title
stringlengths 10
125
| url
stringlengths 49
125
| topic
stringclasses 22
values | camp
stringclasses 3
values | full_stories
stringlengths 1
328
| articles
stringlengths 0
74.6k
| __index_level_0__
int64 0
986
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Judge orders default judgment, sanctions against Rudy Giuliani in election workers’ lawsuit
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-30-0910/donald-trump-judge-orders-default-judgment-sanctions-against-rudy-giuliani
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/30/judge-orders-default-judgment-sanctions-against-rudy-giuliani-in-election-workers-lawsuit.html
|
-
| 300
|
Republican Candidate Drops Out of Presidential Race
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-30-0656/2024-presidential-election-republican-candidate-drops-out-presidential-race
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://www.newsweek.com/republican-candidate-drops-out-presidential-race-1823152
|
-
| 301
|
Jacksonville shooting: DeSantis booed at vigil for victims of racist attack
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-28-0620/2024-presidential-election-jacksonville-shooting-desantis-booed-vigil-victims
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66637476
|
Jacksonville shooting: DeSantis booed at vigil for victims of racist attack
Published
28 August
Share
Media caption,
Watch: Ron DeSantis is booed at a vigil after a racially-motivated shooting in Jacksonville
By Gareth Evans
BBC News
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been loudly booed at a vigil for victims of a racially motivated shooting.
The Republican candidate for president was heckled in Jacksonville, where hundreds gathered on Sunday to remember the three victims of the attack.
He was forced to step back from the microphone before a member of the city council asked the crowd to listen.
"It ain't about parties today," Ju'Coby Pittman said, adding: "A bullet don't know a party."
Mr DeSantis, 44, who has loosened gun laws in the state and faced criticism from civil rights leaders for targeting what he calls "woke ideology", eventually spoke and called the gunman a "scumbag" which prompted applause from some of the crowd.
Around 200 people attended the vigil, which took place in a predominantly black area just yards away from the Dollar General shop where the shooting happened the previous day.
Twenty-one year old Ryan Christopher Palmeter fired eleven rounds at 52 year-old Angela Carr who was sitting in her vehicle, before entering the shop and shooting another two people dead.
Anolt Laguerre Jr, 19, worked at the Dollar General and was killed as he tried to flee.
Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion, 29, was shot dead as he entered the premises. Another woman was chased but managed to escape.
As police arrived, the attacker turned a gun on himself and died at the scene. An AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a Glock handgun, both legally obtained, were used in the shooting.
IMAGE SOURCE,
GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
The deadly shooting happened at a Dollar General in Jacksonville on Saturday
Police have said the gunman was motivated by racist hatred.
"He knew what he was doing. He was 100% lucid," Sheriff T K Waters told reporters. "Finely put: this shooting was racially motivated and he hated black people."
He left behind racist messages, police said, which read like "the diary of a madman".
The gunman was detained for 72 hours in 2017 under mental health legislation that allows the involuntary detainment of an individual for treatment. He was released after the examination, police said, which is why it did not appear on his background checks when purchasing the guns.
More on US gun violence
The numbers behind the rise in mass shootings
America's fastest-growing gun problem
How gun violence is reshaping American lives
Parents' unimaginable grief a year after US massacre
Mr DeSantis said financial support would be provided to bolster security at the historically black Edward Waters University, near to where the shooting happened.
The gunman first went to the university campus, where he was asked to identify himself by a security officer. When he refused, he was asked to leave. He was then seen putting on a bullet-resistant vest and a mask before leaving the area.
"What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida," Mr DeSantis said. "We are not going to let people be targeted based on their race."
Bishop John Guns, referring to Mr Gallion, told the crowd: "In two weeks I have to preach a funeral of a man who should still be alive. I wept in church today like a baby because my heart is tired. We are exhausted."
The shooting fell on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for civil rights, where Dr Martin Luther King Jr gave his famous 'I have a dream' speech.
President Joe Biden, during remarks on the anniversary on Monday, called the shooting an "act of domestic violence extremism".
"Domestic terrorism rooted in white supremacy is the greatest terrorist threat we face in the homeland," Mr Biden said.
The president also renewed calls for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland earlier said the shooting was being investigated as a hate crime.
Related Topics
US gun violence
Florida
Racism
United States
Ron DeSantis
More on this story
Florida gunman, 21, left racist messages - police
Published
28 August
Racist gunman kills three black people in Florida
Published
27 August
The numbers behind the rise in US mass shootings
Published
27 August
| 302
|
60% of Americans Think Trump Should Stand Trial Before Election: Poll
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-25-0852/donald-trump-60-americans-think-trump-should-stand-trial-election-poll
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://themessenger.com/politics/60-of-americans-think-trump-should-stand-trial-before-election-poll
|
TRENDING NOW | Patriots Fan’s Preliminary Autopsy Results Revealed After He Died Following Fight in Stands
60% of Americans Think Trump Should Stand Trial Before Election: Poll
About three in five Americans say that they understand the legal cases against the former president somewhat or very well
Published |Updated
Kayla Gallagher
JWPlayer
A majority of Americans say they think former President Donald Trump should stand trial on his federal charges of trying to overthrow the 2020 election before the next White House election, according to a new Politico Magazine/Ipsos.
In polling on two of Trump's legal cases, the 2020 election probe (61%) and his classified document case (62%), most respondents said they think the former president should stand trial before November 2024.
Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Steer N' Stein bar at the Iowa State Fair on August 12, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa.Brandon Bell/Getty Images
The division along party lines is notable, with 89% of Democrats saying they think Trump should be tried in the election subversion case and 33% of Republicans saying the same. However, more Republicans, 46%, agreed with the 86% of Democrats who believe the sensitive documents case got to trial prior to the election.
About three in five Americans surveyed said that they understand the legal cases against the former president somewhat or very well.
The poll, which was conducted from Aug. 18-21, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points. It is based on a representative sample of 1,032 U.S. residents, age 18 or older, including 272 Republican respondents, 321 Democratic respondents, and 319 independent respondents.
Read More
Special Counsel Still Investigating 2020 Election Subversion Efforts After Trump Indictment: Report
Most Americans Believe Trump Should Have His Day in Court Before 2024 Election, Poll Shows
Trump Indicted on Federal Charges Tied to 2020 Election
Trump Tries Same Legal Strategy in Classified Docs and 2020 Election Cases
Special Counsel Seeks Hearing on Classified Records in Trump 2020 Election Case
Trump Indicted in Classified Documents Case
Read nextWe Need To Make Affordable Internet Access Permanent
THE MESSENGER MORNING NEWSLETTER
Essential news, exclusive reporting and expert analysis delivered right to you. All for free.
Sign Up
By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use.
More Politics.
POLITICS
Republican-Controlled House Triages Its Gasping Patient: the Government
NEWS
BYU Reinstates Formal Ban on ‘Same-Sex Romantic Behavior’ in Honor Code
POLITICS
Biden Answers Calls From Gen Z With Moves on Climate, Guns
POLITICS
Trump Vows to Reimpose Travel Bans, Send Troops to the Border
POLITICS
Ray Epps’ Lawyer Swings at Fox News Over Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory Coverage After Client Pleads Guilty
POLITICS
Trump Dominates, DeSantis Plummets in New Hampshire Primary Poll
POLITICS
Senate Confirms New Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman After Months-long GOP Blockade
POLITICS
Hunter Biden Must Appear in Person at US Court Arraignment on Gun Charges, Judge Rules
POLITICS
Kari Lake Expected To Announce Senate Bid in Arizona as Early as Next Month
POLITICS
Government Shutdown 2023: Everything You Need to Know If Congress Fails To Make a Spending Deal
POLITICS
Pro-Trump Lawyer Lin Wood Says He ‘Didn’t Flip’ on Former President in Georgia
NEWS
Rupert Murdoch Appears to Root for Donald Trump’s Death, Michael Wolff Claims in Fox News Book: ‘Frothing at the Mouth’
| 303
|
Ramaswamy, DeSantis, Pence: Who came out on top at the Republican debate?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-24-0633/2024-presidential-election-ramaswamy-desantis-pence-who-came-out-top-republican
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66601291
|
Ramaswamy, DeSantis, Pence: Who came out on top at the Republican debate?
Published
24 August
Share
Related Topics
US election 2024
Media caption,
Watch: Candidates reflect on how they did during debate
By Anthony Zurcher in Wisconsin
North America correspondent
The first Republican presidential debate was a rowdy affair that saw the eight candidates leap headlong into heated exchanges.
There were some who thought it would be boring without Donald Trump - the ultimate showman - but that was decidedly not the case. The former president may have been the life of the party during primary debates back in 2016, but the eight rivals who travelled to Wisconsin proved they could bring some excitement without his help.
Some candidates stood out from the pack, however - and some seemed to languish on the side-lines.
Here's a rundown of the winners and losers.
WINNERS
Vivek Ramaswamy: The man who never ran for public office - and didn't even vote for a president from 2004 to 2020 - simply dominated this Republican debate.
With a broad smile and a quick tongue, he frequently seemed to be the only candidate on the stage who was enjoying himself. That may partly be because this political novice has exceeded expectations, and is essentially playing with house money while he takes centre stage.
He easily fended off swipes from his fellow candidates, suggesting that Mr Christie was auditioning for a show on left-leaning news channel MSNBC and that Ms Haley was angling for spots on the board of defence contractors with her positions on Ukraine.
"I'm the only person on the stage who isn't bought and paid for," he said during a discussion of climate change - prompting cries of outrage from his rivals.
Media caption,
Ramaswamy: 'I was clearly the winner of this thing'
Time and time again, Mr Ramaswamy positioned himself as the outsider against a bunch of political establishment insiders. Many of his views - calling on Ukraine to cede territory to Russia, using military force to secure the US-Mexico border, and banning US companies from doing business with China - are well outside the political mainstream even within the Republican Party. But as Mr Trump demonstrated in 2016, even outlandish, impractical policy proposals can be effective in generating attention.
Five things Ramaswamy believes
Mr Ramaswamy may not have the political fuel to challenge Mr Trump for the nomination, and he may not even want to, but the evening's debate ensures that he's going to continue to be a factor in this race in the months ahead.
Mike Pence: The veteran politician, who has served as a congressman, a governor and a vice-president, has a bit of fight left in him.
Although his presidential campaign has been sputtering - hated by Trump supporters and distrusted by Trump critics - his debate-stage experience served him well on Wednesday night.
He went on the attack early, swiping at Mr Ramaswamy's inexperience, saying, "Now is not the time for on-the-job training".
Republican rumble: Listen to Americast
He offered a passionate, religion-based call for nationwide abortion limits. That likely won't play well in next year's general election. But it could help him win over evangelical Republicans, who can tilt the balance in states like Iowa and South Carolina, which play an outsized role in deciding the party nominee.
During the second-half of the debate, when discussion of Mr Trump came up, Mr Pence had the last word, saying he put the Constitution first on January 6, 2021 when he refused to throw out the election results at Mr Trump's behest. Several of his rivals even spoke out in his favour.
The fundamental challenges to Mr Pence's campaign remain, but for at least one night he showed why he was once considered by many conservative Republicans to be presidential material.
Nikki Haley: The former US ambassador to the UN has made a habit of surprising those who underestimate her. She has never lost a race for office, even when she was challenging more established Republican candidates for the South Carolina governorship.
On Wednesday night, she stood out by offering sharp criticism early of both Mr Trump and the Republican Party as a whole.
"Republicans did this to you too," she said when describing the massive US budget deficit. "They need to stop the spending, stop the borrowing."
IMAGE SOURCE,
REUTERS
When the topic turned to the former president, she said Mr Trump was the "most disliked politician in America" - and warned the Republican Party will suffer because of it in the general election.
She also showed will for the fight. She scrapped with Mr Ramaswamy on continuing US aid to Ukraine, which she supports. And she clashed with Mr Pence on abortion, calling his demands for a national abortion ban unrealistic and politically damaging.
Even if she can't pull ahead in the pack this time around, her debate performance could position the 51-year-old for future presidential bids in election years not dominated by a former president.
MIDDLE OF THE PACK
Tim Scott and Chris Christie: Mr Christie did exactly what many expected him to. He took swipes at Mr Trump, had some choice lines targeting Mr Ramaswamy, and was generally feisty and combative.
He was also roundly booed when he was introduced, when he criticised Mr Trump, and when he took big swings at Mr Ramaswamy.
His choicest line came when he said the political neophyte "sounds like ChatGPT" - but that particular twist did nothing to ingratiate him with the crowd.
As for Tim Scott, his nice-guy attitude meant he frequently stayed above the fray during the most heated debate moments. That won't help him win over many voters, but it could burnish his credentials if he wants to be Mr Trump's vice-presidential pick.
IMAGE SOURCE,
EPA
Image caption,
Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie debate
LOSERS
Ron DeSantis: At the beginning of the year, the race for the Republican nomination seemed like it would be a two-man contest between Mr DeSantis and Mr Trump. Since then, the Florida governor has sagged in the polls.
If the rest of the Republican pack hasn't caught up to him yet, it may very well have him after this debate.
It wasn't a terrible performance - he had his moments, particularly when he spoke about his record of military service and his calls for more aggressive government policies to deal with the opioid epidemic.
He was on the side-lines for all the key moments of the debate, however. Mr Ramaswamy ran circles around him. Other candidates, like Mr Pence and Ms Haley, elbowed him out of the way on issues like abortion and US aid to Ukraine. He seemed on uneven footing when the topic turned to Mr Trump and his recent indictments.
This was not the kind of performance needed to close the gap with Mr Trump. The man who was once billed as the future of the Republican Party was simply a non-factor.
Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum: Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was the last candidate to qualify for the Milwaukee debate. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum paid his way onto the stage with a gimmick - offering enough people $20 gift cards if they donated $1 to his campaign.
Both candidates desperately needed to show that they deserved to be there, and both were mostly afterthoughts.
Mr Hutchinson's criticisms of Mr Trump seemed weak sauce compared to Mr Christie's more pointed attacks. And Mr Burgum's awe-shucks small-state conservatism never really stood out.
The qualification standards become more rigorous for next month's primary debate in California, and neither candidate did enough on Wednesday night to build the kind of support they will need to make another appearances on the debate stage likely.
Sign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.
Related Topics
Republican Party
Nikki Haley
US election 2024
Donald Trump
Mike Pence
United States
Ron DeSantis
More on this story
How Trump rivals will sell themselves as he skips debate
Published
24 August
'Why believe anything?' Social media bombards US voters
Published
23 August
Why bad news is good news for Trump - for now
Published
22 August
Behind Trump's support linger doubts on electability
Published
16 August
| 304
|
Mitt Romney’s Political Journey Reaches a Crossroads
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-22-0842/elections-mitt-romney-s-political-journey-reaches-crossroads
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/mitt-romney-reelection-senate-utah-trump-bf6f386a?mod=politics_feat1_policy_pos1
| 305
|
|
Ecuador's runoff election is pitting a socialist against a banana baron
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-21-1232/world-ecuadors-runoff-election-pitting-socialist-against-banana-baron
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://qz.com/ecuadors-runoff-election-is-pitting-a-socialist-against-1850756871
|
Ecuador’s leftist candidate Luisa Gonzalez took the lead in the country’s presidential election held yesterday (Aug. 20). Backed by the powerful party of Rafael Correa—the fugitive ex-president who held the apex post between 2007 and 2017—45-year-old lawmaker Gonzalez has harked back to the economic and security situation under the Correa administration, when homicide rates were far from the current record highs and poverty was a diminishing.
But she won’t slide into office without having to put up a fight. Businessman Daniel Noboa, a political outsider, is a surprise contender in second place. The 35-year-old scion of a banana empire, who hails from one of the richest families in Latin America, touts himself as “the employment president.” His proposals, include creating jobs, lowering taxes, and forging more international free trade agreements, are popular among young voters.
With no candidate nabbing a winning majority—defined as 50% of the votes, or at least 40% with a 10-point lead over the closest opponent—Gonzalez and Noboa will compete in a runoff election on Oct. 15.
Guillermo Lasso, a former banker, scored a rare victory for a right-wing politician in South America in 2021, when he became the Ecuador’s first conservative president in the country in 14 years.
In May, Lasso dissolved the legislature and set the course for a snap election after the opposition-led parliament accused him of embezzlement and started impeachment proceedings. He decided against seeking reelection.
The South American country, once known as “an island of peace,” has been ravaged by an ugly turf war between drug traffickers. Soaring cartel violence resulted in beheadings during prison riots, car bombings, young men hanging from bridges, and more.
Security in election season has been a prime worry. In the run up to the election, several political figures were murdered—Omar Menéndez, a leftist mayoral candidate in Puerto López; Augustín Intriago, mayor of the coastal city of Manta; presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio; and Pedro Briones, left-wing local party official. Most of the hits likely came from cartels.
The first round of elections went off without a hitch. The country’s top electoral authority, Diana Atamaint, the country’s top electoral authority, reported no instances of violence at voting centers and characterized the election as “peaceful and safe.”
33%: Votes Gonzalez had after 80% of the votes were counted, AP reported citing election officers
24%: Votes Gonzalez’s closest rival Daniel Noboa clocked, marking a surprise uptick from polling in the single-digits until a few weeks ago
6: The number of times Noboa’s father Alvaro ran for president, even making the runoff three times. But he never won
16%: Votes for murdered candidate Villavicencio, who bagged third place. Villavicencio was polling fifth among eight candidates at the time of his killing, 10 days before the elections. Technically, these votes were for Villavicencio’s replacement Christian Zurita, but the ballots had already been printed by the time the murder happened. Zurita and several other candidates conceded as the results became clear
100,000: Police and soldiers deployed on Aug. 20, to oversee that the first round of voting is completed without violence
18 months: Term duration for the new president, who will take office on Oct. 26—just until the end of Lasso’s original term
20: People arrested for unlawfully carrying guns to the polls, according to Fausto Salinas, commander general of the National Police. One person was arrested for false voting, and two for harassment and resisting arrest
“Noboa grew due to two factors: the first was Villavicencio’s death, which changed everything, and the debate, where Noboa was the winner.”
—Francis Romero, president of pollster Click Research, in a statement to Bloomberg after the Aug. 20 vote
Alongside the presidential elections, Ecuadorians also voted on a binding referendum on whether they want oil drilling to continue beneath an Amazon biodiversity hotspot in Yasuní National Park. The results are yet to be announced.
Petroecuador, which manages Ishpingo-Tambococha-Tiputini (ITT)-Block 43 with reserves of more than 1.6 billion barrels of oil, has reportedly said that a “Yes” vote to ban exploitation of the area would lead to $13.8 billion in lost income for the country over the next two decades.
Bernardo Arevalo bagged a landslide victory in Guatemala’s run-off election on Aug. 20. The anti-corruption leader from the progressive Movimiento Semilla party amassed 58% of the votes to become Guatemala’s next president.
Outgoing president, conservative Alejandro Giammattei, has promised a peaceful and orderly transition of power. However, Arevalo, the son of the country’s first democratically elected president, Juan Jose Arevalo, will have a laundry list of problems to tackle once in office. He inherits a country marred by poverty, violence, and corruption. Plus, his party is under investigation for allegedly falsifying the citizens’ signatures, accusations Arevalo’s strongly contested.
🚫 Ecuador’s president dissolved the legislature, starting the course for new elections
💀 This might be the first political assassination in human history
Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.
| 306
|
Trouble looms for Senate GOP despite recruiting wins
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-21-0642/2024-presidential-election-trouble-looms-senate-gop-despite-recruiting-wins
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4159491-trouble-looms-for-senate-gop-despite-recruiting-wins/
|
-
| 307
|
GOP-dominated Utah embraces mail voting despite party rhetoric
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-18-0856/voting-rights-and-voter-fraud-gop-dominated-utah-embraces-mail-voting-despite
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://rollcall.com/2023/08/16/gop-dominated-utah-embraces-mail-voting-despite-party-rhetoric/
|
CAMPAIGNS
GOP-dominated Utah embraces mail voting despite party rhetoric
House bill would bar Washington, D.C., from sending ballots to all voters
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall, second from left, along with local Democrats deposit their ballots outside a city library on Oct. 20, 2022. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
By Justin Papp
Posted August 16, 2023 at 2:22pm
Deidre Henderson watched in surprise as her party waged one attack after another on mail voting in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
For the better part of three years, Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump, have repeated claims that mail voting is unsafe and ripe for fraud. GOP leaders took aim at mail voting in state legislatures and the party’s new House majority drafted legislation to rein in the practice.
Only in June did the Republican National Committee launch an official campaign to encourage early voting — including by mail — ahead of the 2024 presidential election. It was a welcome, if overdue, shift in the narrative, according to Henderson, the top election official in Utah, a Republican-led state that has long-since embraced mail voting as a safe and secure way to cut costs and increase voter participation.
“I’m glad the RNC is finally encouraging people to vote early, because I was truly baffled by all of these attacks by the Republican Party to suppress their own votes,” said Henderson, the state’s lieutenant governor.
Mixed messaging from GOP leaders coincided with lower rates of Republican mail voting in the 2020 election and losses in the 2022 midterms. Since then, the party has begun to rethink its stance on mail voting.
The RNC’s “Bank Your Vote” campaign seeks to maximize pre-Election Day turnout by educating and encouraging Republicans to vote early, either in-person or by mail, to beat Democrats in 2024. It represents a need for a culture shift on mail voting, according to some Republican leaders.
Meanwhile in Utah, where Trump won 58 percent of the vote and where more than half of all registered voters are Republican, voting by mail has become the primary method of ballot-casting.
That’s likely because the state enacted an expansive mail voting system well before the issue became politically charged, Henderson said. A 2012 state law allowed individual counties to opt in to a system in which every registered voter would be mailed a ballot each election. By 2019, every county in the state had opted in. Ninety-three percent of voters cast their ballots by mail in the 2022 general election, up from 91 percent in 2020, according to Henderson’s office.
“We had all of our systems in place. So I think that was the key,” Henderson said in an interview this month, days before ballots were mailed to voters in the 2nd District for a Sept. 5 special primary to fill Republican Rep. Chris Stewart’s seat. “They’d done it before and so they were okay continuing to do it. They want to vote by mail.”
‘No consistency’
The RNC has stopped well short of embracing mail voting as good policy. Instead, Republican leaders have endorsed it as a necessary evil to win elections.
In June, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel appeared on a radio program and warned against letting Democrats “get a head start” on early voting while also advocating for stronger state voting laws.
“We want to see laws like Vote I.D.,” McDaniel told radio host Hugh Hewitt on June 7. “Get rid of ballot harvesting. We don’t want ranked choice voting. We want to fight that in every single state where we can. But when we get to Election Day and the laws are set, we have to play with the rules on the playing ground, and that’s where this initiative is so critical.”
Meanwhile, Trump has continued to sow confusion on the issue, releasing a video in support of the RNC’s plan in late July, then railing against mail voting days later.
“We should have one-day voting, we should have paper ballots, and we should have voter ID and you’d have honest elections,” Trump said on a conservative radio show.
Mail voting surged nationwide in the 2020 presidential election after the pandemic led to lockdowns and states and counties looked for ways to avoid asking poll workers to spend hours in crammed schools and firehouses with crowds of voters. The change largely benefited Democrats, according to FiveThirtyEight. But even before ballots were counted, Trump went on the offensive, tweeting that mail voting would “LEAD TO MASSIVE FRAUD AND ABUSE,” in May 2020.
Post-election analyses found no evidence of widespread fraud. Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation and a former Bush administration appointee, acknowledged there is no “massive” voter fraud in the U.S. But some instances of fraud involving mail or absentee ballots have been documented in local and state races and should be taken seriously, he said.
“I think it’s inevitable that you’re going to have problems with mail voting because they are the only kind of ballots voted outside the supervision of election officials and outside the observation of polls,” said von Spakovsky.
Criticism from Trump and other Republicans dovetailed with legislative efforts to limit the practice after the 2020 election. Even in Utah, Republicans in the state House proposed a bill earlier this year that would’ve ended the practice of automatically sending all registered voters a ballot ahead of elections. The measure did not advance in committee.
House Republicans this Congress have introduced a sweeping election overhaul package premised on the idea that American elections are not secure. While it would not override state laws like Utah’s, it would eliminate Washington, D.C.’s universal mail-voting system and encourage states to enact stronger ID requirements for people voting by mail.
The introduction of the bill, which is doomed to be blocked in the Democrat-controlled Senate, even if it advances out of the House, came weeks after the launch of the RNC campaign.
“What you’re seeing is there’s no consistency on the Republican side with this,” said Amy Dacey, executive director of the Sine Institute of Policy and Politics at American University and former CEO at the Democratic National Committee.
Von Spakovsky, like McDaniel, said he sees no conflict.
“You have to work with the rules that are in place in your state,” said von Spakovsky, who testified earlier this year in favor of the Republican House bill. “That doesn’t mean that you don’t continue to try to convince state legislatures to change bad rules.”
Removing politics from voting
National narratives around the security of mail voting and elections in general have coincided with a drop in voter confidence and a spate of laws that the liberal Brennan Center for Justice alleges are part of a broad Republican strategy to win elections by suppressing Democratic votes.
“Undermining confidence in the legitimacy of the election and the attack on mail voting was a critical piece of that strategy,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program, who testified against the House GOP package earlier this year.
According to polling by the Pew Research Center, Republican confidence in elections has cratered since 2018, while confidence increased among Democrats. Just 56 percent of Republicans polled believed elections would be run and administered somewhat or very well ahead of the 2022 midterms, down from 87 percent in 2018.
Voters in Utah, however, have bucked the national trend.
Polling ahead of the 2022 midterms found that 89 percent of registered Utahns were either confident or very confident that their state or local government would conduct fair and accurate elections.
“I’d be lying if I said there was no impact,” said Henderson, of the Republican attacks on mail voting and election integrity. “Of course there is an impact. And on a very small sector of individuals, it is significant. But, at least in Utah, it’s not broad.”
Henderson has not faltered in her belief in the safety and security of mail voting. Republican messaging is merely evidence of politics infiltrating the administration of elections, which should be nonpartisan, she said.
“These attacks are less about the system that’s used and more about the outcome,” Henderson said. “And that’s what worries me. If we only think an election was run well if our candidate wins, and that someone must have cheated if another candidate wins, we’re in trouble as a country.”
