Questions tagged [united-states]
Use this tag for questions about claims based in the United States, or limited to the United States.
1,258
questions
11
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Has the number of pneumonia deaths in the US dramatically dropped in 2020?
A widely-commented upon post on reddit claims that pneumonia deaths in the US have "fallen off a cliff this year":
In the conversation I saw several links to CDC data, but they are unclear ...
15
votes
2answers
5k views
Is participating in a campaign advert a fireable offence for US journalists?
Quoting the left-wing news outlet Vox:
In 2016, Hannity appeared in a bananas pro-Trump campaign ad.
Sean Hannity: ...and of course he's gonna build that wall. He says he's going to have ...
-2
votes
0answers
169 views
Why Isn't America Respecting Social Distancing Rules [closed]
Why is it that a country that believes it is the best in the world is leading the most carona virus cases in the world and NOT doing much to flatten the curve and stop the death rate?
8
votes
2answers
745 views
Did the US confiscate 200,000 masks from a delivery to Berlin?
According to several news reports (SPIEGEL, RBB24, BBC) the Berlin police bought face masks of which 200,000 were confiscated in Bangkok.
BBC, 4 April, 2020:
The US has been accused of redirecting ...
-2
votes
0answers
210 views
Did China steal technology from the USA to make their J-20?
The Chengdu J-20 is a Chinese fighter aircraft.
Wikipedia reports that
The combination of an integrated targeting pod with spherically situated passive-optical tracking system is reported similar ...
85
votes
2answers
13k views
Did Donald Trump fire the entire pandemic response team in 2018?
This tweet claims Trump "fired the entire pandemic response team in 2018":
Text: Just a reminder: it’s okay to blame the president for how bad things get with COVID-19 because he fired the ...
-6
votes
0answers
175 views
Is the spread of COVID-19 in the US exponential? [closed]
Claim: The number of positively for COVID-19 tested individuals reflects the exponential growth of the number of people infected in the US. Source: The Conversations Blog.
Let’s look at how the ...
1
vote
0answers
196 views
Was the 1952 Washington DC UFO wave caused by temperature inversions?
The 1952 Washington, D.C. UFO incident, a.k.a. the "Invasion of Washington", was a series of UFO reports from the 12th to the 29th July 1952 over Washington DC.
At 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, July 19, ...
28
votes
1answer
7k views
Have over 1 million people in the US been tested for the coronavirus as of March 30th?
President Donald Trump touted a new coronavirus test that produces
results in minutes as opposed to days and announced Monday that more
than 1 million Americans have been tested for the disease.
...
0
votes
0answers
249 views
After 2 years in office, had Obama kept more promises than Trump?
This chart has been shared around social media.
It is from a January 2019 BBC News article, and cites a Politifact article as the source for the data.
Are these figures accurate?
0
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0answers
418 views
Did COVID-19 originate in the US Army and brought to China in the Military World Games? [duplicate]
In the past weeks theories about the US Army creating and bringing COVID-19 to China during the Military World Games (Wuhan, October 2019) have arisen. This is not the first time claims that the virus ...
8
votes
1answer
682 views
Have 'a lot' of New Yorkers 'fled the city' to Florida?
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has thus far resisted calls for heavier restrictions in the state, and part of his argument for not going further appears to be that stay-at-home orders elsewhere have had ...
2
votes
1answer
506 views
Are New Yorkers lining up in front of gun shops?
Clio Zammatteo is an Italian-American blogger who lives in New York.
She recently posted a video (in Italian, as reported by la Repubblica) saying she had left New York because she was scared that ...
0
votes
3answers
1k views
Is SARS-CoV-2 a biological weapon released by the US military?
SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that is the cause of the disease COVID-19.
Some people have questioned the origins of the virus.
RadioFreeEurope reported on March 5, 2020 on a claim by an Iranian ...
18
votes
1answer
639 views
Did the U.S. refuse coronavirus testing kits offered by the World Health Organisation?
At minute 5:50 of the Democratic Presidential Primary Debate on Sunday, March 15 (video and transcript), former vice president Joe Biden made this claim (emphasis added):
[T]he World Health ...
30
votes
2answers
14k views
Will there be a mandatory quarantine in the US under the Stafford act starting on Monday March 16? [closed]
I received from a family member a message saying that someone they know sent them the following text.
please be advised, within 48-72 hours the president will evoke the Stafford Act. Just got off ...
2
votes
1answer
251 views
Did a rabbit bite Justice David Souter?
In a panel discussion titled HLS in the World | A Conversation with Six Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court [partially transcribed at Harvard At 200: Justices Look Back On Their Law School Days — And ...
