Q: Did Sen. Chuck Schumer have an affair with a 16-year-old girl?
A: No. That claim was originally made up by a self-described satirical website, but has been circulating on right-wing social media accounts as though it happened.
In the days after Christine Blasey Ford came forward to describe an alleged sexual assault by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when they were teenagers, a series of falsehoods about the woman circulated online, questioning her credibility and motives.
Q: Is there a photo of former Vice President Joe Biden groping a woman’s chest?
A: No. A Christmas party photo from 2013 has been altered to appear that he did.
Q: Is Christine Blasey Ford accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault as retribution for her parents’ foreclosure case in the 1990s?
A: There is no evidence to support that claim, and her parents still live in that house.
Q: Did WikiLeaks release an email showing that Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign bribed prominent Republicans to oppose Donald Trump during the 2016 election?
A: No. That email was fabricated by a self-described satirical website. It was later amplified by Sean Hannity and published by other websites.
Q: Did the New York Times admit that the anonymous op-ed essay it published was not written by a Trump administration official?
A: No. That claim was made up by a website that trolls conservatives.
Q: Was “VP Mike Pence Busted Stealing Campaign Funds To Pay His Mortgage”?
A: He used campaign funds for personal expenses during his run for Congress in 1990, but the Federal Election Commission could not agree on whether he violated campaign finance laws.
Q: Were “412 Michigan Muslims arrested in fed’s ‘largest bust in U.S. history’”?
A: No. Only about 30 of those arrests were made in Michigan, and there is no evidence all of the individuals arrested were Muslim.
Q: Was Joe Arpaio, the former Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff, appointed to finish John McCain’s term in the Senate?
A: No. That claim is made up — the Arizona governor has not yet named a replacement.
Q: Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tied to George Soros?
A: Not directly. Her campaign gained momentum from an interview she gave on an internet show that is supported, in part, by a nonprofit that received a grant from an organization that received funding from a Soros foundation.