AROUND THE WEB
Simple Morning Habit Turbocharges Fat Loss (It's Almost Like Cheating) (Watch)
Healthier Living Tips
Drink This Before Bed, Watch Your Body Fat Melt Like Crazy! (Watch)
Alpilean
This Video Will Soon Be Banned. Watch Before It's Deleted
Secrets Revealed
Ringing In The Ears? Do This Immediately (Watch)
The Daily Survivor
Anyone With Arthritis Should Watch This (They Hide This From You)
The Daily Survivor
Anyone With Diabetes Should Watch This (What They Don't Tell You)
Control Sugar Levels
RECENT STORIES
Capitol Police agents strained to probe increasing threats against lawmakers
Progress seen in House GOP spending talks
Democrats rap FEC gridlock that Republicans say is a feature
As House panel backs RFK site redevelopment, DC inches closer to a football future
Senate confirms Brown as chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Garland stresses independence of prosecutor leading Hunter Biden probe
| 308
|
Pence: Trump ‘Entitled to the Presumption of Innocence,’ But ‘Georgia Election Was Not Stolen’
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-16-1106/donald-trump-pence-trump-entitled-presumption-innocence-georgia-election-was
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://themessenger.com/politics/pence-trump-entitled-to-the-presumption-of-innocence-but-georgia-election-was-not-stolen
|
TRENDING NOW | Previously Undiscovered Virus Found at Bottom of Pacific Ocean
Pence: Trump ‘Entitled to the Presumption of Innocence,’ But ‘Georgia Election Was Not Stolen’
He also said the 2020 election results were legitimate 'despite what the former president and his allies have said'
Published |Updated
Mariana Labbate
JWPlayer
GOP presidential hopeful and former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday showed some support to former President Donald Trump after his fourth indictment, saying he was "entitled to the presumption of innocence that every American enjoys."
Pence, however, also made it clear he believes the Georgia 2020 presidential election was not stolen.
Former U.S. Vice President and current presidential candidate Mike Pence speaks to members of the media outside of the Iowa Pork Producers Tent at the Iowa State Fair on August 11, 2023 in Des Moines, Iowa.Brandon Bell/Getty Images
While campaigning in his home state of Indiana, Pence told a room of Republicans at the National Conference of State Legislatures that the election results were legitimate "despite what the former president and his allies have said," according to a report by Axios.
Pence, who has been polling well behind Trump in the GOP polls, received a standing ovation.
"I had no right to overturn the election," he also added.
Trump was indicted for the fourth time on Monday in Georgia.
Read More
Pence: Trump Entitled to Presumption of Innocence
Georgia Gov. Kemp After Trump Tirade: ‘2020 Election in Georgia Was Not Stolen’
Pence on Trump’s Georgia Indictment: ‘No One Is Above the Law’
Trump Asked Repeatedly If He’ll Use Power of the Presidency to Target Political Rivals: ‘I Think I’m Entitled to Find the Truth’
Rudy Giuliani Maintains Innocence In Remarks Following Arrest on 2020 Election Charges
Trump Says He Ignored Attorneys Who Said Election Was Not Stolen
Read nextSandra Bullock Defended by ‘The Blind Side’ Actor Following Michael Oher’s Claims Against Tuohy Family
THE MESSENGER MORNING NEWSLETTER
Essential news, exclusive reporting and expert analysis delivered right to you. All for free.
Sign Up
By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use.
More Politics.
POLITICS
Republican-Controlled House Triages Its Gasping Patient: the Government
NEWS
BYU Reinstates Formal Ban on ‘Same-Sex Romantic Behavior’ in Honor Code
POLITICS
DeSantis Collapses in New Hampshire as Backers Beg: ‘Get Your Ass Up Here’
POLITICS
Biden Answers Calls From Gen Z With Moves on Climate, Guns
POLITICS
Trump Vows to Reimpose Travel Bans, Send Troops to the Border
POLITICS
Ray Epps’ Lawyer Swings at Fox News Over Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theory Coverage After Client Pleads Guilty
POLITICS
Trump Dominates, DeSantis Plummets in New Hampshire Primary Poll
POLITICS
Senate Confirms New Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman After Months-long GOP Blockade
POLITICS
Hunter Biden Must Appear in Person at US Court Arraignment on Gun Charges, Judge Rules
POLITICS
Kari Lake Expected To Announce Senate Bid in Arizona as Early as Next Month
POLITICS
Government Shutdown 2023: Everything You Need to Know If Congress Fails To Make a Spending Deal
POLITICS
Pro-Trump Lawyer Lin Wood Says He ‘Didn’t Flip’ on Former President in Georgia
| 309
|
Trump refusal to sign loyalty pledge puts RNC in bind
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-16-0638/2024-presidential-election-trump-refusal-sign-loyalty-pledge-puts-rnc-bind
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4154142-trump-refusal-to-sign-loyalty-pledge-puts-rnc-in-bind/
|
-
| 310
|
Trump's court and campaign schedule is looking chaotic
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-16-0602/2024-presidential-election-trumps-court-and-campaign-schedule-looking-chaotic
|
Elections
|
centers
|
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66516718
|
Trump faces 4 March 2024 trial just a day before Super Tuesday
Published
28 August
Share
Related Topics
Indictments of Donald Trump
IMAGE SOURCE,
EPA
Image caption,
Donald Trump's campaign stops are just one part of his increasingly hectic schedule
By Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent
Donald Trump, seeking a return to the White House in 2024, already had a crammed political calendar. Now, with multiple legal dramas set to unfold, it is approaching the point of pure chaos.
A federal judge has scheduled the trial for his alleged effort to overturn the 2020 election for 4 March, the day before Super Tuesday, the biggest voting day in the Republican race.
That trial - in Washington DC - would pull Mr Trump off the campaign trail for a pivotal stretch of his campaign, when he could be securing himself as the Republican standard-bearer or engaged in an extended struggle with one or more remaining rivals.
Mr Trump's lawyers have already vigorously complained about proposed trial schedules conflicting with the presidential campaign, which the former president and his supporters have branded "election interference" by his enemies.
Mr Trump has vowed to appeal the trial date ruling. In a post on his social media site, he derided the judge as "biased" and "Trump hating" and said the timing was "just what our corrupt government wanted".
Mr Trump's legal team had initially proposed an April 2026 date for the federal trial - a timeline the judge said was unacceptable.
While the first presidential nomination contest, in Iowa, isn't until January, the Republican presidential race has already begun in earnest. The party has started holding monthly debates for qualifying candidates. The first took place in Wisconsin in August - and Mr Trump stayed away, saying an appearance was not necessary given his large polling lead over his rivals.
The schedule, however, provided an early indication of how his legal concerns could factor into his political calculations. The former president appeared in an Atlanta jail the day after the debate, where he was formally booked on charges of interfering in the Georgia 2020 election.
While much of Mr Trump's legal - and political - drama will take place in 2024, there's already one trial scheduled for later this year. On 2 October, New York state's civil fraud lawsuit against Mr Trump and his business empire is scheduled to go to trial. Mr Trump is not required to appear in court, but it still could be a distraction - and it comes just five days after the second scheduled Republican primary debate.
When the calendar flips to 2024, things start to really heat up. The Iowa caucuses - the first Republican presidential selection contest - are scheduled for 15 January, the same day a defamation trial against Mr Trump begins. It is the second case brought by writer E Jean Carroll, who has already won a $5m (£3.9m) judgement from the former president after a jury found he sexually assaulted and defamed her.
A very simple guide to Trump's indictments
Mr Trump's New York hush-money case is scheduled for trial in late March, a few weeks after the federal 6 January trial is currently on tap to begin in Washington, DC. The federal case involving mishandling classified documents is set for May. That will be after many of the key Republican primaries have taken place. But preparation for those cases, including pre-trial hearings and depositions, will begin well beforehand.
Then there is the Georgia indictment, which is yet to be scheduled.
Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis has said she wants her sprawling racketeering case against Mr Trump and 18 co-defendants to reach trial within six months, but that timeline is also ambitious, given that one defendant is requesting the proceedings be moved to federal court and a second is calling for an earlier trial.
All the presiding judges in these cases will take into consideration Mr Trump's legal concerns, as well as the campaign timeline, and attempt to work out a schedule that best accommodates all the competing interests.
Media caption,
Watch: Trump surrenders at Georgia jail...in 74 seconds
In the second half of 2024, those interests include a Republican national convention that is slated for mid-July, and the traditional series of presidential debates that take place in early autumn. At some point the possibility of a trial in the shadow of November's presidential election - or even after it - becomes a real possibility.
The trials - and any pre-trial hearings, depositions and other various legal proceedings - will take up weeks if not months of Mr Trump's time. He will have to schedule his campaigning, including his beloved mass public rallies, around them. He could have judges issuing orders to limit what he can publicly say - and sanctioning him if he does not comply.
Then there's the massive financial drain that supporting multiple teams of lawyers to contest the criminal charges against Mr Trump and his associates presents. A Trump-affiliated political committee has already spent more than $40m on legal fees just in the first half of 2023, with the first criminal trial still months away.
Those numbers will only go up - and they will continue to limit the amount of money the former president can direct to the nuts and bolts of his campaign, such as grass-roots organising, television and online advertisements, and staff and infrastructure investments.
It is a daunting burden for any candidate - even one who has shown Mr Trump's remarkable political durability.
Related Topics
Georgia
Indictments of Donald Trump
US election 2024
Donald Trump
United States
More on this story
How big are Donald Trump's legal problems?
Published
5 September
A very simple guide to Trump's indictments
Published
25 August
Who are Trump's 18 co-accused in the Georgia case?
Published
15 August
What are the charges in Trump's Georgia indictment?
Published
25 August
| 311
|
US will conduct nationwide test of Emergency Alert System across ALL cellphones, TVs and radios at 2pm on October 4th
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-31-0654/federal-state-and-tribal-powers-us-will-conduct-nationwide-test-emergency-alert
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12458261/nationwide-test-Emergency-Alert-cellphones-October.html
|
-
| 312
|
Cashing in on Green: Google to Sell Mapping Data to Renewable Energy Companies
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-29-1558/business-cashing-green-google-sell-mapping-data-renewable-energy-companies
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2023/08/29/cashing-in-on-green-google-to-sell-mapping-data-to-renewable-energy-companies/
|
Cashing in on Green: Google to Sell Mapping Data to Renewable Energy Companies
KIMIHIRO HOSHINO/AFP/GettyImages
LUCAS NOLAN29 Aug 2023120
2:14
Google is set to license its mapping data to companies in the renewable energy industry, targeting a revenue generation of up to $100 million in the first year in an attempt to diversify its revenue streams.
The Washington Post reports that in a strategic move to diversify its revenue streams, Google is set to license its mapping data to companies in the renewable energy industry, targeting a revenue generation of up to $100 million in the first year.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is happy (Boris Streubel /Getty)
Google plans to offer specialized Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that will provide solar, energy, and air quality information. One of the most anticipated offerings is the Solar API, designed to serve a wide range of customers including solar installers, solar design companies, and utilities. The API will source some of its data from Google’s consumer-focused pilot, Project Sunroof, which was originally launched in 2015. Project Sunroof allows users to calculate estimated solar costs and even offers 3D modeling of building roofs based on Google Maps data.
Google is not just limiting its focus to energy companies. The tech giant also sees potential customer bases in real estate firms like Zillow and Redfin, as well as hospitality companies like Marriott Bonvoy. The Solar API could offer valuable insights into the energy efficiency of buildings, thereby influencing property valuations and guest experiences.
In addition to the Solar API, Google is also planning to launch an Air Quality API. This new offering will allow customers to request air quality data, including pollutants and health-based recommendations for specific locations. It will also feature digital heat maps and provide hourly air quality information, as well as historical data for up to 30 days.
Read more at The Washington Post here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan
EconomyEnvironmentTechGoogleGoogle MapsMasters of the Universesolar powerSundar Pichai
| 313
|
Japan releases treated Fukushima water into Pacific, sparking international uproar
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-24-1248/world-japan-releases-treated-fukushima-water-pacific-sparking-international
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/japan-releases-treated-fukushima-water-pacific-protests
|
NUCLEAR POWER
Japan releases treated Fukushima water into Pacific, sparking international uproar
by Breanne Deppisch, Energy and Environment Reporter
August 24, 2023 11:18 AM
Latest
Social Security update: Direct payment worth $914 arrives in eight days
By: Misty Severi
Social Security update: Third round of direct payments worth up to $4,555 to arrive in six days
By: Misty Severi
Recent polls reveal potential ominous signs for Biden’s reelection campaign
By: Christopher Tremoglie
Videos
Merrick Garland hearing: Six takeaways on Hunter Biden investigation
Merrick Garland hearing: Texas representative grilled Garland over whether his department was still targeting parents
WATCH: Dusty Johnson on the farm bill: 'Farmers will fight you if you do anything to damage their land'
Fed holds interest rates steady amid recent upswing in inflation
Newsletters
Sign up now to get the Washington Examiner’s breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox.
Japan began releasing treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, a controversial move that has sparked fierce international backlash, including from China, which responded by promptly issuing a blanket ban on all fish and aquatic products from Japan.
China is "highly concerned about the risk of radioactive contamination" brought by Japan's food and agricultural products, China's customs bureau said in a statement Thursday.
UP FOR DEBATE: WHERE TRUMP, DESANTIS, AND REST OF REPUBLICAN 2024 FIELD STAND ON KEY ISSUES
Release of the wastewater began at 1:03 p.m. local time, according to plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company, which said it had not identified any abnormalities.
It comes two years after the Japanese government approved plans in 2021 to begin gradually releasing the treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean following the removal of most radioactive elements, barring tritium.
The treated water has been stored in around 1,000 tanks at the site but are roughly 98% full, prompting calls within Japan for its release so long as the contaminated water is diluted with seawater.
The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog signed off on the plan last month, which involves roughly 1 million tons of diluted water released into the Pacific over the next 30 years.
Though the water is radioactive, the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded in its report in July that the radioactivity levels were so low as to not have any negative health or environmental effects and found them to be consistent under international safety standards.
On Thursday, China reiterated its strong opposition to the plan, saying in a statement that the Japanese government has not yet proved that the discharged water is safe for consumption.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
"The Japanese side should not cause secondary harm to the local people and even the people of the world out of its own selfish interests," China's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"The decision will surely be condemned by the international community for a long time," it added.
Nuclear Power News Energy and Environment Biden Administration China Fukushima Videos
Share your thoughts with friends.
| 314
|
BlackRock turned down record number of climate proposals amid inflation, ESG pushback
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-23-1727/banking-and-finance-blackrock-turned-down-record-number-climate-proposals-amid
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/blackrock-turned-down-record-number-climate-proposals-amid-inflation-esg-pushback
|
BLACKROCK Published August 23, 2023 12:16pm EDT
BlackRock turned down record number of climate proposals amid inflation, ESG pushback
BlackRock says it assesses climate proposals based on its role as a fiduciary to its clients
Facebook
Twitter
Comments
Print
Email
By Thomas Catenacci FOXBusiness
video
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s push for ‘wacktivism’ is ‘completely avoidable’: Dale Folwell
North Carolina Treasurer Dale Folwell joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss the GOP state treasurers’ ongoing investigation into BlackRock over the firm’s ESG investment choices.
BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, voted against the vast majority of shareholder proposals related to climate and social issues during the 2022-2023 proxy voting season, the company reported Wednesday.
Overall, BlackRock turned down 742 of the 813 proposals it voted on and 373, or 93%, of the social and climate proposals it faced, according to the company's 2023 Investment Stewardship report published Wednesday morning and shared with FOX Business. The trillion-dollar asset manager explained that it has seen a higher number of low-quality shareholder proposals, largely due to federal guidance issued by the Biden administration in 2021.
"We observed a greater number of overly prescriptive proposals or ones lacking economic merit,"Joud Abdel Majeid, BlackRock's global head of investment stewardship, wrote in the report. "Importantly, the majority of these proposals failed to recognize that companies are already meeting their asks."
"Because so many proposals were over-reaching, lacking economic merit, or simply redundant, they were unlikely to help promote long-term shareholder value and received less support from shareholders, including BlackRock, than in years past," she continued.
21 STATES THREATEN BANKS WITH LEGAL ACTION OVER WOKE POLICIES: 'STAY IN YOUR LANE'
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, takes part in a summit in New York. (Reuters/Lucas Jackson/File Photo / Reuters Photos)
The report noted that BlackRock saw a record number of shareholder proposals, especially those related to environmental and social issues, during the proxy voting season, which took place during the period between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. The company said there was an uptick of 34% year-over-year of environmental and social votes. Last year, the company saw a 130% jump in such proposals.
BlackRock said in the report that the higher number of such proposals could largely be attributed to guidance published in November 2021 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) broadening the scope of permissible proposals to include those that address "significant social policy issues." At the time, SEC Chairman Gary Gensler applauded the guidance, saying it would "provide greater clarity," while Republican SEC members and lawmakers blasted it for creating more confusion.
BLACKROCK CEO REPORTEDLY 'ASHAMED' OF ESG POLITICAL DEBATE: 'MISUSED BY THE FAR LEFT AND THE FAR RIGHT'
The change, BlackRock said in its report, effectively enables more shareholder proposals, including ones that are lower quality, to appear on company ballots. The company specifically stated numerous proposals did not clearly "identify an issue associated with a material risk that could undermine a company’s ability to deliver durable financial returns." And most of the climate and social proposals failed to acknowledge the "improvements companies have made to their disclosures and practices."
For example, BlackRock voted against a measure requiring Amazon to disclose more information about the sustainability of its packaging, noting Amazon had previously already decided to disclose that information.
BlackRock has faced pressure from climate activists to support measures cracking down on fossil fuel production and investment while simultaneously facing pressure from Republicans to stop supporting any ESG measures. (Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The company added that it assesses all issues related to climate risk and the green energy transition based on its role as a fiduciary to its clients. It also acknowledged the tough choices facing fossil fuel companies that must balance energy security with green investments.
REPUBLICAN STATES ARE PLANNING AN ALL-OUT ASSAULT ON WOKE BANKS: 'WE WON’T DO BUSINESS WITH YOU'
"Energy companies, in particular, faced a complex set of choices as they sought to balance the immediate national and societal demand for energy security and affordability, with their long-term plans to invest in technologies that will enable them to continue to be successful as the world transitions to a lower carbon economy," BlackRock's report stated.
"By and large, companies garnered support from shareholders for their actions to balance these important — but sometimes competing — objectives," it continued. "We continue to believe that companies would benefit from greater clarity in public policy to support their decision-making on these issues. This, in turn, would allow these companies to provide shareholders more transparency about their strategies."
The report, meanwhile, comes amid a nationwide push against the environmental, social and governance (ESG) movement that has been spearheaded in recent years by BlackRock and other financial institutions. The ESG movement broadly seeks to promote a green energy transition and left-wing social priorities through the financial sector and major corporations.
video
Kevin O'Leary: Shining a light on controversial ESG is a great thing
O'Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O'Leary discusses Elon Musk's ESG position and whether inflation will tick back up on 'The Big Money Show.'
Republican states and GOP lawmakers have argued ESG policies improperly prioritize social priorities over the financial interests of Americans.
"This ESG nonsense is filtering into a lot of our states and the way they're doing it is really, really concerning and probably flagrantly illegal," Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen told Fox News Digital in March. "Pushing it through these asset managers and through these proxy votes is extremely concerning."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Knudsen led a coalition of 21 state attorneys general at the time who wrote to 53 of the nation's largest financial institutions, including BlackRock, warning them against pursuing woke initiatives during the 2023 proxy voting season.
"The message is: 'Stay in your lane and do what you're supposed to do. You have a fiduciary obligation under our various states laws to maximize investment. That's your job. That's what you're supposed to be doing. We're aware of state law and if it needs be, we will defend our state pensioners against anything outside that lane,'" Knudsen said.
| 315
|
Young conservatives urge GOP to leave a climate legacy
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-23-0927/climate-change-young-conservatives-urge-gop-leave-climate-legacy
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/young-conservatives-urge-gop-to-leave-a-climate-legacy
|
OPINION
Young conservatives urge GOP to leave a climate legacy
by Danielle Butcher Franz
August 23, 2023 11:44 AM
Latest
Social Security update: Direct payment worth $914 arrives in eight days
By: Misty Severi
Social Security update: Third round of direct payments worth up to $4,555 to arrive in six days
By: Misty Severi
Recent polls reveal potential ominous signs for Biden’s reelection campaign
By: Christopher Tremoglie
Videos
Merrick Garland hearing: Six takeaways on Hunter Biden investigation
Merrick Garland hearing: Texas representative grilled Garland over whether his department was still targeting parents
WATCH: Dusty Johnson on the farm bill: 'Farmers will fight you if you do anything to damage their land'
Fed holds interest rates steady amid recent upswing in inflation
Newsletters
Sign up now to get the Washington Examiner’s breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox.
Republican presidential candidates, ready to test their mettle, will take center stage for their inaugural debate of the election cycle Wednesday night. However, amid the familiar buzz of political discourse, something new has emerged.
For the first time, an environmental organization, the American Conservation Coalition, stands as a headline sponsor of the Milwaukee 2024 Host Committee's official debate afterparty, underscoring the immense strides made by conservative environmentalists in recent years, reigniting the very conservation ethos that once fueled the Republican Party's core principles.
REPUBLICAN DEBATE: CAN THE DEBATES HELP WINNOW THE GOP FIELD?
When I began my career in advocacy, conservative and environmentalist were not two words often associated with each other, but young conservatives knew that it didn’t have to be that way. Since our organization’s founding and the bolstering of the larger “Eco-Right” movement, there has been an undeniable shift in Republican attitudes toward climate, energy, and environmental issues.
The Conservative Climate Caucus is the fourth-largest Republican caucus in the House of Representatives, with more than 80 members. States such as Texas are leading the charge in deploying reliable wind and solar energy, and under Gov. Brian Kemp’s leadership, Georgia is home to the United States’s newest nuclear reactor. Gone are the days when seeing Republicans at the forefront of climate concern raised eyebrows. Instead, Republicans have endorsed solutions such as removing burdens on critical energy projects, conservation practices that reduce emissions, and advancing clean nuclear power.
Conservatives leading this charge know there is not a silver bullet on this issue and that the conservative climate approach is inherently different than the progressive approach. Rather than advocating for a monolithic solution, conservative voices each come to the table with something unique to offer.
Yet, in 2022, only 41% of voters under 30 thought Republicans cared about climate change, compared to 73% agreeing that they should. Within the party itself, 70% of young Republicans are concerned about climate change. It’s clear that the Republican Party has a messaging problem. For those of us deeply enmeshed in this space, it’s evident that conservatives have experienced a climate renaissance, but that’s simply not the case for the average American. They don’t follow caucus formations in the House of Representatives or read beyond the flashy headlines of fringe Republicans belittling the climate issue altogether.
Our movement has a lot of work to do to expand conservative climate communications beyond the D.C. Beltway and into American communities across the country.
And so, to the Republican presidential candidates poised to engage in this debate, we urge you to seize this opportunity to leave a climate legacy. Recognize that young voices hold significance not only for the future but also as active contributors to the present. Embrace your leadership roles in the party as candidates who acknowledge and tackle climate challenges head-on, not with dogma, but with pragmatism and vision.
The truth is, the Republican Party is further ahead on climate than many perceive, and it’s the responsibility of all serious presidential candidates to recognize that the best path forward lies not in retracing old footsteps but in amplifying the chorus of voices within party ranks discussing energy and environment. With mainstream Republicans so actively championing climate, energy, and environmental issues, we are no longer merely charting the party's future; we are fortifying its present.
With the millennial generation now the largest voting bloc and Gen Z on their heels, it’s more important now than ever to recognize these voters are not some remote challenge to unravel in the distant future. Young voters are, instead, formidable architects of our current political landscape. This fact underscores the significance of conservative environmentalists prominently represented on the grand stage of GOP politics.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
A Republican candidate will not prevail over President Joe Biden if he or she cannot articulate an optimistic, effective plan to tackle climate change and conserve our natural heritage. Biden’s administration has worked hard to position him as the “climate president.” The next Republican nominee should not scoff at this; he or she must challenge it.
Danielle Butcher Franz serves as CEO of the American Conservation Coalition Action. Follow her on Twitter at @DaniSButcher.
Opinion Beltway Confidential Blog Contributors Climate Change 2024 Elections
Share your thoughts with friends.
| 316
|
The EPA Defies the Supreme Court
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-18-0857/environment-epa-defies-supreme-court
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.wsj.com/articles/epa-environmental-protection-supreme-court-regulation-unconstitutional-climate-change-administrative-state-biden-42f31ce3?mod=opinion_lead_pos5
|
By
Chris Horner
Aug. 17, 2023 6:41 pm ET
Listen
(3 min)
| 317
|
Young conservatives take climate activism to GOP presidential debate
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-17-1646/climate-change-young-conservatives-take-climate-activism-gop-presidential
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/aug/17/young-conservatives-take-climate-activism-gop-pres/
|
-
| 318
|
Fact check throws cold water on global ‘boiling’ claims
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-15-0637/facts-and-fact-checking-fact-check-throws-cold-water-global-boiling-claims
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/fact-check-throws-cold-water-on-global-boiling-claims
|
WASHINGTON SECRETS
Fact check throws cold water on global ‘boiling’ claims
by Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist
August 08, 2023 02:53 PM
Latest
Social Security update: Direct payment worth $914 arrives in eight days
By: Misty Severi
Social Security update: Third round of direct payments worth up to $4,555 to arrive in six days
By: Misty Severi
Recent polls reveal potential ominous signs for Biden’s reelection campaign
By: Christopher Tremoglie
Videos
Merrick Garland hearing: Six takeaways on Hunter Biden investigation
Merrick Garland hearing: Texas representative grilled Garland over whether his department was still targeting parents
WATCH: Dusty Johnson on the farm bill: 'Farmers will fight you if you do anything to damage their land'
Fed holds interest rates steady amid recent upswing in inflation
Newsletters
Sign up now to get the Washington Examiner’s breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox.
July was hot — no doubt about it. And media reporting on the heat wave was a raging wildfire of global warming hype.
But was it the worst-ever July scorcher, as the Washington Post, the Associated Press, USA Today, and others reported?
THE FOUR DEMOCRATS WHO COULD ATTEMPT TO UNSEAT BIDEN IN 2024 ELECTION
According to a group of fact-checkers who dug through the reports, the weather didn’t live up to the hype.
In fact, the July “Media Climate Fact Check” turned around a Washington Post claim about July being the hottest in 125,000 years, headlining the report, “Worst Media Coverage In 125,000 Years.”
In picking apart specific media stories about the heat, the report provided to Secrets acknowledged the unusual heat wave. But it also cited two anomalies that skewed the data: the impact of El Nino and a two-day spike in Antarctica’s temperature that helped raise the so-called “global temperature.”
What’s more, it noted that since U.S. satellite data on global temperatures have only been collected since 1979, it is impossible to compare temperatures from 100 years ago — or 125,000.
“That heat wave was only detected and factored into average global temperature because of satellite coverage of the globe. But satellite coverage didn’t begin until 1979. So similar heat waves that may have occurred before 1979 would be unknown and not factored into average global temperature calculations,” read the report.
“So it is not possible to claim that July 2023 was the ‘hottest month in the history of civilization’ because such data does not exist,” read the analysis from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Heartland Institute, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the International Climate Science Coalition, and Truth in Energy and Climate.
Those organizations have long urged the media to tap the brakes on the climate change hype, but news outlets have stomped the accelerator instead in recent years.
What their report aims to do is counter the most outrageous reports with simple facts. The July report cited 10 media claims.
