally founded to support journalists, it has since aligned with the “disinformation” industry that tries to discredit media outlets that report things other than government-approved storylines.
One of the funders of the Beat Academy and grants, the Catena Foundation — tied to Sam R. Walton, the son of Walmart’s founder — bankrolled the <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1027224/disinformation-inc-state-department-silent-on-if-it-will-cut-ties-with-conservative-blacklist-group/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Disinformation Index</a>, a notorious British project that accepted money from the U.S. government and put mainstream center-right publications like Reason Magazine and the New York Post on a list that was used to try to bankrupt the companies by dissuading advertisers from doing business with them. (The Daily Wire is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-and-the-federalist-sue-biden-state-department-over-censorship-effort" target="_blank" rel="noopener">suing the State Department</a> for allegedly funding tools used for domestic censorship.)
Jon Greenberg, a former PolitiFact writer who leads the Beat Academy, said Poynter is a “nonpartisan organization that trains journalists” and declined to share any Beat Academy classroom materials or lesson plans with The Daily Wire.

7E98BB8C-BB96-44C6-BC8A-E0D512D5E7B5_1_105_c

PolitiFact’s Parent Company Is Paying Local Journalists To Write About Transgenders, ‘Extremists,’ And ‘Good Effects’ Of Biden

Censorship

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/randi-weingarten-is-gaslighting-us-she-fought-to-keep-schools-closed-not-open" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Randi Weingarten</a> thinks you are an idiot.
The American Federation of Teachers union president, a lady who makes a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/aft-president-randi-weingarten-salary" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> nine times the average teacher&#8217;s salary, is on a bit of a torrent to rewrite COVID history. As she tells it, she wasn&#8217;t hellbent on holding your child&#8217;s education hostage during the pandemic; she wanted to get those kids back in school as quickly as possible. As supposed &#8220;proof&#8221; of her heroism, Weingarten has been touting a report from Politifact that artificially absolves her from any wrongdoing or feet-dragging during COVID.
Don&#8217;t let her — or Politifact — <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/twitter-users-set-the-record-straight-after-politifact-says-randi-weingarten-advocated-for-reopening-schools-during-pandemic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">get away with the whitewashing of history</a>. Her actions stunted an entire generation of kids and unleashed a deluge of negative consequences as a result of keeping kids out of school for so long.
For example, Weingarten is now saying that since the spring of 2020, she wanted schoolchildren back in classrooms and learning from teachers.
&#8220;We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open,&#8221; Weingarten testified before Congress last week. &#8220;We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
AFT President Randi Weingarten: &quot;We spent every day from February on trying to get schools open. We knew that remote education was not a substitute for opening schools.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/1qNL05VD3u">pic.twitter.com/1qNL05VD3u</a>
&mdash; Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) <a href="https://twitter.com/FreeBeacon/status/1651307624418164736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 26, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But in the spring of 2020, she said schools could only re-open if done &#8220;safely.&#8221; What did &#8220;safely&#8221; look like to Weingarten? Well, at the time she said that in-school learning could only happen if teachers across America received at least an “additional 19% — $116.5 billion — from pre-virus funding levels to stabilize budgets and then reopen safely.&#8221;
The New York Times, which also is running cover for Weingarten, noted that her union had a list of demands in April reopening:
<blockquote>The A.F.T. had issued its <a class="css-yywogo" title="" href="https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/media/2020/covid19_reopen-america-schools.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">own reopening plan</a> in late April, calling for adequate personal protective equipment, a temporary suspension of formal teacher performance evaluations, a limit on student testing, a cancellation of student-loan debt and a $750 billion federal aid package to help schools prepare to reopen safely and facilitate “a real recovery for all our communities.&#8221;</blockquote>
What does advocating limiting the number of tests or forgiveness of student-loan debt have to do with re-opening safely? Nothing. Weingarten used the pandemic to push for more and more demands and to demonize members of the Trump administration.
<a class="c-link" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-7429">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
As pointed out by <a href="https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/05/03/politifact-is-trash-n548159" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HotAir&#8217;s David Strom</a>, “Congress wound up passing $190 billion in funding to meet her demands, and it still didn’t move her.&#8221;