19
votes
1answer
5k views
Were international travellers kept waiting in densely packed queues at US airports due to COVID-19 screenings?
There are several claims online that international travelers returning from Europe were kept waiting in densely packed queues at JKF and O'Hare airports, due to COVID-19 screenings, on the weekend of ...
3
votes
0answers
95 views
Did Thomas Jefferson write the Virginia Constitution in such a way that parts of the state can leave the state? [migrated]
Jerry Falwell, Jr, president of Liberty University, appeared on Fox and Friends on 13 March 2020, being interviewed about, among other things, "Vexit", a plan proposed by some West Virginians and ...
12
votes
2answers
1k views
Was a “large number” of new COVID-19 clusters in the United States seeded by travellers from Europe?
It has been reported in relation to the recent US travel ban on the EU's 26-country Schengen area that
The President justified the ban by saying the EU had failed to take the same precautions as ...
13
votes
1answer
7k views
Did the CDC lose a Federal Lawsuit to produce evidence that vaccines do not cause Autism?
In a recent article[1] published by the Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), ICAN claims that the Center for Disease Control (CDC) has lost[2] a Federal Lawsuit (brought forward by ICAN) calling ...
-1
votes
0answers
144 views
Did the Center of American Progress threaten to fire David Sirota?
David Sirota, senior advisor to Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, just tweeted this about the Center for American Progress, a liberal thinktank:
As a young person, I was ...
30
votes
3answers
18k views
Has the flu already killed 20,000 Americans during 2019-20 flu season?
Fox News has this article titled "Flu has killed 20K Americans including 136 children so far [as of March 2020] in this [2019-20] flu season, CDC says".
The CDC said that so far this season, 34 ...
68
votes
2answers
16k views
Does a COVID-19 test in USA cost consumers more than $US3000?
Yesterday a famous Italian singer, Vasco Rossi, posted on Instagram saying that confirmed COVID-19 cases in USA are low because very few people are checked due to the test costing $3,200. (In Italy, ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Is Bernie Sanders the first candidate to win the first three states in a competitive primary?
I saw this float around Facebook. It seems it originated from the Twitter account of People For Bernie,
Bernard Sanders is the only candidate in history (in a competitive primary) to win the ...
46
votes
2answers
14k views
Were Vietnam veterans spat on?
The idea that Vietnam veterans in the United States were spat on when they returned seems to have taken hold. It's mentioned in the movie First Blood ("Rambo"):
Then I come back to the world and I ...
4
votes
1answer
323 views
Did Biden ask the State Department to lift Kolomoyskyi’s travel ban?
Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck said this on BlazeTV on Thursday (at the 33:54 mark of this video):
Kolomoyskyi’s company Burisma was implicated in a money-laundering ring. Hunter Biden then,...
8
votes
0answers
268 views
Did Lyndon Johnson spy on Barry Goldwater's 1964 campaign using CIA and FBI assets?
An article by Lee Edwards on the Heritage Foundation website claims so with quite some level of detail, e.g.
In the fall of 1964, the White House turned to the CIA to get advance inside information ...
49
votes
2answers
17k views
Did Nancy Pelosi say “We'll have to pass the bill to find out what's in it”?
I found some comments by republicans/conservatives who claim she said this*, some indicating it was in regard with Obamacare, but I haven't been able to find any context or primary source.
So the ...
-2
votes
1answer
365 views
Do the U.S. interstate numbers correspond to land area?
This question is about the numbering scheme of U.S. interstate highways. Wikipedia says:
In the numbering scheme for the primary routes, east–west highways are assigned even numbers and north–south ...
7
votes
1answer
638 views
Did 20% of American millionaires inherit their riches?
A 2019 Investopedia article, 7 Millioinaire Myths, which has been widely copied makes the claim that "Millionaires Just Inherited Their Money" is a false preconception:
According to Thomas J. ...
8
votes
1answer
2k views
Did Michael Bloomberg ask for a box to stand on during debates?
In an interview with Sean Hannity, President Trump made a claim about Michael Bloomberg:
You know now he wants a box for the debates, to stand on.
the implication being that he wanted to make ...
60
votes
2answers
19k views
Did Bernie Sanders say immigrants steal our jobs?
In an interview with the former Maryland governor, Martin O’Malley, that appeared in The Guardian there are some notable claims that I haven't heard of till now. For example, this part refers to ...
7
votes
0answers
529 views
Are there actual cases of school libraries refusing to lend books to children that are outside their determined reading level?