Among them was a Washington Post article that the world was entering a “global boiling” period. The organizations said in their report: “Putting aside that the notion of ‘average global temperature’ is a dubious proposition, whether you believe the high-end of ‘average global temperature’ for July (i.e., the Climate Reanalyzer’s 62.6°F) or the low-end (i.e., Temperature.global’s 57.5°F), neither temperature is close to boiling (212°F).”
SEE THE LATEST POLITICAL NEWS AND BUZZ FROM WASHINGTON SECRETS
The AP reported that the ocean off Florida’s southern tip was like a “hot tub” and the “hottest seawater ever measured.” The fact-checkers, however, noted that the example wasn’t of the open ocean but a very shallow bay and not even a record high.
And USA Today reported that the extreme heat was a top killer. “Every year since 2000, an average of 20,000 people have died from extreme heat in European cities,” the outlet reported, citing a scientific paper. The fact check mocked that story, noting that cold kills far more than heat.
Washington Secrets Climate Change Media Washington Post Weather
Share your thoughts with friends.
| 319
|
Biden slammed for heartless ‘no comment’ response to Maui wildfire, as death toll mounts
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-14-0610/environment-biden-slammed-heartless-no-comment-response-maui-wildfire-death
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://nypost.com/2023/08/14/biden-slammed-for-no-comment-response-to-maui-wildfire/
|
NEWS
Facebook
Twitter
Flipboard
WhatsApp
Email
Copy
1729
Biden slammed for silence on Maui wildfire catastrophe
By Yaron Steinbuch,
Steven Nelson and
Ryan King
Published Aug. 14, 2023
Updated Aug. 21, 2023, 1:22 p.m. ET
MORE ON:
MAUI WILDFIRES
Hawaii officials say DNA tests drop Maui wildfire death count to 97
Oprah Winfrey slammed for Maui fires fund non-apology
‘Sad’ Oprah Winfrey was shocked over ‘vitriol’ of Maui fire donation backlash
Hawaii lawmaker says Biden’s brief, sleepy visit was ‘slap in the face’ to Maui
President Biden had yet to offer a verbal statement Monday evening in response to the mounting death toll in the catastrophic Maui wildfires — the deadliest US blaze in more than a century — after spending the weekend sunning himself on the beach near his Delaware vacation home.
The 80-year-old commander-in-chief avoided reporters upon his return to Washington Monday morning, walking directly across the White House lawn to the Oval Office without approaching the press to give a statement on the tragedy, as US leaders often do.
The White House later put out a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, taking note of the carnage in Maui and detailing government resources on offer to beleaguered residents.
“As residents of Hawai’i mourn the loss of life and devastation taking place across their beautiful home, we mourn with them. Like I’ve said, not only our prayers are with those impacted – but every asset we have will be available to them,” read the statement attributed to Biden.
A day earlier, the president offered a stony-hearted “No comment” when asked about the death toll, which has climbed to at least 96. During a bike ride Sunday morning, Biden gave a similar unfeeling answer when asked about the tragedy.
“We’re looking at it,” he said when asked if he planned to visit the Aloha State.
Biden avoided reporters as he returned to Washington on Monday.
AFP via Getty Images
Biden is currently scheduled to visit Wisconsin Tuesday and travel to Camp David Thursday to meet with the leaders of South Korea and Japan the following day. He is then due to travel to Lake Tahoe, Nev. and remain there until Aug. 24.
Bloomberg reporter Justin Sink posted a photo of Biden lounging with a group of people on Rehoboth Beach Sunday afternoon, triggering outrage on social media.
“I campaigned for you,” raged former Hawaii legislator Kaniela Ing early Monday. “Now, when I lose dozens of my friends, family, and neighbors. This?”
President Biden on the beach Sunday near his family home in Delaware.
AP
“Biden doesn’t give AF [a f–k] about the suffering people of Maui,” tweeted Monica Crowley, former US Treasury Department assistant secretary for public affairs during the Trump administration.
“Or the suffering people of East Palestine, Ohio. Or the suffering people in border towns. Or the suffering people anywhere in America,” she added.
Republican Kari Lake, who lost her 2022 bid to be Arizona’s governor, also ripped the commander-in-chief.
Biden ignored questions as he walked back to the White House.
Getty Images
President Biden declined to comment Sunday about the mounting death toll in the Maui wildfires.
AFP via Getty Images
“One of the most beautiful places on earth has been reduced to cinders. In Delaware: @JoeBiden can’t be bothered to care. Putting America First means getting this joker out of the White House,” Lake wrote on X.
The president “rode his bike to the beach while the people of Lahaina, Hawaii dug through the ashes of their shattered community. And Nero fiddled while Rome burned,” she added.
Stephen L. Miller, an editor at conservative outlet The Spectator, tweeted that Biden “just came back from a 14-day beach vacation. Spent 4 days in DC, now is back on the beach and has no comment for wildfires that wiped out entire communities. Just incredible stuff.”
Biden is back at the White House after a weekend on the beach near his Delaware home.
AP
Another furious commentator compared Biden’s response to the war in Ukraine.
“Biden in a nutshell. East Palestine: No comment. Maui: No comment. Ukraine: send them another 24 billion,” the X user wrote.
The criticism of the president enjoying the beach while declining to offer words of consolation put White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the defensive at her regular briefing Monday.
The inferno is officially Hawaii’s worst natural disaster.
AP
“You’ll hear from the president on this,” Jean-Pierre promised. “I don’t have anything to announce at this time, but certainly, he’s the president and you’re going to hear from him.”
“It’s been a devastating devastation,”the chief spokesperson added of the fire — before bungling the names of both of Hawaii’s Democratic US senators, bestowing onto Sen. Mazie Hirono the surname “Harino” and using the pronoun “he” for the female legislator.
Jean-Pierre also referred to Sen. Brian Schatz as “Senator Shorts, Shwots, Sharts, Schatz” in a bumbling series of attempted pronunciations.
An apparent lack of White House focus during natural disasters can morph into major political blowback — as happened following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when then-President George W. Bush was attacked for praising FEMA’s response amid mounting frustrations over the response.
The wildfire death toll climbed to 96 late Sunday.
AP
The grim tally in Hawaii — which is expected to rise as search and rescue operations frantically continue — made the inferno the state’s worst-ever natural disaster.
It is also the deadliest US wildfire since 1918, when 453 people died in the Cloquet fire in Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to data from the National Fire Protection Association.
During a bike ride earlier Sunday, Biden gave a similar unfeeling answer when asked about the tragedy.
1729
What do you think? Post a comment.
“We’re looking at it,” he said when asked if he planned to visit the Aloha State.
Biden is currently scheduled to visit Wisconsin Tuesday and travel to Camp David Thursday to meet with the leaders of South Korea and Japan the following day. He is then due to travel to Lake Tahoe, Nev. and remain there until Aug. 24.
The president last week declared a major disaster on Maui, pledging that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.”
FILED UNDER FIRES HAWAII JOE BIDEN MAUI WILDFIRES NATURAL DISASTERS WHITE HOUSE WILDFIRES 8/14/23
READ NEXT
I was suicidal on Ozempic — it's not a miracle weight-lo...
Conversation1.7K Comments
Share your stance. Please adhere to our guidelines.
Sort by
Best
BenThereDoneThat
14 August, 2023
We have become a one party nation, like it or not; Donald Trump has been mortally wounded politically and isn't likely to win the presidency again. Perhaps Mexico will "annex" the U.S. before Canada decides to, as we as a nation are in a precarious situation in that we are tearing ourselves apart.
Reply
268
Share
Gen-Xer
14 August, 2023
Maybe, maybe not. I’d like to see new leadership, but if the choice in front of me next year is Biden, Harris, Newsom, or (fill in the blank for some other leftist), and the only alternative is Trump, I’d vote for Trump without question. I highly doubt I’m the only one thinking this way. This is no...
See more
Reply
143
Share
8 replies
Joe Silva
14 August, 2023
Tell the whole story. DT has been politically hounded by democrats for many years. NONE of the numerous trials and impeachments have succeeded in finding him guilty of a real crime.
Most intelligent people can see that his legal problems are the result of democrat harassment, not because of any crim...
See more
Reply
41
Share
1 reply
Show 29 more replies
Carole Clarke
14 August, 2023
The warning system didn't work, the undergrowth was never cleared and was bone-dry. All the buildings seem to be constructed of old wood and nobody noticed anything. The aftermath looks like Hiroshima and in all the photos I saw only part of one Fire Dept pumper and one man in regulation fire-figh...
See more
Reply
162
Share
Joe Frazier
14 August, 2023
Once the fire started and there were 80+ MPH winds the only thing to do is run for your life. If you have a good head start and a clear path to safety maybe you'll make it. It is not hyperbole when they say a fire can outrun a deer, it's real.
I agree with you about preparations, many places allow d...
See more
Reply
17
Share
Skynyrdfan45
14 August, 2023
Absolutely, people may not realize just how many military bases are located in Hawaii. There are many Navy, Marie Corp Air Force bases there that could have assisted in so many ways. Not to mention the numerous National Guard and Reserve bases as well!
Reply
28
Share
Show 11 more replies
Tommy
14 August, 2023
Speaker McCarthy should not even consider any Ukraine supplemental until Biden addresses the American people, formally from the Oval Office. Explaining why? The purpose, how much, the status of battle, how much more, and what the American end game is. Not one penny if any should be considered unt...
See more
Reply
345
Share
Majorca Sartoff
14 August, 2023
They should withhold funding on a number of alphabet government orgs also, as they work against the population.
Reply
32
Share
Smart Butterfly
14 August, 2023
No more money for Ukraine period! Let Europe deal with it. It is not our problem. The problem for Crooked Joe is that Zelensky has all the dirt on Briben Biden, and that is why the aid to a dictator and what is money laundering central for democrats continues.
Reply
54
Share
Show 13 more replies
Show More Comments
Powered by
TermsPrivacyFeedback
276 People Reacted
What's your reaction to this article?
Top Notch
869
So-so
21
Next!
36
AdChoices
Sponsored
AdChoices
Sponsored
AdChoices
Sponsored
| 320
|
Federal court in Virginia rules in favor of Mountain Valley Pipeline
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-11-1552/energy-federal-court-virginia-rules-favor-mountain-valley-pipeline
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/federal-court-virginia-favor-mountain-valley-pipeline
|
VIRGINIA
Federal court in Virginia rules in favor of Mountain Valley Pipeline
by Jenny Goldsberry, Social Media Producer
August 11, 2023 06:24 PM
Latest
Social Security update: Direct payment worth $914 arrives in eight days
By: Misty Severi
Social Security update: Third round of direct payments worth up to $4,555 to arrive in six days
By: Misty Severi
Recent polls reveal potential ominous signs for Biden’s reelection campaign
By: Christopher Tremoglie
Videos
Merrick Garland hearing: Six takeaways on Hunter Biden investigation
Merrick Garland hearing: Texas representative grilled Garland over whether his department was still targeting parents
WATCH: Dusty Johnson on the farm bill: 'Farmers will fight you if you do anything to damage their land'
Fed holds interest rates steady amid recent upswing in inflation
Newsletters
Sign up now to get the Washington Examiner’s breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Biden administration and a pipeline company Friday.
A three-judge panel unanimously approved the construction of an over 300-mile-long natural gas pipeline, known as the Mountain Valley Pipeline, set to run through parts of Virginia and West Virginia. It has a capacity of 2 billion cubic feet per day and is already over 94% completed. It has been on pause due to ongoing litigation.
UP FOR DEBATE: TRUMP, DESANTIS, AND 2024 GOP HOPEFULS' STANCE ON CLIMATE AND GREEN AGENDA
Mountain Valley argued that Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-WV) bipartisan bill to raise the federal debt ceiling earlier this year took away the court's jurisdiction in the case, to which the panel agreed. According to the law, a Washington, D.C. court has true jurisdiction, even though the pipeline does not cross into the capital's territory.
The pipeline has received criticism from Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and conservation groups, including the Sierra Club.
"Construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline across the slopes and streams of Appalachia will threaten communities and harm imperiled species," Sierra Club's Southeast communications director Carolyn Morrison wrote in a statement. "Yet, apparently MVP has been given a free pass to edge out vulnerable species and steamroll communities."
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
This comes less than a month after the Supreme Court vacated judicial stays that prevented developers from completing the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Previously, the Fourth Circuit Court had issued two stays against the project.
Manchin's language in the debt ceiling bill, signed by President Joe Biden in June, is expected to protect Mountain Valley from further legal challenges.
Virginia West Virginia News Appeals Courts Pipelines Energy and Environment White House Infrastructure
Share your thoughts with friends.
| 321
|
Supreme Court allows construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline to continue
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-28-0827/federal-state-and-tribal-powers-supreme-court-allows-construction-mountain
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/jul/27/supreme-court-allows-construction-mountain-valley-/
|
-
| 322
|
Swedish Court Convicts Greta Thunberg For Truck-Blocking Protest
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-24-1535/climate-change-swedish-court-convicts-greta-thunberg-truck-blocking-protest
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/07/24/swedish-court-convicts-greta-thunberg-for-truck-blocking-protest/
|
Swedish Court Convicts Greta Thunberg For Truck-Blocking Protest
Getty Images
OLIVER JJ LANE24 Jul 20231,188
2:04
Greta Thunberg will have to pay a small fine after being convicted of disobeying a lawful order of the authorities to stop blocking a road earlier this year, an outcome she has decried as “absurd”.
Those who burn fossil fuels should be in court, not those who fight against them, climate celebrity Greta Thunberg said today as she was handed a criminal record in a Swedish court for a protest action earlier this year. Thunberg was ordered to pay 50 kronor, or £3.75/$4.80 a day every day for 30 days. In all, the fine will add up to just £112, or $144.
It was previously reported she could have faced months of prison time, underlining the leniency of the fine.
The activist blocked traffic by sitting in the road with a group of other young people in the port city of Malmo in June, part of a series of disruptions over several days. While police initially stood by and watched, eventually it was judged the disruption being caused was too great and the protesters were asked to leave. Those who did not were carried away by officers, and charged with disobeying an order.
Greta Thunberg Carried Away by Police at Oil Tanker Blockade Protest, May be Charged With Trespasshttps://t.co/mJ2yxJCktV
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 20, 2023
Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, charged after a climate action in the Norra hamnen neighbourhood in Malmo, arrives at the District Court in Malmo, Sweden on July 24, 2023. Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg goes on trial on July 24 charged with disobeying police at a rally last month, in which activists blocked the port in the city of Malmo. (Photo by Andreas HILLERGREN / TT News Agency / AFP) / Sweden OUT (Photo by ANDREAS HILLERGREN/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Images)
Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reports that Thunberg was scathing of her conviction, meaning for the first time in years of protests she now has a criminal record. She told the court on Monday that: “My actions are justifiable. I believe that we are in an emergency that threatens life, health and property… We are in a climate emergency and we don’t want to wait for someone to act. We chose to block oil trucks.”
Speaking to a considerable gaggle of photographers waiting for her outside the court after the verdict, Thunberg criticised the prosecution, saying that oil companies are the true criminals. She said, vowing to keep protesting: “It is absurd that those who act according to the science should pay the price for it… While those who burn the fossil fuels do not have to be held accountable.”
EnvironmentLaw and OrderLondon / EuropeClimate ChangeGreen activismGreta ThunbergSweden
| 323
|
John Kerry Tries To BS His Use Of Private Jets, Promptly Gets Called Out On It
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-15-1240/environment-john-kerry-tries-bs-his-use-private-jets-promptly-gets-called-out
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://www.outkick.com/john-kerry-tries-to-bs-his-use-of-private-jets-promptly-gets-called-out-on-it/
|
JOHN KERRY TRIES TO BS HIS USE OF PRIVATE JETS, PROMPTLY GETS CALLED OUT ON IT
by
MIKE GUNZELMAN
July 15, 2023, 1:39 pmupdated July 15, 2023, 4:22 pm
Videos by OutKick
John Kerry wants us to believe that he has only flown “possibly once” on a private jet in the past two and a half years.
That was just one of the ‘Climate Czar’s’ questionable statements during his recent testimony in front of a Congressional House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday in which the former Senator from Massachusetts appeared confused and angry when he realized he wasn’t getting one by the American people.
It all started when Kerry brought up his use –or “lack there of” –of his trips on a private jet.
The issue of Kerry’s private jet use has been going on for years. It revolves around the fact that Kerry has been one of the leading proponents against global warming as well as restrictions against gas, oil and other energy sources. But if Kerry was using a private jet while the rest of us peasants have to fly coach and sit next to all sorts of lunatics, that doesn’t seem fair does it?
“I just don’t agree with your facts, which began as a presentation of one of the most outrageously persistent lies that I hear, which is this private jet. We don’t own a private jet, I don’t own a private jet, I personally have never owned a private jet,” Kerry began.
“DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO”
If you listen to the clip again, you’ll notice that Kerry coincidentally keeps saying the word “personally.” Now why would he purposely do that? Because he was under oath – but that doesn’t mean our Climate Czar didn’t get caught deliberately leaving out some important facts.
“You just testified under oath that you’ve never owned a private jet,” Congressman Mike Waltz told Kerry before entering into the record a February, 2023 article that reported that the Kerry’s private jet was “sold shortly after accusations of climate hypocrisy.”
And just like that… Kerry suddenly remembered that his wife did own a private jet that he flew on for years. It’s amazing how it came to his mind out of nowhere!
“Yes, my wife owned a plane…” Kerry responded before saying that now he doesn’t fly on private planes and that all his trips are flown in a “commercial capacity.”
But wait a minute…
“POSSIBLY…ONCE?”
In a follow-up question, Congressman Waltz asked if Kerry had “flown a private jet in a personal or official capacity” since he took the Climate Czar position.
“Possibly… once?” Kerry said as if he was Ron Burgundy reading his name on a teleprompter with a question mark. Waltz then asked if Kerry could hand over information regarding trips he’s done in an official capacity to which he agreed to.
THIS IS WHY NOBODY TRUSTS POLITICIANS
Did John Kerry really think that we thought that he and his billionaire wife – who is part of the Heinz ketchup dynasty, wasn’t flying private? Did he think that we believed the two of them were just hanging out at Newark Airport with the rest of us? I’m not even mad, I just am tired of the l lying – whether it’s a Republican or Democrat.
Kerry could have easily come forward at the beginning and been upfront about his wife owning a jet that he used for years. He didn’t. Instead he tried to be crafty and cute with it until he realized he couldn’t anymore when the evidence was presented in front of him.
There within lies the frustrating part of it all. Our leaders insult and mock us while playing us as fools – all while they enjoy lavishes that they are telling the citizen they can’t have. It’s the ultimate “do as I say, not as I do” that we’ve seen time and time again. The hard-working person trying to make a living for themselves and their family is constantly being told what they can and can’t do while the powers-that-be laugh all the way to the bank – via their private jets of course.
Meanwhile the individual can’t use gas stoves, pizza shops have to get rid of their coal ovens, and you can’t enjoy meat in New York City. But don’t worry, at least our military is going to be 100% EV when the rest of the world isn’t.
And if all else fails, our brilliant leaders and politicians have a backup plan. Let’s just block the sun! What could possibly go wrong?
CLIMATE CHANGEJOHN KERRY
Written by Mike Gunzelman
Mike “Gunz” Gunzelman has been involved in the sports and media industry for over a decade. He’s also a risk taker - the first time he ever had sushi was from a Duane Reade in Penn Station in NYC.
LEAVE A REPLY
You must be logged in to post a comment.
MORE FROM: CULTURE
OnlyFans Model Says Two AEW World Champions Have Slid Into Her DMs
Sean Joseph
Robert De Niro Is Reportedly Bringing ‘Taxi Driver’ Character Travis Bickle For Uber Ad Campaign
Matt Reigle
Alisha Lehmann Turns Up The Heat With A Calendar Teaser That Features The Swiss Soccer Player In A Bodysuit & Heels
Sean Joseph
Disney To ‘Quiet The Noise’ In Culture War As Business Craters: CEO Bob Iger
Bobby Burack
| 324
|
Massachusetts ‘heat advisory’ peaks with near 100-degree heat index values, Boston faces ‘heat emergency’
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-07-1024/environment-massachusetts-heat-advisory-peaks-near-100-degree-heat-index-values
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://bostonherald.com/2023/09/07/massachusetts-heat-advisory-peaks-with-near-100-degree-heat-index-values-boston-faces-heat-emergency
|
NEWSWEATHER
Massachusetts ‘heat advisory’ peaks with near 100-degree heat index values, Boston faces ‘heat emergency’
The “heat advisory” was expected to peak on Thursday afternoon with it feeling close to 100 degrees. (National Weather Service map)
By RICK SOBEY | [email protected] | Boston Herald
PUBLISHED: September 7, 2023 at 11:34 a.m. | UPDATED: September 7, 2023 at 8:04 p.m.
The hot and humid weather is expected to persist into Friday after the peak of the Massachusetts “heat advisory” Thursday afternoon, as heat index values approached 100 degrees while Boston faces a “heat emergency.”
National Weather Service meteorologists were warning residents about the risk of heat exhaustion and heat illnesses amid this early September blast of brutally hot weather. The “heat advisory” remains in effect through Friday evening.
“Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors,” the National Weather Service wrote in its advisory. “Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances.
“Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside,” NWS added. “When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible.”
The oppressive heat will continue on Friday, but it thankfully won’t be as brutal as Thursday.
“In general, the heat is peaking in most of Massachusetts on Thursday, and it will be slightly less hot on Friday, but still oppressively hot in areas,” said Torry Gaucher, meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office.
Temps will then drop over the weekend into the 80s on Saturday and upper 70s on Sunday.
RELATED ARTICLES
Massachusetts faces a ‘heat advisory’ during hot and humid September stretch: ‘Drink plenty of fluids’
Massachusetts will have ‘pleasant’ Labor Day weekend weather after 2nd wettest summer in Boston’s recorded history; summer warmth and humidity next week
In Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu declared a “heat emergency” through Friday. Cooling centers will be open at 15 Boston Centers for Youth and Families (BCYF) community centers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Also, 64 splash pads will be open at parks and playgrounds throughout the city. Boston Public Library locations are also available for residents to seek relief from the heat.
With the school year for Boston Public Schools beginning on Thursday, BPS was encouraging students and their families to prepare for hot weather by staying well hydrated and dressing appropriately. Most BPS schools have air conditioning. The city was supplying water and fans to those schools that need it.
“The impacts of climate change are more palpable than ever, with extreme heat posing risk to our communities,” Wu said in a statement.
“Although extreme heat affects Bostonians of all ages, with the new school year starting, our Boston Public Schools staff will be following protocols to ensure our kids have an enjoyable, safe first week back at school,” the mayor added. “I’m grateful to our City employees who are working tirelessly to support residents, and ask residents to take precautions.”
BPS is following the MIAA guidelines for weather and will be checking in with coaches and BPS athletics regularly to ensure that students are safe, the city said.
During last summer’s heat wave, Boston EMS experienced a 15% to 20% rise in daily calls to 9-1-1.
Tags: BostonBoston weatherHeatheat advisoryHeat WaveMassachusettsMichelle Wunational weather serviceSummerWeatherweather forecasts
Rick Sobey
Rick Sobey is a multimedia, general assignment reporter -- covering breaking news, politics and more across the region. He was most recently a reporter at The Lowell Sun. Rick is a Massachusetts native and graduated from Boston University. While not reporting, he enjoys long-distance running.
[email protected]
2023
September
7
Sign up for email newsletters
SIGN UP
Most Popular
MOST POPULAR
Mac Jones gets good news at Patriots practice ahead of Jets game
Mac Jones gets good news at Patriots practice ahead of Jets game
Howie Carr: Statie nabbed in OT sting wins back $90K pension kiss
Howie Carr: Statie nabbed in OT sting wins back $90K pension kiss
Patriots, Matt Corral saga takes another strange turn with QB back off squad
Patriots, Matt Corral saga takes another strange turn with QB back off squad
Patriots fan who witnessed fatal fight calls on NFL to tackle brawling
Patriots fan who witnessed fatal fight calls on NFL to tackle brawling
No tax cap refunds in Massachusetts this year, State Auditor DiZoglio says
No tax cap refunds in Massachusetts this year, State Auditor DiZoglio says
Really high school: proposal would allow students to use medical pot at school
Really high school: proposal would allow students to use medical pot at school
Top House Democrat wants ‘hard numbers’ on emergency shelters as Healey’s funding request idles
Top House Democrat wants 'hard numbers' on emergency shelters as Healey’s funding request idles
Rod Matthews, convicted of 1986 murder of classmate Shaun Ouillette, denied parole for fourth time
Rod Matthews, convicted of 1986 murder of classmate Shaun Ouillette, denied parole for fourth time
Boston city councilor takes aim at South Bay mobs after teen violence
Boston city councilor takes aim at South Bay mobs after teen violence
Proposed redevelopment of Shattuck Hospital prompts concerns from residents
Proposed redevelopment of Shattuck Hospital prompts concerns from residents
TRENDING NATIONALLY
California tops FEMA’s new list of areas vulnerable to weather disasters
Really high school: proposal would allow students to use medical pot at school
2 teens filmed themselves laughing, hitting, killing former police chief, officials say
Vanna White gets first pay raise in 18 years, signs 2-year extension with ‘Wheel of Fortune’
It’s not ‘at all unusual’ for crocodiles to hit the beach. Pompano lifeguards are staying vigilant.
| 325
|
Environmental groups sue Utah, call state's Great Salt Lake efforts 'woefully inadequate'
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-06-1430/environment-environmental-groups-sue-utah-call-states-great-salt-lake-efforts
|
Environment
|
rights
|
https://ksl.com/article/50724546/environmental-groups-sue-utah-call-states-great-salt-lake-efforts-woefully-inadequate-
|
Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
Editor's note: This article is published through the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a solutions journalism initiative that partners news, education and media organizations to help inform people about the plight of the Great Salt Lake.
SALT LAKE CITY — Five conservation groups are banding together in a lawsuit against Utah's natural resource leaders, arguing that they aren't doing enough to get water to the struggling Great Salt Lake, which they say could have major environmental consequences in the near future.
The American Bird Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and Utah Rivers Council filed the lawsuit against the Utah Department of Natural Resources in 3rd District Court on Wednesday, seeking for the state to find ways to get the lake back to 4,198 feet elevation — almost 6 feet higher than the lake's current levels.
Utah's Division of Water Rights and Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands, each under the department's umbrella, are also named as defendants.
Advertise with us
Report ad
"The baby steps Utah has taken at the Great Salt Lake are woefully inadequate to sustain the American West's largest wetland ecosystem and we need the state to stop ignoring the upstream water diversions that are spiraling the lake and its wildlife into oblivion," Zach Frankel, executive director of the Utah Rivers Council, said in a statement Wednesday.
The conservation groups contend in the lawsuit that Utah's agencies aren't following the state's public trust doctrine, in which the state "holds and manages" natural resources for the public good, such as the Great Salt Lake. They write the lake is rich in cultural history, and it serves as a major environmental asset and economic driver for the state, but the lake is shrinking primarily because of water diversions.
Utah officials say the lake provides more than 7,500 jobs and contributes almost $2 billion to the state's economy every year. It also boosts lake effect snow by 5% to 10%, supporting the state's massive ski industry. It also attracts more than 10 million migratory birds annually.
