Paradise News

Category: Fact Check

  • Fact Check: Debt relief offer is from private UK company, not US government program

    Many people are struggling with credit card debt, with U.S. consumers racking up balances totalling $1.13 trillion in 2023’s fourth quarter, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York report released in February.

    Desperate consumers seeking relief may find offers for help on social media that purport to be from the government. Usually they are not.

    An April 13 Facebook post’s caption said, “JUST IN: The administration (has) passed a new bill to help Americans with $15,000+ in credit card debt to write off their balance by 50%.”

    It added, “FINALLY the administration has stepped in to help those of us drowning in credit card debt,” and then said a new “Christian-led” debt relief program was created to “cut all your monthly payments in half.”

    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, Instagram and Threads.)

    The Facebook post shared a video clip from an Aug. 3, 2022, episode of CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” in which Tapper and business reporter Rahel Solomon discussed new data showing Americans piling up credit card bills. The video showed testimonials from consumers who said they’d had their debt reduced.

    In the video, neither Tapper nor Solomon mentioned a new bill to help people cut their credit card bills in half, and we could find no news coverage of any such legislation being passed during President Joe Biden’s administration on Google or in Nexis news archives.

    The account behind the Facebook post is the US Debt Bureau, which it says is “based in the United Kingdom.” Its Facebook page says The Collier Group Ltd. is responsible for the page. That company is registered in England, according to the United Kingdom’s government.

    The post links to a nongovernmental website, on which the company is called The Debt Bureau, although it has a U.S. flag in its logo.

    (Facebook screenshot)

    That website mentions no government program, but offers a phone number people can call to see if they qualify for a credit card debt relief program. The fine print at the bottom of the site says, “The Debt Bureau is a referral company” that will connect people with “outside affiliates” that pay them to match consumers with their services.

    Federal Trade Commission spokesperson Jay Mayfield said the agency can’t comment on the contents of the Facebook post as it has no database of all government programs. But he offered advice for social media users who encounter posts that claim to be from the government.

    “Our primary piece of advice to consumers is that they should contact government agencies directly by going to their official webpage directly and contacting them through information provided on that site,” Mayfield said.

    He pointed PolitiFact to webpages with tips to help consumers avoid scams, which are common from people pretending to represent the government. One in 4 people who reported losing money to fraud say it started on social media, an October 2023 FTC report said.

    A March 8 FTC consumer alert about debt relief scams warns consumers, “Don’t do business with anyone who guarantees you results from a ‘new government program’ for a fee, or tries to enroll you without first reviewing your financial situation.”

    There are legitimate debt reduction services available in the U.S. It’s not clear which services the company behind the Facebook post may connect people to, but the company is not affiliated with the U.S. government. The post’s claim that a new U.S. law created a program to help consumers with $15,000 in credit card debt halve their balances  is False. 

    PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.



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  • Fact Check: Dr. Mehmet Oz did not say singer Adele used a ‘coffee trick’ to lose weight

    Did British singer Adele lose more than 100 pounds using a “coffee trick”? No, but a video supposedly from “The Dr. Oz Show” claims she did.

    “Singer Adele broke the internet when she posted pictures of her incredible transformation,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor and former U.S. Senate candidate, supposedly says in a Facebook video. “Headlines suggest she went from 240 to 130 with a weird coffee trick.”

    It appears as if Oz goes on to promote a “coffee trick” for weight loss. A link in the Facebook post redirects users to purchase a dietary supplement. 

    But the video was manipulated.

    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.)

    In the original segment of “The Dr. Oz Show,” published to Oz’s YouTube channel July 23, 2021, Oz talks about Adele’s weight loss. But he does not mention a “coffee trick.” Instead he says, “The headlines suggest she lost around 50 pounds, thanks to something called sirtfoods.” The sirtfood diet encourages people to eat foods with ingredients that activate a protein that can burn fat. But experts have said that the diet lacks scientific evidence. 

    Adele told British Vogue in 2021 that she’s never done the sirtfood diet. “If anything I eat more than I used to because I work out so hard,” she said.

    “The Dr. Oz Show” ended in 2022 when Oz began campaigning for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Oz’s official website contains a disclaimer warning people to be wary of scammers selling fake products using his “name and likeness — sometimes even using AI to generate fake videos of what looks like me, but isn’t.” The disclaimer says that the only real videos of him are on his verified social media accounts. 

    Oz is a global advisor for iHerb, a website that sells health products. But that website does not sell the dietary supplement advertised in the Facebook post. 

    We’ve previously rated False other altered videos of Oz that show him selling weight loss products. In 2019, Oz wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal criticizing Facebook scam ads that use celebrity personas.

    We rate the claim that Oz said Adele used a “coffee trick” to lose weight False.



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  • Fact Check: Fact-checking claim that a Utah Middle school allows students to be ‘terrorized’ by ‘furries’

    Social media users and pundits have accused a Utah school district of allowing students who act like animals to bite, scratch and otherwise antagonize their peers. 

    Former NBC and Fox News host Megyn Kelly shared a segment from her SiriusXM podcast April 18 on Facebook, captioned, “School allows students to be terrorized by colleagues who identify as ‘furries.’”

    In the video, Kelly identified the school as Mount Nebo Middle School in Payson, Utah, and played a clip showing an April 17 protest, which the participants said was against “furries” in the classroom. Furries are people with an interest in depictions of anthropomorphic, cartoon animals. 

    The footage showed kids at the protest claiming that other students, whom the protesters repeatedly called furries, “bite,” “scratch” and “pounce” on people.  

    The school has faced death and bomb threats since footage of the student walkout went viral on social media. 

    The Facebook 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.)

    Conservative politicians and pundits have repeatedly stoked outrage about furries in schools, including promoting unsubstantiated myths that schools have provided litter boxes for furries. Kameron Dunn, a University of Texas at Austin researcher who has studied furries, previously told us that furries don’t pretend to be animals; they are interested in “the genre of animal that walks on two feet and talks like a person.”

    Seth Sorensen, Nebo School District spokesperson, told PolitiFact the district does not allow students to terrorize their peers. He said rumors about biting, scratching and other animalistic behavior at the middle school were “unfounded.”

    “There have been absolutely no incidents of biting, licking, costumes, or animal behavior at Mt. Nebo Middle School,” Sorensen said. 

    Eleven- and 12-year-old middle school students may sometimes come to school “with a headband that has ears,” or “giant bows,” or “dressed as their favorite athlete,” Sorensen said. He said no students have attended school “wearing masks or animal costumes.” One parent later provided information to a news outlet that appeared to contradict the statement about masks. 

    Sorensen added that the school has a policy prohibiting harassment and bullying and investigates all allegations of such behavior.

    “We are committed to preventing negative behavior and fostering a respectful school community,” Sorensen said. “We take harassment and bullying very seriously and investigate all claims immediately.”

    We contacted Kelly and received no response. 

    Why did students walk out? 

    We used local news reports, statements from Sorensen and a YouTube video of the protest to better understand what happened in Payson. 

    Sorensen told news outlets that during the week of April 8, some students began name-calling and throwing food at a small group of students wearing animal-ear headbands. 

    Following that incident, the school sent an April 12 message to families that said, in part, “We expect ALL students to be respectful towards each other while we are here at school,” The Salt Lake Tribune reported. The message encouraged students to “treat each other with kindness,” and reiterated the school’s dress code, which prohibits accessories that distract or disrupt learning, and referenced its policy against bullying.

