Paradise News

Category: Fact Check

  • Pro-Haley PAC Misattributes Quote to DeSantis

    A TV ad from a political action committee that supports Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, accuses Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of “lying” — but then the ad goes on to make one false and another exaggerated claim about him.

    The ad, which is paid for by SFA Fund Inc., says “DeSantis called China ‘Florida’s most important trading partner,’” while displaying an image of DeSantis and the Chinese flag. But DeSantis didn’t say that. That quote is from the website of Enterprise Florida Inc., a quasi-government agency in Florida that is no longer active.

    The ad also exaggerates when it claims that DeSantis “allowed a Chinese military contractor to expand just miles from a U.S. Naval base,” citing a New York Post article. But that article is about the opening of a civilian flight training in Orlando, Florida. And the Post doesn’t say that DeSantis “allowed” the expansion, but rather that he didn’t speak out against it.

    An Air Attack in Iowa

    SFA Fund started airing the ad in Iowa on Jan. 1, according to the ad-tracking service Ad Impact. Iowa Republicans will caucus on Jan. 15 — the first caucus of the 2024 presidential campaign. Polls show former President Donald Trump far ahead of his rivals in Iowa, with Haley and DeSantis battling for second.

    The ad reprises a similar claim about Florida and China trade relations that Haley made during the third Republican primary debate on Nov. 8 in Miami.

    “Ron, you are the chair of your economic development agency that as of last week said Florida is the ideal place for Chinese businesses,” Haley said at that debate.

    As we wrote at the time, it’s true that DeSantis was the chairman of the board of directors for Enterprise Florida, an economic development agency that was created in 1996. But the agency was dissolved in May, when DeSantis signed legislation that moved its responsibilities and resources into the Department of Economic Opportunity, which was renamed the Department of Commerce.

    As far back as 2021, Enterprise Florida’s now-defunct website had said, “China remains Florida’s most important trading partner and export destination in the region.”

    The SFA Fund, however, wrongly attributes those words to DeSantis — instead of the now-defunct Enterprise Florida.

    Also, Florida was already a top trading partner with China before DeSantis took office in January 2019.

    In 2016, Florida (and 21 other states) imported more goods from China than any other country, according to a Business Insider article based on Census Bureau data. In 2022, China remained Florida’s top country for imported goods, according to SelectFlorida, which says on its website that it was created last year as Florida’s “official international trade and investment promotion agency.”

    The ad also claims that DeSantis “allowed a Chinese military contractor to expand just miles from a U.S. Naval base.” The ad cites a New York Post article about the expansion of Cirrus Aircraft — which is a subsidiary of the state-owned Aviation Industry Corporation of China, or AVIC.

    In October 2022, Cirrus opened two new locations in Central Florida, including a training facility at Orlando Executive Airport — which the Post says is located “12.7 miles away from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division.” The Navy describes the training systems division as “the Navy’s principal center for modeling, simulation and training systems technologies.”

    But the Post doesn’t say that DeSantis “allowed” the expansion to occur. It says that DeSantis “stayed quiet” about the expansion. In fact, the Post also notes that “Florida has not provided any taxpayer subsidies or other incentives to Cirrus or its parent company.”

    The ad seemingly refers to Cirrus Aircraft as “a Chinese military contractor,” but as we said the company’s Orlando Executive Airport location provides civilian flight training — which the company also does in Tennessee, Texas and Arizona. Instead, the ad is referring to AVIC, the parent company of Cirrus Aircraft. AVIC is identified by the U.S. government as a Chinese military company. The Biden administration prohibited U.S. investments in AVIC and other Chinese “companies that undermine the security or democratic values of the United States and our allies.”

    Cirrus was a U.S. company until it merged with the state-owned Chinese firm in 2011.

    Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, 202 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. 

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  • Fact Check: El Dr. Sanjay Gupta no creo un medicamento para el dolor articular, ni fue atacado en televisión

    ¿Es verdad que el Noticiero Univision reportó que un doctor fue agredido por crear una medicina para el dolor articular? No te dejes engañar, eso no pasó. Las imágenes de hombres golpeándose y otros tratando de separarlos no son por un remedio para las articulaciones. 

