Paradise News

Category: Fact Check

  • Fact Check: Could Trump take McCarthy’s place as House speaker? Technically, yes, but don’t count on it

    Now that Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has been deposed as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, could former President Donald Trump take his place? That’s what some House Republicans have said they’d like to see. 

    Soon after McCarthy’s Oct. 3 ouster — made possible by eight votes from members of his own Republican conference — Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, said that once the chamber is back in session, he intends to “nominate Donald J. Trump for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

    Another Republican House member, Greg Steube of Florida, posted on X, “@realDonaldTrump for Speaker.” And Fox News host Sean Hannity told viewers Oct. 3 that “some House Republicans” had “been in contact with and have started an effort to draft” Trump as speaker.

    The following day, Trump himself didn’t rule out the prospect. “A lot of people have been calling me about speaker,” he said outside the New York City courthouse, where he faces a civil trial involving his business holdings. “All I can say is we will do whatever is best for the country and other Republican Party and people.”

    It’s technically possible that Trump could assume the role, experts say. But as a practical matter, it’s highly unlikely. 

    “A speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress,” John Fortier, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told PolitiFact in 2021. “That said, we have never elected a speaker from outside the House. But it is constitutionally permissible.”

    Long before the possibility of a Trump speakership, the notion of a non-House member speaker has been catnip for journalists and other politicos, who have engaged in parlor games about which major figure might be able to whip the institution into shape. But this scenario has never come close to fruition and has become something of a running joke among Washington, D.C., insiders. 

    “There will never, ever be a speaker who is not a member of the House,” Punchbowl News’ John Bresnahan posted on X. “It’s never gonna happen. Move on.”

    Congressional rules about indictments

    One potential hiccup emerged, but it doesn’t seem to be a significant barrier. 

    Replying to a post on X citing Hannity’s comment about the push for a Trump speakership, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., shared a screenshot, saying, “I would direct your attention to rule 26(a) of the House Republican Conference rules for the 118th Congress.” 

    That provision says, “A member of the Republican Leadership shall step aside if indicted for a felony for which a sentence of two or more years imprisonment may be imposed.” 

    Trump is facing four separate indictments, two in federal cases and two in state cases. In just one of those cases, involving documents he’s charged with keeping after his presidency, one Espionage Act charge alone carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. Other charges, such as conspiracy to obstruct justice, could bring a sentence of up to 20 years.

    However, experts said the rule cited by Casten likely would not be a significant barrier to Trump taking the speaker role.

    The House Republican Conference’s rules can be changed fairly easily by an internal vote that doesn’t require any input from House Democrats. 

    In addition, the House Republican Conference rules could be trumped, to coin a phrase, by the fact that the speaker is not only a leader of the majority party, but also an officer of the House of Representatives.

    While the House’s majority party is typically able to install its speaker of choice because it holds the majority of the chamber’s votes, the speaker of the House is formally elected by the full House, with a Republican nominee facing off against a Democratic nominee. Even though speakers direct their party’s strategy and tactics in the chamber, they are also officers of the House as a whole. Given this role, being an officer of the House might take precedence.

    So, what do the House rules say? One X user entered the fray by posting screenshots of the House rules for the 118th Congress, which say a party leader who’s indicted “should” resign, rather than the more definitive “shall.”

    Still, the unusual status of the speaker — part party leader, part institution leader — isn’t explicitly addressed in the House rules.

    Is the scenario realistic?

    There are lots of reasons why a Trump speakership is far-fetched in a real-world sense.

    First, Trump already has a lot on his plate. Not only is he defending himself in four criminal trials and the civil trial, but he’s also running for president. (Not to mention managing the rest of his business empire.) 

    The speakership is a job filled with constant tasks both big and small. “It requires that you actually get to the office at a reasonable hour and deal with the kinds of factional disputes that he would rather fuel, rather than settle,” said C. Lawrence Evans, a College of William & Mary professor of government.

    It’s also unclear whether Trump could win a speakership election, despite the loyalty he inspires among Republican leaders and voters. 

    If Trump gets as far as a full House vote as the Republican nominee, it would take only a handful of Republican defectors to deliver the election to the expected Democratic nominee, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. This is not an idle threat, given that there are 18 House Republicans serving in districts won by Joe Biden in 2020 who would think long and hard before voting for Trump for speaker.