In Strom&#8217;s excellent piece, he also flagged a terrific montage showing the myriad ways from 2020 to 2021 that Weingarten delayed in-person learning — even after the science suggested it was safe to do so.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Outstanding compilation of footage of teachers’ union leader Randi Weingarten calling for COVID school closures throughout 2020 and 2021, contrary to her now casting herself as a bold advocate for schools reopening.<a href="https://t.co/UcWjfmqpno">pic.twitter.com/UcWjfmqpno</a>
&mdash; Michael P Senger (@michaelpsenger) <a href="https://twitter.com/michaelpsenger/status/1653804555895988224?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That video is pretty good, but it is nothing compared to the shellacking Weingarten has been receiving thanks to the Community Notes feature — crowdsourced fact-checking — on Twitter.
For example, Politifact tweeted, &#8220;Teachers union President Randi Weingarten advocated for reopening schools with pandemic safety measures. She criticized the Trump administration’s 2020 calls to reopen schools fully, but it’s misleading to claim that she opposed reopening at all.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Teachers union President Randi Weingarten advocated for reopening schools with pandemic safety measures. She criticized the Trump administration’s 2020 calls to reopen schools fully, but it’s misleading to claim that she opposed reopening at all. <a href="https://t.co/Km8FkMkXd2">https://t.co/Km8FkMkXd2</a>
&mdash; PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolitiFact/status/1653749253720666115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 3, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Politifact&#8217;s conclusion, as the Left would say, is &#8220;missing context.&#8221; What sort of &#8220;context&#8221;? Well, the kind that shows Politifact&#8217;s ruling is complete nonsense.
&#8220;Politifact is misrepresenting Weingarten&#8217;s positions,&#8221; the Community Notes added, replete with notes backing up the assertions. &#8220;She called attempts to reopen schools in the fall of 2020 &#8216;Reckless, callous, cruel&#8217; <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1cvl2hr r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://t.co/lBQqTXA04Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">theguardian.com/us-news/2020/j…</a> Her union pushed aggressively at the local level <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1cvl2hr r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://t.co/eBOG2NLfas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">edweek.org/teaching-learn…</a> They continued in 2022 <a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1cvl2hr r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" role="link" href="https://t.co/QZVPzIRn34" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">nytimes.com/2022/01/08/us/…</a>&#8220;
In January 2021, a CDC study found low transmission of COVID in schools with proper safety precautions — such as social distancing and staying home when sick, and other commonsense guidelines. In other words, the science showed it was safe to be back in school.
The science was not enough for Weingarten. She said it was still too stressful for teachers to go back at the time.
&#8220;All the risk is on the educators, in terms of going back to school buildings,&#8221; she <a href="https://www.wgbh.org/news/education/2021/02/05/teachers-union-president-weingarten-vaccinations-arent-precondition-for-school-reopening-but-need-to-be-priority" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> at the time. &#8220;The science is one thing, but the moment — psychologically — you [return to in-person classrooms], you’re always wondering if you’re the case, if you’re the one in 100.&#8221;
While Weingarten was running around doing media interviews, mental health problems for America&#8217;s youth were skyrocketing, as were drug addictions, and learning loss.
When it became patently obvious that untold damage was being done, and that maybe kids should have been in school long before they finally returned, Weingarten said it was no biggie because &#8220;kids are resilient.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/danprimack?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@danprimack</a>: Is there a point at which kids&#39; lost education isn&#39;t recoverable?
AFT president <a href="https://twitter.com/rweingarten?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rweingarten</a>: &quot;No, I don&#39;t believe that. I believe that kids are resilient and kids will recover. But we as adults have to meet their needs.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/AxiosOnHBO?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#AxiosOnHBO</a> <a href="https://t.co/Dc4H0Hherc">pic.twitter.com/Dc4H0Hherc</a>
&mdash; Axios (@axios) <a href="https://twitter.com/axios/status/1363682689962901504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Weingarten, and Politifact for that matter, each get a big fat &#8220;F” for their COVID revisionism. We&#8217;ll let CNN Senior political analyst and father of four Scott Jennings have the final word.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ScottJenningsKY</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/rweingarten?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@rweingarten</a>: &#8220;I am stunned at what you have said this week&#8230;I think you&#8217;ll find that most parents believe you are the tip of the sphere of school closures&#8230;I hear no remorse whatsoever about the generational damage that&#8217;s been done&#8230;&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/gVCDgpP3dN">pic.twitter.com/gVCDgpP3dN</a>
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinTober94/status/1651778019277537282?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 28, 2023</a></blockquote>
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Randi Weingaretn