    Un video en Facebook muestra a la periodista María Elena Salinas supuestamente reportando en Univision sobre “un atentado contra la vida de un reumatólogo”.

    La publicación del 28 de diciembre muestra al Dr. Sanjay Gupta, con moretones en la cara, aparentemente dando una entrevista. Gupta es un neurocirujano y corresponsal médico jefe de CNN. En el video en Facebook, Gupta supuestamente dice, “le garantizo que mi nuevo producto, le ayudará a deshacerse del dolor de rodillas, espalda y brazos, para siempre en solo tres días, en 14 días sus articulaciones y huesos estarán absolutamente sanos”.

    El subtítulo del video dice: Dr. Sanjay Gupta: “Hablaré a todo el mundo de este medicamento aunque me cueste la vida”.

    La publicación fue marcada como parte del esfuerzo de Meta para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Meta, propietaria de Facebook e Instagram).

    Pero lo que alega la publicación es falso. El video no muestra a Gupta siendo atacado. Salinas no reportó sobre este supuesto atentado. Las voces de Salinas y Gupta fueron alteradas, y las imágenes de la pelea, entrevista y reporte fueron presentadas fuera de contexto, ya que pertenecen a otros sucesos. El video también muestra a Gupta con un moretón en la cara, pero esa imagen fue alterada, ya que él no sale con el moretón en la entrevista original. 

    El Noticiero Univision no mostró una lucha por una revolución médica. Hicimos una búsqueda de imagen inversa y encontramos que las imágenes son de un programa de televisión ruso del 2018 en donde discutían temas políticos. 

    El video de Salinas reportando sobre un atentado contra un reumatólogo fue alterado. El video original es del 2017, en el cual ella anunció su partida de Univision para trabajar como periodista independiente. 

    La entrevista que muestra a Gupta hablando de su supuesto producto que cura las articulaciones, no fue hecha por Univision, ni tampoco muestra a Gupta hablando sobre un producto nuevo. La voz en la publicación en Facebook fue alterada, la entrevista original fue hecha por CBS News en el 2021 donde Gupta da consejos para luchar contra la demencia. En esta también se nota a Gupta con la cara libre de moretones, confirmando que el moretón en el video en Facebook es falso. 

    PolitiFact no encontró reportes o evidencia verídica de que Gupta haya desarrollado una medicina para curar las articulaciones.

    Calificamos la declaración de que un video muestra “un atentado” contra Gupta por crear un nuevo medicamento para el dolor articular como Falsa. 

    Lea más reportes de PolitiFact en Español aquí.

    Debido a limitaciones técnicas, partes de nuestra página web aparecen en inglés. Estamos trabajando en mejorar la presentación.



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  • Tell It Like It Is PAC

    Political Leanings: Republican/Pro-Chris Christie

    2022 total spending: N/A

    Tell It Like It Is is a super PAC backing former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in the Republican presidential primary.

    Super PACs are independent expenditure-only political action committees that spend money on communications that expressly advocate the election or defeat of a candidate. Such committees can receive unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, labor unions and other PACs, but they cannot coordinate their communications directly with campaigns or political parties.

    On its website, Tell It Like It Is describes Christie as “Bold. Blunt. Unafraid.” The super PAC’s name is similar to Christie’s 2016 presidential campaign slogan, and the group also states that Christie “fights for what really matters” including reform on corruption, taxes, crime, child trafficking and the opioid crisis.

    Brian Jones, an adviser to past presidential campaigns for Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney, runs the super PAC. It is co-chaired by Republican National Committeeman William J. Palatucci, a former Christie campaign aide who is also from New Jersey. 

    Tell It Like It Is had raised $5.9 million, as of June 30, according to the Federal Election Commission. The largest contribution, $1 million, came from Blue Star Investments Inc., a growth equity firm based in Texas. The super PAC also received a $500,000 contribution from Defending Democracy Together, a conservative initiative that opposes former President Donald Trump.