    Sorensen said he believed the message was incorrectly interpreted as school administrators taking sides, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. By April 14, signatures were collected on an online petition that asked school administrators to enforce the district’s dress code policies. 

    On April 16, school administrators sent a second communication to families, according to Sorensen, The Salt Lake Tribune and KSL News. That letter explained that on April 15 teachers reminded their sixth period students about two of the district’s conduct policies:  

    • “According to Nebo School District Policy JDG Dress Code Policy 3.1.8 – Jewelry, accessories, hair, and other elements of a student’s appearance that draw undue attention, distract, disrupt, or otherwise interfere with the learning atmosphere at school or at school activities and events, or that create a health, safety, or welfare issue are prohibited.”  

    • “Additionally, according to Policy Nebo School District Policy JDD 2.2 – A written, verbal, or a physical act that creates a hostile, threatening, humiliating, or abusive environment is not permitted.”

    It said students were asked to leave at home any clothing or item that “becomes a nuisance item, a distraction to learning or creates an unsafe situation.”  

    The letter also addressed the discussion of a potential walkout: “While students may exercise their freedom of expression, disruptions to the school day will be handled as needed.”

    On April 17, about 75 students and parents gathered outside the school to protest “against the furries,” according to one student who was interviewed off-camera during the protest. 

    A man named Andrew Bartholomew, whose wife is a Republican running for the Utah State School Board, posted videos of the protest on YouTube and X. 

    In the YouTube video, students made claims about what the alleged furries had been doing. Often eliciting laughter from the crowd, students claimed the furries “bark every day, but they only bite like once a week,” “bite ankles,” “scratch us,” and “spray us in the eyes with Febreze if they get a chance” after school and in the halls.

    We did not find clear evidence that any students at Mount Nebo Middle School identify as furries.

    A mother identified only as Alicia spoke with KSL News and said her daughter’s friend group liked to make masks and sometimes wear them to school. But she said the children stopped doing that at the school administration’s request. 

    Seeming to corroborate this, one student at the protest said the principal had “banned” masks.

    Sorensen told The Salt Lake Tribune he doesn’t think the students whose headband accessories were cited as the reason for the protests call themselves “furries.” Sorensen also said the district’s dress code means the school can address attire or accessories that distract from student learning. 

    “We promptly address distractions to learning as well as dress code violations to maintain a positive learning environment for everyone,” he said.

    Viral social media posts, including one from the conservative X account Libs of TikTok, sharing clips of the walkout have fueled days of bomb threats against the middle school and death threats targeting school and district staff, according to Sorensen and KSL News.

    Our ruling

    Kelly claimed Mount Nebo Middle School “allows students to be terrorized” by peers “who identify as ‘furries.’”

    Some students who participated in an April 17 walkout made unverified and disputed claims that other students pretending to be animals had bitten or scratched them. 

    It’s difficult to say what did or didn’t happen in the school, but a district spokesperson said the school has seen no incidents of biting, licking, costumes or animalistic behavior.

    The district has a dress code prohibiting accessories that might cause distractions and policies to prevent harassment and bullying. This behavior is not permitted.

    We rate the claim False.

    RELATED: Debunking, rebuttals didn’t stop claim about litter boxes in schools from spreading before midterms



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  • Posts Misrepresent Immigrants’ Eligibility for Social Security Numbers, Benefits

    Este artículo estará disponible en español en El Tiempo Latino.

    Quick Take

    Immigrants who are lawfully living or authorized to work in the U.S. are eligible for a Social Security number and, in some cases, Social Security benefits. But viral posts make the false claim that “illegal immigrants” can receive Social Security numbers and retirement benefits, and they confuse two programs managed by the Social Security Administration.

    Full Story

    The flow of immigrants across the southern border hit a record high at the end of 2023, the Pew Research Center reported, and immigration has become a dominant issue in this election season. But, as we’ve written, politicians and social media posts have spread misinformation exaggerating immigration numbers and distorting the political impact of immigrants in the U.S.

    Another persistent yet false claim about immigrants in the country illegally and Social Security benefits is also circulating again. Immigrants who are not authorized to be in the United States are not eligible for such benefits, as we’ve previously written.

    An April 12 Facebook post, however, claims, “Illegal immigrants get BOTH social security numbers AND Social Security BENEFITS!! This massive story has been BURIED by the mainstream media!! This information can now be found right on the government’s website. If social security — that we as taxpayers have paid into our entire lives — is ‘broke’… then why are we expanding benefits to those are not citizens and not here legally???”

    A nearly identical claim was posted on Instagram and received more than 2,500 likes.

    The posts show two sections on the Social Security Administration’s website purportedly to back up their claims. But the posts misrepresent the government’s programs and who’s entitled to receive benefits.

    In one section shown in the posts, titled “Social Security Numbers for Noncitizens,” the Social Security Administration says (emphasis ours), “Generally, only noncitizens authorized to work in the United States by the Department of Homeland Security” can get a Social Security number, which is “used to report a person’s wages to the government and to determine that person’s eligibility for Social Security benefits.”

    Nilsa Henriquez, a spokesperson for the Social Security Administration, confirmed to us in an email, “In order for a person to be assigned a Social Security number (SSN), they must meet our evidence requirements and be a United States citizen; or an individual lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence; or an individual lawfully admitted to the United States on a temporary basis who has Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authorization to work.”

    Social Security numbers can also be assigned to “an individual with a valid nonwork reason… For example, they need an SSN because of a federal or state law requiring an SSN to get a benefit or service,” Henriquez said.

    Many of the immigrants arriving at the U.S. southern border in recent years have sought asylum, claiming they fear returning to their home countries because of persecution and other dangers.

    “While asylum seekers who have come across the border do not have any kind of durable legal status in the United States, they are legally allowed to stay in the country while their asylum application is pending,” Julia Gelatt, associate director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, told us in an April 26 email. “It is legal to request asylum, no matter how one entered the United States.”

    “Of all of the foreign-born people who enter the United States each year, most are coming with some kind of legal status – a green card for permanent residence, refugee status, or a temporary visa like a student visa, H-2A farmworker visa, or H-1B high-skilled work visa. Under the Biden administration, many people – but a smaller number than those entering with visas — are also entering the United States with humanitarian parole, which grants the temporary right to live and work in the United States,” Gelatt said.

    “Asylum seekers whose application has been pending for more than six months who apply for and are granted work authorization can get SSNs,” Gelatt also said. “People who cross the border illegally who have not applied for asylum usually cannot get work authorization or an SSN.”

    So, immigrants can receive a Social Security number, provided they are “authorized to work” in the U.S. and are “lawfully admitted” to the U.S. when they apply.

    SSI Not the Same as Retirement Benefits

    The social media posts also show a section of the SSA website titled, “Supplemental Security Income (SSI) for Noncitizens.”

    That section explains that noncitizens may be eligible for SSI payments if they are “lawfully admitted for permanent residence, granted conditional entry, paroled into the United States, admitted as a refugee, granted asylum, an alien whose removal is being withheld,” or if they fall into another classification of immigrants from specific countries such as Cuba, Haiti, Iraq or Afghanistan.

    In addition, a noncitizen must be “lawfully residing” in the U.S. or fall into another specific category to receive SSI payments.

    By citing the information about SSI, the social media posts confuse that program with Social Security retirement benefits. Both programs are managed by the Social Security Administration, but they are not the same.