Randi Weingarten, Politifact Each Get A Big Fat ‘F’ For COVID History Revisionism

Randi Weingarten, Politifact Get Big Fat ‘F’ For COVID History Revisionism

American Federation of Teachers

COVID

Randi Weingarten

Schools

The Republican National Committee shared a comprehensive list of President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden&#8217;s</a> biggest whoppers on Tuesday, from his repeated claims that he drove an 18-wheeler to his insistence that a 2004 house fire — which was reportedly contained to his kitchen — had very nearly killed his wife and a couple of fire-fighters.
The list, which the RNC shared on Tuesday, detailed &#8220;21 made-up stories Biden has told about himself as president.&#8221;
First on the list was Biden&#8217;s claim that he &#8220;used to drive&#8221; an 18-wheeler.
&#8220;I used to drive a tractor trailer … I only did it for part of a summer,&#8221; Biden said in 2021 — but <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/dec/03/joe-biden/no-joe-biden-wasnt-tractor-trailer-driver/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to Politifact</a>, there is no evidence he ever did that. He did ride in a tractor-trailer once as a senator, however, and he drove a bus one summer during law school.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
1. Biden claimed — on multiple occasions — he “used to drive” an 18-wheeler.
Biden **rode** in an 18-wheeler once nearly 50 years ago. He’s never driven one.<a href="https://t.co/o7Za8LaR4J">https://t.co/o7Za8LaR4J</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899797408563200?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Whopper number two was Biden&#8217;s claim that he spoke with the <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-claims-he-spoke-to-insulin-inventor-theres-just-one-problem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inventor of insulin</a> — but of the several people credited with the discovery of artificial insulin, two were dead prior to Biden&#8217;s birth and there is no evidence that he ever had any contact with the others.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
3. Biden claimed he “had a house burn down with my wife in it” and said they “almost lost a couple firefighters.”
In 2005, Biden’s house had a “small” fire that was contained to the kitchen and “there were no injuries.”<a href="https://t.co/smEweQxg4E">https://t.co/smEweQxg4E</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899801410011137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Number three was Biden&#8217;s <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-claims-he-lost-an-awful-lot-in-house-fire-jill-biden-reported-the-small-kitchen-fire-that-was-doused-in-20-minutes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">repeated claim</a> that a <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/fire-department-responds-to-biden-account-of-2004-fire-calls-incident-insignificant/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2004 fire</a> in Delaware nearly burned the house down with his wife in it and could have claimed the lives of a couple of the firemen as well — but local reporting suggests that the fire was quickly contained to the kitchen and that no one was injured.
Next on the list was Biden’s claim that he had grown up in the Puerto Rican community in Delaware — where in 1970, Puerto Ricans accounted for 0.39% of the population.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
5. Biden said he remembered “spending time” and “going to” the Tree of Life synagogue after the 2018 shooting.
The synagogue said Biden never visited.<a href="https://t.co/9z0C8jo0fl">https://t.co/9z0C8jo0fl</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899805625196554?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Then came Biden’s claim that he visited Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue after the shooting — despite the synagogue having no record of any such visit — and Biden’s assertion that he had served as a liaison to Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during the Six Day War. That claim was problematic due to the fact that Biden was not yet a senator — and Meir was not yet PM — when that war took place.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
7. Biden claimed his “first job offer” came from Boise Cascade, an Idaho lumber company.
The company said they have “no record of President Biden’s application or of him having worked for the company.”<a href="https://t.co/xLYMpUa1z9">https://t.co/xLYMpUa1z9</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899809563656192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Next came Biden’s “first job offer” — which he said came from an Idaho lumber company that has no record of him applying for a job — and his “first arrest,” which he said was for a civil rights protest. However, there are no records showing that Biden was ever arrested or even attended such a protest.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
9. Biden claimed that he had a conversation with an Amtrak conductor in 2012 or 2013 about traveling over 1 million miles on Air Force Two.