    As of Jan. 4, the super PAC has spent more than $1.9 million on broadcast and digital ads, according to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising. Many of the ads highlight the reasons the group believes Christie should be president. But some of the ads, over $1 million worth, according to AdImpact, have either attacked or drawn a contrast with Trump, who is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination.

    Since launching his campaign in June, Christie has been one of the only GOP primary candidates regularly speaking out against Trump.

    In early October, Tell It Like It Is reportedly paid to send mailers to New Hampshire’s Democratic voters, encouraging them to switch their voter registration so they could vote for Christie in the state’s Jan. 23, 2024, GOP primary and “make sure” Trump “never sees the inside of the Oval Office again.”

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  • Fact Check: Video does not show Trump promising to defer student loans if reelected in 2024

    An Instagram post claims to show former President Donald Trump promising enticing economic moves if he wins the 2024 presidential election.

    “Trump plans if he gets re-elected for president 2024” reads text at the top of the video post that then cuts to footage of Trump speaking at the White House.

    “I will be deferring payments on student loans at zero interest until further notice,” Trump says in the video. “And on the payroll tax, we’ll be terminating the payroll tax after I, hopefully, get elected. We’ll be terminating the payroll tax. We will be, on the assumption I win, we are going to be terminating the payroll tax after the beginning of the new year.”

    The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    But the video is from Aug. 12, 2020, when Trump was still president and seeking reelection. It shows him announcing relief for student loan borrowers during the coronavirus pandemic’s height.

    Trump lost the 2020 election to current President Joe Biden.

    Although the student loan payment deferral continued well into the Biden administration, the payroll tax cut was less successful. Many employees and companies didn’t follow the directive to stop withholding the tax that helps to fund Social Security, The New York Times reported.

    In 2022, the Biden administration proposed forgiving up to $20,000 for low income borrowers and $10,000 for most other borrowers. But in June 2023, the Supreme Court struck down the plan, ruling that the administration lacked the power to forgive the loans.

    Since leaving office, Trump has described Biden’s student loan relief package as “unfair.” 

    We rate the claim that this video shows Trump promising to pause student loan payments and cancel payroll taxes if reelected in 2024 False.



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  • Future Forward USA PAC (FF PAC)

    Political leanings: Democratic

    2022 total spending: $31.2 million

    Future Forward USA PAC, legally known as FF PAC, is a liberal political action committee created in 2018, ahead of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.

    The group is what’s known as a hybrid PAC or Carey committee. That means it “has the ability to operate both as a traditional PAC, contributing funds to a candidate’s committee, and as a super PAC, which makes independent expenditures,” according to OpenSecrets. Carey committees must have separate bank accounts for those purposes.

    FF PAC was established by Future Forward USA Action, a liberal advocacy group that says its mission is “to help rebuild America’s middle class — and American democracy — by advancing new ideas and fresh perspectives.”

    Chauncey McLean, who previously served as director of media tracking for the Democratic Party in 2012, is the hybrid PAC’s president. McLean’s strategy during the 2012 election “revolutionized political ad buying” by using data to target ads to the most persuadable voters, according to the New York Times.

    In July, the Times also reported that FF PAC has become the Biden-Harris reelection campaign’s preferred super PAC, ahead of Priorities USA Action, which had been a main outside group supporting Democratic presidential candidates in past elections.

    As of June 30, FF PAC had raised just over $67,000 for the 2024 election cycle, and about $56,000 of that was contributed by Future Forward USA Action, which, as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, can raise unlimited amounts of money without disclosing its donors. Filings with the Federal Election Commission also show that for the 2020 presidential and 2022 midterm campaign cycles, FF PAC raised a combined $182 million, with more than $77 million coming from its parent organization.

    In the 2020 and 2022 elections, the PAC also spent $182 million, including about $158 million on independent expenditures, which are communications that “expressly advocate” the election or defeat of a specific candidate. According to the ad-tracking service AdImpact, FF PAC paid to run just one ad in 2023 – a 30-second spot encouraging Virginia voters to support Democrats in the November 2023 elections.