    SSI is a “needs-based program for people with limited income and resources” who are elderly or disabled, the Social Security Administration explains. The program is funded through general tax revenues, and the amount a person receives is based on federal and state laws which “take into account where you live, who lives with you and what income you receive.”

    The social media posts refer to Social Security as a program “that we as taxpayers have paid into our entire lives” and “is broke.” The Social Security retirement program is the one workers pay into throughout their lives. It is an entitlement program funded through taxes paid by workers and employers and collected into trust funds. A recipient’s payments are based on work history and earnings.

    Many critics warn the program is going broke, but that’s not accurate. Unless the program is changed or new revenues are raised, the reserves of the Social Security trust fund related to the retirement portion of the program are projected to become depleted in 2033. At that time the program would only have enough income to pay 77% of scheduled retirement benefits, according to the latest report from the trustees overseeing the program.

    The Social Security Administration says on its website (emphasis ours), “Lawfully present noncitizens of the United States who meet all eligibility requirements can qualify for Social Security benefits.”

    Henriquez, the SSA spokesperson, told us, “In terms of benefits, in addition to several specific eligibility requirements, each Social Security program also has a United States lawful presence payment provision which applies to retirement, survivors, or disability benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).” 

    Gelatt, of the Migration Policy Institute, said, “Just because someone can get an SSN does not mean they are immediately eligible for Social Security benefits. … Someone in the US is not eligible for Social Security disability or old-age benefits until they have accrued enough work history in the United States – that’s usually at least about 10 years of work, and they have to be ‘lawfully present’ … to be eligible to receive the benefits even once they have that work history.”

    Contrary to the claims in the social media posts, someone who is not authorized to be in the U.S. is not eligible for benefits of the Social Security retirement program that is financed by a payroll tax on employers and employees.

    Sources

    Aleaziz, Hamed. “Here’s How a Border Deal Could Affect People Seeking Asylum in the U.S.” New York Times. 15 Dec 2023.

    Banks, Justin. “Social Security for Illegal Immigrants?” FactCheck.org. 1 Mar 2009.

    Cooper, Jonathan J. “Biden left with few choices as immigration takes center state in American politics.” Associated Press. 2 Feb 2024.

    Cornell Law School. “8 U.S. Code, Sec. 1621 – Aliens who are not qualified aliens or nonimmigrants ineligible for State and local public benefits.” Accessed 19 Apr 2024.

    Farley, Robert. “Elon Musk Overstates Partisan Impact of Illegal Immigration on House Apportionment.” FactCheck.org. 27 Mar 2024.

    Gelatt, Julia. Associate director, U.S. Immigration Policy Program, Migration Policy Institute. Email to FactCheck.org. 26 Apr 2024.

    Gramlich, John. “Migrant encounters at U.S.-Mexico border hit a record high at the end of 2023.” Pew Research Center. 15 Feb 2024.

    Henriquez, Nilsa. Spokesperson, Social Security Administration. Email to FactCheck.org. 24 Apr 2024.

    Jackson, Brooks. “Social Security for Immigrants and Refugees.” FactCheck.org. 17 Apr 2009.

    Robertson, Lori. “Breaking Down the Immigration Figures.” FactCheck.org. 27 Feb 2024.

    Social Security Administration. Frequently Asked Questions. “Can noncitizens receive Social Security benefits or Supplemental Security (SSI)?” Accessed 18 Apr 2024.

    Social Security Administration. Fact Sheet. “Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI): What’s the difference?” Nov 2009.

    Social Security Administration. “The 2023 OASDI Trustees Report.” Accessed 25 Apr 2024.

    Spencer, Saranac Hale. “Meme Distorts Gillibrand’s Immigration Idea.” FactCheck.org. 17 May 2019.

    Spencer, Saranac Hale. “Viral Claim Inflates Number of New Voters in Three States.” FactCheck.org. 12 Apr 2024.

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  • Fact Check: Deepfake video falsely pitches dietary supplement as diabetes remedy

    Be wary of Facebook posts claiming to help you avoid health scams. They just might be scams themselves.

    A Facebook video claims to show former Fox News host Tucker Carlson warning viewers away from Dr. Mehmet Oz’s diabetes cure scams.

    “This freakin’ Dr. Oz, with his deception and nonworking remedy, simply traumatizes innocent diabetics,” Carlson supposedly says in an April 23 Facebook video.

    But this video is just another deception. It has the hallmarks of a deepfake video, which are common on social media, in which sometimes real videos of celebrities are paired with manipulated audio to make it seem as if the celebrities are saying something they are not. These bogus videos are often created to hawk products such as gummies or dietary supplements. Oz, a heart surgeon and former Senate candidate, has not pitched a diabetes cure, but has been the subject of numerous deepfake videos that show him hawking a cure for diabetes or other ailments. 

    In the video, Carlson introduces Barbara O’Neill, a self-described natural health care teacher from Australia, who he said would discuss “how not to fall for such scams.” O’Neill pitches a product she said was “created with Pfizer,” the pharmaceutical company, and “certified” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. After one course of her $39 remedy, she said, “diabetes will go away forever.”

    The Facebook post links to a supposed article of an interview with O’Neill talking about a product to manage blood sugar.

    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, Instagram and Threads.)

    The product pitched in the Facebook post’s link was not made in partnership with Pfizer, a company spokesperson told PolitiFact. 

    There is no cure for diabetes, a disease affects more than 38 million adults and children in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

    (Facebook screenshot)

    We found numerous red flags in the Facebook post.

    The first is the video itself. The audio does not match up with the mouth movements of either Carlson or O’Neill, typically a sign a video is a deepfake. We found no evidence on Carlson’s website or an episode guide that O’Neill has been a guest on Carlson’s show, “Tucker Carlson Uncensored,” which streams on his website, the Tucker Carlson Network, and on X.

    Second, the Facebook post links to an interview with O’Neill that is not legitimate. The page has an MSNBC logo atop it, but the URL does not contain MSNBC, as a real page from the news site would. The URL begins with ” The article misspells O’Neill as O’neil and at one point refers to “his” patients.

    O’Neill’s website does not list health products for sale. She offers a lecture series, a lifestyle retreat and a book for sale on her site. O’Neill ran afoul of Australian health officials in 2019 for making dubious health claims, such as that there are no safe vaccines, Vox reported in February. Clips of O’Neill’s lectures are often used by “creators selling supplements and products” on TikTok, Vox reported.

    We contacted O’Neill through her website to ask whether she is affiliated with the product pitched in the Facebook post, but didn’t immediately hear back.

    The Facebook video also claims the supplement was “certified by the FDA,” but the product’s webpage says, “This product has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.” The FDA regulates the dietary supplement industry but neither approves nor certifies products.

    An FDA spokesperson told PolitiFact that the agency doesn’t approve dietary supplements for any purpose, and that dietary supplements, unlike drugs, legally cannot make claims to treat diseases.

    The Facebook video’s claim that Carlson and O’Neill discussed a dietary supplement that can cure diabetes and that it was made with Pfizer and approved by the FDA is Pants on Fire!



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  • Fact Check: Viral image – No, Lauren Boebert didn’t imply she’s committed a crime in an X post

    Lauren Boebert posted, “If they charge President Trump for his crimes, they could charge any of us for our crimes. The rule of law means nothing to these people.”

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  • Biden’s Numbers, April 2024 Update

    Este artículo estará disponible en español en El Tiempo Latino.