The conductor retired in 1993, passed away in 2014, and Biden didn’t reach 1 million miles on AF2 until 2015.<a href="https://t.co/92RvdxUtFc">https://t.co/92RvdxUtFc</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899813468545034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Biden’s now-infamous Amtrak story — in which he claimed to have discussed reaching the million-mile mark with a conductor who died before he reached that milestone — was fib number nine.
Coming in at number ten was Biden’s claim that he was “appointed to the Naval Academy in 1965” — despite the fact that he graduated from the University of Delaware in that same year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
11. Biden claimed oil refinery pollution is the reason “I and so damn many other people I grew up have cancer.”
Biden doesn’t have cancer. He *had* skin cancer, but the cause was sun exposure — not pollution. <a href="https://t.co/cKFXXoZNCp">https://t.co/cKFXXoZNCp</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899818463961089?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Then came Biden’s claim that he <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/breaking-biden-appears-to-claim-he-has-cancer-from-oil-refineries/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">got cancer</a> from oil-refinery pollution — he did have skin cancer, but that was attributed to sun exposure — and his insistence that he was a full professor at University of Pennsylvania. Records show he never actually taught a class.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
13. Biden claimed his “great-grandpop was” a coal miner — something he has been saying for decades. 
He wasn’t.<a href="https://t.co/qbKkOW64V5">https://t.co/qbKkOW64V5</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899824277266437?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Next came the claim that his “great-grandpop was a coal miner” (he was not) and his assertion that as VP, he had finally gotten an overdue <a href="https://dailywire.com/news/biden-claims-his-uncle-won-purple-heart-during-world-war-ii-battle-but-details-make-bidens-story-impossible/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Purple Heart</a> for his Uncle Frank. Biden’s Uncle Frank passed away before he was elected Vice President, and did not earn a Purple Heart.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
15. Biden claimed he hit a ball 368 feet “off the wall” at his second Congressional baseball game.
Biden actually went 0-2, according to a 1974 newspaper article. <a href="https://t.co/dXbPJJrfEP">pic.twitter.com/dXbPJJrfEP</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899828475863040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Biden also claimed (whopper #15) to have hit a long ball “368 feet off the wall” at his second Congressional Baseball game — where in reality, he was 0 for 2.
Keeping with the sports theme, number 16 was Biden’s claim that his grandfather was an All-American football star at Santa Clara University — but NCAA and SCU records suggest otherwise.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
17. Biden claimed he “could have been an All-American” football player.
Biden played on the *freshman* football team for part of *one* semester in college. That’s it. <a href="https://t.co/rgBhoddAwp">pic.twitter.com/rgBhoddAwp</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899832854618120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Biden went on to claim (number 17) that he could have been an All-American, but he played on the freshman team for only one semester. He also said (number 18) that he “almost” walked on to an NFL team and could have made it in the pros.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
19. Biden claimed he was “shot at” overseas — something he also lied about in 2007.
It never happened.<a href="https://t.co/kX424rAwhE">https://t.co/kX424rAwhE</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899837552517120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Number 19 revisited Biden’s 2007 claim that he was “shot at” while traveling overseas and number 20 was a flashback to his time as a county councilman. He told a story about a woman who called and asked him to remove a dead dog from her lawn, and despite claiming one time that he put it on her doorstep, he said another time that he had removed it.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
21. Biden repeatedly claimed he was “involved” in the civil rights movement.
None of that is remotely true. Biden even admitted in 1987 he was “not an activist.”<a href="https://t.co/ijty46nY83">pic.twitter.com/ijty46nY83</a>
&mdash; RNC Research (@RNCResearch) <a href="https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1612899842207916035?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
And rounding out the list at number 21 was the president’s oft-repeated claim that he was actively involved in the civil rights movement — despite no evidence that he was involved at all.