Lake levels reached an all-time low last year before rising several feet as a result of Utah's record snowpack and an efficient snowmelt. It topped out at about 4,194.1 feet elevation at the Great Salt Lake State Park marina in June and is now listed at 4,192.6 feet elevation, about 4 feet above last year's record low, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.
Its current levels remain below the minimum "healthy" level for the lake, which the Great Salt Lake Strike Team listed as 4,198 feet elevation. The team, which included experts from Utah's natural resources department and some of its divisions, issued a report earlier this year that determined consumptive use accounted for anywhere from 67% to 73% of the lake's decline in recent years — far more impactful than snowpack uncertainty or direct evaporation.
The conservation groups said more lakebed dust containing arsenic, mercury and other pollutants is exposed as the lake shrinks. NASA released a report earlier this year that found more than half of the lakebed became exposed, which poses a threat for more dust storms that will "particularly impact residents of Tooele County and the west side of Salt Lake City."
The groups add the lake's salinity increases to levels that threaten important brine shrimp when the lake remains below 4,198 feet elevation. In addition, they write that it makes it easier for invasive plant species to grow and predators to threaten important wildlife species, and more difficult for people to boat on the lake.
These, they say, are examples that Utah has "failed to undertake all feasible means of maintaining" the Great Salt Lake to a level that is "consistent with protecting trust uses."
"The Great Salt Lake belongs to the people of Utah and the state has a legal obligation to protect this resource. But the state has sidestepped that obligation and failed to respond to the crisis facing the lake," Stu Gillespie, senior attorney for Earthjustice's Rocky Mountain office, said in a statement. "Upstream water diversions threaten the lake's biodiversity, industries that depend on the lake and human health throughout the region."
The groups are seeking a ruling that would force the department and its other agencies to take steps to prevent further lake decline within two years of the ruling. They are also seeking that the departments "take action sufficient to restore" lake levels to at least 4,198 feet elevation and maintain levels at that minimum level, which they say is the "minimum elevation consistent with continued public trust uses."
Joel Ferry, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, declined to comment on specifics outlined in the lawsuit; however, he acknowledged the state's desire to protect the Great Salt Lake moving forward in a statement to KSL.com on Wednesday afternoon.
Utah leaders have taken steps in recent years to address the declining lake, including setting up a $40 million trust that seeks to temporarily secure water rights from farmers and other rights holders to direct upstream water into the lake. State lawmakers also created a new Great Salt Lake commissioner position to oversee issues tied to the lake, while expanding its agricultural optimization program.
"There has been unprecedented interest, investment and action to preserve and protect the Great Salt Lake in recent years. The state has been actively working with many interested parties on the lake," Ferry's statement read, in part. "Working together, we have found more productive ways to effect change. ... We invite all to work with us in finding meaningful ways to benefit the lake, its ecosystem and surrounding communities."
The Utah Governor's Office declined to comment on the case, saying the state doesn't comment on ongoing litigation.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the lawsuit was filed against the Utah Division of Water Resources. It was filed against the Utah Division of Water Rights.
Most recent Environment stories
Work begins to repair sections of Uinta Mountains years after beetle infestation
Can more canal trails connect Utah's transportation and water needs?
Why is this section of the Great Salt Lake still close to its record low?
Related topics
Great Salt Lake
Environment
Utah
Outdoors
Carter Williams
Carter Williams is an award-winning reporter who covers general news, outdoors, history and sports for KSL.com.
0 Pending
100
Comments
More stories you may be interested in
Why is this section of the Great Salt Lake still close to its record low?
Utah's 14th wettest August on record propels state to above-average summer
New lithium company wants billions of gallons from Great Salt Lake, but says it will put it all back
| 326
|
Biden cancels oil and gas leases Trump issued in Alaskan Arctic
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-06-1528/energy-biden-cancels-oil-and-gas-leases-trump-issued-alaskan-arctic
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/06/alaska-biden-oil-gas-drilling-leases
|
-
| 327
|
Tropical Storm Lee is expected to rapidly intensify into an ‘extremely dangerous’ hurricane in the Atlantic by this weekend
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-06-0605/environment-tropical-storm-lee-expected-rapidly-intensify-extremely-dangerous
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/05/weather/atlantic-tropical-storm-hurricane-season-climate/index.html
|
Video Ad Feedback
CNN meteorologist shows you Lee's path in the next 72 hours
00:56 - Source: CNN
CNN meteorologist shows you Lee's path in the next 72 hours
00:56
'We will not be intimidated': Garland pushes back on accusations of political bias
See More Videos
Editor’s Note: Find Wednesday’s forecast here: Lee could approach Category 5 hurricane strength in record-warm Atlantic
CNN
—
Tropical Storm Lee is expected to rapidly intensify into an “extremely dangerous” hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean by this weekend, the National Hurricane Center said Wednesday morning, as the season approaches its typical early September peak.
Lee could become a hurricane Wednesday then a major Category 3 storm or stronger by late this week, with the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean expected to feel its impacts over the weekend, forecasters said.
“Lee is not far from hurricane strength, and it likely will achieve that status later today,” the National Hurricane Center noted in its 5 a.m. update. “While it is too soon to determine the location and magnitude of these possible impacts, interests in this area should monitor the progress of Lee and further updates to the forecast.”
The tropical storm is packing maximum sustained winds of 65 mph and is about 1,300 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands, according to the hurricane center. The islands include the Virgin Islands, Saint Martin, and Antigua and Barbuda.
Swells generated by Lee are expected to reach portions of the Lesser Antilles on Friday. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions. Lee’s winds could reach 150 mph on Sunday evening, according to the hurricane center.
Any shifts along its track as it nears the islands could bring more of an impact there and beyond. Anyone in the eastern Caribbean – including the Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola – as well as the Bahamas will need to keep a close eye on the forecast.
It’s too soon to know whether this system will directly impact the US mainland, but even if the hurricane stays out at sea, dangerous surf and rip currents could once again threaten the East Coast. One person was killed in a rip current in New Jersey over the Labor Day weekend.
Lee became a tropical storm Tuesday after forming earlier in the morning in the central tropical Atlantic and moving through extremely warm waters, according to the National Hurricane Center, which predicts the storm will strengthen rapidly.
Rapid intensification is when a storm’s winds strengthen quickly over a short amount of time. Scientists have defined it as a wind speed increase of at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less – a phenomenon aided by warm ocean waters.
As Lee moves steadily west-northwest this week, it will enter conditions increasingly favorable for strengthening: Plenty of moisture, low wind shear and abnormally warm water stretch nearly the entire length of the potential cyclone’s projected path.
“The NHC intensity forecast is extremely bullish for a first forecast, but remarkably lies below the intensity consensus,” the hurricane center’s storm discussion said. “All indications are that the depression will become a strong hurricane by the end of the forecast period.”
Lee would be the fourth to reach that status this season, following Don, Franklin and Idalia. The hurricane is expected to grow significantly stronger by the weekend and is forecast to become the season’s third Category 3 or stronger hurricane as the weekend begins.
Sunday, September 10, is the climatological peak of Atlantic hurricane season, when the basin is at its busiest on average. A flurry of tropical activity surrounding this date is not out of the ordinary, but it can turn hazardous fast.
The 2023 Atlantic season has already been busy: It is tracking above average for a number of different metrics including number of named storms, number of hurricanes and number of major hurricanes, according to Philip Klotzbach a research scientist at Colorado State University.
CNN’s Meteorologist Robert Shackelford contributed to this report.
| 328
|
Maui's message to tourists: Don't stay away after wildfires
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-05-1442/environment-mauis-message-tourists-dont-stay-away-after-wildfires
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.axios.com/2023/09/05/maui-wildfire-hawaii-tourism-wildfires
|
-
| 329
|
Florida rushes to make its final preparations before Hurricane Idalia makes landfall
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-29-1541/environment-florida-rushes-make-its-final-preparations-hurricane-idalia-makes
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/29/1196553614/hurricane-idalia-landfall-florida-preparations
|
WEATHER
Florida rushes to make its final preparations before Hurricane Idalia makes landfall
August 29, 202312:03 PM ET
By
Joe Hernandez
Enlarge this image
Adam Henderson, owner of Harbour Master Suites, prepares his business Tuesday in Cedar Key, Fla., ahead of the expected arrival of Hurricane Idalia.
Rebecca Blackwell/AP
Florida officials are urging residents along the Gulf Coast to finish making their storm preparations on Tuesday before Hurricane Idalia makes landfall in the state Wednesday morning.
The storm was upgraded from a tropical storm to a hurricane early Tuesday, and forecasters say Idalia could be a fierce Category 3 storm by the time it comes ashore in the continental U.S., bringing destructive winds and life-threatening storm surge to some areas.
"You still have time this morning to be able to make your final preparations if you are in one of those areas that's in line for the major storm surge and you're told to evacuate," Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Tuesday morning press conference.
"You have time to do that, but you gotta do that now," he emphasized.
As of Tuesday morning, Idalia was about 120 miles away from Dry Tortugas with maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. Storm surge and hurricane warnings were in effect for areas along Florida's western coast.
More than a third of Florida counties are under either mandatory or voluntary evacuation orders, and the state was marshaling resources to be able to restore power in the case of outages and conduct rescue operations if needed. DeSantis has also deployed 5,500 members of the National Guard.
The White House said President Biden and DeSantis spoke on Monday about storm preparations and that Biden had approved an emergency declaration for Florida.
Forecasters expect the eye of Idalia to chart a course toward Florida's Big Bend, the region where the peninsula meets the panhandle. According to forecasters, no major hurricanes have tracked into the region's Apalachee Bay since 1851.
The National Weather Service said the area could see life-threatening winds, with the possibility of structural damage to buildings and even the complete destruction of mobile homes.
"Damage will be greatly accentuated by large airborne projectiles. Locations may be uninhabitable for several weeks or months," the forecast warned.
Forecasters noted that even if people are located outside of Idalia's direct path, they could still feel the impacts of the storm.
The NWS expects storm surge — which occurs when strong winds heave seawater onto land in coastal areas — to cause "widespread deep inundation" that could wash out escape routes and render certain areas unfit to live for a time.
Storm surge is predicted to be as high as 15 feet in some parts of the Big Bend and as high as 7 feet in Tampa Bay.
As much as a foot of rainfall is also expected near where the storm comes ashore in Florida, with lower rainfall totals predicted for other parts of the state, as well as Georgia and the Carolinas. Tornadoes in those states are also possible.
Idalia battered the westernmost tip of Cuba with up to 4 inches of rain, the Associated Press reported.
DeSantis said evacuees don't necessarily need to travel long distances — people can go tens of miles inland to a shelter, hotel or the home of family or friends to escape storm surge conditions near the coast.
Florida's emergency management chief, Kevin Guthrie, also urged people who are forced to evacuate to bring comfort items for their children, such as their favorite toys or snacks, and not to leave pets behind.
hurricane idalia
Facebook
Flipboard
Email
| 330
|
America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-29-1045/climate-change-america-using-its-groundwater-there-s-no-tomorrow
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/08/28/climate/groundwater-drying-climate-change.html
|
WASH.
MAINE
MONT.
N.D.
MINN.
ORE.
VT.
N.H.
IDAHO
N.Y.
WIS.
MASS.
S.D.
CONN.
MICH.
WYO.
R.I.
PA.
IOWA
NEB.
N.J.
OHIO
NEV.
MD.
IND.
DEL.
ILL.
UTAH
W. VA.
COLO.
CALIF.
VA.
KAN.
MO.
KY.
N.C.
TENN.
OKLA.
ARIZ.
N.M.
ARK.
S.C.
GA.
ALA.
MISS.
TEXAS
LA.
FLA.
UNCHARTED WATERS
America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow
Overuse is draining and damaging aquifers nationwide, a New York Times data investigation revealed.
Share full article
1.8K
A wealth of underground water helped create America, its vast cities and bountiful farmland. Now, Americans are squandering that inheritance.
United States aquifers, based on 2022 research
The Times analyzed water levels reported at tens of thousands of sites, revealing a crisis that threatens American prosperity.
The 84,544 monitoring wells examined for trends since 1920
Nearly half the sites have declined significantly over the past 40 years as more water has been pumped out than nature can replenish.
Sites with falling water levels since 1980
In the past decade, four of every 10 sites hit all-time lows. And last year was the worst yet.
Record low annual water levels, past decade
By Mira Rojanasakul, Christopher Flavelle, Blacki Migliozzi and
The first article in a series on the causes and consequences of disappearing water.
Aug. 28, 2023
GLOBAL WARMING HAS FOCUSED concern on land and sky as soaring temperatures intensify hurricanes, droughts and wildfires. But another climate crisis is unfolding, underfoot and out of view.
Rebecca Noble for The New York Times
In other areas, including parts of Utah, California and Texas, so much water is being pumped up that it is causing roads to buckle, foundations to crack and fissures to open in the earth. And around the country, rivers that relied on groundwater have become streams or trickles or memories.
WASH.
MONT.
N.D.
MINN.
ORE.
IDAHO
WIS.
S.D.
MICH.
WYO.
IOWA
NEB.
NEV.
IND.
ILL.
UTAH
COLO.
CALIF.
KAN.
MO.
KY.
TENN.
OKLA.
ARIZ.
N.M.
ARK.
ALA.
MISS.
TEXAS
LA.
Center-pivot irrigation. Farming is a major groundwater user.
Most American communities also rely on wells for tap water.
How aquifers fail
Many aquifers — layers of
water-soaked dirt and rock —
are being rapidly depleted,
permanently damaging them.
RECHARGE
Well
Well
CLAY
AQUIFER
BEDROCK
Rebecca Noble for The New York Times
Falling water levels
Declining corn yields
150 bushels per acre
−80 feet below land surface
−130
100
Annual
average
−180
50
1960
1980
2000
2020
1960
1980
Cattle in Kansas. Livestock feed uses significant groundwater.
More Kansas farmers are relying on increasingly unpredictable rainfall.
Usable lifetime of aquifer
Depleted
0
25
50
100
250+
years
Stable
KANSAS
Wichita
Source: Kansas Geological Survey
Rebecca Noble for The New York Times
up
Groundwater trending
down
Fayetteville
ARKANSAS
Little Rock
Texarkana
up
Groundwater trending
Aquifers
down
Baltimore
MARYLAND
Washington, D.C.
CHARLES
COUNTY
Rebecca Noble for The New York Times
In one particularly stark example, Arizona said in June that it would stop granting permission to build houses in the Phoenix area that rely on groundwater, because there wasn’t enough water for the homes that had already been approved.
ARIZONA
Wells
Phoenix
Tucson
GROUND LEVEL
100
200
1900
MEDIAN WELL DEPTH: 10 FT
Source: Arizona Department of Water Resources
UNCHARTED WATERS
America Is Using Up Its Groundwater Like There’s No Tomorrow
Big Farms and Flawless Fries Are Gulping Water in the Land of 10,000 Lakes
A Colorado City Has Been Battling for Decades to Use Its Own Water
Measuring the water level of a well in Parowan Valley, Utah.
The bed of the Arkansas River in Kansas, dry because of groundwater overuse.
In Norfolk, Va., and other cities around the country, the groundwater is so dangerously depleted that officials are now, at great cost, pumping treated wastewater into the aquifer to try to stop the water levels from falling.
A naturally occurring, cancer-causing heavy metal, arsenic is often trapped in clay, a common soil type. But it can be released into drinking water supplies when aquifers are overpumped, a phenomenon that scientists have documented in countries with less-developed water infrastructure, including Mexico and Vietnam.
Bill Keach/Utah Geological Survey
Arizona, to the south, has , according to the Arizona Geological Survey, an office at the University of Arizona. In 2007, a fissure killed a horse that fell into a crack and couldn’t be freed.
In the Houston area, overpumping of groundwater, along with oil extraction, has caused some land to sink by more than 10 feet over the course of decades, according to local officials. In Florida, overpumping sometimes causes sinkholes.
Overpumping caused this Florida sinkhole in 2010.
Ann Tihansky/U.S.G.S.
A fissure in Arizona, also from groundwater extraction.
Rob Dotson, the Enoch city manager, in an abandoned neighborhood.
Rebecca Noble for The New York Times
| 331
|
Double threat shapes up as Tropical Storm Idalia and Hurricane Franklin intensify
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-28-0919/environment-double-threat-shapes-tropical-storm-idalia-and-hurricane-franklin
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tropical-storm-idalia-hurricane-franklin-double-threat/
|
U.S.
Double threat: Hurricane Idalia and Hurricane Franklin lurk off southeast U.S.
UPDATED ON: AUGUST 29, 2023 / 6:23 AM / CBS/AP
Update: Read the latest forecast and warnings for Hurricane Idalia here.
Two hurricanes were off the southeastern U.S. Tuesday as the Atlantic hurricane season was getting into full swing. Hurricane Idalia was off the coast of Cuba on a potential track to come ashore as a major hurricane over the Florida Gulf Coast, the National Hurricane Center said.
At a Monday news conference, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told residents to prepare for "major impacts" on the Gulf coast.
"We do expect Hurricane Idalia to be a major hurricane that will strike the state of Florida," he said.
President Biden spoke with DeSantis earlier Monday and approved an emergency declaration for the state, the White House said.
Tropical Storm Idalia, left, at the western tip of Cuba and Hurricane Franklin, right, over the western Atlantic, early on August 29, 2023.
NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER / NOAA
Idalia was forecast to develop into a major hurricane over northeastern Gulf of Mexico by early Wednesday," the center said, adding that it could would likely reach Florida's Gulf coast Wednesday, as well.
The center pointed out that "life-threatening storm surge and dangerous winds" from Idalia are "becoming increasingly likely for portions of Florida."
Major hurricanes are usually a Category 3 and up on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale — storms that the NHC says can cause "devastating" and "catastrophic" damage.
Hurricane Franklin strengthened into the first major hurricane of the Atlantic season and was a powerful Category 4 early Tuesday packing 140 mph maximum sustained winds.
Franklin was causing "life-threatening surf and rip current" along the U.S. coast, the hurricane center said, but it is not forecast to make landfall and will stay out to sea.
Florida casts wary eye on Idalia
Along a vast stretch of Florida's west coast, up to 11 feet of ocean water could surge on shore, raising fears of destructive flooding.
CBS News senior weather and climate producer David Parkinson says storm surge "is a serious threat with the worst areas getting a surge higher than a one story building, and that's likely from Cedar Key north along the Big Bend to Wakulla County."
Tampa Bay has "the potential for a 4-7 foot storm surge, including downtown Tampa at the river walk," Parkinson added.
Large parts of the western coast of Florida are at risk of seawater surging onto land and flooding communities when a tropical storm or hurricane approaches. That part of Florida is very vulnerable to storm surges, Jamie Rhome, deputy director of the National Hurricane Center, said Sunday.
"So it will not take a strong system or a direct hit to produce significant storm surge," he said. "So if you're anywhere along the Florida Peninsula, western Florida Peninsula, so let's say from about Fort Myers northward to the Panhandle, you've really got to be paying attention."
In Cedar Key, a fishing village that juts out into the Gulf of Mexico, a storm surge is among the greatest concerns, said Capt. A.J. Brown, a fishing guide who operates A.J. Brown Charters. The concern is that if the storm strikes Florida just to the north, Cedar Key would get the powerful surge that comes from being on the southeastern side of the storm.
There are worries in Cedar Key about a storm surge of two to five feet of ocean water, Brown said, and if the storm surge reaches five feet "it would cover most everything downtown."
At the popular Bridge Tender Inn in Bradenton Beach, a large tent covering the tiki bar area where musicians play might have to be taken down in preparation for Idalia, assistant manager Shannon Dunnan said Sunday.
"If we get a big storm that hits, it would probably rip that tent in half," she said.
But at this point, plans are for the establishment to stay open, Dunnan said.
Mexico's National Meteorological Service on Sunday warned of intense to torrential rains showering the Yucatan Peninsula, with winds as fast as 55 mph.
It said the storm could cause anything from powerful waves to flooding in southern Mexico, mainly around coastal cities in the Yucatán and Quintana Roo states. It asked citizens to stay alert.
Florida preparing
Florida emergency officials on Sunday urged residents to keep their vehicle gas tanks at least half-full in case they need to evacuate.
"This will ensure you can evacuate tens of miles inland to a safe location should the need arise," the Florida Division of Emergency Management said on social media.
Florida has mobilized 1,100 National Guard members, and "they have at their disposal 2,400 high-water vehicles, as well as 12 aircraft that can be used for rescue and recovery efforts," said DeSantis, the Republican governor who is running for the Republican presidential nomination.
"If you are in the path of this storm, you should expect power outages," he added. "So please prepare for that, particularly if this storm ends up coming in the Tallahassee region, there's a lot trees that are going to get knocked down, the power lines are going to get knocked down - that is just going to happen, so just be prepared for that and be able to do what you need to do."
Thirty-three Florida counties are under a state of emergency, the state emergency management agency said.
So far this year, the U.S. East Coast has been spared from cyclones. But in the West, Tropical Storm Hilary caused widespread flooding, mudslides and road closures earlier this month in Mexico, California, Nevada and points to the north.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently said the 2023 hurricane season would be far busier than initially forecast, partly because of extremely warm ocean temperatures. The season runs through Nov. 30, with August and September typically the peak.
Trending News
Free COVID test kits are coming back. Here's how to get them.
U.S. offers thousands of Venezuelan migrants legal status, work permits
What is a government shutdown? Here's what happens if funding runs out
DeSantis unveils energy plan, aims to lower price of gas to $2 per gallon
In: Hurricane
First published on August 28, 2023 / 6:06 AM
© 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
| 332
|
Almost 400 people still missing after Maui fires
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-25-0844/environment-almost-400-people-still-missing-after-maui-fires
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/maui-fires-missing-nearly-400-search-rcna101758
|
MAUI WILDFIRES
Almost 400 people still missing after Maui fires
At least 115 people have been confirmed dead in the wildfires, the deadliest in modern U.S. history.
Maui County sues Hawaiian Electric Co., alleging negligence
03:01
Get more news
Live
on
NBC News Now
Aug. 25, 2023, 9:57 AM CEST / Updated Aug. 25, 2023, 10:36 AM CEST
By Deon J. Hampton
MAUI, Hawaii — Maui County on Thursday night released the names of almost 400 people who remain officially unaccounted for, two weeks after devastating wildfires swept through the island.
The 388 names were compiled by the FBI and deemed validated with first and last names, county officials said.
“We’re releasing this list of names today because we know that it will help with the investigation,” Police Chief John Pelletier said in a statement. “We also know that once those names come out, it can and will cause pain for folks whose loved ones are listed. This is not an easy thing to do, but we want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to make this investigation as complete and thorough as possible.”
Authorities are asking anyone with information about the 388 newly released names to call the FBI at (808) 566-4300 or email [email protected].
As of late Thursday, another 1,732 individuals who had originally been reported as unaccounted for had since been found safe and well, county officials said.
A wind-whipped wildfire Aug. 8 devastated the town of Lahaina in West Maui. Other fires also erupted on the island.
At least 115 people have been confirmed dead in the wildfires, the deadliest in modern U.S. history.
Authorities previously asked family members to provide DNA to help identify bodies and reassured them that the information will not be kept or used for any other purpose.
Maui County on Thursday sued Hawaiian Electric Co., alleging its failure to shut off power despite repeated warnings of the potential for devastating fires ignited the wind-swept flames that destroyed Lahaina this month.
The county is seeking damages and “just compensation” against Hawaiian Electric and three related companies, accusing them of negligence, according to the suit filed in the state’s Second Circuit Court.
The utility faces at least 11 other lawsuits in relation to the fires, some of them from Lahaina residents, as well as one from investors who accused it of fraud in a federal lawsuit alleging it failed to disclose that its wildfire prevention and safety measures were substandard.
In a statement Thursday, Hawaiian Electric said its focus in the aftermath of the fires has been to support the people of Maui and Maui County.
“We are very disappointed that Maui County chose this litigious path while the investigation is still unfolding,” it said.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Environmental Protection Agency told NBC News on Friday it does not have a timeline for when “hazardous waste removal efforts” will begin in Lahaina, noting only the process will begin after urban search and rescue crews allow it to enter the area.
Deon J. Hampton
Deon J. Hampton is a national reporter for NBC News.
David Douglas contributed.
| 333
|
Minnesota state and tribal leaders meet with the EPA to discuss air pollution
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-25-0749/federal-state-and-tribal-powers-minnesota-state-and-tribal-leaders-meet-epa
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/minnesota-state-and-tribal-leaders-meet-with-the-epa-to-discuss-air-pollution/
|
LOCAL NEWS
Minnesota state and tribal leaders meet with the EPA to discuss air pollution
BY WCCO STAFF
AUGUST 23, 2023 / 1:56 PM / CBS MINNESOTA
SHAKOPEE, Minn. -- Minnesota state and tribal leaders met with members of the Environment Protection Agency In Shakopee on Wednesday to discuss how they aim to use $4 million in pollution reduction grants.
I joined @EPA and local MN leaders to celebrate significant new funding within the Inflation Reduction Act that gives local communities flexibility to address air pollution. Proud to help bring these strategic investments to Minnesota & protect clean air for our families! pic.twitter.com/Mn52BSON31
— Rep. Betty McCollum (@BettyMcCollum04) August 23, 2023
In part due to the Inflation Reduction Act -- as well as aggressive investment from the Biden-Harris Administration -- the EPA is now offering federal Climate Pollution Reduction Grants to states. The purpose of these grants is to generate stable funding for states to implement plans that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollutants.
RELATED: Minnesota among states challenging EPA's standards for residential wood-burning stoves
"Environmental conservation is a fundamental part of Minnesota's heritage and we need to come together to combat climate pollution," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar. "These grants will help organizations across the state continue to preserve Minnesota's natural beauty and protect our communities for generations to come."
These grants are specifically intended to help reduce pollution in low-income communities.
Grant recipients include Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Metropolitan Council, Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Midwest Tribal Energy Resources Association.
"Our tribe is committed to being a good steward of the Earth, and we hope to build on this work as we look to a carbon-neutral future," said Keith Anderson, Chairman of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. "Climate action plans are an important step in this process. We are honored to receive this support as we plan for future generations."
Air Quality Specialist for the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Charlie Lippert added, "Mille Lacs is excited to begin our climate pollutant reduction planning activities with our two-pronged approach: as a lead agency on our Tribal lands, and as a partner agency to state and regional agencies for all other Band-owned properties."
RELATED: Walz touts 40 climate initiatives Minnesota legislation passed in 2023 session
The CPRG program is multifaceted.
It aims to support recipients through the development and deployment of technology that'll help reduce greenhouse gases, as well as "transition America to a clean energy economy that benefits all Americans," says a press release.
"These investments help protect clean air for our families and give communities flexibility to tackle their most pressing needs. It takes all of us to fight climate change, and I'm proud to help bring these strategic investments to Minnesota," said Rep. Betty McCollum.