    PolitiFact Staff Writer Amy Sherman contributed to this report.



    Source

  • Fact Check: Facebook posts – No metal detector needed. Magnetic meat is not for sale in the U.S.

    Social media users are telling consumers to think twice about buying meats from grocery store coolers, suggesting the meats contain dangerous substances.

    An Aug. 6 Facebook video shows a person putting a small magnet on top of packaged beef and claiming the magnet is sticking to the meat because it contains metal.

    The video also suggests this supposed magnetic beef is linked to lab-grown, or cultivated from cells, meat. The captions reads, “Lab grown meat approved for sale in America.”

    The person in the video also referred to lab-grown meat.

    “Now that they’ve given the OK to sell lab-grown meat in the United States, I figured it would be time to return to Walmart and see if they’re still selling magnetic meat with this tiny, very strong rare-earth magnet. And right away, I found that it’s still magnetic,” the person says.

    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.)

    Screengrab from Facebook

    Keep those magnets on the refrigerator — there’s no evidence grocery store meat is magnetic.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service works to ensure that meat, poultry and eggs are safe to eat and properly labeled.

    Meat and poultry establishments must have a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system “to prevent, eliminate or reduce to a safe level any biological, chemical or physical hazard that is reasonably likely to occur in the product,” an agency spokesperson told PolitiFact in a written statement.

    Metal pieces are a physical hazard. Many establishments install metal detectors or X-ray devices to screen their products for unexpected metal pieces. Food Safety and Inspection Service employees also conduct regular inspections to ensure products are safe for consumption.

    The magnet in the video may be sticking to the packaged meat because of the meat’s texture or moisture or the angle at which the package is held. But that doesn’t mean it contains metal, a statement from the Food Safety and Inspection Service said.

    Meat and poultry with the USDA inspection marker have been assessed for safety, wholesomeness and proper labeling, the statement said.

    The Facebook post also mentions lab-grown meat, but currently cell-cultured meat is not sold in U.S. stores.

    Cell-cultured meat is typically made by growing animal cells — which come from the tissues of living animals or a “bank” of stored cells — in steel tanks. Cultivated meat is harvested and prepared using conventional food processing and packaging methods, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

    In June, the USDA gave Upside Foods and Good Meat permission to offer cell-cultivated chicken and meats. Both companies began by putting the products on the menu at restaurants owned by famous chefs.

    The two companies also received FDA safety clearance to sell chicken directly grown from animal cells. Cell-cultivated beef or seafood has not been approved for sale.

    FDA spokesperson Veronika Pfaeffle said that based on the manufacturing methods for these foods “there is no scientific reason or credible basis to expect that food products produced with animal cells would be magnetic.”

    Lab-grown meat must adhere to the same safety requirements as all other foods, Pfaeffle said.

    We rate the claim that a video shows magnetic meat for sale in U.S. grocery stores False.

  • Fact Check: Ron DeSantis exaggerates number of migrants in US illegally under President Joe Biden

    Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently vowed that, if elected president, he will deport all migrants who have entered the U.S. illegally under President Joe Biden.

    “Everyone that has come illegally under Biden, we gotta, we’ll send them back. That’s going to be first priority,” DeSantis said at a Sept. 29 campaign event in California. “That’s probably 6 or 7 million people right there. It’s going to require a lot of effort.”

    But DeSantis is conflating the number of times border patrol agents have encountered migrants at the border with the number of migrants who entered and remain in the country, an error also made by others who previously vied for the Republican presidential nomination.

    When contacted for comment, DeSantis’ campaign pointed us to his immigration policy, which outlines broad plans to handle deportations, including hiring “more border patrol agents and more removal agents” and allowing “ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations officers to do their jobs.”

    What is not reflected in DeSantis’ figure

    U.S. Customs and Border Patrol data shows that the figures DeSantis cited are close to the nationwide number of migrant encounters at and between ports of entry since Biden took office. But that figure doesn’t show how many migrants remained in the U.S.

    Biden was inaugurated Jan. 20, 2021. From February 2021 through August 2023, there were about 7.2 million encounters across all points of entry nationwide, CBP’s data shows.