    Summary

    As President Joe Biden runs for reelection, here’s how the U.S. has fared during his time in office:

    • The economy added 15.2 million jobs. The number is now nearly 6 million higher than before the pandemic.
    • The unemployment rate dropped back and has stayed lower, longer than at any time during the previous administration.
    • The U.S. economy has expanded each year under Biden and is expected to continue to grow this year, although the first quarter estimate for this year was below expectations.
    • Inflation surged to its highest level in over 40 years. Despite recent moderation, consumer prices are up nearly 19% overall. Gasoline is up 54%.
    • Average weekly earnings haven’t kept pace with prices. After adjusting for inflation, “real” weekly earnings dropped 2.5%.
    • The number of people receiving food stamps has decreased by more than 1 million.
    • The S&P 500 has increased 32.9%.
    • Apprehensions of those trying to cross the southern border illegally are up 297% for the 12 months ending in March.
    • Crude oil production is up 14.2%; imports are up 10.8%.
    • Violent crime has gone down. The latest figures from large cities show an 8.6% drop in murders.
    • The publicly held debt has increased by roughly 27%.
    • The trade deficit for goods and services is about 18.8% higher.
    • For fiscal year 2024, the administration is on pace to admit the most refugees in nearly three decades.

    Analysis

    In the fall presidential election, Biden will likely face his predecessor, Donald Trump. As we did for Trump, we’ve compiled on a quarterly basis the latest statistics that provide a measure of how things have changed under Biden’s time in office.

    This is our ninth quarterly update of “Biden’s Numbers,” which we first published in January 2022. We plan to publish two more updates before Election Day, in July and October.

    Jobs and Unemployment

    The number of people with jobs rebounded strongly during Biden’s time, surpassing pre-pandemic levels by almost 6 million.

    Employment — The U.S. economy added 15,217,000 jobs between Biden’s inauguration and March, the latest month for which data are available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The March figure is 5,824,000 higher than the February 2020 peak of employment before COVID-19 forced massive shutdowns and layoffs.

    Some areas are still lagging, however. In March, there were only 23,000 more local government education workers, including teachers, than there were at the pre-pandemic peak, and reports of teacher shortages persist. Employment in the leisure industry still hasn’t recovered; there were 151,000 fewer hotel and restaurant workers and others in the accommodation and food services industries in March than before the pandemic.

    Unemployment — The unemployment rate has been lower for longer under Biden than under his predecessor.

    It hit the lowest point in over half a century in January 2023 and again in April 2023, when it was 3.4%, the lowest since June 1969.

    This March also marked the 28th consecutive month that the rate was at or below 4%. The longest such stretch under Donald Trump was 24 months, just before the pandemic sent the unemployment rate soaring.

    The rate was 3.8% last month, down 2.6 percentage points since Biden took office.

    Job Openings — The number of unfilled job openings soared, reaching a record of over 12 million in March 2022, but then declined after the Federal Reserve began a steep series of interest rate increases aimed at cooling the economy to bring down price inflation.

    The number of unfilled jobs was nearly 8.8 million as of the last business day of February, the most recent month on record. That’s still an increase of nearly 1.6 million openings — almost 22% — compared with January 2021, when Biden took office.

    In February, there was an average of nearly 1.4 jobs for every unemployed job seeker. When Biden took office, it was the other way around — fewer openings than unemployed job seekers.

    The number of job openings in March is set to be released May 1.

    Labor Force Participation — The labor force participation rate (the percentage of the total population over age 16 that is either employed or actively seeking work) has risen slowly during Biden’s time, from 61.3% in January 2021 to 62.7% in March.

    That still leaves the rate about half a percentage point short of the pre-pandemic level of 63.3% for February 2020.

    The rate has been trending generally down for nearly a quarter of a century. It peaked at 67.3% during the first four months of 2000. Labor Department economists project that the rate will continue to slide down to 60.1% in 2031, “primarily because of an aging population.”

    Manufacturing Jobs — During the presidential campaign, Biden promised he had a plan to create a million new manufacturing jobs — but that hasn’t yet been achieved.

    As of March, the U.S. added 768,000 manufacturing jobs during Biden’s time, a 6.3% increase in the space of 38 months, according to the BLS.

    But compared with the highest level during Trump’s time in office — which was January 2019 — manufacturing jobs are up only 128,000, or 1%.

    Wages and Inflation

    CPI — Inflation came roaring back under Biden. During his first 38 months in office, the Consumer Price Index rose 18.9%.

    For a time it was the worst inflation in decades. The 12 months ending in June 2022 saw a 9.1% increase in the CPI (before seasonal adjustment), which the Bureau of Labor Statistics said was the biggest such increase since the 12 months ending in November 1981.

    Inflation has moderated more recently. The CPI rose 3.5% in the 12 months ending in March, the most recent figure available.

    Gasoline Prices — The price of gasoline shot up even faster.

    During the week ending April 22, the national average price of regular gasoline at the pump was $3.67. That’s $1.29 higher than in the week before Biden took office, an increase of 54%.

    The price swung wildly during Biden’s first year and a half, hitting just over $5 per gallon in the week ending June 13, 2022. That’s the highest on record. The rise was propelled by worldwide supply and demand issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

    Wages — Wages also have gone up under Biden, but not as fast as prices.

    Average weekly earnings for rank-and-file workers went up 16.6% during Biden’s first 38 months in office, according to monthly figures compiled by the BLS. Those production and nonsupervisory workers make up 81% of all employees in the private sector.

    But inflation ate up all that gain and more. In March “real” weekly earnings, which are adjusted for inflation and measured in dollars valued at their average level in 1982-84, were still 2.5% below where they were when Biden took office.

    That’s despite months of recent improvement. Real earnings in March were 2.1% higher than in June 2022, the low point under Biden.

    Economic Growth

    Despite concerns about high inflation and the Federal Reserve’s policy of raising interest rates to slow inflation, the U.S. economy has expanded each year under Biden and is expected to continue to grow this year — although the first quarter estimate for this year was below expectations.

    The real gross domestic product (which is adjusted for inflation) increased 5.8% in 2021, 1.9% in 2022 and 2.5% last year. In the first quarter of this year, the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.6%, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said in an April 25 release announcing its “advance estimate.” (The advance estimate is the BEA’s first estimate, which could be adjusted May 30 when the second estimate is released.)

    The 1.6% first quarter estimate was far below expectations. A day earlier, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model was projecting growth of 2.7%. The BEA said the first-quarter figure reflected a slowdown in spending.

    “Compared to the fourth quarter, the deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected decelerations in consumer spending, exports, and state and local government spending and a downturn in federal government spending,” the BEA said in its release.

    Prior to the release of the first-quarter estimate, economists had become increasingly more positive about the U.S. economy in 2024.

    In mid-April, Bloomberg News surveyed 71 economists and found that they “now see gross domestic product expanding by 2.4% on average in 2024, up from 2.2% in last month’s survey.”

    Similarly, the International Monetary Fund this month upgraded its forecast for U.S. growth this year to 2.7%, up from 2.1% in January. And Vanguard said in its April economic outlook that it expects “real (inflation-adjusted) U.S. economic growth of about 2% in 2024, higher than our initial estimate of about 0.5%.”

    Crime

    Violent crime has gone down over Biden’s time in office.