More from CBS News
Push for electric school buses continue, meeting scheduled at Como Regional Park
Stanford study finds worsening wildfires limit gains in fighting air pollution
After dozens of departments pull school resource officers, Minnesota attorney general makes clarifications to new law
Biden administration to launch first-of-its-kind American Climate Corps program Wednesday
In: Air Pollution Minnesota Environmental Protection Agency Shakopee News
WCCO Staff
The WCCO Staff is a group of experienced journalists who bring you the content on WCCO.com.
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
First published on August 23, 2023 / 1:56 PM
© 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| 334
|
Biden visits fire-ravaged Maui as search efforts continue, with more than 800 people still missing
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-21-1502/environment-biden-visits-fire-ravaged-maui-search-efforts-continue-more-800
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/21/politics/biden-hawaii-fire-visit/index.html
|
Video Ad Feedback
Unveiling Maui's water conflict in wake of wildfires
03:53 - Source: CNN
Unveiling Maui's water conflict in wake of wildfires
03:53
'We will not be intimidated': Garland pushes back on accusations of political bias
See More Videos
CNN
—
President Joe Biden arrived in fire-ravaged Maui on Monday to witness the devastation left by an inferno more than a week ago and assess for himself a government response that some residents initially found lacking.
The trip brought Biden to the scene of the deadliest American wildfire in more than 100 years. His initial response to the Maui wildfires drew criticism earlier this month, mainly from Republicans, who seized upon a nearly five-day period of silence between Biden’s first comments about the fires and when he next publicly addressed the tragedy.
During the visit, the president sought to reassure residents that the federal government will support their recovery, pointing to the historic Lahaina banyan tree that stood nearby, its branches scorched.
“Today it’s burnt, but it’s still standing,” Biden said. “Trees survive for a reason. I believe it’s a powerful, very powerful symbol, what we can and will do to get through this crisis. For as long as it takes, we’re going to be with you, the whole country (will) be with you.”
With about 850 people still unaccounted for, according to Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen, the death toll of at least 115 is expected to rise, as emergency responders and cadaver dogs search through the incinerated wasteland for victims. Biden named a senior federal emergency official to oversee long-term recovery efforts during his visit.
Upon arrival, Biden boarded Marine One for an aerial tour of the debris left behind by the fires and toured the historic town of Lahaina to view the damage firsthand.
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden accompanied by Hawaii Governor Josh Green and Jaime Green, First Lady of Hawaii, visit the fire-ravaged town of Lahaina on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Wearing a baseball cap and aviator sunglasses, Biden walked on Lahaina’s main Front Street past charred trees and ruined facades. He first heard from FEMA officials and a member of the National Guard, then began his walk toward a podium to deliver his remarks – at one point peering into burned-out vehicles that lined the street.
Biden said he wanted to be sympathetic to the community’s needs and requests – something locals have voiced concern about since the fires left the town leveled. The federal government, he pledged Monday, would help local officials “rebuild the way the people of Maui want to rebuild.”
The president called the devastation he’d seen ahead of the speech “overwhelming,” before mentioning the known victims and the hundreds of people still unaccounted for.
“I know the feeling of so many in this town and this community,” he said, recounting a call from a “young first responder” and learning of the deaths of his wife and daughter in 1972.
“The difference between knowing somebody’s gone and worrying whether they’re available to come back are two different things,” he reflected. “It’s one thing to know, it’s one thing to wait and wonder.”
The trip provided Biden with an opportunity to demonstrate in-person compassion for a community shaken by the disaster, and to dispel some of the early backlash at how he initially reacted, when photos of him on the beach in Delaware made for a striking split-screen as the scope of the tragedy came into focus.
A curt “no comment” when he was asked about the death toll last Sunday fueled Republican criticism that he was shrugging off the tragedy. The White House later said Biden couldn’t hear the question. In all, the president went almost five days without addressing the fires publicly following his first comments about it during a speech in Salt Lake City.
‘As long as it takes’
President Joe Biden participates in a blessing ceremony with the Lahaina elders at Moku'ula.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Behind the scenes, however, Biden was actively engaged in responding to the crisis and planning was already underway for a presidential visit. In telephone conversations with Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, Biden sought to ensure the large footprint required for a presidential visit would not obstruct ongoing response and recovery efforts. He received assurances from Green that a trip on Monday would not interfere.
“I know how profoundly loss can impact a family and a community and I know nothing can replace the loss of life,” Biden said in a statement Sunday. “I will do everything in my power to help Maui recover and rebuild from this tragedy,” he continued, adding, “We are focused on respecting sacred lands, cultures, and traditions.”
Since shortly after the brushfire began tearing through the town of Lahaina, Biden has sought to marshal the resources of the federal government to ensure the community is able to recover, including signing an emergency declaration and remaining in regular phone contact with state officials.
“If President Biden could just teleport himself over, he would’ve come here in five seconds,” Green said at a news conference last week. “I’ve never seen such dedication in a president, who within six hours dedicated his time to determine that this was an emergency, and to commit full repair, full reconstruction for our people here in Hawaii.”
The president on Monday ticked through ways the federal government provided support for Hawaii, including by signing a disaster declaration, sending FEMA supplies and naming Bob Fenton – an experienced disaster response official – to serve as the chief federal response coordinator. Fenton has been on the ground in Hawaii since the day the fires began earlier this month.
Prior to Biden’s trip, a White House official said that “as the recovery moves into a next phase, the president has directed Mr. Fenton, who has been a leader in the response from the earliest hours, to make sure every member of this devastated community has access to everything the federal government can offer to heal and rebuild as fast as possible.”
A 7-year-old boy and his relatives are among the dozens killed in the Maui wildfires. Here's what we know about some of the 114 lives lost
Biden, who spoke with state officials, emergency responders and survivors during the visit, was joined Monday by first lady Dr. Jill Biden. The pair interrupted a weeklong vacation at Lake Tahoe to fly to Maui.
Response speed questioned
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden take an aerial tour on Marine One over areas devastated by the Maui wildfires.
Evan Vucci/AP
Some on the island have questioned the speed of the government’s response.
In the days immediately following the fire, some residents relied on local networks of boats and cars to shuttle in help to the area. Since then, more robust assistance has arrived on the island.
As of Saturday, there were more than 1,000 federal personnel on the ground helping with ongoing recovery efforts and over $7 million in financial assistance had been provided to people affected. At that time, search and rescue teams had gone through 60% of the impacted area, according to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, who traveled with the president on Monday, ahead of the visit.
She noted on Sunday that the number of people in shelters has fallen “significantly” as they are moved into hotels, and that the next phase in the response will be debris removal efforts and a transition toward long-term recovery.
Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee said on Monday that “the thousands of people who were in our emergency shelters are no longer there. I think there’s nine people left as of today. Thousands have been moved to transitional quarters like the hotels, who are taking very good care of the people, as well as individual homes and short-term rentals.”
“So, I’m sure, as you’re talking to various people, you will hear stories of disappointment, of course, because they have lost a lot. You can’t blame them for being disappointed. But there are many success stories as well,” she said.
Help is desperately needed in Hawaii. Here's what you can do
Bissen said Monday in a statement that Maui had over 2,000 federal responders “from more than two dozen agencies. Over 20 state and county agencies have deployed nearly 1,000 personnel.”
As residents and businesses embark on the rebuilding process, the US Small Business Administration is evaluating how its disaster relief programs can be tailored to the Hawaii recovery effort, SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman told CNN Sunday.
“We are on the ground and tracking needs to see how the whole of SBA can support communities impacted and disaster survivors,” Guzman said.
Criswell also said she had heard from people on the ground that they want to ensure the federal government supports their vision for the future.
“They just want to make sure that they’re going to be able to rebuild the way they want to rebuild and that as the federal government comes in, that we’re supporting them with their vision of what Lahaina is going to look like in the future,” Criswell said.
Biden underscored Monday that the recovery effort would respect local traditions.
“The fire cannot reach its roots,” he said. “That’s Maui. That’s America. And to the people of Hawaii, we’re with you for as long as it takes, I promise you.”
This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Holly Yan, Priscilla Alvarez, Sam Fossum and Kayle Tausche contributed to this report.
| 335
|
Hilary could be the first tropical storm to hit California in more than 80 years
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-18-1511/environment-hilary-could-be-first-tropical-storm-hit-california-more-80-years
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/18/1194588117/hilary-could-be-the-first-tropical-storm-to-hit-california-in-more-than-80-years
|
WEATHER
Hilary could be the first tropical storm to hit California in more than 80 years
Updated August 18, 20235:25 PM ET
By
Dustin Jones
Enlarge this image
This 1:10 p.m. EDT Friday satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Hilary (right) off Mexico's Pacific coast.
NOAA via AP
Hurricane Hilary, now a powerful Category 4 storm churning off Mexico's Baja California peninsula, is making its way towards the Pacific coast. It's projected to hit Southern California as a tropical storm — the first since 1939 — by Sunday night and into Monday, bringing high winds and the potential for dangerous flooding.
"Life-threatening and potentially catastrophic flooding likely over much of Baja California and Southern California this weekend and early next week," the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said in a Friday afternoon advisory.
The NHC forecasts Hilary will make landfall in Baja on Sunday as a hurricane but lose strength as it makes its way north. It's expected to hit Southern California as a tropical storm as early as Sunday. Hilary's monsoonal rains will cause flash, urban and arroyo flooding with the potential for "significant impacts," the NHC said.
The storm will envelop southwestern California, with San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties all under a flood watch from Saturday night through Monday night, according to National Weather Service predictions. The heavy rains could result in flooding of rivers, creeks, streams and low-lying areas.
3 am MDT Friday, August 18 Key Messages for Hurricane #Hilary. Significant flooding impacts are possible across portions of the Baja California peninsula and the southwestern U.S. through early next week.https://t.co/uXCLgpJttU pic.twitter.com/Ulubvz83Sz
— NHC Eastern Pacific (@NHC_Pacific) August 18, 2023
"Although it is too soon to determine the location and magnitude of these impacts, interests in these areas should monitor the progress of Hilary and updates to the forecast," the NHC advised.
Daniel Swain, climate scientist at UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, Friday that Hilary has "high potential to be a historic flood event" for the region. He's also predicting that Hilary could drop more than 1- to 2-years' worth of rain in California over the course of the storm.
Enlarge this image
The National Weather Service says the storm could dump heavy rain in San Diego, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties, which could cause flooding of rivers, creeks, streams and low-lying areas.
National Hurricane Center/Screenshot by NPR
The last time the Golden State was hit by a tropical storm was on Sept. 24, 1939, when what was left of a hurricane became a deadly tropical storm which soaked Los Angeles with more than 5 inches of rain in 24 hours, the NWS said. Flooding from the storm killed 45 people and another 48 were killed out at sea. And at one point, the Eastern Coachella Valley was under 2 feet of water.
California's lack of preparedness for that storm led to the creation of a Southern California forecast office in February 1940.
Enlarge this image
People observe the ocean before the arrival of Hurricane Hilary at Los Cabos resort in Mexico's Baja California state on Friday.
Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images
The only known hurricane to hit the West Coast grazed San Diego on Oct. 2, 1858, with winds as high as 75 mph, just above the threshold for a hurricane.
The storm will continue moving north and inland from Southern California. It will drench parts of southwestern Arizona and southern Nevada with 2 to 6 inches of monsoonal rains. The NWS issued a flood watch for the Phoenix and Las Vegas areas from Saturday morning through Monday afternoon. As much as 10 inches — more than either area gets in an average year — could come down in localized areas, with potential of widespread flooding across the region.
hurricane hilary
tropical storm
baja california
southern california
climate
san diego
weather
california
los angeles
Facebook
Flipboard
Email
| 336
|
Hurricane Hilary intensifying, to deluge California, Nevada and Arizona
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-17-1227/environment-hurricane-hilary-intensifying-deluge-california-nevada-and-arizona
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.axios.com/2023/08/17/hurricane-hilary-2023-flooding-california-arizona
|
-
| 337
|
How Maui’s wildfires became so apocalyptic
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-16-1537/environment-how-maui-s-wildfires-became-so-apocalyptic
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.vox.com/climate/2023/8/9/23826015/maui-fire-2023-lahaina-hawaii-cause
|
FILED UNDER:
CLIMATE
SCIENCE
How Maui’s wildfires became so apocalyptic
A large hurricane, drought, and perhaps even invasive grasses have fueled the devastating fires in Hawaii.
By Benji Jones@BenjiSJones Updated Aug 14, 2023, 10:32am EDT
Share this story
Share this on Facebook
Share this on Twitter
SHARE
All sharing options
Wildfires fueled by strong winds and drought have whipped across western Maui, Hawaii, this week, razing structures and forcing evacuations. Zeke Kalua/County of Maui via AP
Benji Jones is a senior environmental reporter at Vox, covering biodiversity loss and climate change. Before joining Vox, he was a senior energy reporter at Insider. Benji previously worked as a wildlife researcher.
Earlier this week several wildfires engulfed parts of the Hawaiian island of Maui, killing at least 96 people, burning more than 2,000 structures, and forcing people to flee into the ocean for safety.
The wildfires, now among the deadliest in US history, burned hundreds of acres in Hawaii and utterly decimated Lāhainā, the tourism heart of the island and the largest city in its west. Hospitals are overrun with burn patients, thousands of people have lost power, and as of Wednesday morning, 911 service was down in part of the island.
“We have suffered a terrible disaster,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said Wednesday. “Much of Lāhainā on Maui has been destroyed and hundreds of local families have been displaced.”
Wildfires were once rare in Hawaii, largely ignited by volcanic eruptions and dry lightning strikes, but human activity in recent decades has made them more common and extreme. The average area burned each year in wildfires, which tend to start in grasslands, has increased roughly 400 percent in the last century, according to the Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization, a nonprofit group.
Part of the problem is that climate change is making Hawaii drier, so it’s more likely to ignite when there’s an ignition event (most Hawaii wildfires are sparked by humans, though the source of the current blazes is unknown). The spread of highly flammable invasive grasses is also to blame. Native to the African savanna, guinea grass and fountain grass, for example, now cover a huge portion of Hawaii, and they provide fuel for wildfires, as Cynthia Wessendorf has written in Hawaii Business Magazine.
A wildfire burns in Kihei, Hawaii, late on August 9, 2023, as thousands evacuated their homes on the island of Maui. Ty O’Neil/AP
These factors are at play today, as is a storm hundreds of miles away. Here’s why these fires have become so intense so quickly.
Hawaii is dry right now and getting drier
The simplest reason parts of Maui are burning is that it’s hot and dry — summer is the dry season. And dry, hot weather provides the foundation for extreme wildfires by sucking moisture out of vegetation and essentially turning it into kindling. (That’s partly why the Canada wildfires have been so severe this year, too.)
Zooming out, carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels are making the planet hotter and deepening droughts around the world. Hawaii is no exception. Today, there’s less rainfall in 90 percent of the state compared to a century ago, according to the state government.
Winds from a major hurricane sweep through Maui
The wildfires burning today are also made worse by a powerful hurricane churning hundreds of miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean. Although Hurricane Dora is not expected to make landfall in Hawaii, it’s pushing strong winds that can, in turn, fuel wildfire blazes, according to the National Weather Service.
The winds not only help fire spread quickly but make it difficult for firefighters to put them out. Heavy gusts can knock down trees near roads, blocking access to certain regions, and can also ground helicopters that dump water to quell the blaze. It’s an important example of how hurricanes and wildfires — both of which are set to become more extreme under climate change — interact with each other.
A map showing where wildfires are burning across Maui, as of August 10, 2023. AP
There is more fuel for fires to burn
The last reason has less to do with climate and more to do with ... grass.
Unlike fires on the mainland — which are large and spread in forests, burning hundreds of thousands of acres in a given year in places like California — those in Hawaii are typically small and ignite in grasslands. They tend to burn something on the order of tens of thousands of acres a year across the state.
But over the last century or so, humans introduced a variety of nonnative grasses to the state, such as guinea grass, which is often used as feed for livestock. These plants are known to outcompete native grasses, and they grow incredibly quickly after rainfall, which can produce an enormous amount of fuel for wildfires.
Today, nonnative grasslands and shrublands cover nearly one-quarter of the land area in Hawaii, according to the Hawaii Wildlife Management Organization. “Together with a warming, drying climate and year-round fire season,” the group said, the nonnative grasses “greatly increase the incidence of larger fires.”
The good news is that Hurricane Dora has moved west, causing winds on Maui to die down. And firefighters on the island have made progress in controlling the blazes, allowing officials to search for survivors and assess the damage. Yet bigger climate trends point to hotter and drier summers — which could lead to even more destructive fires in the years to come.
Update, August 14, 10:30 am ET: This story, originally published August 9, has been updated with current mortality and damage estimates.
You've read 3 articles in the last 30 days.
We're here to shed some clarity
One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.
One-Time Monthly Annual
$5/month
$10/month
$25/month
$50/month
Other
Yes, I'll give $5
/month
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via
IN THIS STREAM
What we know about the wildfires in Hawaii
What I saw after the wildfires on Maui
How Maui’s wildfires became so apocalyptic
VIEW ALL 4 STORIES
NEXT UP IN CLIMATE
THE LATEST
A fatal crash shows us everything that’s wrong with traffic enforcement
By Marin Cogan
What climate activists mean when they say “end fossil fuels”
By Rebecca Leber
The Supreme Court will decide if Alabama can openly defy its decisions
By Ian Millhiser
The wild allegations about India killing a Canadian citizen, explained
By Zack Beauchamp
It’s time to replace urban delivery vans with e-bikes
By Liz Scheltens
Lead poisoning kills millions annually. One country is showing the way forward.
By Kelsey Piper
| 338
|
Paris Hilton Vacations On Maui After Officials Urge Tourists To Stay Home
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-15-1539/environment-paris-hilton-vacations-maui-after-officials-urge-tourists-stay-home
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paris-hilton-maui-fires_n_64db8fd6e4b05a467803b6fc
|
Content loading...
Paris Hilton is being slammed for taking a vacation on Maui in the wake of devastating wildfires that swept through the Hawaiian island last week, destroying the town of Lahaina and killing almost 100 people.
Hilton and family were seen at Maui’s Wailea resort on Saturday, days after Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) asked travelers to stay home to preserve resources like food, water and shelter for victims of the disaster.
Photographs published by the Daily Mail showed the hotel heiress, husband Carter Reum and 7-month-old son Phoenix at a beach less than 30 miles from Lahaina, where most of Maui’s 99 confirmed deaths occurred.
Critics turned to the internet to call Hilton insensitive and out-of-touch.
“Vacationing in Maui. Cringe,” one person commented on a June Instagram photo of Hilton.
Paris Hilton arrives at the Pre-Grammy Gala on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023.VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
“A perfect example of the juxtaposition between the wildfire devastated part of Hawaii and the tourist part of Hawaii; the locals and the tourists,” another person posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Someone else compared Hilton to Hawaii native Jason Momoa, who told people Maui is now “not the place to vacation” in an Instagram post on Saturday.
“Jason Momoa: Stay away from Hawaii let us rebuild ourselves,” the person posted. “Paris Hilton: We will take your beaches and build more Hilton mega resorts.”
While the socialite ignored the warnings, the Hawaii Tourism Authority said visitors have “largely heeded the call” to avoid Maui.
About 46,000 residents and visitors have left via West Maui’s Kahului Airport since the fires, the authority told The Associated Press.
“In the weeks ahead, the collective resources and attention of the federal, state and county government, the West Maui community, and the travel industry must be focused on the recovery of residents who were forced to evacuate their homes and businesses,” the tourism authority said in a statement on Saturday.
The authority also warned tourists about dangerous air quality, and said hotels and resorts in West Maui have temporarily stopped booking future reservations “until the situation stabilizes.”
Over 4,500 Hawaiians are said to have been displaced by the fires, the deadliest in the U.S. in over a century, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
The governor told CNN on Monday that search teams had only examined about 25% of the affected area and that the death toll could double in the days ahead.
“It is a tragedy beyond tragedies,” Green said.
RELATED
WILDFIRES
FIRE
PARIS HILTON
MAUI
Lauren Boebert Accused Of Using Maui Wildfires To Score 'MAGA Points'
Lahaina Residents Worry A Rebuilt Maui Town Could Slip Into The Hands Of Affluent Outsiders
Maui Officials And Scientists Warn Toxic Particles Will Remain After Flames Flicker Out
VIEW 143 COMMENTS
Kelby Vera
Senior Reporter
Suggest a correction
Do you have info to share with HuffPost reporters? Here’s how.
GO TO HOMEPAGE
POPULAR IN THE COMMUNITY
YOU MAY LIKE
| 339
|
An insidious form of climate denial is festering in the Republican Party
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-11-0805/climate-change-insidious-form-climate-denial-festering-republican-party
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://www.vox.com/climate/23815966/republicans-climate-change-denial-trees
|
FILED UNDER:
CLIMATE
POLITICS
POLICY
The first GOP debate reveals a disturbing level of climate change denial
The party’s tactics to deny and deflect reality are more polarizing than ever.
By Rebecca [email protected]@vox.com Updated Aug 24, 2023, 11:05am EDT
Share this story
Share this on Facebook
Share this on Twitter
SHARE
All sharing options
Partisan divides on climate change have grown over the past 20 years, as GOP leaders became more emboldened in denying the science. Getty Images/iStockphoto
Rebecca Leber is a senior reporter covering climate change for Vox. She was previously an environmental reporter at Mother Jones, Grist, and the New Republic. Rebecca also serves on the board of the Society of Environmental Journalists.
For the first debate ahead of the 2024 presidential election, Republican candidates gathered on a 100-degree day in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during a heat dome gripping the Midwest. Early into the televised eight-candidate forum, Fox News moderators lobbed a question pressing the presidential hopefuls for their positions on addressing climate change, an issue of growing importance for young voters in particular: “Do you believe human behavior is causing climate change? Raise your hand if you do.”
None did. That the question came up at all was surprising; it remains unusual for a Republican debate to even attempt an acknowledgment of the climate crisis. What wasn’t surprising was that the discussion immediately devolved into distraction, denial, and misinformation.
Collective climate change denial in the Republican Party is not new. But the debate illustrates how the GOP’s claims are becoming increasingly audacious — as signals from human-caused climate change become all the more apparent.
Record heat? “Normal”: “It’s hot, hot, hot all right,” said Laura Ingraham on her Fox News show. “After all, we’re in the middle of a season called ‘summer.’” (Fact check: More than 3,000 temperature records were shattered in the US for the month of July alone, something scientists say would be “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.)
Forest fires? “Nature naturally burns itself off every 11 years with natural disaster forest fires,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK). “This is a forest fire.” (Fact check: The severity of wildfires such as the historic blazes in Canada this year are fueled by complex conditions including forest management and drought primed by climate change.)
Stronger hurricanes? Just a part of life: “This is something that is a fact of life in the Sunshine State,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a Fox News interview. “I’ve always rejected the politicization of the weather.” (Fact check: Climate change drives the warming of ocean waters, which provide fuel for more devastating hurricanes and typhoons.)
More Americans are impacted by climate change; 62 percent of all voters recognize climate change is caused by human activity, according to a Gallup poll from this spring. Yet, climate change denial is not only alive and well in the GOP, it’s become “a lot more insidious and polarizing,” said John Cook, a University of Melbourne researcher who has tracked the path of climate disinformation online using artificial intelligence.
Here is what has made climate change denial worse.
Climate change denial is becoming more personal
Americans increasingly care about climate change, unless you’re asking the Republican voter base. The GOP’s obsession that liberal elites want to worsen the average person’s way of life through climate action has chipped away at their voters’ support for solutions and belief that the planet is warming. Party leaders and presidential candidates have insisted, wrongly, that Democrats’ climate solutions will mean bans on laundry machines, hamburgers, and gas stoves and that unabated “wokeism” has infiltrated the corporate world.
It’s a useful scare tactic, employed to delay action. Supran, who has conducted research on historical oil industry ads, found those in the 1990s “trotting out the same rhetoric, with different wording: ‘No more SUVs, no more driving around freely,’” to stave off new energy efficiency standards.
“It plays into this elitist narrative, that these are the elites and they aren’t like us and they’re trying to tell us all these cultural changes they’re trying to bring about,” explained Bob Inglis, a Republican and former South Carolina member of Congress who now runs the advocacy group RepublicEn to promote climate solutions among conservatives. Inglis said it’s helpful for the politicians who sell doubt on climate change to make it seem like people who support solutions “have their heads in the clouds trying to solve things the rest of us practical people don’t need.”
Inglis pointed out the problem with this narrative. “The thing about climate change is we’re all experiencing it right now,” he said. “We’re all in the midst of it.”
The party is making climate a culture war issue
Republicans have spent years hammering this message to the electorate and it has made a major difference to the average Republican voter. Research shows that the GOP politicians’ cues do impact how voters see the issue.
We can measure the effect of their rhetoric in the polling: A recent Gallup survey looked at partisan divides on a number of issues every 10 years from 2003 to 2023. One of the starkest shifts in the polling was around party views on global warming and environmental issues, ranking alongside gun laws and abortion as having the highest polarization. Republicans have become less concerned with global warming, even as the effects have grown more pronounced since 2013. And fewer Republicans think global warming is a result of human activity today than they did 20 years ago.
There are serious consequences to all this, and the far right plans to translate climate denial into official federal policy that encourages fossil fuels and blocks a clean energy transition, should Donald Trump win the next presidential election.
The conservative think tank Heritage Foundation has drawn a 920-page blueprint called Project 2025 to unravel all of the US’s efforts so far to tackle climate change. It is a methodical, systematic undoing of the federal bureaucracy, Politico first reported, shuttering key programs from the Environmental Protection Agency, slashing climate and clean energy solutions, blocking the expansion of wind and solar on the grid, and turning over pollution oversight to the fossil fuel industry and handpicked Republican officials.
The GOP’s only “climate” policy is actually bad for the environment
Cook has found in his research that Republicans are increasingly concerned with spreading misinformation about solutions, grossly oversimplifying what needs to be done to avoid addressing fossil fuel emissions. One of those misleading ideas is a House Republican push for the Trillion Trees Act, which has not come up for a vote.
When Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR) first proposed the Trillion Trees Act in 2020, environmentalists said the bill “would significantly increase logging across America’s federal forests, convert millions of acres into industrial tree plantations, increase carbon emissions, increase wildfire risk, and harm wildlife and watersheds.” The idea was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, effectively giving loggers more allowances as long as they planted seedlings which are decades away from delivering climate benefits.
But the GOP has come to champion the idea as their climate plan. “We need to manage our forests better so our environment can be stronger,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). McCarthy proposed planting trees so the US could focus on its natural gas industry, one of the world’s leading methane polluters. “Let’s replace Russian natural gas with American natural gas, and let’s not only have a cleaner world, let’s have a safer world,” he said.
Trump was in favor of a tree initiative while president, even while he was dismantling government action on climate change. And other leading climate deniers have focused on “forest management” or the timber industry as an easy fix for worsening wildfires. In a CNN town hall in June, presidential candidate Mike Pence said, “We’ve got to be able to tell some of the radical environmentalists that you’ve got to harvest some trees in the forest to keep the forest healthy.”