President Biden Marks Two Year Anniversary Of January 6 Insurrection

RNC Drops Comprehensive List Of Biden’s Whoppers, Fish Stories, And Fibs

RNC Drops Comprehensive List Of Biden's Whoppers, Fish Stories, And Fibs

Executive

Republican National Committee (RNC)

Two <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/big-tech" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tech giants</a> on Tuesday announced a $13 million grant to fund <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/fact-checking" target="_blank" rel="noopener">global fact-checking</a> projects. 
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/google" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google</a> and YouTube <a href="https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/google-and-youtube-partner-with-poynters-international-fact-checking-network-on-13-2-million-grant-for-the-global-fact-checking-community/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> they would provide financial support to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), an arm of the Poynter Institute, to support “fact-checking initiatives” through 2025. 
“The world needs fact-checking more than ever before. This partnership with Google and YouTube infuses financial support to global fact-checkers and is a step in the right direction,” said Baybars Örsek, the IFCN’s executive director. “And while there’s much work to be done, this partnership has sparked meaningful collaboration and an important step.”
About $12 million of the grant will go to the group’s Global Fact Check Fund, which will disburse money to fact-checking groups from around the world that adhere to its Code of Principles. These include groups in the U.S., Brazil, Nepal, Ukraine, Norway, Spain, Taiwan, South Africa, and India.
Örsek added that IFCN was “grateful to Google and YouTube for their commitment to bolster fact-checkers in an ever-increasing environment of mis- and disinformation.”
According to the Poynter Institute, some funds will go toward a foundation to establish a “neutral and independent selection committee” and other expansions of the fact-checking program. 
The IFCN was established in 2015, and its advisory board <a href="https://ifcncodeofprinciples.poynter.org/board" target="_blank" rel="noopener">includes</a> individuals from various organizations, including PolitiFact and The Washington Post. 
Olivia Ma, who manages Google’s Global News Program and Ecosystem, said that the company believed it had a role in combating “misinformation” and guiding people toward making “informed decisions.” 
“Combating misinformation is an ongoing global challenge for society. We take seriously our role in helping to fight misinformation by continually investing in products, programs and partnerships that help people access high-quality information,” Ma said. 
Some have raised concerns about the growing emphasis on fact-checking in recent years, with critics questioning whether the motivation is to suppress conservative or differing viewpoints. For example, the theory that the novel coronavirus may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, was initially widely maligned by certain fact-checkers as the origin of the respiratory virus. However, Facebook later reversed course, saying that the theory was now up for debate and had not been thoroughly discredited. At around the same time, PolitiFact <a href="https://www.politifact.com/li-meng-yan-fact-check/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retracted</a> a fact-check it had run on the claim saying that the theory was now more “disputed.” 
This year, Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former PolitiFact source, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-the-former-politifact-fact-checker-who-quit-over-left-wing-bias-wanted-me-to-help-them-nail-republicans" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Daily Wire that the fact-checking group wanted him to &#8220;help them nail Republicans.” Riedl also claimed PolitiFact would start with a &#8220;rating&#8221; of a claim and then work backward to justify that rating.

Google Opens Cloud Hub In Krakow, Poland

‘The World Needs Fact-Checking’: Tech Giants Giving $13 Million To Fund Global Fact-Checking Initiatives