    Preliminary figures from the FBI show a 5.7% drop in violent crimes and a 13.2% decline in the number of murders from 2022 to 2023, based on data from 79% of law enforcement agencies in the U.S. (download the quarterly tables to see these figures). All other categories of crime also declined, including property crime overall, with the exception of motor vehicle thefts, which increased by 10.7%.

    The FBI figures are based on voluntary reports by agencies nationwide. We won’t have the final numbers or information about the nationwide crime rates, which are adjusted for population, until the FBI’s annual crime report is released later this year.

    The 2022 annual report showed a slight decline in the nationwide murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate of 0.5 points from 2020, the year before Biden took office, to 2022. The violent crime rate dropped by 15.4 points, to 369.8 per 100,000 population in 2022.

    The property crime rate also decreased during that time period, by 9.5 points. As with the more recent preliminary data, there was an increase in motor vehicle thefts, by 35.2 points. (For these figures, see Table 1 in the CIUS Estimations download for the crime in the U.S. reports.)

    The latest figures from the Major Cities Chiefs Association also show a decline in murders and violent crime. The number of murders has gone down by 10.4% from 2022 to 2023 in 69 large U.S. cities. Since 2020, murders in those cities have dropped by 8.6%.

    (Note: New York City isn’t included in those percentages, because its 2023 statistics are not in the latest Major Cities Chiefs Association report. However, the number of murders citywide declined by 16.5% from 2020 to 2023, according to data posted by the New York Police Department. The decrease from 2022 to 2023 was 10.7%.)

    Despite the decline, the number of murders still isn’t back down to the level in 2019, before a sizable increase occurred. From 2019 to 2020, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association, there was a 33.4% increase in the number of murders in large cities. In Biden’s first year in office, there was a much smaller uptick of 6.2%. Since 2021, the numbers have been going down.  

    So far in 2024, murders in more than 200 U.S. cities have declined by 20% overall, compared with the same point last year, according to figures compiled by AH Datalytics, an independent criminal justice data analysis group.

    Trade

    The U.S. goods and services deficit was $775.9 billion over the last 12 months through February, according to figures published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis earlier this month. The trade deficit in that period was about $123 billion higher, or about 18.8% more, than in 2020.

    The international trade gap in the most recent 12-month period is about $3.9 billion less than the calendar year 2023 deficit of $779.8 billion. Last year’s trade deficit was the first annual decrease under Biden — dropping more than 18% from the record gap of nearly $951.2 billion in 2022.

    The BEA said the deficit went down in 2023 because of an increase in exports of services, such as travel and transport, and a decrease in the import of goods, such as industrial supplies and materials.

    Food Stamps

    The number of people receiving food stamps has decreased during Biden’s time by more than 1 million.

    As of January, the most recent figures available, there were 41.1 million beneficiaries receiving food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to preliminary statistics from the Department of Agriculture published April 12.

    That puts SNAP enrollment about 1.1 million below where it was when Biden took office.

    In percentage terms, the decline is just over 2.5%.

    At the current level, 12.2% of the U.S. population was receiving food aid in January, or just under 1 out of every 8 people.

    Health Insurance

    The number and percentage of people lacking health insurance has dropped under Biden, and millions more have enrolled in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans.

    Since our last report, we have just one more quarter of data on the uninsured from the National Health Interview Survey In the third quarter of 2023, 7.7% of the population was uninsured. That’s a half of a percentage point increase from the second quarter but the same rate as the first quarter.

    So far, the quarterly data for 2023 indicate there was a decrease in the uninsured again that year. In 2020, 9.7% of the population or 31.6 million people were uninsured, according to the NHIS. In 2022, 8.4% or 27.6 million people were uninsured. That’s a decrease of 1.3 percentage points or 4 million people under Biden.

    The NHIS, a project of the National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC, measures the uninsured at the time people were interviewed.

    The Census Bureau’s annual reports, which measure those who lacked insurance for the entire year, show the uninsured decreased by 0.7 percentage points or 2.4 million people from 2020 to 2022. We won’t have the 2023 annual report for several more months.

    As we have been noting, it’s possible the uninsured figures will start to rise, since some Medicaid provisions that were enacted during the coronavirus pandemic started to be phased out at the end of March 2023.

    Under Biden, the premium subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace plans have increased — first, through the American Rescue Plan for two years and then through the Inflation Reduction Act. The expanded subsidies are set to expire at the end of 2025. The more generous subsidies allow those earning up to 150% of the federal poverty level to get an insurance plan for $0. (People are eligible for subsidies at 100% of the poverty level, or 138% in states that adopted the Medicaid expansion.) The ACA’s subsidy cap at 400% of the poverty level also has been lifted — those earning more can get subsidies but have to contribute up to 8.5% of their income toward their premiums, as the health policy research organization KFF has explained.

    Since 2020, enrollment in the ACA’s marketplace plans has gone up by 10 million people. In the 2024 open enrollment period, 21.4 million people signed up for an insurance plan or were automatically reenrolled.

    Stock Markets

    As we noted in our last report, the stock markets finished last year strong and started this year strong.

    The S&P 500, which is made up of 500 large-cap companies, set new highs in late January, closing on Jan. 24 at a high of 4,868.55. On March 28, the final trading day of the first quarter, the S&P reached a new high at 5,254.35, and recorded its best quarter since 2019.

    April has been a cruel month for some investors, but overall all three markets have seen double-digit gains under Biden.

    At the close on April 25, the S&P 500 was 5,048.42 — down from its peak in March, but still 32.9% higher than what it was when Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which includes 30 large corporations, has seen smaller gains than the S&P 500. It has increased 23.1% under Biden — not much different from our last report.

    Like the Dow, the technology-heavy NASDAQ composite index, which is made up of more than 3,000 companies, has experienced little change since our last report. Overall, it was up 18.3% under Biden, closing at 15,611.76 on April 25.

    Consumer Sentiment

    In our January report, consumer confidence in the economy showed some signs of life. But, since then, it has leveled off.

    The University of Michigan’s Surveys of Consumers reported that its final Index of Consumer Sentiment for January was 79 — the highest since July 2021. The preliminary survey results for April were little changed at 77.9.

    “Since January, sentiment has remained remarkably steady within a very narrow 2.5 index point range, well under the 5 points necessary for a statistically significant difference in readings,” Joanne W. Hsu, director of the Surveys of Consumers, said in a press release on the April preliminary results. “Consumers perceived little change in the state of the economy since the start of the new year.”

    Hsu cited a “slight uptick in inflation” and the looming 2024 election as reasons why consumers have tempered their views of the U.S. economy.

    Still, the preliminary April figure is 27.9 points higher than the low under Biden, which occurred in June 2022. It is now nearly back to where it was when Biden took office in January 2021, when the index was 79, the historical survey data show.

    The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Survey also reported little change in March, and warning signs that consumers were becoming “more pessimistic about the future.”

    Debt and Deficits

    Debt — Since our last quarterly update, the public debt, which excludes money the government owes itself, has increased to about $27.5 trillion, as of April 23. That is more than $5.8 trillion, or roughly 27%, higher than the public debt was when Biden took office.

    Deficits — The budget deficit for fiscal year 2024 is a little less than it was at the same point in fiscal 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

    Through the first six months of this fiscal cycle (October to March), the deficit was $1.1 trillion, or “$37 billion less than the deficit recorded during the same period last fiscal year,” the CBO said in its Monthly Budget Review published this month. The nonpartisan agency said the difference is partially due to higher revenue this fiscal year, but also a shift in when some scheduled payments were made during the previous fiscal year.