    So far, much of the pro-Biden advertising in the 2024 cycle has come from Future Forward USA Action, which spent at least $14.8 million to run 86 different ads last year, according to AdImpact’s figures. During the last presidential election, the advocacy group spent about $28 million on “advertising and promotions,” according to its tax filings for 2019 and 2020.

    FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Hadleigh Zinsner contributed to this article.

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  • Fact Check: Super PAC supporting Nikki Haley says Ron DeSantis praised China, but he didn’t

    China has become an all-purpose target for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who have been battling in Iowa and New Hampshire to become front-runner Donald Trump’s main challenger.

    The latest example comes in an ad from a pro-Haley super PAC. The ad from SFA Fund began airing in Iowa on Dec. 28 and accuses DeSantis of trying to court China on behalf of his state. (SFA is short for “Stand for America Inc.” By law, the political action committee must operate independently of Haley’s campaign.) 

    The ad says DeSantis is complicit in “allowing a Chinese military contractor to expand” near a U.S. naval base, which is similar to an allegation by another candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, that we rated Half True. The ad also includes clips of Haley being praised by cable news anchors for talking tough on China.

    At one point, the ad says DeSantis “called China ‘Florida’s most important trading partner.’”

    China is Florida’s top country for imports. (Exports are another story.) But the statement appeared on a state agency’s website; it wasn’t something DeSantis said.

    The pro-Haley PAC cites as evidence that Enterprise Florida was tasked with recruiting companies to the state, and DeSantis, as governor, was its board chair. 

    “As chairman, and more importantly as governor, Ron DeSantis is responsible for setting the course for how the organization, and by large the state, draws business to the state — and during his first term, 2018-2022, that included establishing a solid, positive, working relationship with China,” Brittany Yanick, an SFA Fund spokesperson, told PolitiFact. 

    But in addition to not saying those words directly, DeSantis has distanced his state from China  since launching his presidential bid. He also signed a bill into law that dissolved Enterprise Florida and reassigned its recruitment efforts. That’s more nuance than the ad presents.

    What was Enterprise Florida?

    Enterprise Florida was created in 1996 to help bring companies and jobs to Florida. Its dissolution followed years of accusations that the agency had overpromised on job creation, despite having a big budget. The legislation shifted Enterprise Florida’s contracts to the state’s new Commerce Department and created Select Florida, a new entity to recruit international business.

    The wording that SFA’s ad attributed to DeSantis came from an Enterprise Florida webpage about partnerships in Asia: “China remains Florida’s most important trading partner and export destination in the region, but commercial ties with India, Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries in South East Asia have grown significantly in recent years.” 

    But other archived Enterprise Florida webpages show the agency was also backing away from China. 

    In the group’s 2021-22 annual report, the agency said Florida’s international trade team was “working with partners in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, and Mexico to lure more manufacturing away from China and bring supply chains closer to home and into Florida.”

    The archived webpage shows that the language dates back to at least April 2021. The timing of the language’s removal is unclear; the entire website was taken down in November 2023.

    Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary from the governor’s office, dismissed criticism related to Enterprise Florida as “old documents, old links.” 

    Redfern said the governor’s office realized in 2020 how extensively Enterprise Florida was engaged with Chinese trade and directed the agency to sever ties with Chinese companies. Redfern said former Florida Gov. Rick Scott, DeSantis’ predecessor and fellow Republican, was in office when incentive agreements with Chinese companies were approved and when Enterprise Florida contractors set up offices in places such as Beijing and Hong Kong. 

    As governor, DeSantis encouraged and signed legislation in 2023 that prevents Chinese Communist Party affiliates from buying farmland or land near Florida military bases and blocks the Chinese-owned app TikTok on government devices. Florida in 2021 also banned the Chinese Communist Party-funded Confucius Institutes at state universities and colleges. (The institutes taught Chinese language and culture.)

    The SFA Fund gave no examples of DeSantis making a similar claim earlier in his political career.

    Florida’s leading trading partners

    There’s some truth that China is a key trading partner for Florida.