    Encounter data does not reflect the number of individual immigrants stopped. For example, if one person tries to cross the border three times and is stopped each time, that would be counted as three encounters.

    The data also does not reflect expulsions.

    “The CBP encounters include nearly 3 million expulsions — in other words, enforcement activity that ensures people do not remain in the United States,” said Michelle Mittelstadt, communications director for the Migration Policy Institute, a progressive think tank.

    Mittelstadt also said some people apprehended at the border are initially detained and eventually removed from the country.

    CBP data confirms Mittelstadt’s point that millions of encounters led to removals. From February 2021 to May 2023, there were about 2.5 million expulsions under Title 42, a COVID-19 pandemic-era policy that allowed border officials to quickly expel migrants who crossed the southwest border. Besides the Title 42 removals, CBP data shows there have been about 591,000 removals initiated by border authorities during Biden’s tenure.

    There is no available data that shows the number of migrants who have been allowed to stay in the country after entering.

    PolitiFact reached out to CBP and the Department of Homeland Security but did not receive a reply.

    Mass deportations aren’t simple

    DeSantis is not the only Republican presidential candidate who has promised mass deportations; Former President Donald Trump also made that promise during his tenure, and we rated it Promise Broken.

    The highest number of deportations in a single year came in 2013, when the Obama administration deported around 438,000 people.

    Experts say that instituting mass deportations is easier said than done.

    “Deporting millions of people summarily is an implausible and fantastical idea that has been brought forward from time to time for political purposes only,” said Mario Russell, the executive director at the Center for Migration Studies, a nonpartisan think tank.

    “It is not practical or achievable as it would require a huge increase in enforcement resources, court expenditures and more,” said Russell.

    Our ruling

    DeSantis said 6 million or 7 million people have “come illegally under Biden.”

    His estimate misrepresents the data. Since Biden took office, border patrol agents have encountered migrants about 7.2 million times at and between ports of entry. But that doesn’t mean that many migrants entered and remained in the U.S. That data shows events, not individuals, and one person can be recorded multiple times.

    CBP data also shows that millions of encounters led to removals.

    DeSantis’ statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.

    Source

  • Fake News: NNPCL not conducting secret recruitment

    By Ben Nsemo

    Contrary to reports by some online media that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, under the leadership of Group Chief Executive Officer Mr Mele Kyari, is conducting secret recruitment without board approval, this medium reliably gathered that it’s false.

    The report claimed that about 35 people were allegedly recruited secretly into the NNPC Limited and are either undergoing medical examinations or writing entrance exams.

    But checks showed that there is no such recruitment exercise going on at the National Oil Company.

    Following its transition into a limited company governed by the Companies and Allied Matters Act, NNPC Limited has established a standard recruitment structure that cannot be compromised.

    The implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act, which facilitated NNPC Limited’s transition into a CAMA company, has reinforced the organization’s governance structure, making it resilient to manipulation.

    According to a reliable source, “NNPC Limited’s recruitment process adheres to best governance practices and cannot be easily manipulated.”

    The source refuted the claims of secret recruitment as baseless and emphasized that NNPC Limited’s governance structure remains strong and intact.

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    “That report is fake. You cannot just wake up and start hiring people secretly at NNPC Limited. There is a structure that allows the NNPC Limited to have the best governance procedure for its recruitment,” said the source.

    “The NNPC Limited has a standard recruitment structure that cannot be bent; it’s a strong governance structure that no official can just manipulate.”

    The source also highlighted that there have been ongoing campaigns to discredit the NNPC management, led by Mr Kyari, and suggested that the allegations of secret recruitment might be part of these efforts.

    The source also said the recent retirement and restructuring of some employees within NNPC Limited may have contributed to disgruntled individuals spreading such claims.

    “Remember that a few days ago, some people were asked to proceed on retirement and you don’t expect some of them who still have about 15 months to retire to be happy for being asked to leave the system,” added the source.

    “So, it is possible that these secret recruitment claims could be coming from disgruntled people who are not happy with the retirement and restructuring that is going on in the company.

    “But let me say that the management is well aware of the coordinated campaign of calumny against the leadership of the company and the management is not deterred about this as it is focused on its ‘Four P’ mandate of production, production, production and production in line with the directive given by the president.”