Planting a trillion trees to save us from climate change is not a serious proposal on its own. The authors of the 2019 study that has inspired the GOP’s talking point have themselves said that planting trees alone does not eliminate “the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
As Inglis put it, “trees can be part of the solution, but they’re not a solution on the scale of the problem. ... What we’re looking for is a worldwide solution to the challenge of climate change.” Inglis’s group advocates for what he calls a conservative approach that does address the scale of the problem, a revenue-neutral carbon tax along with a border tax adjustment that works across the economy.
The GOP idea to plant more trees may seem innocuous compared to calling climate change a hoax, but the outcome is the same. They will try “anything that pushes the problem downstream,” said Supran, to shut down more immediate action. Invariably, inertia on climate change benefits the status quo — which just so happens to benefit fossil fuel industries, a major benefactor of the Republican Party.
“There’s so much talk but so little commitment to action both from the GOP and fossil fuel interests,” Supran said. “I feel like we’re in some kind of twilight zone, the talking points go round and round. The end result is just the same as it’s always been, which is lackluster action.”
Update, August 24, 11:05 am ET: This story was originally published on August 11 and has been updated to include information from the first Republican presidential debate.
You've read 4 articles in the last 30 days.
We're here to shed some clarity
One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.
One-Time Monthly Annual
$5/month
$10/month
$25/month
$50/month
Other
Yes, I'll give $5
/month
We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via
IN THIS STREAM
The first GOP debate: August 23, 2023
Vivek Ramaswamy and the lie of the “model minority”
The first GOP debate reveals a disturbing level of climate change denial
2 winners and 3 losers from the first Republican debate
VIEW ALL 13 STORIES
NEXT UP IN CLIMATE
THE LATEST
A fatal crash shows us everything that’s wrong with traffic enforcement
By Marin Cogan
What climate activists mean when they say “end fossil fuels”
By Rebecca Leber
The Supreme Court will decide if Alabama can openly defy its decisions
By Ian Millhiser
The wild allegations about India killing a Canadian citizen, explained
By Zack Beauchamp
It’s time to replace urban delivery vans with e-bikes
By Liz Scheltens
Lead poisoning kills millions annually. One country is showing the way forward.
By Kelsey Piper
| 340
|
At least 36 killed on Maui as fires burn through Hawaii and thousands race to escape
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-10-0553/environment-least-36-killed-maui-fires-burn-through-hawaii-and-thousands-race
|
Environment
|
lefts
|
https://apnews.com/article/hawaii-wildfire-maui-lahaina-f5a7047d407f836f89e90dd7f10faa94
|
A steady stream of buses and shuttles dropped off travelers evacuated from western Maui at the airport Thursday after a wildfire killed dozens of people and leveled a historic town on the Hawaiian island. (Aug. 11)
LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — A search of the wildfire devastation on the Hawaiian island of Maui on Thursday revealed a wasteland of obliterated neighborhoods and landmarks charred beyond recognition, as the death toll rose to at least 53 and survivors told harrowing tales of narrow escapes with only the clothes on their backs.
A flyover of historic Lahaina showed entire neighborhoods that had been a vibrant vision of color and island life reduced to gray ash. Block after block was nothing but rubble and blackened foundations, including along famous Front Street, where tourists shopped and dined just days ago. Boats in the harbor were scorched, and smoke hovered over the town, which dates to the 1700s and is the biggest community on the island’s west side.
“Lahaina, with a few rare exceptions, has been burned down,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green told The Associated Press. More than 1,000 structures were destroyed by fires that were still burning, he said.
Already the state’s deadliest natural disaster since a 1960 tsunami killed 61 people on the Big Island, the death toll will likely rise further as search and rescue operations continue, Green added.
“We are heartsick,” Green said.
Many businesses, including one of the town’s oldest shops, were destroyed. As owner Tiffany Kidder Winn assessed the damage Wednesday at the Whaler’s Locker gift store, she came upon a line of burned-out vehicles, some with charred bodies inside.
“It looked like they were trying to get out, but were stuck in traffic and couldn’t get off Front Street,” she said. She later spotted a body leaning against a seawall.
Winn said the destruction was so widespread, “I couldn’t even tell where I was, because all the landmarks were gone.”
Fueled by a dry summer and strong winds from a passing hurricane, the fire started Tuesday and took Maui by surprise, racing through parched growth covering the island and then feasting on homes and anything else that lay in its path.
The official death toll of 53 as of Thursday makes this the deadliest U.S. wildfire since the 2018 Camp Fire in California, which killed at least 85 people and laid waste to the town of Paradise. The Hawaii toll could rise, though, as rescuers reach parts of the island that had been inaccessible due to the three ongoing fires, including the one in Lahaina that was 80% contained on Thursday, according to a Maui County news release. Dozens of people have been injured, some critically.
“We are still in life preservation mode. Search and rescue is still a primary concern,” said Adam Weintraub, a spokesperson for Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.
Search and rescue teams still won’t be able to reach certain areas until the fire lines are secure and access is safe, Weintraub added.
The flames left some people with mere minutes to act and led some to flee into the ocean. A Lahaina man, Bosco Bae, posted video on Facebook from Tuesday night that showed fire burning nearly every building on a street as sirens blared and windblown sparks raced by. Bae, who said he was one of the last people to leave the town, was evacuated to the island’s main airport and was waiting to be allowed to return home.
Marlon Vasquez, a 31-year-old cook from Guatemala who came to the U.S. in January 2022, said that when he heard the fire alarms, it was already too late to flee in his car.
“I opened the door, and the fire was almost on top of us,” he said from an evacuation center at a gymnasium. “We ran and ran. We ran almost the whole night and into the next day, because the fire didn’t stop.”
Vasquez and his brother Eduardo escaped via roads that were clogged with vehicles full of people. The smoke was so toxic that he vomited. He said he’s not sure his roommates and neighbors made it to safety.
Lahaina residents Kamuela Kawaakoa and Iiulia Yasso described their harrowing escape under smoke-filled skies. The couple and their 6-year-old son got back to their apartment after a quick dash to the supermarket for water, and only had time to grab a change of clothes and run as the bushes around them caught fire.
“We barely made it out,” Kawaakoa, 34, said at an evacuation shelter, still unsure if anything was left of their apartment.
As the family fled, they called 911 when they saw the Hale Mahaolu senior living facility across the road erupt in flames.
Chelsey Vierra’s great-grandmother, Louise Abihai, was living at Hale Mahaolu, and the family doesn’t know if she got out. “She doesn’t have a phone. She’s 97 years old,” Vierra said Thursday. “She can walk. She is strong.”
Relatives are monitoring shelter lists and calling the hospital. “We got to find our loved one, but there’s no communication here,” said Vierra, who fled the flames. “We don’t know who to ask about where she went.”
Communications have been spotty on the island, with 911, landline and cellular service failing at times. Power was also out in parts of Maui.
Tourists were advised to stay away, and about 11,000 flew out of Maui on Wednesday with at least 1,500 more expected to leave Thursday, according to Ed Sniffen, state transportation director. Officials prepared the Hawaii Convention Center in Honolulu to receive thousands.
In coastal Kihei, southeast of Lahaina, wide swaths of ground glowed red with embers Wednesday night as flames continued to chew through trees and buildings. Gusty winds blew sparks over a black and orange patchwork of charred earth and still-crackling hot spots.
The fires were fanned by strong winds from Hurricane Dora passing far to the south. It’s the latest in a series of disasters caused by extreme weather around the globe this summer. Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of such events.
Wildfires aren’t unusual in Hawaii, but the weather of the past few weeks created the fuel for a devastating blaze and, once ignited, the high winds created the disaster, said Thomas Smith an associate professor in Environmental Geography at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Members of a Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources wildland firefighting crew on Maui battle a fire in Kula, Hawaii. (Matthew Thayer/The Maui News via AP)
Hawaii’s Big Island is also currently seeing blazes, Mayor Mitch Roth said, although there were no reports of injuries or destroyed homes there.
With communications hampered, it was difficult for many to check in with friends and family members. Some people were posting messages on social media. A Family Assistance Center opened at the Kahului Community Center for people looking for the missing.
Maj. Gen. Kenneth Hara, of the Hawaii State Department of Defense, said Wednesday night that officials were working to get communications restored, distribute water and possibly add law enforcement personnel. He said National Guard helicopters had dropped 150,000 gallons (568,000 liters) of water on the fires.
The Coast Guard said it rescued 14 people who jumped into the water to escape the flames and smoke.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen Jr. said Wednesday that officials hadn’t yet begun investigating the immediate cause of the fires.
President Joe Biden declared a major disaster on Maui. Traveling in Utah on Thursday, he pledged that the federal response will ensure that “anyone who’s lost a loved one, or whose home has been damaged or destroyed, is going to get help immediately.” Biden promised to streamline requests for assistance and said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was “surging emergency personnel” on the island.
This story has been corrected to state that Louise Abihai is Chelsey Vierra’s great-grandmother, not her grandmother.
Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Sinco Kelleher reported from Honolulu, Rush from Kahului and Weber from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand; Andrew Selsky in Bend, Oregon; Bobby Caina Calvan and Beatrice Dupuy in New York; and Chris Megerian in Salt Lake City, Utah, contributed.
| 341
|
US Climate Body Issues Stark Report: World Experiencing ‘Unprecedented’ Warming
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-06-0920/climate-change-us-climate-body-issues-stark-report-world-experiencing
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://themessenger.com/tech/us-climate-body-issues-stark-report-world-experiencing-unprecedented-warming
|
TRENDING NOW | Previously Undiscovered Virus Found at Bottom of Pacific Ocean
US Climate Body Issues Stark Report: World Experiencing ‘Unprecedented’ Warming
The State of the Climate report, an "annual physical" for the planet, shows the world's temperatures and sea levels rising at alarming rates
Published |Updated
Dave Levitan
JWPlayer
Hotter, wetter, more dangerous. That's the upshot from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's 33rd annual State of the Climate report, released on Wednesday.
"It is like an annual physical of the Earth system," said Derek Arndt, director of NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.
The report, which looks at data from 2022 and incorporates research from more than 500 scientists across 60 countries, cites a cornucopia of unsettling record-breaking moments: the highest sea level on record, the highest greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, the hottest oceans ever recorded.
"People are causing the largest known change in global climate since our transition to agriculture thousands of years ago," said Paul Higgins, the associate executive director of the American Meteorological Society, in a press release.
The report confirms previous estimates from NOAA, NASA and other climate researchers: 2022 was one of the six warmest years since record-keeping began in the 1800s — but not the hottest.
Damage from Hurricane Ian is seen in Sanibel, Florida, on October 8, 2022.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Last year, the globe was cooled somewhat by the presence of La Niña, a Pacific Ocean weather phenomenon that changes precipitation patterns and generally brings temperatures down. But 2022 was the warmest La Niña year on record.
Read More
Malaria mosquitoes are moving quickly into new territory as climate warms
‘No Dumb Questions’: Is there a climate change silver bullet?
July Heat Impacted 80% of the World, Wouldn’t Have Happened Without Climate Change: Study
Climate Change Made Devastating Libya Floods 50 Times Worse
Climate change is extending natural disaster seasons from wildfires to tornadoes to hurricanes
From bad refs to brain-eating amoebas: How climate change is reshaping warm-weather sports
The world has since flipped to an El Niño state this year, pushing temperatures higher and setting a multitude of records this summer.
NOAA Climate
The report found that the global annual average of atmospheric carbon dioxide reached a new record last year, at 417.1 parts per million. That's about 50% higher than the concentration before the Industrial Revolution, and the highest "in paleoclimatic records dating back as far as 800,000 years," according to NOAA.
The ocean, which so far has absorbed more than 90% of all the extra energy trapped by rising carbon dioxide levels, also reached its hottest average temperature on record in 2022. Meanwhile, the mean sea level was four inches higher than in 1993, which is when accurate satellite measurements began.
The report also highlighted "unprecedented" melting of the world's glaciers — in Switzerland, a record 6% of glacial volume was lost in 2022.
There were fewer extreme storms in 2022, but some were devastating. Hurricane Fiona was the most destructive in eastern Canada's history, while Hurricane Ian killed more than 100 people and became the third-costliest disaster in US history, causing $113 billion in damage.
It is possible 2023 will far surpass 2022's poor climate report card. In July, extreme heat across the world led NOAA and NASA scientists to predict 2023 will be one of the warmest years on record, if not the warmest year.
Read nextYouTube Starts Rolling Out Playable Games
THE MESSENGER MORNING NEWSLETTER
Essential news, exclusive reporting and expert analysis delivered right to you. All for free.
Sign Up
By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use.
More Tech.
TECH
Artificial Intelligence Startup Anthropic Lays Out Strategy To Curb Evil AI
TECH
OpenAI is Mashing Together Dall-E and ChatGPT
TECH
Top 3 Greenhouse Gas Emitters Snubbed at UN Climate Ambition Summit
TECH
Ready, Aim, Fire! Homemade Nerf Blaster Shoots 100 Darts Per Second
TECH
NASA To Test Deep Space Laser Communication System on Upcoming Missions
TECH
Auroras Light Up Sky After Major Geomagnetic Storm Hits Earth
TECH
Don’t Kill That Bug Yet. Some Scientists Want to Rethink the War on Invasive Species
TECH
Smarter Glasses, Faster Wireless Internet and the Rest of Amazon’s Fall Gadget Announcements
TECH
George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult Join Who’s Who of Literature in Suing OpenAI
TECH
Deadly Bird Flu Detected in Galapagos Islands, Closing Tourist Sites
TECH
Amazon Alexa’s Take on Generative AI Focuses on Laughter, Uh-Huhs and Empathy
TECH
If This Exoplanet Hosts Intelligent Aliens, They Might See Earth’s Pollution
| 342
|
Why climate experts are criticizing a Hawaii headline from ABC News
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-31-0652/media-bias-why-climate-experts-are-criticizing-hawaii-headline-abc-news
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2023/why-climate-experts-are-criticizing-a-hawaii-headline-from-abc-news/
|
Commentary Newsletters
Opinion | Why climate experts are criticizing a Hawaii headline from ABC News
Can climate change be blamed for the Maui wildfires? Almost certainly, at least partially. But even if it can’t, it’s far too early to say so.
This photo provided by the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources shows burnt areas in the Kula community of the Upcountry region on the Maui island, Hawaii, Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, following a wildfire. (Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources via AP)
By: Annie Aguiar, Alex Mahadevan, Tom Jones and Amaris Castillo
August 18, 2023
As part of its reporting on the devastating wildfires in Hawaii, ABC News published an article Tuesday with the headline “Why climate change can’t be blamed for the Maui wildfires.”
That headline, which has now been edited to add a hedging “entirely” after “blamed,” topped a story pointing out the lack of attribution studies tying climate change to the wildfires.
Reporter Emily Atkin, who runs the climate crisis-focused newsletter Heated, went straight to the article’s sources to ask if the headline phrasing accurately reflected their comments. It didn’t.
“Climate change absolutely can be partially blamed for the severity of the Maui disaster because climate change worsens wildfires, and climate change plays a role in literally all weather events,” Atkin said. “We just don’t yet know how much blame, because we don’t yet have attribution studies that can tell us that sort of thing.”
Read the scientists’ full responses, and how Fox News reported on the ABC News edit, over at Atkin’s newsletter Heated.
One key point: The kind of attribution study that would tie climate change to the wildfires takes much longer to produce than a week. Climate change has been incrementally changing the conditions for weather events, making a definitive denial of its role in these wildfires shortsighted.
This is not solely on ABC’s shoulders. The news media has overarchingly failed to meaningfully put climate change in context in a trend that has only become more apparent as extreme weather events and high temperatures persist globally.
This failure is compounded by a lack of scientific literacy most glaringly on display in morning news show wonder drug segments and other pop-science reporting, but now with existential stakes in the context of the climate crisis.
If anything, this is a reminder that fact-checking goes beyond quoting the correct sequence of words said by a source. It’s about understanding the deeper context, especially when you’re tangling with climate science.
By Annie Aguiar, Poynter audience engagement producer
More on the Maui wildfires
Why news anchors go to disasters like the wildfires in Hawaii
Why one firefighter is calling out Maui wildfire conspiracy theories
How journalists in Hawaii are covering (and coping with) the Maui wildfires
Fact-checking a bizarre claim that government ‘direct energy weapons’ caused the Maui fires
A shortened video distorts Hawaii governor’s comments about the state buying land in Lahaina
A media bias chart update puts The New York Times in a peculiar position
I’ve always questioned those graphs ranking news outlets based on bias and reliability.
And the release of Ad Fontes Media’s latest media bias chart illustrates my skepticism. Most notably, the graph has The New York Times positioned to the left of “TrueAnon,” a Marxist podcast.
Sure, the chart ranks “TrueAnon” as having much lower credibility — the podcast grew out of an exploration of conspiracy theories about Jeffery Epstein’s death — but the bias rating displays the weakness in Ad Fontes’ methodology. “The Joe Rogan Experience” is considered more centrist than The Wall Street Journal, and “Under the Skin With Russell Brand” is closer to “unbiased” than The Washington Post.
To evaluate most sources, three analysts — one right-leaning, one centrist and one left-leaning — rate articles, episodes or podcasts from each source. For bigger outlets, like The New York Times, they might sift through more than 400, but evaluators typically look at 15 stories. Then the ratings are averaged for the final chart ranking.
In previous Poynter coverage, Ad Fontes founder Vanessa Otero said that media bias charts are a “tool to help people have a shortcut.” But bias and reliability are incredibly nuanced and complex.
As the director of Poynter’s media literacy arm, MediaWise, I am always looking for easy tools to help people separate fact from fiction — and sort out bias — on their own. But I’d hesitate to recommend any media bias chart at this point.
By Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise at Poynter
McAfee’s debut
ESPN finally announced a date for the debut of “The Pat McAfee Show.” It will be Sept. 7 — the same day the NFL regular season kicks off. It will air on ESPN, as well as ESPN+ and ESPN’s YouTube channel, weekdays from noon to 2 p.m. Eastern. The third hour of the show will air on ESPN+ and ESPN’s YouTube channel.
The former NFL punter and now immensely popular podcaster signed a five-year deal with ESPN earlier this year for a reported $85 million.
Burke Magnus, president of content at ESPN, said in a statement, “We can’t wait for Pat and his team to bring a fresh new energy to ESPN’s weekday lineup, led by some of the most prominent, creative and authentic voices in sports. ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ will redefine what success looks like across multiple ESPN platforms and will bring a new, contemporary audience to our afternoon time block. It’s a perfect fit.”
McAfee also will continue his role as an analyst on Saturday’s college football pregame show “College GameDay.” ESPN announced that some Friday editions of McAfee’s show will air from the location where “College GameDay” is that weekend.
Speaking of Magnus, he was this week’s guest on the “Sports Media” podcast hosted by The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch. Magnus talked about a wide range of topics, including the controversial decision to lay off popular NBA analysts Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson.
By Tom Jones, senior media writer
Chloe Melas to begin new gig at NBC
Chloe Melas is headed to NBC as a new entertainment correspondent after leaving CNN. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the veteran entertainment journalist will begin her new gig next week, covering “the intersection of entertainment, business and culture.” The outlet cites a Thursday memo from Catherine Kim, senior vice president of NBC News editorial.
Melas shared that she was leaving CNN in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I landed my first job at CNN as a News Assistant right out of college in 2008 and I loved it so much that I returned 7 years later,” Melas wrote. “Last week, this latest professional chapter came to a close. It has truly been a masterclass in journalism @CNN.”
By Amaris Castillo, Poynter contributor
Media tidbits and links for your weekend review
Fox News lost millions of viewers when it fired star host Tucker Carlson in April. Now that the network has a new prime-time lineup in place, has it gained them back? Some, but not all, Jeremy Barr writes for The Washington Post.
Poynter’s Amaris Castillo writes “How journalists in Hawaii are covering (and coping with) the Maui wildfires.”
Poynter’s Annie Aguiar writes “More than 20 resources for navigating change in your media career,” with tools to survive layoffs, effectively network, hunt for a job and more
Joseph Dash, a pressman for The Buffalo News, was shot and killed while riding his bicycle on Monday afternoon. Police are asking residents to share any information they might have.
Through visceral visual storytelling, The Washington Post’s Reis Thebault, Zoeann Murphy, Whitney Shefte and Mengshin Lin take readers “Inside one man’s harrowing fight out of the Maui fires.”
The New York Times’ Robert Draper with “For an Atlanta Reporter, a Trump Scoop Long in the Making.”
In an expansive series of articles, The Washington Post’s Nicole Dungca, Claire Healy and Andrew Ba Tran investigate “What we know about the Smithsonian’s human remains.”
For The New York Times Magazine, Dashka Slater with “The Instagram Account That Shattered a California High School.”
More resources for journalists
Bring Poynter to Your Newsroom, Classroom or Workplace
Poynter Leadership Academy for Women in Media (Mar., May & Sept. 2024) — Apply by Sept. 8, 2023.
Power of Diverse Voices: Writing Workshop for Journalists of Color (Nov. 15-18) (Seminar) — Apply by Sept. 15.
Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected].
The Poynter Report is our daily media newsletter. To have it delivered to your inbox Monday-Friday, sign up here.
Follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.
Support high-integrity, independent journalism that serves democracy. Make a gift to Poynter today. The Poynter Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, and your gift helps us make good journalism better.
DONATE
Tags: ABC News, Commentary, Hawaii, Maui, The Poynter Report, Wildfires
Annie Aguiar
Annie Aguiar is an audience engagement producer for Poynter’s newsroom. She was previously a state issues reporter for the Lansing State Journal and graduated from…
Annie Aguiar
Alex Mahadevan
Alex Mahadevan is director of MediaWise at the Poynter Institute. He has taught digital media literacy to thousands of middle and high schoolers, and has…
Alex Mahadevan
Tom Jones
Tom Jones is Poynter’s senior media writer for Poynter.org. He was previously part of the Tampa Bay Times family during three stints over some 30…
Tom Jones
Amaris Castillo
Amaris Castillo is a writing/research assistant for the NPR Public Editor and a contributor to Poynter.org. She’s also the creator of Bodega Stories and a…
Amaris Castillo
More News
Feeling overwhelmed by search results? Use click restraint to save yourself from junk
Hold back on clicking through search results until you find you find a promising source (and avoid ads and sponsored posts)
September 20, 2023 Laura Duclos
Opinion | Pay to Tweet? Elon Musk’s latest plans for X
With this move, it's hard to argue the billionaire isn't just intentionally trying to blow up the former Twitter
September 20, 2023 Tom Jones
Was Trump ‘marching into a war zone of fire and ashes’ on 9/11 to ‘save Americans,’ as Benny Johnson claimed?
Over the years, former President Donald Trump has made several claims about his involvement in recovery efforts after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
September 20, 2023 Sara Swann
A reporter made sure a retired police chief’s death didn’t go uncovered. Then social media attacked her.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is facing a harassment campaign stoked by Elon Musk, one year after a reporter was killed for his coverage.
September 19, 2023 Angela Fu
Opinion | Say it ain’t so: The New York Times sports section says goodbye
Despite pushback from the union and staffers, as well as criticism and pleas from sports fans, the Times published its last sports section Monday.
September 19, 2023 Tom Jones
BACK TO NEWS
Start your day informed and inspired.
SUBSCRIBE
Get the Poynter newsletter that's right for you.
Media Jobs
Mike Simonson Fellowship - Madison, WI (53706)
PBS Wisconsin
Senior Major Gifts Officer, WestCoast - Washington, DC (20015)
News Literacy Porject
Editor-in-Chief - Belmont, MA (02478)
The Belmont Voice
Senior Editor, Inside Climate News (Remote Position) - Brooklyn, NY (11242)
Inside Climate News
Associate Producer, Podcasts - NEW YORK, NY (10012)
The Atlantic Magazine
Jazz Radio Program Director and Host - Wenatchee, WA (98801)
Washington State University
Deputy Director of Photography - Denver, CO (80216)
The Denver Post
Life Sciences Reporter, C&EN - Washington, DC (20036)
American Chemical Society
Journalism Program Coordinator - PINELLAS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, FLORIDA - Largo, FL (33770)
Pinellas County Schools
Literary Agent - New York , NY (10006)
Park & Fine
SEARCH MEDIA JOBS
ADVERTISE A JOB
| 343
|
Hurricane Idalia grinds into Georgia after slamming Florida
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-30-1550/environment-hurricane-idalia-grinds-georgia-after-slamming-florida
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/floridas-gulf-coast-braces-major-hurricane-idalia-nears-landfall-2023-08-30/
|
United States
Hurricane Idalia lashes Florida, then weakens and turns fury on Georgia
By Marco Bello and Maria Cardona
August 31, 202312:55 PM GMT+2Updated 21 days ago
PERRY, Florida, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Hurricane Idalia plowed into Florida's Gulf Coast on Wednesday with howling winds, torrential rains and pounding surf, then weakened as it turned its fury on southeastern Georgia, where floodwaters trapped some residents in their homes.
Hours after Idalia slammed ashore as a powerful Category 3 hurricane at Keaton Beach in Florida's Big Bend region, packing winds of about 125 mph (201 kph), authorities were still trying to assess the full extent of damage in the hardest-hit areas.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
| 344
|
Intensifying Idalia threatens Florida's Gulf Coast with storm surges
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-29-0810/environment-intensifying-idalia-threatens-floridas-gulf-coast-storm-surges
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/idalia-set-slam-floridas-gulf-coast-wednesday-major-hurricane-2023-08-29/
|
Environment
Hurricane Idalia strengthens en route to Florida, expected to land as Category 4 storm
By Marco Bello and Joseph Ax
August 30, 20236:11 AM GMT+2Updated 22 days ago
CEDAR KEY, Florida, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Hurricane Idalia gained fury on Tuesday as it crawled toward Florida's Gulf Coast, forcing mass evacuations in low-lying areas expected to be swamped when the powerful storm, forecast to reach Category 4 intensity, strikes on Wednesday morning.
Idalia was generating maximum sustained winds of 110 miles per hour (177 kph) by late Tuesday night - at the upper end of Category 2 - and its force will ratchet higher before it slams ashore, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) projected.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
| 345
|
Asian Americans Exposed To More ‘Forever Chemicals’ than Other Americans: Study
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-24-1349/public-health-asian-americans-exposed-more-forever-chemicals-other-americans
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://themessenger.com/tech/asian-americans-pfas-forever-chemicals-exposure
|
TRENDING NOW | Previously Undiscovered Virus Found at Bottom of Pacific Ocean
Asian Americans Exposed To More ‘Forever Chemicals’ than Other Americans: Study
PFAS are found in household items like nonstick cookware
Published |Updated
Abubakar Idris
According to a study by the US Geological Survey, nearly half of the tap water in the United States is contaminated with “forever chemicals” that are considered dangerous to human health.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Asian Americans have the highest exposure to PFAS, aka “forever chemicals,” than any other US racial demographic, a new study finds.