    According to U.S. Commerce Department data, Florida in 2022 imported $13.9 billion in goods from China, well ahead of second-place Mexico, with $9.6 billion. The top category for Florida imports from China in 2022 was computer and electronic products, at about $4.4 billion.

    Beyond Florida, China also ranks No. 1 in imports for 13 other states —  politically red (Arkansas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee) and politically blue (California, New Jersey and New York). For an additional 19 states, China ranked No. 2 for imported goods.

    China’s trade dominance in Florida goes one way. China doesn’t crack the list of Florida’s top five export markets; in descending order, Florida’s exports go to Brazil, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Colombia.

    This mirrors the situation in most of the rest of the U.S. Only four states count China as their top destination for exports. Three states (Alaska, Oregon and Washington) are on the Pacific Rim. A fourth, Louisiana, is, like Alaska, a major oil producer.

    Our ruling

    The SFA Fund said DeSantis “called China ‘Florida’s most important trading partner.’”

    We found no evidence in news reports or statements that DeSantis said this about Florida’s biggest trading partner for imported goods. The quote came from the website of Enterprise Florida, the state’s former business-recruitment agency that DeSantis liquidated in 2023.

    We rate the statement False.



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  • American Values 2024

    Political leanings: Pro-Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    2022 total spending: N/A

    American Values 2024, formerly the People’s Pharma Movement, is a hybrid political action committee supporting independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign.

    As a hybrid PAC, the group can function both as a super PAC, raising unlimited funds for independent expenditures, and as a traditional political action committee, giving money to candidates directly. It must have separate bank accounts for each purpose.

    The group was co-founded in 2022 by Mark Gorton, CEO of Tower Research Capital and creator of file-sharing platform LimeWire, and Tony Lyons, head of independent book publishing company SkyHorse Publishing. Gorton and Lyons serve as co-chairs of the PAC.

    Both Gorton and Lyons have been affiliated with Kennedy in the past. Gorton told CNBC in May that, in 2021, he donated $1 million to Children’s Health Defense, a Kennedy-run nonprofit that frequently spreads anti-vaccine misinformation. Meanwhile, Lyons has published several of Kennedy’s books, including “The Real Anthony Fauci” and “A Letter to Liberals.”

    In a July blog post on the aims of the PAC, Gorton wrote, “In addition to traditional efforts to get the word out and build support for RFK Jr. among the electorate, American Values 2024 will be running campaigns that focus on the forces of structural corruption which resist the reforms that RFK Jr. offers.” The PAC’s website adds that American Values 2024 will “help restore the soul of democracy to America by taking back our political system from corporate interests.”

    The group had raised nearly $9.8 million, as of June 30, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission. Timothy Mellon, a billionaire descendant of the Mellon banking family, contributed $5 million to the PAC – after donating to a pro-Donald Trump committee in 2020. Celebrity security consultant Gavin de Becker – who has donated to both Republican and Democratic candidates in the past – contributed $4.5 million to American Values 2024.

    Other contributors include prominent Democratic donor Abby Rockefeller, Lyons’ Skyhorse Publishing and tech entrepreneur Steve Kirsch, who frequently spreads vaccine misinformation.

    American Values 2024 stated in an August press release that it had raised an additional $6 million in July. Then, when Kennedy – who began his presidential campaign in the Democratic primary – announced in October that he would be running as an independent, the PAC reportedly received an additional $11 million in contributions.

    The group says it plans to spend between $10 million and $15 million to make sure Kennedy is on the ballot in at least 10 states, including swing states, where ballot access for independent candidates can be difficult.

    According to OpenSecrets, as of Nov. 13, American Values had spent about $823,000 on independent expenditures made in support of Kennedy — including several newspaper ads.

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  • Fact Check: No, Hillary Clinton didn’t blame Epstein’s death, 2016 election on climate change

    Climate change has caused glaciers and ice sheets to shrink, heat waves to intensify and natural disasters, such as wildfires, to become more frequent. But in a video circulating social media, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to blame climate change for more than these environmental effects.

