Questions tagged [united-states]
Use this tag for questions about claims based in the United States, or limited to the United States.
1,234
questions
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1answer
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Is Bernie Sanders the first candidate to win the first three states in a 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
237 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
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0answers
191 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
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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 ...
-1
votes
1answer
339 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 ...
6
votes
1answer
587 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. ...
6
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 ...
59
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
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0answers
350 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 ...
3
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1answer
668 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
940 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
720 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
452 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
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1answer
874 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
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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
694 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 ...
14
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?...
4
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0answers
583 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
823 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
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1answer
510 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
433 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 ...
9
votes
1answer
516 views
Did the US government classify the Whaley House as haunted?
I noticed in Lonely Planet's book on Los Angeles, San Diego, & Southern California, page 400, the description for the Whaley House says that it is "officially certified as haunted by the US ...
3
votes
0answers
203 views
Did Downer claim Israel told him to spy on Papadopoulos?
Former Trump Campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos just tweeted this:
Alexander Downer has made a bizarre, and unfounded, claim and perpetuated a conspiracy theory that the Israelis ...
5
votes
1answer
606 views
Did Joe Biden send out a decree to keep Rudy Giuliani off television?
In an interview with Fox News, Rudy Giuliani said in reference to former Vice President Joe Biden:
Sounds like a poor imitation of the Godfather. I mean, this is the guy who sent out a decree to ...
15
votes
1answer
1k views
Are Pennsylvania motorists required to hide their cars from horses?
News sources, blogs, email chains, and periodicals publish lists of "stupid laws", which are supposedly still on the books. One particularly amusing one:
Any motorist who sights a team of horses ...
5
votes
1answer
612 views
Was Bernie Sanders not a registered Democrat (in 2017)?
A 2017 opinion-marked article in the Hill by Michael Starr Hopkins (himself apparently a Democrat) claims:
All the talk about building an economy that works for all Americans means nothing if “...
0
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0answers
547 views
Was Lt. Col. Vindman a registered Democrat?
The Washington Examiner states:
Trump has accused Vindman of being a “Never Trumper,” a charge the NSC official denied on Tuesday.
“I would call myself Never Partisan,” Vindman told the House ...
0
votes
1answer
194 views
During the 2019 Bolivian election count, were the comms and electricity cut off at the election HQ?
During vote count of the disputed 2019 Bolivian presidential election, the preliminary vote reporting was suspended for a period of about one day, leading to accusations that the government had fudged ...
3
votes
0answers
2k views
Do US Navy SEALs select team members by performance vs trust ratings?
In one presentation which has gone viral on Linkedin, author/motivational speaker Simon Sinek claims that US Navy SEALs select candidates for 'SEAL Team 6' by rating them by two characteristics: '...
6
votes
1answer
341 views
Did the IG change his conclusion in the Sharyl Atkisson investigation?
In 2013, journalist Sharyl Atkisson accused the Obama Administration of hacking and surveillance of her computers. Michael Horowitz, the Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Justice, ...
66
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2answers
14k views
Did Ohio pass a law granting students the right to give scientifically wrong answers consistent with their religious beliefs?
The Patheos blog and WKRC local12 report:
The Ohio House on Wednesday passed the "Student Religious Liberties Act." Under the law, students can't be penalized if their work is scientifically wrong ...
-18
votes
2answers
724 views
Did the whistleblower work with Joe Biden?
In an interview with a reporter from The Hill, and reported by both The Hill and Real Clear Politics, Senator Rand Paul made the claim that the anonymous whistleblower who raised concerns about ...
-1
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1answer
362 views
Is over-reliance on wind energy the real reason PG&E is cutting power? [closed]
It's been widely reported that to mitigate the risk of power lines sparking wild-fires in California, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the largest utility in California, has been preemptively de-...
8
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0answers
402 views
Does the average American watch 5,000 movies in their lifetime?
Here is a snippet from an article on the Utah Statesman:
According to a Redbox study, Americans watch more than 5,000 movies in their lifetimes, an average of about seven per month.
I cannot find ...
13
votes
1answer
644 views
Are police officer's families 2-4 times more likely to experience domestic violence?
I was wondering the accuracy of this claim:
Two studies have found that at least 40% of police officer families
experience domestic violence, ... in contrast to 10% of families in
the general ...
2
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0answers
207 views
Do vaping bans cause people who were previously vapers to start smoking cigarettes?
Background
This Buzzfeed article asserts that there is a realistic worry that vaping bans cause vapers to return back to cigarettes:
And yanking nicotine e-cigarettes off the market could have ...
7
votes
1answer
363 views
Did Senators Sanders and Warren support Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum?
A PIIE article states
Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren strongly oppose free trade pacts such as TPP and USMCA, support Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, and are intensely ...
48
votes
3answers
8k views
Did the US push the Kurds to lower their defences against Turkey in the months preceding the latest Turkish military operation against them?
CNN reports:
Analysts such as Bowman say part of the outrage is driven by the fact that "we would have not defeated ISIS' Caliphate ... without their help" and that the Kurds had just recently ...
4
votes
1answer
427 views
Does illegal immigration change the U.S. electorate as claimed by Larry Elder?
In this episode of Rubin Report Larry Elder claims:
The country has changed in part, in my opinion, because of immigration, including illegal immigration. People who are coming to the country ...
27
votes
2answers
11k views
Do more Americans want the Bidens investigated than Trump impeached?
An October 7th segment of Fox News and Friends is available on YouTube
McCarthy: More people want to investigate Biden than impeach Trump
House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy says at 3m19s:
...
4
votes
1answer
238 views
Was the Dow Jones average more unstable after 2017 than in the preceding post-2008 years?
A Salon article says that Trump's
trade war of choice against China has turned a steadily rising Dow Jones average, through 2017, into an unstable sawtooth pattern with massive single-day declines ...
3
votes
1answer
919 views
Does wind energy cost 2 cents per kwh?
In a 2018 CleanTechnica article, Wind Energy Prices Continue To Fall Due To Technology Advancements & Cost Reductions, they claim
The new report, the Department of Energy’s (DoE) 2017 Wind ...
5
votes
1answer
783 views
Does the USA have the highest cumulative CO2 emissions since 1750?
Vox has posted a cumulative graph of CO2 emissions since 1750. And the USA is flagged as the chief culprit. The actual title of the Vox article is:
Why the US bears the most responsibility for ...
1
vote
1answer
210 views
Is John Durham handling all referrals from the IG investigation?
Jerry Dunleavy said this on Wednesday in the Washington Examiner:
Durham’s investigation is separate from the one that was just finished by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The DOJ watchdog ...
15
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1answer
970 views
Does the United States Army pay $1,200 per civilian killed to their family?
In Season 4, Episode 1 of This Is Us, character Cassidy Sharp
Is this number accurate? Does the United States Army pay families $1,200 per civilian killed? If so, does the Army financially ...