The research, which uses exposures to estimate levels of the chemicals in people’s systems, shows that Asian Americans likely have 88% higher levels of PFAS than non-Hispanic Whites.
Individuals who live in households with high income brackets tend to have higher risks of exposure to PFAS than others, the study finds.
PFAS are perfluoroalkyl and poly-fluoroalkyl substances or so-called “forever chemicals.” Collectively, they represent 5,000 human-made and widely used, long-lasting chemicals, many of which are used to produce consumer items, including nonstick cookware, cosmetics, carpets, pizza boxes, stain resistant-fabric, as well as pesticides.
PFAS break down incredibly slowly, which means they can be found in both humans and the environment, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. When inside the human body, PFAS can increase the chances of potentially fatal diseases, including cancer, and weaken the body’s ability to fight infections. PFAS are also linked to high cholesterol, liver damage, thyroid disease, and hormone conditions.
It’s unclear what drives higher exposure among Asian Americans, and the study didn’t delve into possible socio-economic reasons. But it does offer an avenue for future research to examine individuals’ levels of exposure and health risks.
Read More
Harmful PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals’ Could Be in Some Period Products: Study
Companies Covered Up Harm of PFAS ‘Forever Chemicals,’ New Study Finds
The fashion industry’s reckoning with ‘forever chemicals’
Eco-Friendly Paper Straws Contain Dangerous ‘Forever Chemicals’: Study
Scientists Identify Bacteria Able to Break Down ‘Forever Chemicals’
3M Reaches $10 Billion Settlement Over ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Public Water Systems
Read nextThe Rollout of Legal Pot Stores in New York Is Going Slower Than a Stoned Turtle
THE MESSENGER MORNING NEWSLETTER
Essential news, exclusive reporting and expert analysis delivered right to you. All for free.
Sign Up
By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use.
More Tech.
TECH
Artificial Intelligence Startup Anthropic Lays Out Strategy To Curb Evil AI
TECH
OpenAI is Mashing Together Dall-E and ChatGPT
TECH
Top 3 Greenhouse Gas Emitters Snubbed at UN Climate Ambition Summit
TECH
Ready, Aim, Fire! Homemade Nerf Blaster Shoots 100 Darts Per Second
TECH
NASA To Test Deep Space Laser Communication System on Upcoming Missions
TECH
Auroras Light Up Sky After Major Geomagnetic Storm Hits Earth
TECH
Don’t Kill That Bug Yet. Some Scientists Want to Rethink the War on Invasive Species
TECH
Smarter Glasses, Faster Wireless Internet and the Rest of Amazon’s Fall Gadget Announcements
TECH
George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picoult Join Who’s Who of Literature in Suing OpenAI
TECH
Deadly Bird Flu Detected in Galapagos Islands, Closing Tourist Sites
TECH
Amazon Alexa’s Take on Generative AI Focuses on Laughter, Uh-Huhs and Empathy
TECH
If This Exoplanet Hosts Intelligent Aliens, They Might See Earth’s Pollution
| 346
|
Why ESG Ratings Are All Over the Map
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-23-0923/environment-why-esg-ratings-are-all-over-map
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/esg-ratings-f569f60e?mod=hp_jr_pos1
|
By
Aug. 17, 2023 10:00 am ET
Listen
(2 min)
| 347
|
Not just Maui: Snapshots of global climate disasters that followed a record-hot July
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-18-1431/climate-change-not-just-maui-snapshots-global-climate-disasters-followed-record
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://qz.com/not-just-maui-snapshots-of-a-summer-of-global-climate-1850746711
|
Temperatures recorded across the world over the past few months have made 2023 a year of record for global warming, with 21 of the 30 hottest days ever recorded on Earth having occurred in July—on one of these days, July 16, a city in Iran had the misfortune of experiencing wet bulb temperatures of 33.7°C (92.7°F). While overall temperatures in August have not been as extreme, dry conditions contributed to the spread of wildfires in Greece, the US, Canada, and the Canary Islands. On the other side of the extreme weather coin, storms whose destructive power is boosted by warmer temperatures have affected countries as far apart as Norway, India, Japan, and China.
Burning fossil fuel releases climate-warming greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere. The amount of global emissions from human activity is currently too high for the Earth to absorb, and each wildfire worsens that capacity by emitting carbon dioxide and destroying sources of carbon capture. Scientists see balancing emissions in line with the Earth’s absorption capacity, or reaching net zero, within the next three decades as essential to limit the worst consequences of climate change. Doing so will require a “complete transformation of the global energy system,” according to the International Energy Agency, including measures such as phasing out all unabated coal and oil plants by 2040 and banning sales of new gas-guzzling cars by 2035.
Here’s a snapshot of a world undergoing climate change.
2 / 9
Canada’s northernmost city is under evacuation order to escape approaching wildfires. The 20,000 residents of the Northwestern Territories’ capital have until midday on Friday (Aug. 18) to leave. As of Wednesday night, the nearest wildfire was 11 miles (17 km) away from the city, CBC reported. The number of active wildfires in Canada has increased from 880 in July to 1053 today (Aug. 17).
3 / 9
More than 100 people have now been declared dead after wildfires tore through the island last week, in some of the deadliest fires in US history that destroyed most of the town of Lahaina, once the capital of Hawaii. Multiple lawsuits accuse utility company Hawaiian Electric of having played a role in the sparking the wildfires by not cutting power to supply lines in the aftermath of Hurricane Dora.
4 / 9
Authorities are evacuating at least 3,800 people from the area near a mountainous national park near the Mount Teide volcano in Tenerife after a wildfire broke out on Wednesday (Aug. 16), Reuters reported. Efforts to contain the blaze were underway on Thursday (Aug. 17), but the fire has already burned through 2,600 hectares (6,425 acres), according to local emergency services (link in Spanish).
5 / 9
Storm Hans caused chaos across Northern Europe last week, but hit Norway particularly hard, causing flooding and landslides that isolated parts of the country. “It’s a big crisis for us. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Pål Erik Teigen, chief of staff at Innlandet police district, told The Guardian. Insurance claims from the storm topped 1.6 billion Norwegian krone ($151.5 million) for property alone earlier this week, with more claims for cars and other vehicles expected to come.
6 / 9
Search and rescue operations are underway in Shimla and its surrounding area in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh after torrential rain earlier this week caused landslides and the death of more than 50 people. In one of the deadliest incidents, a temple collapsed in Shimla, killing at least nine people, according to the BBC.
7 / 9
More than 800 flights were cancelled on Tuesday (Aug. 15) as Typhoon Lan headed for western and central Japan, where some areas witnessed 585 mm (23 inches) of rain in 24 hours, according to Reuters. A road in Tottori, which was one of the areas most affected by the storm, partially collapsed, isolating hundreds of residents, local media reported.
8 / 9
Typhoon Doksuri battered the northeastern Chinese province of Hebei and the area around the capital Beijing earlier this month. At least 33 people died in the Beijing area, where 59,000 homes collapsed. In Hebei, almost 30 people had been confirmed dead in the 10 days after the flooding. China is no stranger to torrential rains and yet another deadly storm hit parts of the country last weekend, causing flooding, landslides, and killing at least 21 people in the area around the northwestern city of Xi’an.
9 / 9
| 348
|
Posts Misrepresent Military’s Response to Maui Wildfires
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-18-0350/environment-posts-misrepresent-military-s-response-maui-wildfires
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/posts-misrepresent-militarys-response-to-maui-wildfires/
|
Quick Take
The White House declared the site of the Maui wildfires a disaster area, and the Department of Defense has provided more than 400 troops, air support and other resources in firefighting and recovery efforts. Yet posts on Instagram misrepresent the federal response and one falsely claimed “the military is standing down.”
Full Story
The Maui wildfires that started on Aug. 8 caused widespread devastation in the historic Lahaina area, and the death toll had climbed to 111 by Aug. 17. Authorities have described it as the deadliest natural disaster in the state’s history. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said the damage was estimated at close to $6 billion.
While the cause of the fire is still being investigated, Hawaii had been on a red flag warning for fire risk due to abnormal drought conditions, overgrowth of invasive grass species, and high winds that fanned the flames.
Vehicles depart the Kahului Airport carrying military personnel in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires on Aug. 15, 2023. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon via Getty Images.
The Biden administration declared the fire a major disaster on Aug. 10 — freeing up federal funds to assist the local government and the victims — and mobilized federal agencies for rescue and recovery efforts. President Joe Biden approved Hawaii’s request for a federal disaster declaration within six hours, the governor said.
A statement released by the White House on Aug. 15 detailed the coordinated response, highlighting the use of U.S. Coast Guard, Navy and Army support, as well as assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But online posts misleadingly suggested that the military was not being used to aid Maui. An Instagram post on Aug. 13, which received 12,000 likes, asked, in part, “Where is the surge of support for Americans? Where are the military helos and planes?”
The caption of a video posted on Instagram on Aug. 13 says, “I’m dumbfounded as to why the military is standing down?”
Contrary to the posts’ claims, the military has played an active role in the wildfire response.
The Department of Defense reported on Aug. 10 that the National Guard had activated “99 Army National Guard personnel and 35 Air National Guard personnel” to help in the wildfire response. Two National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopters were “assigned to support wildfire response and search and recovery efforts” and “completed 58 aerial water drops of more than 100,000 gallons of water in a matter of five hours.”
The Army’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade also “deployed two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and [a] CH-47 Chinook to assist in firefighting operations,” according to the Department of Defense. In addition, a “Navy maritime strike squadron has deployed two MH-60R Seahawk helicopters to the region to assist with the U.S. Coast Guard’s search and recovery efforts.”
Military.com reported that by Aug. 15, more than 400 service members were involved in support efforts on Maui.
Chuck Little, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, also told Military.com that MV-22 Ospreys, KC-130J Super Hercules aircraft and MQ-9 Reaper drones were available to assist in ongoing recovery efforts.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
Salahieh, Nouran and Raja Razek. “Maui’s death toll reaches 111 as searchers — many coping with their own losses — comb the wildfire zone.” CNN. 17 Aug 2023.
Hutchinson, Bill. “Maui wildfire now ranks as the fifth-deadliest in US history.” ABC News. 15 Aug 2023.
White House. Press release. “President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Hawaii Disaster Declaration.” 10 Aug 2023.’
Green, Josh. (@govjoshgreenmd). “08/14/23 11:20am – Current Situation.” X. 14 Aug 2023.
NBC News. “Lahaina blaze now the deadliest in modern U.S. history: Recap.” Updated 14 Aug 2023.
NBC News. “Deaths in Maui rise to at least 99 as search goes on in Lahaina.” 15 Aug 2023.
CBS News. “How dangerous climate conditions fueled Maui’s devastating wildfires.” 14 Aug 2023.
White House. “FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration’s Response to the Maui Wildfires.” Whitehouse.gov. 15 Aug 2023.
CNN. “What we know about the federal government’s response to the Hawaii fires so far.” 11 Aug 2023.
Clark, Joseph. “DOD Mobilizes Support in Response to Hawaii Wildfire.” U.S. Department of Defense. 10 Aug 2023.
Toropin, Konstantin. “Military Now Has More Than 400 Troops Aiding Maui After Deadly Wildfires Devastated Island.” Military.com. 15 Aug 2023.
Categories Debunking Viral Claims FactCheck Posts
Location Hawaii Maui
Issue Climate Change Wildfires
| 349
|
FEMA on-site in Maui, setting up recovery centers for survivors
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-17-1232/environment-fema-site-maui-setting-recovery-centers-survivors
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/west/hawaii-wildfires/fema-maui-recovery-centers-survivors/
|
-
| 350
|
Young people took on fossil fuels and won. What’s next?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-17-0812/sustainability-young-people-took-fossil-fuels-and-won-what-s-next
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2023/0815/Young-people-took-on-fossil-fuels-and-won.-What-s-next
|
RESPONSIBILITY
USA
Young people took on fossil fuels and won. What’s next?
|
Thom Bridge/Independent Record/AP
View caption
QUICK READ DEEP READ ( 4 MIN. )
By Stephanie Hanes Staff writer
@stephaniehanes
August 15, 2023
Montana lawmakers violated young people’s rights – and the state constitution – by ignoring fossil fuels’ impact on the climate, a judge ruled Monday.
In her decision supporting 16 young plaintiffs in Held v. Montana – the first constitutional climate case to be tried in the United States – District Judge Kathy Seeley wrote that fossil fuel extraction and use within the state was clearly tied to global climate change. She also found that young people have a particular standing to demand changes, since they will be disproportionately and negatively impacted by a rapidly heating planet. The decision has broad implications for environmental action across the country and, potentially, the world.
You've read 3 of 3 free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Help fund Monitor journalism for $11/ month
Already a subscriber? Login
Mark Sappenfield
Editor
Monitor journalism changes lives because we open that too-small box that most people think they live in. We believe news can and should expand a sense of identity and possibility beyond narrow conventional expectations.
Our work isn't possible without your support.
Subscribe
| 351
|
'You're kind of raised to hate tourists': Maui fires fan tensions on Hawaiian island
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-16-1543/environment-youre-kind-raised-hate-tourists-maui-fires-fan-tensions-hawaiian
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66507019
|
'You're kind of raised to hate tourists': Maui fires fan tensions on Hawaiian island
Published
15 August
Share
Related Topics
Hawaii wildfires 2023
IMAGE SOURCE,
HOLLY HONDERICH/BBC
Image caption,
Many of Maui's tourists heeded calls to leave the island. Others remained
By Holly Honderich & Max Matza in Maui
BBC News
After wildfires devastated parts of the Hawaiian island of Maui, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the US, officials warned visitors to stay away. But thousands remained and others continued to fly in, angering residents in the wake of the tragedy.
At Maui's Wailea Beach on Monday the skies were bright and clear. Luxury hotels lined the beachfront, their guests spread on the sand. Some waded in the ocean, while others sat under umbrellas with white monogrammed towels on their chairs.
Inside one of the hotels, beyond a pool, a two-tiered fountain and a glass-walled habitat for the resident parrot, was a wooden-framed screen advertising a relief fund for the resort's employees - the first sign of the destruction in Lahaina, just 30 miles (48km) up the coast.
In the wake of the wildfires, the deadliest in modern US history, frustration at tourists who have chosen to carry on with their holidays has grown. Many in Maui say the devastation has highlighted what is known as the "two Hawaiis" - one built for the comfort of visitors and another, harsher Hawaii left to Hawaiians.
"It's all butterflies and rainbows when it comes to the tourism industry," said a 21-year-old Maui native and an employee at the hotel who asked to remain anonymous. "But what's really under it is kind of scary."
Last Wednesday, a day after the wildfires, the county asked visitors to leave Lahaina and the island as a whole as soon as possible.
Officials soon urged people to avoid the island entirely, except for essential travel. "In the days and weeks ahead, our collective resources and attention must be focused on the recovery of residents and communities that were forced to evacuate," the Hawaii Tourism Authority said.
Many travellers heeded the advice. In the immediate aftermath of the fires, some 46,000 people left the island. The grass field separating the airport from the surrounding highway is now lined with rows upon rows of suddenly surplus rental cars.
Identifying Hawaii wildfire victims could take years
'It's devastating' - Inside Lahaina after wildfires
Hawaii wildfires: Your questions answered
But thousands did not. Some ignored requests to leave Maui immediately, while others flew in after the fire - decisions that have angered some.
"If this was happening to your hometown, would you want us to come?" said resident Chuck Enomoto. "We need to take care of our own first."
IMAGE SOURCE,
HOLLY HONDERICH/BBC
Image caption,
Maui's Wailea is the domain of the island's wealthy visitors
Another Maui local told the BBC that tourists were swimming in the "same waters that our people died in three days ago" - an apparent reference to a snorkelling excursion on Friday just 11 miles from Lahaina.
The snorkelling company later apologised for running the tour, saying it had first "offered our vessel throughout the week to deliver supplies and rescue people but its design wasn't appropriate for the task".
But the opposition to tourists is not without complications given the island is economically reliant on those travellers. The Maui Economic Development Board has estimated that the island's "visitor industry" accounts for roughly four out of every five dollars generated here, calling those visitors the "economic engine" of the county.
"You're kind of raised to hate tourists," said the young hotel worker. "But that's really the only way to work on the islands. If it's not hospitality then it's construction."
IMAGE SOURCE,
HOLLY HONDERICH/BBC
Image caption,
Surplus rental cars sit outside Maui's airport after thousands of visitors left the island
Several business owners expressed concern that the growing anti-tourist sentiment could hurt Maui further.
"What I'm afraid of is that if people keep seeing 'Maui's closed', and 'don't come to Maui', what little business is left is going to be gone," said Daniel Kalahiki, who owns a food truck in Wailuku. Sales have already dropped by 50% since the fire, he said. "And then the island is going to lose everything."
Still, in the days after the fire, the disparity between Maui residents - reeling from catastrophic loss - and the insulated tourist hotspots has been laid bare.
In one Hawaii, locals face an acute housing crisis. Many live in modest one-storey homes in neighbourhoods like Kahului and Kīhei, some in multi-family dwellings, with each family separated by a curtain or a thin plywood wall.
And working a number of jobs is common, locals told the BBC, to keep up with rising costs. Jen Alcantara shrugged off surprise that she worked for a Canadian airline in addition to a senior administrative position at Maui's hospital. "That's Hawaii," she said.
In this Hawaii, the effects of the fires are everywhere. At shops and grocery stores, evacuees look for essentials, trying to replace their lost possessions with whatever money they have. At restaurants, workers can be seen in kitchens and behind bars holding back tears and making phone calls to co-ordinate relief efforts.
Here, collections were being taken for the survivors nearly everywhere you look. An upscale coffee shop in Kahului was offering to refrigerate donated breast milk. Food truck owners were volunteering their services to the front line and farmers were carrying bunches of bananas to shelters.
Image caption,
Daniel Kalahiki says tourists are 'essential' to prevent the Lahaina disaster from spreading
Things are different in the other Hawaii.
As you reach the end of the 30-minute drive from the island's urban centre to Wailea, home to Maui's high-end holiday rentals and resorts, the earth suddenly changes, dry brown grasses become a rich, watered green.
"It's a blunt line," one local said, another hotel employee who did not want to be named.
Inside Wailea, gated communities border golf courses, that are connected to luxury hotels. Inside those hotels, obliging staff provide surf lessons and pool-side meals, including a $29 burger.
Staff told the BBC that many of the guests were sympathetic to the crisis on the west of the island. Others had complained about scheduled activities in Lahaina - horse-riding, ziplining - being cancelled, said Brittany Pounder, 34, an employee at the Four Seasons.
The day after the fires, one guest visiting from California, asked if he could still get to his dinner reservation at the Lahaina Grill - a restaurant in one of the hardest-hit areas of the town. "It's not OK," Ms Pounder said.
There is mounting concern that the eventual rebuild of Lahaina will further cater to this second Hawaii.
Already, wealthy visitors have contributed to exorbitant house prices, buying land and property in a place where homeownership is out of reach for many permanent residents. Famous billionaires Peter Thiel and Jeff Bezos both have homes in Maui. Oprah Winfrey is the island's largest landowner.
Rumours have spread of estate agents approaching Hawaiian property owners in Lahaina, asking about possible deals.
Several locals told the BBC they worried Lahaina would be refashioned into another Waikiki, the ritzy waterfront of Honolulu, dominated by oceanfront high-rises and branded luxury shopping.
"We don't need another Waikiki," said Chuck Enomoto. "But it's inevitable."
IMAGE SOURCE,
HOLLY HONDERICH/BBC
How have you been affected by the fires in Maui? Please share your story by emailing [email protected].
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803
Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay
Upload pictures or video
Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy
0/500
Your contact info
I accept the Terms of Service
Submit
In some cases a selection of your comments and questions will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.
At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws.
The BBC retains the right to select from these contributions based on editorial requirements and subject to online terms and conditions and BBC editorial guidelines. For more information about how the BBC handles your personal data, see here.
Made with Hearken | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at [email protected]. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.
Related Topics
Hawaii wildfires 2023
Wildfires
Hawaii
United States
More on this story
Hawaii crews may find 10 to 20 dead a day - governor
Published
15 August
When the fires hit, Maui's warning sirens were deathly silent
Published
14 August
'We're self-reliant people - but where's the help?'
Published
14 August
Jason Momoa warns tourists not to visit fire-hit Maui
Published
13 August
| 352
|
Biden and first lady Jill Biden to visit Hawaii to survey wildfire devastation
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-16-0645/environment-biden-and-first-lady-jill-biden-visit-hawaii-survey-wildfire
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/16/biden-to-visit-hawaii-to-survey-wildfire-devastation.html
|
-
| 353
|
Hawaii wildfires: 'Directed energy weapon' and other false claims go viral
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-14-1517/fake-news-hawaii-wildfires-directed-energy-weapon-and-other-false-claims-go
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-66457091
|
Hawaii wildfires: 'Directed energy weapon' and other false claims go viral
Published
16 August
Share
Related Topics
Hawaii wildfires 2023
IMAGE SOURCE,
EPA
Image caption,
The fires have been the subject of false posts that have spread rapidly online
By Shayan Sardarizadeh and Mike Wendling
BBC Verify and BBC News
False claims about the deadly wildfires in Hawaii - including that shadowy forces orchestrated the disaster with a laser beam - have gained traction online.
The misleading posts come from a variety of sources and accounts, but generally imply that "elites" or government agencies deliberately started the fires.
Some of the most popular theories are couched in questions about a "narrative" and make claims that alternative views are being "censored", despite collecting millions of views.
While there are specific rumours circulating about Maui, they fit into a general pattern repeatedly seen after extreme weather events and natural disasters - politically motivated activists seeking to downplay the potential impact of climate change.
'Energy weapon'
Videos and images claiming that the wildfires were not a natural disaster - and were instead caused by a "directed energy weapon", a "laser beam" or explosion - have been viewed millions of times.
One video viewed 10 million times claims to show a large explosion in Maui just before the fires.
IMAGE SOURCE,
X (TWITTER)
But the video was originally a viral clip shared on TikTok in May showing a transformer explosion in Chile.
Chilean TV network Chilevisión ran a report on the viral video, confirming the explosion was the result of a blown transformer caused by strong wind.
An image of a church on fire in Hawaii has been viewed 9 million times, with claims it shows a laser beam striking it.
But it has been digitally altered. The original image - of the Waiola Church in Lahaina in flames on 8 August - has no laser beam or ray of light visible.
Two other false images have been racking up huge numbers of views.
One shows a fireball and a bright streak of light rising up towards the night sky. It, too, has been accompanied by claims that wildfires are not a natural phenomenon.
IMAGE SOURCE,
X (TWITTER)
But a search on the internet for previous versions of this image reveals the photo shows a controlled burn at an Ohio oil refinery and was first posted online in January 2018. The streak of light, known as a "light pillar", is an optical illusion formed by reflections off ice crystals on a cold day.
A similar image claims to show a huge beam of light in Maui just before the wildfires. But it shows the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in California in May 2018.
Why are trees standing?
There are claims circulating about videos from Maui showing some trees still standing while houses and vehicles have been burned, with people pointing to the pictures as "evidence" that the fires were deliberately set or that their real cause is being hidden from the public.
One post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, includes a video of the destruction and the message: "Everything is burnt but the trees, but don't point that out or you're a conspiracy theorist."
That post - which has been seen more than 24 million times - has been challenged by X's Community Notes feature, where users add context and facts around viral content.
IMAGE SOURCE,
X (TWITTER)
Dr Rory Hadden, senior lecturer and expert in fire investigations at the University of Edinburgh, told BBC Verify that it is common for trees to remain standing even after severe wildfires because "burning through a large piece of wood takes a long time", "thick pieces of wood are usually not able to sustain burning on their own" and "the high moisture content of trees will also make them hard to burn".
Some plants, known as pyrophytes, have also adapted to survive wildfires due to thermal insulation or other means.
'Elite land grab'
Alongside the "directed energy weapon" rumours, speculation spread in viral posts that some of the island's rich inhabitants and second-home owners deliberately started the wildfires to grab valuable land in Lahaina.
One viral video includes claims by a podcaster that native landowners in Maui have refused to sell land to investment management companies and rich locals. He notes the false "directed energy weapon" rumours before going on to speculate that there might be something to them because news outlets have called the rumours "conspiracy theories".
Another viral thread was seen 10 million times on an X account that frequently spreads false information debunked by Community Notes. It includes a list of wealthy people who purportedly own property on Maui, a video including aerial footage of Lahaina, and claims that the pattern of destruction is suspicious.
The cause or causes of the fires on Maui are still unknown, but no real evidence has emerged to suggest they were deliberately started as part of a land grab.
X had not responded to a request for comment as of Monday (14 August).
What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?
Related Topics
Social media
Hawaii wildfires 2023
Disinformation
Fake News
BBC Monitoring
Conspiracy theories
BBC Verify
United States
More on this story
How to talk to a climate change denier
Published
24 July 2022
Hawaii crews may find 10 to 20 dead a day - governor
Published
15 August
'We're self-reliant people - but where's the help?'
Published
14 August
Emotional advice for Hawaii from mayor of Paradise
Published
14 August
The climate change-denying TikTok post that won't go away
Published
30 June
Facebook drives sceptics towards climate denial
Published
30 March 2022
| 354
|
Maui Wildfire Blamed on 'Colonial Greed'
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-09-1522/environment-maui-wildfire-blamed-colonial-greed
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.newsweek.com/maui-wildfire-blamed-colonial-greed-1818690
|
-
| 355
|
Earth Overshoot Day: How fast are we depleting resources?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-02-1150/sustainability-earth-overshoot-day-how-fast-are-we-depleting-resources
|
Environment
|
centers
|
https://www.newsnationnow.com/climate/earth-overshoot-day-how-fast-are-we-depleting-resources/
|
-
| 356
|
Biden's fictional tales fact-checked by WaPo, NY Times but outlets stop short of declaring them 'lies'
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-05-0803/media-bias-bidens-fictional-tales-fact-checked-wapo-ny-times-outlets-stop-short
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.foxnews.com/media/bidens-fictional-tales-fact-checked-wapo-ny-times-outlets-stop-short-declaring-them-lies
|
MEDIA
Biden's fictional tales fact-checked by WaPo, NY Times but outlets stop short of declaring them 'lies'
Biden was recently dinged for 'embellishing' a 2004 kitchen fire in his home while speaking to Maui wildfire survivors
By Joseph A. Wulfsohn Fox News
Published September 5, 2023 6:00am EDT
Facebook
Twitter
Flipboard
Print
Email
Video
Joe Concha on the media refraining to call Biden's falsehoods 'lies'
Fox News contributor Joe Concha spoke with Fox News Digital about the media's hesitancy to call President Biden's false claims "lies."
President Biden has raised eyebrows in recent weeks for telling an embellished story to the survivors of the Maui wildfires and while addressing Hurricane Idalia in an attempt to relate to people's struggles. But news outlets have found creative ways to refer to the president's questionable stories and even outright fabrications.
This story, as he's told it, entails what he suggests was a near-catastrophic fire that occurred at his home in 2004 due to a lightning strike, repeatedly claiming he "almost lost" his wife, cat and ’67 Corvette in the event.
