Former President Donald Trump said he wants young voters to know that “Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok.” But a TikTok ban enjoys broad bipartisan support in Congress. Trump himself tried to ban TikTok as president through an executive order, but it was blocked by the courts. A House bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to divest or face a U.S. ban overwhelmingly passed the House 360-58 on April 20, with the support of 186 Republicans and 174 Democrats. The bill was introduced by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, who ..read more

While the risks associated with COVID-19 generally have decreased over time due to prior exposure to the vaccines and the virus, some people remain at elevated risk, such as the elderly and immunocompromised. The updated COVID-19 vaccines and, in some cases, a new monoclonal antibody can provide increased protection for this group. “At this point, many people have had multiple vaccines and we are seeing a lot less severe and life-threatening illness, especially in people who have had recent vaccination,” Dr. Camille Kotton, clinical director of Transplant and Immunocompro ..read more

Political leanings: Democratic 2022 total spending: $181.6 million The House Majority PAC was founded in April 2011 by Alixandria Lapp, a former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official. In 2023, Lapp stepped down as the political action committee’s president and was succeeded by political strategist Mike Smith, who was most recently a senior adviser to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Abby Curran Horrell, a former chief of staff for Democratic Rep. Ann McLean Kuster, is the PAC’s executive director. The House Majority PAC was one of several PACs formed by Democrats in response ..read more

While former President Donald Trump spent much of his week in court, President Joe Biden visited the swing state of Pennsylvania for three days and gave speeches in Scranton, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. We flagged some false and misleading claims, including several common talking points: Biden twisted Trump’s words about the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “Remember when he told us, literally, inject bleach?” Trump suggested having scientists test the use of “very powerful light” and “disinfectant” in the body to kill the disease. He didn’t tell people to “inject bleach.” Biden got ahead of hi ..read more

On the first day of his criminal fraud trial in New York, former President Donald Trump requested that the judge not hold court proceedings on May 17 — the day of his youngest son’s high school graduation. The judge did not rule on the request, saying he preferred to wait to see how the trial unfolds. But the Trump family and conservative commentators — relying on the former president’s confusing and contradictory remarks about his request — wrongly attacked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan for banning or prohibiting the defendant from attending Barron Trump’s graduation from Oxbri ..read more

Para leer en español, vea esta traducción de Google Translate. SciCheck Digest O.J. Simpson, a football star who was acquitted in the murder of his ex-wife and her friend, died of cancer on April 10 at age 76. Misinformation spread online within hours of the news. Social media posts falsely claimed that the cancer was related to his COVID-19 vaccination. Simpson was vaccinated, but there is no evidence that vaccination causes cancer or that it was to blame for his death. Full Story Conspiracy theorists and vaccine opponents quickly spun the death of O.J. Simpson into anti-vaccination fodder ..read more

Para leer en español, vea esta traducción de Google Translate. Quick Take A claim on social media misrepresents the number of people who have registered to vote in three states in 2024 and suggests the new voters are immigrants in the country illegally. There have been 194,000 newly registered voters in those states — not 2 million — and there’s no evidence they are immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Full Story About 194,000 new voters have registered since the beginning of 2024 in three states — Pennsylvania, Arizona and Texas. That’s in line with the number of new re ..read more

Para leer en español, vea esta traducción de Google Translate. We’ve fact-checked a lot of claims from the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees — after all, they’re the same two men who faced off in 2020. Some of President Joe Biden’s and former President Donald Trump’s assertions are well-worn talking points they will likely continue to trot out on the campaign trail. As a primer for the 2024 election, here’s our guide to the top 10 falsehoods and distortions — so far — in terms of Trump’s and Biden’s propensity to repeat them. No ‘Rigged Election’ At just about every ..read more

In a video statement outlining his position on abortion, former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that “all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and in fact demanded” that Roe v. Wade “be ended.” Legal scholars told us that was “utter nonsense” and “patently absurd.” Roe, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, was overturned by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022, by a 5-4 ruling in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concerned a Mississippi law. Legal scholars wrote many amicus briefs in that case supporting Roe and oppos ..read more

Political leanings: Pro-cryptocurrency 2022 Spending: N/A Fairshake, its website says, is a super PAC that “supports candidates committed to securing the United States as the home to innovators building the next generation of the internet.” It generally supports politicians who back policies favorable to the cryptocurrency industry. The group registered with the Federal Election Commission in 2023, and it is financially supported by some of the most influential companies and executives in the digital currency sector. As a super PAC, it can receive unlimited financial contributions from donors ..read more