Tech Giants Giving $13 Million Toward Global Fact-Checking Initiatives

Fake News

Google

World

YouTube

An economist who formerly worked with the fact-checking site PolitiFact as one of the website’s go-to sources for fact-finding says he quit over the company’s Left-wing bias.
Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, told The Daily Wire that he worked with PolitiFact over a decade ago when the fact checking site had first launched. Riedl said PolitiFact journalists consulted him on dozens of articles and ratings before he stopped working with the fact-checking site over its bias.
“Conservatives have a right to be suspicious of PolitiFact because their reporters openly shared their biases with their sources,” Riedl told The Daily Wire. “They would start with a rating and then ask their sources for ammunition to justify a preset rating. It was brazen.”
PolitiFact approached Riedl around 2007 to see if he would be a regular expert source for reporters to call for fact checking. At the time, Riedl was working as an economic expert at the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and had developed a reputation for being critical of former President George W. Bush’s financial policy.
<div id="attachment_380970" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-380970" class="size-medium wp-image-380970" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Brian-Riedl-200x300.jpeg" alt="Brian Riedl/courtesy of the Manhattan Institute" width="200" height="300" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/05/Brian-Riedl-200x300.jpeg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/05/Brian-Riedl.jpeg 333w" sizes=" (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px" />Brian Riedl/courtesy of the Manhattan Institute</div>
“I had established a pretty notable reputation in Washington for pummeling President Bush for runaway spending, and it got me a lot of media love at the time — that I was a Heritage Foundation employee who was criticizing a Republican president,” Reidl said.
“For a lot of reporters, the best source is a conservative willing to trash Republicans. They came to me and basically thought that because I had criticized Bush so much on runaway spending, that I would provide a veneer of bipartisan credibility by trashing republicans in their fact-checking,” he explained.
“When I started criticizing Obama for the same thing a few years later, suddenly all the reporters didn’t like me,” Reidl continued.
Riedl stated that PolitiFact reporters revealed their bias in several ways. According to Riedl, reporters would explicitly ask for quotes hitting Republicans, or they would ask if Riedl knew of any outrageous statements from Republicans that were ripe for fact-checking.
Riedl said many times reporters would consult with him only to disagree with his assessment and leave his comments out of their articles. Reporters would go “expert shopping,” or contact specialists with similar biases to the reporter in order to substantiate a preset narrative. He said that many articles he consulted on were published without his comments, but they contained remarks from different experts who had voiced opinions critical of the GOP or conservatives. 
“They were employing double standards. They were using straw men. They were presetting the rating before they talked to people,” Riedl recalled. “And their response was if you are not going to give us the ammunition and arguments we want, then we’ll find someone else who will.”
In 2013, The Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Mason University<a href="https://cmpa.gmu.edu/study-media-fact-checker-says-republicans-lie-more/"> reviewed</a> the ratings of 100 PolitiFact articles from the first four months of former President Barack Obama’s second term. The researchers, using PolitiFact fact checks, reported that a “leading media fact-checking organization rates Republicans as less trustworthy than Democrats.”
The researchers did not audit the fact-check ratings, nor did they process through which sources PolitiFact had chosen to consult or which statements the site chose to fact check. Beyond the researchers’ topline takeaway, they admit that the best their study can show is “how individuals, groups, political parties, etc. are portrayed in this increasingly important genre of political journalism” (emphasis added). 
The findings, at least, are as supportive of Riedl’s claims as those of the university researchers. According to the researchers:
<blockquote>PolitiFact rated 32% of Republican claims as “false” or “pants on fire,” compared to 11% of Democratic claims – a 3 to 1 margin. Conversely, Politifact rated 22% of Democratic claims as “entirely true” compared to 11% of Republican claims – a 2 to 1 margin.
A majority of Democratic statements (54%) were rated as mostly or entirely true, compared to only 18% of Republican statements. Conversely, a majority of Republican statements (52%) were rated as mostly or entirely false, compared to only 24% of Democratic statements.
Despite controversies over Obama administration statements regarding Benghazi, the IRS and the Associated Press, Republicans have continued to fare worse than Democrats, with 60% of their claims rated as false so far this month (May 1 – May 22), compared to 29% of Democratic statements – a 2 to 1 margin. 
This study’s findings are similar to those of a previous CMPA study, which found that PolitiFact gave more negative ratings to the Romney campaign than the Obama campaign during the 2012 presidential election campaign. </blockquote>
“Through the years, I have continued to follow their ratings, and a lot of the same people are still there — and their ratings are a joke,” Riedl said. “They make huge elementary factual mistakes in their fact checks. It’s all motivated reasoning.”
“When you read their fact checks, it is painfully obvious that they often decided on the rating first and backward reasoned their way through intellectual logical backflips, trying to come up with any way to justify the rating,” he continued. “They’re a joke.”
The title of this article has been revised for clarity. The economist was a source for Politifact, not a fact-checker.