    For now, the nonpartisan agency projects that the total budget gap for fiscal 2024 will be $1.5 trillion — down from the nearly $1.7 trillion deficit in fiscal 2023.

    Corporate Profits

    After two record-setting years under Biden, after-tax corporate profits dipped slightly in 2023.

    For the year, after-tax corporate profits set records in 2021 and 2022, according to BEA estimates. (See line 45.)

    The BEA estimated that profits in 2023 were $2.97 trillion — slightly lower than $2.98 trillion in 2022. Still, it was 36% higher than in 2020, the year before Biden took office.

    The preliminary estimate of after-tax corporate profits for the first quarter of 2024 will be released May 30.

    Refugees

    Biden may fall short again of his ambitious campaign promise to accept up to 125,000 refugees a year into the U.S. But his administration is on course to admit the most refugees in nearly three decades.

    On Sept. 29, the Biden administration set the cap on refugee admissions for fiscal year 2024 at 125,000 – just as it did in fiscal years 2023 and 2022.

    The administration admitted only 25,465 refugees in FY2022 and 60,014 in FY2023. In the first six months of FY2024, the U.S. has admitted 48,673 refugees, according to State Department data.

    At the current pace, the Biden administration appears unlikely to reach 125,000 refugees, but it is likely to register the highest number of refugees since 1995, when the Clinton administration admitted nearly 100,000 refugees, according to data compiled by the Migration Policy Institute.

    “Legal immigration is returning to and in some cases surpassing pre-pandemic levels, including refugee admissions on pace to reach the highs of the 1990s,” the Migration Policy Institute said in a January article on Biden’s immigration policies after three years.

    In a November report to Congress, the State Department credited the Biden administration’s “intensive efforts to restore, strengthen, and modernize the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program” as the reason for making “significant progress” toward Biden’s goal for refugee admissions.

    Overall, the U.S. has admitted 144,160 refugees in Biden’s first full 38 months in office, or nearly 3,800 refugees per month, the department’s data show. That’s 106% higher than the 1,845 monthly average under Trump, who drastically reduced the admission of refugees. The Trump administration admitted only 86,731 refugees in four years. (For both presidents, our monthly averages include only full months in office, excluding the month of January 2017 and January 2021, when administrations overlapped.)

    Illegal Immigration

    The number of apprehensions of those trying to cross the southern border illegally rose to a historic monthly high of nearly 250,000 in December, before dropping dramatically to an average of about 134,100 per month in the first three months of 2024. Overall, apprehensions have been significantly higher under Biden than his predecessors, according to the latest data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    To even out the seasonal changes in border crossings, we compare the most recent 12 months on record with the year before Biden took office. And for the past 12 months ending in March, the latest figures available, apprehensions totaled 2,019,232, according to Customs and Border Protection. That’s 297% higher than during Trump’s last year in office.

    Driving much of the increase has been an explosion in the number of migrants seeking asylum.

    According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University, which collects and analyzes immigration data, the immigration court backlog rose to nearly 3.3 million cases by the end of 2023, more than three times higher than just four years prior. The result, immigration experts said, is that millions of migrants have been released into the U.S. pending court cases that may take years before they come before a judge.

    In early February, a bipartisan group of senators unveiled the text of a proposed foreign aid and immigration overhaul bill. The $118 billion bill, called the Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act, sought significant changes in border policy. It included money to build more border barriers, to greatly expand detention facilities, and to hire more Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents, asylum officers and immigration judges to reduce the yearslong backlog in cases to determine asylum eligibility. It sought to expedite the asylum process, essentially ending — in most cases — the so-called “catch and release” policy whereby migrants are released into the U.S. pending asylum hearings. And it would have increased the standard of evidence needed to win asylum status.

    Biden threw his support behind the bill, but after Trump publicly opposed it — in part based on a distortion of what the bill would do — the bill failed in the Senate on Feb. 7. It was opposed by all but four Republicans and a few Democrats.

    On Feb. 13, the Republican-led House voted to impeach Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, claiming that he had “willfully and systemically refused to comply with Federal immigration law.” The vote was 216-211, with every Democrat and one Republican opposing it. On April 17, the Senate voted along party lines to end the impeachment against Mayorkas.

    Judiciary Appointments

    Supreme Court — Biden has appointed one Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, who replaced retired Justice Stephen G. Breyer, an appointee of President Bill Clinton. She was confirmed on April 7, 2022. Trump had won confirmation for two Supreme Court justices at the same point of his tenure.

    Court of Appeals — Biden has won confirmation for 41 U.S. Court of Appeals judges. At the same point during Trump’s term, 51 had been confirmed.

    District Court — Biden has won confirmation for 150 District Court judges, while Trump had won confirmation for 139 at the same point.

    Four U.S. Court of Federal Claims judges have also been confirmed under Biden, while five had been confirmed at the same point of Trump’s presidency. Each man had won the confirmation for two U.S. Court of International Trade judges at this stage of their terms.

    As of April 25, there were 42 federal court vacancies, with 12 nominees pending.

    Gun Sales

    The trend of Americans buying fewer guns appeared to continue in the first three months of 2024, according to background check figures reported by a gun industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

    The NSSF estimates gun sales by tracking the number of background checks for firearm sales based on the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. The NSSF-adjusted figures exclude background checks unrelated to sales, such as those required for concealed-carry permits. We rely on these figures because the federal government doesn’t collect data on gun sales.

    During the first quarter of 2024, the NSSF-adjusted NICS total for background checks was about 3.98 million — lower than the 4.17 million in the first quarter of 2023, and the lowest first quarter total since 3.41 million during the same period in 2019.

    The three-month total so far this year is also about 29.2% lower than the nearly 5.63 million during Trump’s last quarter in 2020, which was a record year for background checks for firearm sales.

    The NSSF stipulates that its adjusted NICS data is “not a direct correlation to firearms sales” — but does “provide an additional picture of current market conditions.”

    Crude Oil Production and Imports

    Last month, the Energy Information Administration reported that average crude oil production in the U.S. increased to roughly 12.92 million barrels per day during Biden’s most recent 12 months in office (ending in January). That was about 14.2% above the average daily amount of crude oil produced in 2020. And it’s higher than the pre-pandemic average in 2019.

    EIA has said that oil production, despite declining drilling activity, has reached all-time highs during the Biden administration because new oil wells are more efficient.

    “The number of new wells brought on line by drilling activity has historically been the key determinant of whether crude oil production increases or decreases,” the EIA said in a March analysis. “However, advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies have increased well productivity, enabling U.S. producers to extract more crude oil from new wells drilled while maintaining production from legacy wells.”

    In its Short-Term Energy Outlook for April, the EIA projected that crude oil production will continue to break records. The agency expects production to reach 13.2 million barrels per day in 2024 and 13.7 million barrels a day in 2025.

    Growth in crude oil production led the U.S. to export a record 4.1 million barrels of oil per day in 2023, the EIA said. But the U.S. is still importing more oil than it sends abroad.

    In Biden’s last 12 months, the U.S. imported about 6.51 million barrels per day on average. That’s up almost 10.8% from average daily imports in 2020.

    Carbon Emissions

    After two consecutive years of increases, U.S. energy-related emissions from the consumption of coal, natural gas and various petroleum products fell in 2023 to about 4.81 billion metric tons. That total is about 4.9% more than 2020, but still about 6.6% less than in 2019, before the pandemic.