    A Dec. 17 Instagram reel shows a clip of Clinton speaking at an event. “Climate change is real everybody,” she supposedly says in the video before blaming climate change for everything from her husband’s infidelity to Jeffrey Epstein’s death.

    “Those hard drives got destroyed because of climate change,” she appears to say in the video. “My husband flew to Epstein’s island 40 times because of climate change. I lost the 2016 election because of climate change. My husband cheated on me because of climate change. … Even Jeffrey Epstein died because of climate change. It wasn’t me. It was definitely climate change.”

    (Screengrab from Instagram)

    This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    While the clip sounds like Clinton, the audio doesn’t match up with Clinton’s lips as she speaks, indicating the video was edited.

    In the Instagram video, the United Nations’ logo for its 28th Conference of the Parties, aka COP28, can be seen behind Clinton. A reverse-image search confirmed the clip was taken from a Dec. 4 panel during the 2023 global climate change summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

    In the original footage, Clinton does not mention Epstein, the 2016 election or her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Rather, she and her fellow panelists discussed women’s role in building a climate-resilient world.

    The Instagram post took the clip of Clinton from around the 48-minute mark of the hourlong discussion. In the authentic video, Clinton spoke about women and girls being disproportionately affected by natural disasters, particularly extreme heat.

    Every year hundreds of thousands of people worldwide die from extreme heat, Clinton said during the panel. “And the majority of those are women and girls, and particularly pregnant women who have special challenges in extreme heat,” she said.

    Clinton did not blame various events, including her 2016 election loss and Epstein’s death, on climate change. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!



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  • Americans for Prosperity

    Political leanings: Conservative/Libertarian

    2022 total spending: $79.8 million for the hybrid PAC alone

    Americans for Prosperity, a “social welfare” organization, along with Americans for Prosperity Action and Americans for Prosperity Foundation are conservative/libertarian groups heavily financed by Koch Industries, which is owned largely by billionaire Charles Koch.

    The company, originally an oil refinery, expanded into energy, finance, agriculture and technology. In 2023, it had estimated revenue of $125 billion, according to Forbes.

    Americans for Prosperity says it “believes freedom and opportunity are the keys to unleashing prosperity for all.” The issues it focuses on are economic progress, health care, education, criminal justice, free speech and immigration.

    Since 2017, Emily Seidel, the former director of special projects at Koch Companies Public Sector, has been the chief executive officer of AFP, which is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. That means it can operate for the “promotion of social welfare” and can’t spend more than half of its budget on political activities. It does not have to disclose its donors.

    AFP Foundation, a related public charity, is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3).

    AFP Action, which was established in September 2018, is registered with the Federal Election Commission as a hybrid political committee. Hybrid PACs can operate as a traditional political action committee, contributing money to candidates directly, and as a super PAC, which can collect unlimited donations for the purpose of funding independent expenditures. There must be separate bank accounts for each function.

    In June 2019, AFP added four issue-specific PACs to its network: Uniting for Economic Opportunity, Uniting for Free Expression, Uniting for Free Trade and Uniting for Immigration Reform. These PACs can contribute directly to candidates. However, the four traditional PACs, after raising about $120,000 in 2020, received less than $1,000 in 2022 and had not collected any money in 2023 as of Oct. 5, according to the FEC.

    On the other hand, AFP Action, the hybrid PAC, had raised almost $78 million as of June. That is nearly as much as the $78.5 million it raised during the 2022 midterms, and significantly more than the over $60 million it raised during the 2020 presidential election.

    More than half of AFP Action’s 2023 haul so far came from two donors: Koch Industries and Stand Together Chamber of Commerce, another nonprofit connected to Charles Koch. Both organizations contributed $25 million.

    Other large donors include Rob and Jim Walton, brothers and heirs to the Walmart fortune, who gave $5 million each, and Wayne Laufer, the retired co-founder and CEO of oil and natural gas company Bois d’Arc Energy Inc., who donated $2 million.

    In late November, AFP Action endorsed Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. “Nikki Haley has a positive vision for America that can unite our nation and restore the American Dream,” the group says on its website.