Politifact

Meet The Former Politifact Source Who Quit Over Left-Wing Bias: ‘Wanted Me To Help Them Nail Republicans’

Readers Pass

On Monday, PolitiFact published a fact check of a comment made by Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R-VA) in which she said the “Loudoun County School Board spent about $300,000 – that’s real money, that’s going-to-jail money – to bring [Critical Race Theory] CRT in some form or fashion to the school system.”
PolitiFact claimed in its “<a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/24/winsome-sears/did-loudoun-county-va-schools-pay-about-300000-cri/">fact check</a>” that Earle-Sears vastly overstated the amount of money spent by the Loudoun County School Board:
<blockquote>We asked Earle-Sears’ office three times for the source of her claim about Loudoun’s $300,000 investment in critical race theory and did not get a reply. It seems apparent, however, that she greatly overstated the $34,167 cost of seminars about critical race theory and equity training the Loudoun school system held for top officials in late spring, 2020.
…
Wayde Byard, said the seminar was held to familiarize senior school officials with critical race theory. “It’s an academic construct that’s been around 45 years,” he said.
We asked Byard if the county has spent funds on critical race theory beyond the $34,167 for the seminars. “No, that’s about it,” he said.</blockquote>
PolitiFact also reached out to a school spokesperson who said the county has not spent anything beyond the $34,167 amount on CRT. For that, PolitiFact rated Earle-Sears’ comment as “Mostly False.”
But The Daily Caller’s Chrissy Clark posted screenshots of expenditures showing Loudoun County did spend upward of $300,000 to Equity Collaborative LLC, which <a href="https://theequitycollaborative.com/what-is-equity-coaching/">says</a> it provides “equity coaching” to “to help organizations develop their own capacity to create educational equity and social justice by addressing bias and oppression.” While the website predictably doesn’t say it promotes CRT, yet all the hallmarks of its influence are there.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/PolitiFact?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PolitiFact</a> is calling out <a href="https://twitter.com/WinsomeSears?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@WinsomeSears</a> for “falsely claiming” that LCPS paid “about $300,000” for critical race theory-inspired training.
Well, your humble Poynter alumni is here with receipts. And LCPS DID pay upwards of $300k for such training<a href="https://t.co/67dfCjaORz">https://t.co/67dfCjaORz</a> <a href="https://t.co/OXT78tRiHm">pic.twitter.com/OXT78tRiHm</a>
— Chrissy Clark (@chrissyclark_) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrissyclark_/status/1486005872316891139?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 25, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The screenshots from Clark show the Loudoun County school system made seven payments to Equity Collaborative since 2018, with the largest payment made in June 2019 for a whopping $242,000. The final payment, made in June 2020, was for $34,167 – the exact amount PolitiFact and Byard said the school paid in total. Adding up the payments totals more than $300,000.
PolitiFact has yet to correct or update its fact check of Earle-Sears, and also appeared to miss that this topic was addressed by former George W. Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen in The Washington Post last November. As Thiessen wrote at the time:
<blockquote>Virginia’s Loudoun County Public Schools, which were ground zero in the debate over the role of parents in their kids’ education, paid <a href="https://defendinged.org/report/the-equity-collaborative/">$314,000</a> for critical race theory coaching for its teachers from the <a href="https://theequitycollaborative.com/">Equity Collaborative</a> — a consulting firm that turns critical race theory into practices for “building more equitable learning environments.” In its presentation “Introduction to Critical Race Theory” the Equity Collaborative instructs teachers that racism is “an inherent part of American civilization” and attacks “ideas of colorblindness, the neutrality of the law, incremental change, and equal opportunity for all” for maintaining “whites’ power and strongholds within society.” It also questions “the idea of meritocracy” which “allows the empowered … to feel ‘good’ and have a clear conscience” and concludes with a breakout session for teachers to discuss “How might you use CRT to identify and address systemic oppression in your school, district or organization?”</blockquote>
As Hot Air <a href="https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2022/01/25/politifacts-fact-check-of-va-lt-gov-appears-to-have-missed-something-n443959">pointed out</a>, the organization that discovered the CRT spending, Parents Defending Education, “actually <a href="https://defendinged.org/report/the-equity-collaborative/">split the district’s spending</a> into two categories, $34,000 for Equity Collaborative training including CRT and another $314,000 for EQ &#8216;training.&#8217; Maybe this is the gimmick that Politifact is relying on. Only $34,000 was explicitly about CRT while the rest was merely CRT adjacent.”