    The EIA said emissions declined last year partially because of a reduction in electricity generated from coal-fired power plants, which was due to the increased use of solar power and other renewable energy sources. The agency said it expects CO2 emissions to remain “mostly unchanged” in 2024 before declining by 1% in 2025.

    Home Prices & Homeownership

    Home prices — After declining for seven consecutive months, home prices increased in February and again in March.

    The preliminary median sales price of existing single-family homes in the U.S. was $397,200 in March — up from $388,000 in February, according to the National Association of Realtors.

    “Frankly, it’s a great time to list, with ongoing multiple offers on mid-priced properties and, overall, home prices continuing to rise,” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun said in an April 18 issue of Realtor Magazine.

    The preliminary March figure is 29% higher than the $308,000 median home price in January 2021, when Biden took office. But it’s below the peak under Biden of $420,900 in June 2022.

    Home prices began to fall last year in part due to rising mortgage rates. In its ongoing attempt to slow inflation, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark rate in July for the 11th time since March 2022.

    With inflation showing signs of cooling, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell indicated in December that the Fed may start cutting its rate. But recent inflation data have put the brakes on talk of rate cuts.

    “The recent data have clearly not given us greater confidence and instead indicate that it’s likely to take longer than expected to achieve that confidence,” Powell said at a forum on April 16.

    In our January report, we noted that the 30-year fixed rate mortgage average nationwide, as of Jan. 18, dropped to 6.6% — the lowest since May 2023, according to Freddie Mac. But 30-year mortgage rates, as of April 18, topped 7% for the first time this year, Freddie Mac reported in a recent press release.

    Homeownership — Homeownership rates have barely budged under Biden.

    The homeownership rate, which the Census Bureau measures as the percentage of “occupied housing units that are owner-occupied,” was 65.7% in the fourth quarter of 2023 — not much different than the 65.8% rate during Trump’s last quarter in office. (Usual word of caution: The bureau warns against making comparisons with the fourth quarter of 2020, because of pandemic-related restrictions on in-person data collection.) 

    The rate under Trump peaked in the second quarter of 2020 at 67.9%. The highest homeownership rate on record was 69.2% in 2004, when George W. Bush was president.

    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: No, this photo doesn’t show Barack Obama wearing an anti-Trump T-shirt

    Ahead of the 2024 election, some social media users are claiming former President Barack Obama wore a T-shirt opposing former President Donald Trump’s campaign for a second term.

    An April 23 Facebook post showed a photo of Obama wearing a black T-shirt that said, “NOPE Not again.” The “O” in “nope” was stylized with a blond swoop of hair and a red necktie that mimicked Trump’s likeness.

    The post’s caption linked to a website selling the shirt.

    (Screengrab from Facebook)

    Another Facebook post shared the same image. These posts were 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.)

    It’s no surprise that Obama favors his former vice president, Joe Biden, over Trump in the 2024 election. Obama has been helping Biden’s campaign by appealing to small-dollar donors in advertising and attending high-dollar fundraising events.

    But this photo is not real.

    Reverse-image searches using Google Images, TinEye and Yandex found no authentic images of Obama wearing this shirt. We searched for the image in photo databases of Getty Images and The Associated Press and found no results.

    We also found no news articles about Obama wearing this T-shirt when searching Google and the Nexis news database.

    This is not the first time images of Obama have been altered to falsely show him wearing a T-shirt with anti-Trump messaging. Reuters and Agence France-Presse fact-checked similar fake images of Obama.

    PolitiFact and other news outlets have also fact-checked multiple false claims about well-known figures, including pop singer Taylor Swift, actor Tom Hanks and former first lady Michelle Obama, wearing this “NOPE Not again” T-shirt.

    We rate the claim that a photo shows Obama wearing an anti-Trump T-shirt Pants on Fire!



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  • Fact Check: Altered video shows Dr. Oz promoting a coffee weight loss supplement

    Videos of Mehmet Oz, a celebrity doctor and former U.S. Senate candidate, have again been altered to sell weight loss products. 

    A Facebook post about an “odd coffee loophole” includes a video of Oz in front of a coffee shop. In the video, he appears to say, “There’s a lot to say about the health benefits of coffee, but I think the reason why so many Americans have their favorite coffee joint or habit is because they’re finding out it can help drop as much as 2.2 pounds of stubborn body fat overnight.” 

    Oz goes on to promote a weight loss coffee supplement, and a link redirects users to another video selling a dietary supplement. 

    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.)

    The video of Oz has telltale signs of being a deepfake, — a manipulated video that uses artificial intelligence to mimic a person’s voice or facial expressions. For example, the speaker’s lips do not match up with the audio. 

    We found the original video on Oz’s Instagram page using a reverse image search.

    In the unedited video posted July 28, 2023, Oz says the same first sentence as the altered video. But he does not go on to promote a weight loss supplement. In the full video, he says: 

    “There’s a lot to say about the health benefits of coffee, but I think the reason so many Americans have their own favorite coffee joint or habit is because they get to sit with themselves for just a few minutes and think about what’s going on in their lives. Maybe sit with our friends or just think through something that’s challenging us. Whatever it may be, those few moments of silence are truly valuable. And for that reason alone, I”m supportive of drinking coffee and whatever habits you may have around it. And I’m curious, what’s your favorite place and why?”

    Oz’s official website contains a disclaimer warning people to be wary of scammers selling fake products using his “name and likeness — sometimes even using AI to generate fake videos of what looks like me, but isn’t.” The disclaimer adds that the only real videos of him are on his verified social media accounts. 

    Oz is a global advisor for iHerb, a website that sells health products. But that website does not sell the dietary supplement Java Burn. 

    We’ve previously fact-checked other altered videos of Oz that falsely show him selling weight loss products. Oz wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal in 2019 criticizing Facebook scam ads that use his videos. 

    We rate the claim that Dr. Oz promoted a weight loss supplement that can be added to coffee Pants on Fire! 



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  • Fact Check: Kelly Daughtry falsely accuses Brad Knott of working as ‘Biden’s lawyer’

    A Republican congressional candidate’s political advertisement shows her primary opponent shaking hands with Joe Biden, saying that he worked for the Democratic president.

    Kelly Daughtry and Brad Knott are competing in a May 14 runoff for the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, which covers parts of the state’s greater Research Triangle area. The race to represent the district has become about which candidate is the most conservative, with Knott and Daughtry accusing each other of holding secret liberal beliefs.

    In a campaign ad for Daughtry, black and white images show people crowded near a fence line as a narrator declares that the border is in crisis. Then, the narrator references Knott’s work as a federal prosecutor, pointing to a segment of his time in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

    “And where was never-Trumper Brad Knott?”  a narrator asks. “Working for Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. That’s right, Brad Knott was a lawyer for Joe Biden.”

    The ad then shows an image of Knott shaking hands with Biden with text that says: “Don’t let Biden’s lawyer off the hook.”

    Knott says the image of him shaking hands with Biden is fake, and his campaign has already responded to some of Daughtry’s claims in an ad of its own.

    In response to the claim that Knott is a “never-Trumper” — a name for moderate conservatives who oppose Republican former President Donald Trump —  Knott points out that he’s endorsed by Trump. In response to the image of Knott and Biden together, Knott’s ad says the image was doctored — revealing a photograph of Knott shaking hands with a Sampson County Sheriff’s deputy.