    Since then, the group had put more than $6.4 million into independent expenditures — such as digital ads — in support of Haley, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets, which researches campaign spending. In addition, it has spent $18 million opposing President Joe Biden, the Democratic incumbent, and former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

    The group also is expected to be active in congressional races. It already has announced endorsements of several Republican candidates, including retired Army Capt. Sam Brown in Nevada’s U.S. Senate race and former Bridgewater Associates CEO David McCormick in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race.

    In the 2022 midterms, AFP Action spent roughly $79.8 million in total — and about $69.5 million of that was on independent expenditures that expressly advocated for or against congressional candidates, according to OpenSecrets. The super PAC spent $63.5 million supporting Republicans, while almost $5.6 million was used to target Democrats.

    Staff Writer D’Angelo Gore contributed to this article.

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  • Fact Check: T-Mobile isn’t fining its customers over text messages. Here’s what’s happening.

    Wireless carrier T-Mobile wants other companies to stop spamming its customers with prohibited text messages. But now the cellphone giant’s effort to crack down on that activity is being falsely portrayed as an attempt to censor its customers.

    “Breaking news, right here in Joe Biden’s America,” a man said in a Dec. 25 TikTok video. “He’s allowing major cellphone provider T-Mobile to read your private text messages and fine you up to $3,500 if you say mean things they don’t like.”

    The man described T-Mobile’s plan as “SHAFT,” an acronym for “sex, hate, alcohol, firearms and tobacco” and said the company was going to “target conservatives” for texts that fall within those categories.

    Other videos made similar claims.

    A woman in a Dec. 26 Instagram video said, “T-Mobile has just updated their terms of service, and now if you post any content they don’t agree with, they will fine you.” 

    Another Instagram video went further, falsely tying T-Mobile’s efforts to a defense bill Biden signed in December that extended for four months a controversial spying program, Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). That program deals with how the intelligence community can get information from foreign targets who use U.S. communication service providers.

    “T-Mobile has silently slipped into their new (terms of service) a policy that says that if you’re talking about anything that they dislike in your text messages, your social media platforms, or otherwise that they are going to fine you because they can legally do that now because of this defense act that President Biden passed to spy on American citizens,” a man in that video said.

    We found other social media posts making the same claim about T-Mobile’s plans.

    These posts were flagged by Meta as part of its platforms’ efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed and by TikTok as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about our partnerships with Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, and TikTok.)

    (TikTok screenshot)

    T-Mobile isn’t poring over your private text messages, looking for posts it doesn’t agree with, the company said. What’s really happening?

    Starting Jan. 1, T-Mobile began implementing new fines for non-compliant A2P text messaging. A2P stands for application to person messaging — or text messages sent by businesses to a person’s phone.

    These fines don’t apply to personal users; they target only third-party messaging vendors that send commercial mass messaging campaigns for other businesses, T-Mobile said in a Jan. 3 statement to PolitiFact. Such vendors may be fined if their content doesn’t meet standards in T-Mobile’s code of conduct, which is meant to protect consumers from such content and complies with federal and state laws, the statement said.

    The company doesn’t censor or review content in customers’ personal messages, the statement said. It filters out unwanted texts that could have malware or other malicious activities, it said.

    According to a post by Vonage, a cloud communications provider that uses T-Mobile’s network, companies that violate the standards could face fines of $500 to $2,000, depending on the violation. The most expensive fine is for violations that include phishing and social engineering, a practice used to try to get consumers to reveal personal information, such as credit card numbers, the article said.

    Illegal or prohibited content is defined in section five of T-Mobile’s code of conduct for commercial messaging.

    The standards in T-Mobile’s code of conduct are not new and follow those set by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association. The CTIA describes SHAFT content as “content that contains or promotes sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, or tobacco.”

    None of these fines are mentioned in T-Mobile’s terms of services for customers, contrary to the social media posts. Those terms were last updated in May 2023.

    The claim that T-Mobile is fining consumers for text messages it doesn’t like twists a new policy setting fines for businesses that send prohibited messages to consumers. The claim is False.



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