Virginia Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Glenn Youngkin Holds Election Night Rally

PolitiFact Claims Virginia Lt. Gov. Greatly Overstated Amount Spent On CRT. They Missed A Few Payments.

Critical Race Theory

Winsome Sears

PolitiFact slammed liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor for claiming during oral arguments over the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on Friday that more than 100,000 children were in &#8220;serious condition&#8221; due to the coronavirus.
&#8220;We have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators&#8221; due to coronavirus, Sotomayor <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/justice-sotomayor-totally-botches-covid-19-facts-about-omicron-children-in-hospital-in-line-of-questioning">said</a>.
PolitiFact rated the statement as &#8220;False,&#8221; <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/07/sonia-sotomayor/fact-checking-sotomayor-kids-severe-covid-19/">writing</a> in-part:
<blockquote>While the number of coronavirus-positive pediatric hospitalizations has risen with the spread of the omicron variant, Sotomayor’s number was way off.
At the time she made this comment, federal data showed that fewer than 5,000 coronavirus-positive children were in the hospital. In fact, fewer than 83,000 children have been hospitalized for COVID-19 — cumulatively — since August 2020.
There are over 100,000 cases among children, but scientists say that few of those are severe.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
NEW: Justice Sonia Sotomayor said during oral arguments today that “we have over 100,000 children, which we’ve never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators” due to the coronavirus. That&#39;s False. <a href="https://t.co/9itoVd1s1L">https://t.co/9itoVd1s1L</a> <a href="https://t.co/zX8Nf6Bx8r">pic.twitter.com/zX8Nf6Bx8r</a>
&mdash; PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) <a href="https://twitter.com/PolitiFact/status/1479608835740508165?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 8, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Omicron is as deadly as delta and causes as much serious disease in the unvaccinated as delta did,&#8221; Sotomayor also claimed. &#8220;The numbers—look at the hospitalization rates going up. We have more infected people today than we did a year ago in January. We have hospitals that are almost at full capacity with people severely ill on ventilators. We have over 100,000 children, which we&#8217;ve never had before, in serious condition, and many on ventilators.'&#8221;
On Wednesday, White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/05/fauci-says-multiple-preliminary-studies-find-omicron-is-less-severe-than-delta.html">stated</a> that “multiple sources of now-preliminary data indicate a decrease severity with Omicron.”
The news comes as the U.S. has shattered global records this week for new daily coronavirus cases, despite Democrat President Joe Biden’s pledge to “shut down the virus.”
“No, I don’t think COVID is here to stay, but having COVID in the environment here and in the world is probably here to stay,” Biden <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/588748-biden-says-he-doesnt-think-covid-is-here-to-stay">said</a>. “COVID as we’re dealing with it now is not here to stay, the normal doesn’t have to be. We have so many more tools we developed and we continue to develop that can contain COVID and other strains of COVID.”
Biden’s comments about how he thinks coronavirus is not “here to stay” and that his administration can develop strategies to “contain” it do appear to challenge the advice that Biden was given by six experts this week.
Six former advisers who counseled him during the presidential transition <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/01/06/world/omicron-covid-vaccine-tests">wrote</a> this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association that it was time for Biden to change strategies to something geared toward living with the virus.
The CDC <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20210121045133/https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days">reported</a> that on January 20, 2021, at 1:16 p.m., there were 400,306 deaths recorded in the U.S. from the coronavirus. Biden <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/01/20/biden-constitutional-noon-sworn-in/">officially</a> became president of the United States at noon on that day.
Since then, the number of people who have died from coronavirus under Biden’s watch is now well over 429,000, according to <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesper100klast7days">recent</a> figures.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/high-school-teacher-charged-after-putting-child-in-trunk-of-car-over-fear-they-had-coronavirus-report">High School Teacher Charged After Putting Child In Trunk Of Car Over Fear They Had Coronavirus: Report</a>
This report has been updated to include additional information.

Supreme Court Justices Pose For Formal Group Photo

PolitiFact Slams Liberal Justice Sotomayor For Claiming 100K Kids In ‘Serious Condition’ With COVID

Sonia Sotomayor

Menu