    But did Knott really work as “Biden’s lawyer,” as Daughtry claimed?

    No. Biden didn’t hire him. Biden didn’t appoint him. And Knott never reported directly to Biden. Knott was hired years ago to work in North Carolina for the federal government in a role that’s considered apolitical. The ad greatly exaggerates the connection between the White House and assistant U.S. attorneys. 

    How Knott was hired

    From March 2016 until November 2023, Knott worked as an assistant U.S. attorney. Assistant U.S. attorneys are not political appointees, but they often answer to people who are appointed by the president.

    When a new president enters office, he typically appoints a new attorney general to lead the U.S. Department of Justice. The president can also appoint new U.S. attorneys to lead the 94 offices of U.S. attorneys across the nation. 

    The attorney general reports to the president. U.S. attorneys report to the attorney general. Assistant U.S. attorneys are hired by U.S. attorneys to work as employees of the district office.

    In March 2016, when Democratic President Barack Obama was still in office, Knott was hired to work as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. 

    But Thomas G. Walker, who Obama appointed to lead the office, had resigned in that January. Knott was hired by acting U.S. Attorney John Bruce, who first joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office as an assistant U.S. attorney in 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. 

    Bruce worked as a federal prosecutor for many years including under George Holding, who was appointed by President George W. Bush to lead North Carolina’s Eastern District in 2006 and served until 2011. Holding, a Republican, later represented a Triangle-area district in Congress from 2013 to 2021. Holding referred to Bruce as his second-in-command.

    Bruce addressed Knott’s employment in a statement to PolitiFact North Carolina, saying assistant U.S. attorneys are hired “without regard to party affiliation, under applicable federal regulations.” 

    “Brad Knott had applied for previous AUSA vacancies, and he was under consideration for a term AUSA position when (U.S. Attorney) Thomas Walker resigned in January 2016,” Bruce said. “Brad’s hiring to a term AUSA position was approved by me in January 2016 and he came on board in March 2016. I was never appointed by Obama or any other president.”

    Working under Trump, Biden

    After Republican Donald Trump became president in 2017, he appointed Robert Higdon Jr. as the U.S. attorney for North Carolina’s Eastern District. Higdon had served as a federal prosecutor under several administrations dating back to 1991.

    Knott continued working under Higdon, grabbing the attention of local media in 2019. That year, the News & Observer wrote about Knott’s prosecution of a man who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for running a $10 million trafficking operation.

    After Biden became president, Knott continued his work under Mike Easley Jr., a Democrat Biden appointed to replace Higdon as the U.S. attorney for North Carolina’s Eastern District. Easley is the son of former North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat.

    After Biden was elected, Knott says he started planning his exit from the U.S. attorney’s office. However, Knott said he didn’t want to abandon investigations that become major cases. So he stayed until November 2023.

    Knott cited one of his final cases in a video ad that was released when he launched his campaign for Congress. In 2022, Knott helped secure a conviction and 50-year prison sentence for Jimmy Rouse of Sampson County, who had been accused of running an armed drug trafficking operation in eastern North Carolina.

    Contacted by PolitiFact NC, the Daughtry campaign didn’t provide evidence that Biden ever hired or appointed Knott. Daughtry’s campaign said it believes that it’s fair to refer to Knott as “Biden’s lawyer” because Knott has referred to himself as “a prosecutor under the Biden White House” while speaking at a local GOP event on Jan. 23. 

    At the event, candidates were asked to provide an example of a time they had to compromise with Democrats. Knott told the crowd that he had to “abide by” Biden administration policies while building cases against suspects he wanted to prosecute.

    PolitiFact NC shared with the Daughtry campaign information it had learned about assistant U.S. attorneys — and the multiple degrees of separation between assistant U.S. attorneys and the president.

    The Daughtry campaign didn’t specifically refute PolitiFact NC’s findings on the distance between the president and assistant U.S. attorneys on the government’s organizational chart. It did, however, focus on Knott’s career choices. 

    No “true conservative” would “stand idly by” as other federal prosecutors brought charges against Trump, Daughtry spokesman Stefan Mychajliw said in an email. 

    Jack Smith, a special counsel appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, has charged Trump with conspiring to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss and with illegally retaining classified documents. 

    “Brad Knott chose to work for the Biden administration and collect a paycheck,” Mychajliw said. “He could have quit at any time. He chose money over principles.”

    Knott’s campaign said Daughtry is leaping to false conclusions about Knott’s political beliefs and the nature of his job.

    About assistant U.S. attorneys

    It’s common for assistant U.S. attorneys to work under leaders of the opposite party, according to former assistant U.S. attorneys who spoke with PolitiFact. The trend has also been observed by Harvard Law School, which says on its website that there’s “a long history of AUSAs serving for many years, across multiple administrations, effectively insulated from partisan politics.”

    Former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., was an assistant U.S. attorney during the Clinton administration before running for Congress. Gowdy rose to prominence by leading the U.S. House of Representatives’ investigation into the 2012 Benghazi attack in Libya, which led to the deaths of four Americans and heavy scrutiny of former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.

    In a telephone interview, Gowdy said he interviewed for positions in Colorado and New York before being hired in South Carolina in 1994 by U.S. Attorney Pete Strom, a Democrat who had been appointed by Janet Reno, an attorney general appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

    “I never met Bill Clinton in my life. To this day, I have not met Bill Clinton. I never met Janet Reno,” said Gowdy, who now hosts “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy” on the Fox News cable network. 

    “I couldn’t tell you the political orthodoxy of a single one of my office mates. Not a one,” Gowdy said in a phone interview. “Politics had nothing to do with what we did.”

    Nick Akerman, former prosecutor during the Watergate scandal and assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, had a similar experience. He said federal prosecutors are typically hired based on merit.

    “People are not hired in that job because of their political beliefs or background,” Akerman said in a telephone interview. “It couldn’t have been more irrelevant to what I did, and to what other people did. People were hired for their competence and their legal ability.”

    Gowdy noted that federal prosecutors cannot bring charges against anyone on their own. Law enforcement agencies — from the FBI to local sheriff’s offices — are responsible for investigating criminal activity and arresting suspects. Federal prosecutors can determine who to prosecute only after those agencies refer cases.

    Politically appointed U.S. attorneys have discretion over the resources in their office, Gowdy said. They could choose to focus on, say, environmental crimes, or maybe focus on federal drug cases rather than state-level drug cases, Gowdy said.

    But most prosecutions are not politically motivated, Gowdy said.  

    Steven Wasserman, president of the National Association of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, agreed. “I can tell you in no uncertain terms that AUSAs are career civil servants that do not work for the White House,” Wasserman said in a telephone interview. 

    Suggesting that an assistant U.S. attorney works for the president would be “as ridiculous” as saying that “a soldier who happened to serve during a particular president’s administration is that president’s soldier,” Wasserman said.

    Our ruling

    Daughtry’s campaign ad says “Brad Knott was a lawyer for Joe Biden.”

    Biden has appointed leaders to the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina that could indirectly influence Knott’s work — something Knott acknowledged in a recent candidate forum.

    However, Daughtry’s campaign ad gives a misleading impression that Knott worked directly for Biden, which isn’t the case. Knott wasn’t hired by Biden. Knott wasn’t appointed by Biden. And Knott didn’t report directly to Biden, either.

    He was hired as an employee of the federal government before Biden became president — in a role that’s considered apolitical.

    We rate Daughtry’s statement False.



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