In the article Three Myths About “Reading Levels” (Feb 28, 2017) published by Psychology Today, it is asserted (emphasis mine):
Unfortunately, though, the ubiquity and precision with which these ...
4
votes
1answer
681 views
Is Rand Paul's apparent outing of Trump's whistleblower a crime? [closed]
A tweet from @SethFromThe716 is very popular
(4.2K likes at the time of this question).
It says
[U.S. Senator] Rand Paul violated the law by publicly outing the whistleblower [of President Trump]...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Did 30 U.S. Marines die in a helicopter crash between January 24th and January 27th, 2020?
Social media and some news websites are reporting that there was a helicopter crash in Iraq that killed 30 U.S. Marines over the weekend of 24-27 January 2020.
From Google, found when googling "...
79
votes
3answers
18k views
Have China and India more than doubled carbon emissions since 2000 while U.S. emissions have fallen?
The following meme has been shared circa Dec 2019 on social media and several blogs:
The text reads:
China's Carbon Emission Change Since 2000: +208%
India's Carbon Emission Change Since 2000:...
1
vote
2answers
789 views
Did the Sanders campaign attack Biden with a “doctored video”?
From Politico,
INDIANOLA, Iowa — Joe Biden accused Bernie Sanders’ campaign Saturday of issuing a “doctored video” to attack him over Social Security, a false claim that ratcheted up the tension ...
-1
votes
1answer
466 views
Did Donald Trump order the killing of General Qassem Soleimani? [closed]
Throughout the media there have been articles in the past weeks that said that Trump 'ordered' the killing of General Qassem Soleimani from Iran. Can a president order such killings or he approved ...
11
votes
1answer
884 views
Can a judge let the parties of a trial resolve their disputes on “the field of battle”, legally, in the US?
I read the following article by Associated Press:
The judge had the power to let the parties “resolve our disputes on the field of battle, legally,” David Ostrom said, adding in his filing that ...
67
votes
2answers
23k views
Did Bernie Sanders say that a woman cannot be president?
During the January 2020 Democratic debate at 43:27 the moderator asked Bernie why he said that a woman cannot win an election https://youtu.be/Ppm_mqo9Tyc?t=2607 . Bernie responds by denying that he ...
24
votes
1answer
15k views
Did Elizabeth Warren plagiarize recipes and publish a book called “Pow Wow Chow”?
From the Daily Mall
Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren is yet again in hot water after new allegations have surfaced that she plagiarized her 'Cherokee' recipes in the book ...
6
votes
2answers
725 views
Has the US declared war since WWII?
On the Jan 11, 2020 episode of the podcast Lovett or Leave It, the host Jon Lovett said that the US hasn’t declared war since World War II.
Is this true? People like to attack politicians for voting ...
15
votes
2answers
2k views
Has Trump, as of January 2020, used military force less than any other president since Jimmy Carter?
Last week, David Brooks, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times claimed (archive):
Love or hate him, Trump has used military force less than any other president since Jimmy Carter.
There are ...
9
votes
2answers
2k views
Did Trump tweet the most liked Persian language tweet in history?
Saeed Ghasseminejad (advisor to a foreign policy think tank) claimed yesterday:
This tweet by
@realDonaldTrump
with more than 100k likes is already the most liked Persian tweet in the history ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
Did Saudi Arabia deposit 1 billion dollars to pay the US for troop presence?
President Trump said this to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham:
I said to Saudi Arabia - we have a very good relationship with Saudi Arabia - I said “Listen, you’re a very rich country. You want more troops?...
5
votes
0answers
595 views
Does this image show General Soleimani with American troops?
VeteransToday (amongst others) have shown this image, and claimed it shows Iranian General Soleimani who was recently killed by US drones with American Troops:
This version of the image is from ...
7
votes
1answer
834 views
Did someone forge Representative Elijah Cummings signature on subpoenas?
There were claims on social media (e.g. Oct 18, 2019 tweet) that two subpoenas, ostensibly signed by Representative Elijah Cummings shortly before his death, had a forged signature.
This story was ...
10
votes
1answer
519 views
Does treating end stage kidney disease cost 1% of the United States federal budget?
On Last Week Tonight John Oliver made the claim that:
"Treating end stage kidney disease takes up nearly 1% of the entire
federal budget"
You can see the claim at approximately the 4:33 mark ...
0
votes
1answer
442 views
Was Hillary Clinton personally involved in approving the Uranium One purchase?
In 2013, a Russian company bought a Canadian company called Uranium One which owns a uranium mine in the United States. This purchase was approved by the US government through an interagency review ...