Reports at the time, however, reveal that the fire was contained to only the kitchen.
This caught the attention of Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler, who wrote a story Thursday with the headline, "Biden loves to retell certain stories. Some aren’t credible."
WASHINGTON POST FACT-CHECKER BUSTS SEVERAL OF BIDEN'S GO-TO PERSONAL STORIES: ‘TRADITION OF EMBELLESHING’
President Biden was called out by Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler for repeating his embellished tale about a fire that occurred in his Delaware home. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
"Biden’s propensity to exaggerate or embellish tales about his life led to doubts about his truthfulness. Contemporary news reports on the house fire do not match his telling of it, fanning criticism that he had lied to a vulnerable audience," Kessler wrote. "Sometimes the stories turn out to be largely true… But others fall short. As president, Biden has continued a tradition of embellishing his personal tales in ways that cannot be verified or are directly refuted by contemporary accounts."
Kessler's report compiled several of Biden's tall tales like one about his pal Amtrak conductor who he claimed congratulated him on having traveled more than 2 million miles on the railroad, exceeding the 1.2 million miles traveled on Air Force planes as vice president as of 2016. Yet the conductor had retired in 1993 and died two years before Biden reached that milestone in the air.
Other tales that were addressed include Biden's curious claim that he and his father saw two men in suits kissing each other in public when he was a teenager, that he was arrested for trying to see Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and how as VP he arranged for his uncle to be presented a Purple Heart he was owed and never received, except the uncle died in 1999, long before Biden was vice president.
WASHINGTON POST SLAPS BIDEN WITH 'FOUR PINOCCHIOS' FOR FALSELY CLAIMING HUNTER NEVER MADE MONEY FROM CHINA
But while Kessler acknowledged the criticism towards Biden that he "lied" about these tales, Kessler himself didn't make that leap nor did he offer any of the Post's "Pinocchios," a move managing editor Curtis Houck of the conservative media watchdog NewsBusters called "predictable."
"It's been either a hands-off approach or a cowardly, mealymouthed explaining away of what Biden actually meant or that his lies and tall tales were innocent mistakes," Houck told Fox News Digital.
The New York Times ran a similar report last October under the headline "Biden, Storyteller in Chief, Spins Yarns That Often Unravel," telling readers how the president "has been unable to break himself of the habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity."
The New York Times previously fact-checked President Biden's tall tales but stopped short of calling them "lies." (Fox News Digital)
Like the Post, the Times used the fire story, which he told to survivors of Hurricane Ian, as a launching pad to delve into his "exaggerated biography" and times that he "shaved off" the "factual edges."
"The exaggerated biography that Mr. Biden tells includes having been a fierce civil rights activist who was repeatedly arrested. He has claimed to have been an award-winning student who earned three degrees. And last week, speaking on the hurricane-devastated island of Puerto Rico, he said he had been ‘raised in the Puerto Rican community at home, politically,’" the Times wrote. "For more than four decades, Mr. Biden has embraced storytelling as a way of connecting with his audience, often emphasizing the truth of his account by adding, 'Not a joke!' in the middle of a story. But Mr. Biden’s folksiness can veer into folklore, with dates that don’t quite add up and details that are exaggerated or wrong, the factual edges shaved off to make them more powerful for audiences."
The Times offered some transparency in the double standard it gives between Biden and former President Trump when it comes to their fact-checking. In its report, the Times said Trump "lied constantly" while "Biden's fictions are nowhere near that scale" but that his loose facts "provide political ammunition for Republicans eager to tar him as too feeble to run for re-election."
BIDEN BLASTED FOR COMPARING KITCHEN FIRE IN HIS HOME TO DEVASTATING MAUI BLAZE: ‘ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING’
Dean Baquet, the paper's now-retired executive editor, once called for the term "lie" to be used "judiciously" since it had such a "very powerful" meaning, cautioning that using the word too often "could feed the mistaken notion that we’re taking political sides. That’s not our role."
Except the Times hasn't hesitated to call Trump's false claims "lies" in headlines, particularly regarding the 2020 election. The Post also has used the "L" word in several headlines about the former president.
Kessler himself spearheaded a tracker dedicated to monitoring all of Trump's false or misleading claims while in office, a practice that was never done for the current president.
Both The Washington Post and The New York Times didn't hesitate to use the word "lie" to describe former President Trump's false claims. (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)
Fox News contributor Joe Concha told Fox News Digital that since the media "set the precedent" of declaring lies during the Trump years, the same should be applied to the current president.
"What is a lie? It's when you intentionally mislead people. And in Joe Biden's case, the excuse always is, 'Oh, well, you know, he's 80 years old, and he doesn't have his fastball like he used to. So he's just confused,'" Concha said. "He tells these stories over and over again… It's either to get votes or to spin a narrative that obviously is not true. But again, when you know that it isn't true, then yes, you use the ‘L’ word."
Concha, who authored the book "Come On, Man!: The Truth About Joe Biden's Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Presidency," called out other media fact-checkers including PolitiFact, Snopes and CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale, who he accused of being on a "siesta spring break for the past two-and-a-half years." He also stressed White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, should also face the same scrutiny.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The Federalist's Mark Hemingway similarly questioned why the media hasn't applied the standard to a "world-class liar" like Biden, drawing attention to his repeated denials that he never spoke to his son Hunter about his foreign business dealings.
"Time and again, the default assumption for Trump is corrupt motives, where Biden gets the benefit of the doubt to an absurd degree. The idea that it was necessary to call Trump a liar in no way precludes doing the same to Biden who is a world-class liar in his own right. However, if the press were to take the most obvious reading of Biden’s motives, they would have to conclude that the man is a corrupt and brazen liar," Hemingway wrote Thursday.
He later continued, "Ultimately, it’s hard to tell whether voters have decided Biden’s lies don’t matter when so many people are working to obscure them. But heading into 2024, it does provide a simple litmus test for who to take seriously. Shouting ‘What about Trump?’ is not an acceptable way to avoid acknowledging the obvious extent of Biden’s corruption and his rank dishonesty about it. And anyone who is unwilling to plainly state that Biden’s a particularly troubling liar is someone who is putting politics over facts, and they cannot be trusted."
In response to Fox News Digital's inquiry, a spokesperson for The Washington Post pointed to a 2018 fact-check Kessler authored explaining how the paper determines to use the term "lie." The report thoroughly debunked Trump's past claims that he had no knowledge of the 2016 hush money payment that was made to Stormy Daniels, the porn star who alleged she had an affair with him, a claim he denied. Kessler concluded that Trump "lied" about the hush money payment based on new revelations at the time. However, it is unclear based on that report whether the Post has a specific standard to determine what false claims from a president amounts to a "lie."
The New York Times did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.
"President Biden has brought honesty and integrity back to the Oval Office," deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates told the Post last week. "Like he promised, he gives the American people the truth right from the shoulder and takes pride in being straight with the country about his agenda and his values; including by sharing life experiences that have shaped his outlook and that hard-working people relate to. And as Americans know, there are countless moments from every person’s own history that are not covered in local newspapers."
For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.
| 357
|
Biden trashed for embellishing house fire while trying to relate to natural disaster victims: ‘Lying again'
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-31-0651/facts-and-fact-checking-biden-trashed-embellishing-house-fire-while-trying
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.foxnews.com/media/biden-trashed-for-embellishing-house-fire-while-trying-to-relate-to-natural-disaster-victims-lying-again
|
MEDIA
Biden trashed for embellishing house fire while trying to relate to natural disaster victims: ‘Lying again'
'Joe Biden is lying about his kitchen fire… again,' one user wrote on X
By Gabriel Hays Fox News
Published August 31, 2023 4:00am EDT
Facebook
Twitter
Flipboard
Print
Email
Video
President Biden brings up Delaware house fire while discussing Maui displacement
President Biden brings up Delaware house fire, saying he and Dr. Jill Biden had to be out of their house for about seven months because so much damage was done.
Social media critics tore into President Biden on Wednesday after the president compared a small fire in his home to the destruction wrought by the natural disaster in Hawaii and Hurricane Idalia going on in Florida.
Users slammed the president for seemingly making the tragedy about himself and embellishing how destructive the actual fire was to his house.
Several users fact-checked Biden’s claims, pointing out that the fire first respondents put out at his residence did not extend out of the kitchen, a far cry from the damage many people in Hawaii have suffered due to historic wildfires that have killed over 100 people in the state.
BIDEN BLASTED FOR COMPARING KITCHEN FIRE IN HIS HOME TO DEVASTATING MAUI BLAZE: ‘ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING’
President Biden brings up the time his house caught on fire in order to relate to victims of recent natural disasters. (Screenshot/CNBC)
Biden made his comparison during a speech on ongoing recovery efforts in Maui, which also included some comments on the state of Florida as it faces Hurricane Idalia.
Attempting to relate to the two disasters, Biden brought up dealing with lightning striking his home and causing a small fire. As he told it from the podium, Biden and his family were forced to stay out of the home for more than half a year for repairs.
After talking about devastation in Hawaii and multitudes of people being without homes, the president said, "I didn’t [have] anything like that, but lightning struck my house. We had to be out of that house for about seven months while it was repaired, because so much damage was done to the house."
"Half the house almost collapsed," he added.
Conservatives on social media blasted Biden’s words, with some providing the proper context surrounding what really happened at his home.
GOP Rapid Response Director Jake Schneider seemed exasperated with Biden’s anecdote, posting to X, "You gotta be kidding me."
GOP comms person Matt Whitlock posted, "Oh my gosh he did it again. Days of terrible coverage for comparing almost losing his car to a wildfire that killed over a hundred people with hundreds still missing .... and he just did it again."
Whitlock stated Biden did it "again," because only days ago, while visiting Hawaii’s disaster area, he claimed a fire at his home almost resulted in the death of his wife, his cat, and Jill Biden.
OVERWHELMING MAJORITY OF AMERICANS SAY BIDEN IS TOO OLD TO BE EFFECTIVE IN A SECOND TERM, POLL FINDS
President Biden, center right, first lady Jill Biden, right, Hawaii Governor Josh Green and Hawaiian first lady Jaime Green visit an area devastated by wildfires in Lahaina, Hawaii, on Aug. 21, 2023. The Bidens are expected to meet with first responders, survivors, and local officials following deadly wildfires in Maui. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
At the time. he said, "I don’t want to compare difficulties, but we have a little sense, Jill and I, what it’s like to lose a home. Years ago — now 15 years ago — I was in Washington doing ‘Meet the Press.’ It was a sunny Sunday, and lightning struck at home on a little lake that’s outside of our home — not a lake, a big pond — and hit a wire and came up underneath our home into the heating ducts — the air conditioning ducts."
He added, "To make a long story short, I almost lost my wife, my ‘67 Corvette, and my cat. But all kidding aside, I watched the firefighters, the way they responded."
Fact-checking site "Check Your Fact" reporter Elias Atienza shared a report that corrected Biden’s anecdote in Hawaii but also applied to his latest rendition.
In his post, Atienza wrote, "The fire department said last year the fire was insignificant. The article he shared with it stated, "This story, while containing an element of truth, embellishes what actually occurred. The fire, which was caused by lightning, was contained to the kitchen and was under control within 20 minutes, according to a 2004 Associated Press report."
Additionally, Sen. Ted Cruz's former comms person Steve Guest posted, "Joe Biden is lying about his kitchen fire… again."
He shared a screenshot of an article from an undisclosed outlet that stated, "Lightning struck the home of Sen. Joseph Biden, starting a small fire that was contained to the kitchen. Firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the house, but were able to keep the flames from spreading beyond the kitchen."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media.
Video
Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
| 358
|
Watchdog Says Elizabeth Warren Being Fooled By ‘Bogus’ Pledge From Biden Nominee On Big Pharma Payments
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-31-0648/facts-and-fact-checking-watchdog-says-elizabeth-warren-being-fooled-bogus
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.dailywire.com/news/watchdog-says-elizabeth-warren-being-fooled-by-bogus-pledge-from-biden-nominee-on-big-pharma-payments
|
— NEWS —
Watchdog Says Elizabeth Warren Being Fooled By ‘Bogus’ Pledge From Biden Nominee On Big Pharma Payments
By Leif Le Mahieu
•
Aug 30, 2023 DailyWire.com
•
Facebook
Twitter
Mail
Photo by Sarah Silbiger for The Washington Post via Getty Images.
A watchdog group has raised a red flag over a promise — from President Joe Biden’s choice to head up the National Institute of Health — to not take any money or work for a Big Pharma company for four years after leaving her position.
Monica Bertagnolli, Biden’s pick to head up the NIH, made the promise in a letter sent earlier this month to Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. The promise, though, is “bogus” because it would still allow her research to be funded by pharmaceutical companies, according to the American Accountability Foundation.
“Monica Bertagnolli is one of the worst nominees Biden has chosen. Her history of incompetence as a doctor and her tight relationship with Big Pharma make her unqualified for this position. Her attempts now to fool Congress with this bogus ‘ethics pledge’ just reinforces this. Sen. Warren needs to reject this ploy and make Dr. Bertagnolli answer for her past,” said AAF President Tom Jones in a statement to The Daily Wire.
Bertagnolli has faced opposition after her appointment three months ago, including from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who has been using her nomination to pressure the White House over drug prices.
“In response to our conversation, I am willing to voluntarily extend the recusal period from two years to four years for all particular matters involving companies with which I have a previous working relationship,” Bertagnolli wrote. “If confirmed as NIH Director, I will also further commit for four years following my tenure to not seek employment with or compensation from, including as a result of board service, any pharmaceutical company with annual revenues at or above $10 billion.”
Research associated with Bertagnolli, has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars, including tens of millions from COVID vaccine manufacturer Pfizer, according to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s Open Payments site.
According to Open Payments, Pfizer gave over $30 million to research associated with Bertagnolli in 2022 and biotech company Seagen Inc. gave over $22 million that same year. Associated research is defined as funding “for a research project of study where the physician is named as a principal investigator.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
A fact-check from the Associated Press on a social media posting about Bertagnolli’s ties to Pfizer said that the funding was not directly to her, but that much of the funding went toward a clinical trial for cancer treatment.
“That may be accurate, but it misses the point. Monica Bertagnolli is profiting handsomely off of the pharmaceutical industry’s support for her research. Funds have flowed through to her salary at Brigham and Women’s Hospital / Dana Farber Cancer Institute where she is a researcher,” a memo from the AAF said.
The AAF has also pointed to Bertagnolli’s previous ties to Natera, where she earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in stock and was on the board, before she joined the National Cancer Institute. Natera has been scrutinized in the media, including the New York Times, who reported that Natera’s genetic testing products can often lead to false positives or negatives.
Read more in:
Big Pharma,Elizabeth Warren,Joe Biden,NIH
Facebook
Twitter
Mail
Around The Web
Anyone With Arthritis Should Watch This (They Hide This From You)
The Daily Survivor
Learn to Operate Space
XCraft
Anyone with Diabetes Should Watch This (What They Don't Tell You)
Control Sugar Levels
Ringing In The Ears? Do This Immediately (Watch)
The Daily Survivor
Drink This Before Bed, Watch Your Body Fat Melt Like Crazy! (Video)
Healthier Living Tips
The 50 Most Romantic Hotels in the World for 2023
Best Hotel
Doctor Discovers Natural Remedy for Constant Ear Ringing (Watch)
Healthier Living Tips
Up Next
Recommended for you
Create a free account to join the conversation!
Start Commenting
Hotwire
Our Most Important Stories Right Now
| 359
|
Media Rush to Dems’ Defense after GOP Debate Shines a Spotlight on Abortion Extremism
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-30-0615/facts-and-fact-checking-media-rush-dems-defense-after-gop-debate-shines
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/media-rush-to-dems-defense-after-gop-debate-shines-a-spotlight-on-abortion-extremism/
|
Welcome back to Forgotten Fact Checks, a weekly column produced by National Review's News Desk. This week, we recap the media reaction to the first Republican debate, refute a Washington Post column about Republicans and health misinformation, and cover more media misses.
Media Reacts Predictably to First GOP Presidential Debate
Two of the media’s favorite things to lie about — Florida governor Ron DeSantis and abortion — converged the night of the first Republican primary debate, leading to a slew of purported media “fact checks” and snark.
"I believe in a culture of life,” DeSantis said on the debate stage in Milwaukee. “I
...
| 360
|
CNN's Fact Check Of Hunter Biden's Business Dealings With Russian Oligarch Proven Wrong
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-25-0846/joe-biden-cnns-fact-check-hunter-bidens-business-dealings-russian-oligarch
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/24/cnn-fact-check-hunter-bidens-moscow-mayor-wife-false/
| 361
|
|
Fact Check: Jen Psaki Claims ‘No One Supports Abortion Up Until Birth’
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-25-0758/facts-and-fact-checking-fact-check-jen-psaki-claims-no-one-supports-abortion
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/08/23/fact-check-jen-psaki-claims-no-one-supports-abortion-until-birth/
|
Fact Check: Jen Psaki Claims ‘No One Supports Abortion Up Until Birth’
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
KATHERINE HAMILTON23 Aug 2023443
1:35
CLAIM: Former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki claimed in an X post (formerly Twitter) during the Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday that “no one supports abortion up until birth.”
VERDICT: FALSE. Several Democrat-run states have no limits on abortion, and Democrats have supported legislation that would allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
Jen Psaki claimed that “no one supports abortion up until birth,” despite the fact that Democrat lawmakers collectively refuse to support any kind of limit on abortion. Many Republican presidential candidates have pointed to Democrats’ abortion-on-demand agenda as evidence of the left’s growing extremism.
No one supports abortion up until birth.
— Jen Psaki (@jrpsaki) August 24, 2023
Much to the contrary, several states — run by Democrats — have no restrictions on abortion whatsoever, including Colorado, Oregon, and Washington, DC, where Psaki worked for President Joe Biden.
Many other Democrat-run states, like California, New York, and Illinois, allow abortions up to “viability” but allow abortions later in pregnancy with limited exceptions, including if a woman’s “mental health” is in danger.
On the federal level, Democrats have also supported a radical piece of proposed abortion legislation called the “Women’s Health Protection Act.”
Here is Jen Psaki pushing for support for the "Women's Health Protection Act," which would have legalized abortion in America up until the moment of birth. https://t.co/018Ezc3dFb pic.twitter.com/IRKKs4fCzb
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 24, 2023
The legislation would usurp states’ ability to pass strong pro-life laws and would allow abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
HealthPoliticsAbortionJen Psakilate-term abortionunborn babies
| 362
|
Kamala Harris claims climate change caused deadly Maui wildfires
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-21-0822/facts-and-fact-checking-kamala-harris-claims-climate-change-caused-deadly-maui
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://thepostmillennial.com/kamala-harris-claims-climate-change-caused-deadly-maui-wildfires
|
-
| 363
|
Biden has a long history of twisting the truth
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-18-0354/joe-biden-biden-has-long-history-twisting-truth
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2023/aug/17/biden-has-long-history-of-twisting-truth/
|
-
| 364
|
‘The Castle of Lies Is Crumbling’: WaPo Quietly Issues Yet Another ‘Update’ to Biden-Burisma Fact-Check
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-17-0552/facts-and-fact-checking-castle-lies-crumbling-wapo-quietly-issues-yet-another
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2023/08/11/wapo-fact-check-n2626898
|
TIPSHEET
‘The Castle of Lies Is Crumbling’: WaPo Quietly Issues Yet Another ‘Update’ to Biden-Burisma Fact-Check
Leah Barkoukis
August 11, 2023 2:30 PM
Advertisement
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
The New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop exposé was no doubt the October surprise of the 2020 election, but thanks to big tech censorship, the intelligence community, and lapdog media outlets armed with influential fact-checkers, the Hunter Biden laptop saga was suppressed and didn't affect the election's outcome the way some polls suggest it could have.
Tags: FACT CHECK JOE BIDEN THE WASHINGTON POST HUNTER BIDEN
Recommended
Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy Heard WaPo Was Writing a Hit Piece on Him, So He Called Them
Matt Vespa
America Is Becoming a Joke
Kurt Schlichter
Hey Pennsylvania, You Really Suck
Derek Hunter
My Party: The Stupid Party!
Ann Coulter
Biden’s Gaffe of the Day Involves Him Nearly Knocking Down a Flag and Shuffling Off Stage
Sarah Arnold
Updated: Schumer Caves, Grants Tommy Tuberville's Call for Votes to Confirm Certain Military Promotions
Rebecca Downs
Trending on Townhall Videos
Expert Debunks Democrat Lies About 'Book Bans'
Expert Debunks Democrat Lies About 'Book Bans'
Liberal Activist Accidentally Exposes Biden's Censorship Regime
Retired Police Chief Slain in Teen Carjacking Joyride
New Allegations Swirl Against Russell Brand
New Yorkers Give AOC a Piece of Their Mind
Around the Web
Anyone With Arthritis Should Watch This (Big Pharma Companies Hate This!)
The Daily Survivor
Conquer the Galaxy and Participate in Space Battles
XCraft
The 50 Most Romantic Hotels in the World for 2023
Best Hotel
Bloomberg's Super Bowl Ad Features a Misleading Stat About Guns
townhall
Failed Coup of a Failing Establishment
townhall
Five Reasons Your Car Insurance Rate Changes
Did Your Mom Ever Make the Paper? Search Newspapers.com
Four Ways Food Banks Are Feeding Kids Right Now
Walmart Center for Racial Equity Update: Advancing Equity in Criminal Justice
Advertisement
Trending on Townhall Media
1
Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy Heard WaPo Was Writing a Hit Piece on Him, So He Called Them
2
Disney Signals Retreat in the Culture Battles, But Have They Already Lost the War?
3
Tucker on X, Episode 25: Ken Paxton breaks his silence
Advertisement
Most Popular
America Is Becoming a Joke
Hey Pennsylvania, You Really Suck
My Party: The Stupid Party!
Biden’s Gaffe of the Day Involves Him Nearly Knocking Down a Flag and Shuffling Off Stage
Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy Heard WaPo Was Writing a Hit Piece on Him, So He Called Them
Matt Vespa
Advertisement
| 365
|
Fact check throws cold water on global ‘boiling’ claims
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-15-0637/facts-and-fact-checking-fact-check-throws-cold-water-global-boiling-claims
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/washington-secrets/fact-check-throws-cold-water-on-global-boiling-claims
|
WASHINGTON SECRETS
Fact check throws cold water on global ‘boiling’ claims
by Paul Bedard, Washington Secrets Columnist
August 08, 2023 02:53 PM
Latest
Social Security update: Direct payment worth $914 arrives in eight days
By: Misty Severi
Social Security update: Third round of direct payments worth up to $4,555 to arrive in six days
By: Misty Severi
Recent polls reveal potential ominous signs for Biden’s reelection campaign
By: Christopher Tremoglie
Videos
Merrick Garland hearing: Six takeaways on Hunter Biden investigation
Merrick Garland hearing: Texas representative grilled Garland over whether his department was still targeting parents
WATCH: Dusty Johnson on the farm bill: 'Farmers will fight you if you do anything to damage their land'
Fed holds interest rates steady amid recent upswing in inflation
Newsletters
Sign up now to get the Washington Examiner’s breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox.
July was hot — no doubt about it. And media reporting on the heat wave was a raging wildfire of global warming hype.
But was it the worst-ever July scorcher, as the Washington Post, the Associated Press, USA Today, and others reported?
THE FOUR DEMOCRATS WHO COULD ATTEMPT TO UNSEAT BIDEN IN 2024 ELECTION
According to a group of fact-checkers who dug through the reports, the weather didn’t live up to the hype.
In fact, the July “Media Climate Fact Check” turned around a Washington Post claim about July being the hottest in 125,000 years, headlining the report, “Worst Media Coverage In 125,000 Years.”
In picking apart specific media stories about the heat, the report provided to Secrets acknowledged the unusual heat wave. But it also cited two anomalies that skewed the data: the impact of El Nino and a two-day spike in Antarctica’s temperature that helped raise the so-called “global temperature.”
What’s more, it noted that since U.S. satellite data on global temperatures have only been collected since 1979, it is impossible to compare temperatures from 100 years ago — or 125,000.
“That heat wave was only detected and factored into average global temperature because of satellite coverage of the globe. But satellite coverage didn’t begin until 1979. So similar heat waves that may have occurred before 1979 would be unknown and not factored into average global temperature calculations,” read the report.
“So it is not possible to claim that July 2023 was the ‘hottest month in the history of civilization’ because such data does not exist,” read the analysis from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Heartland Institute, the Energy & Environment Legal Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, the International Climate Science Coalition, and Truth in Energy and Climate.
Those organizations have long urged the media to tap the brakes on the climate change hype, but news outlets have stomped the accelerator instead in recent years.
What their report aims to do is counter the most outrageous reports with simple facts. The July report cited 10 media claims.
Among them was a Washington Post article that the world was entering a “global boiling” period. The organizations said in their report: “Putting aside that the notion of ‘average global temperature’ is a dubious proposition, whether you believe the high-end of ‘average global temperature’ for July (i.e., the Climate Reanalyzer’s 62.6°F) or the low-end (i.e., Temperature.global’s 57.5°F), neither temperature is close to boiling (212°F).”
SEE THE LATEST POLITICAL NEWS AND BUZZ FROM WASHINGTON SECRETS
The AP reported that the ocean off Florida’s southern tip was like a “hot tub” and the “hottest seawater ever measured.” The fact-checkers, however, noted that the example wasn’t of the open ocean but a very shallow bay and not even a record high.
And USA Today reported that the extreme heat was a top killer. “Every year since 2000, an average of 20,000 people have died from extreme heat in European cities,” the outlet reported, citing a scientific paper. The fact check mocked that story, noting that cold kills far more than heat.
Washington Secrets Climate Change Media Washington Post Weather
Share your thoughts with friends.
| 366
|
How fact-checkers first reported on Biden's family business
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-03-0814/facts-and-fact-checking-how-fact-checkers-first-reported-bidens-family-business
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/how-fact-checkers-first-reported-on-bidens-family-business
|
OPINION
How fact-checkers first reported on Biden's family business
by Hudson Crozier
August 01, 2023 02:45 PM
Latest
Social Security update: Direct payment worth $914 arrives in eight days
By: Misty Severi
Social Security update: Third round of direct payments worth up to $4,555 to arrive in six days
By: Misty Severi
Recent polls reveal potential ominous signs for Biden’s reelection campaign
By: Christopher Tremoglie
Videos
Merrick Garland hearing: Six takeaways on Hunter Biden investigation
Merrick Garland hearing: Texas representative grilled Garland over whether his department was still targeting parents
WATCH: Dusty Johnson on the farm bill: 'Farmers will fight you if you do anything to damage their land'
Fed holds interest rates steady amid recent upswing in inflation
Newsletters
Sign up now to get the Washington Examiner’s breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox.
Now that Hunter Biden's business partner Devon Archer has reportedly told Congress that the first son put then-Vice President Joe Biden on the phone with businessmen across the globe at least 20 times, it is a good time to revisit what some fact-checkers first said about the Biden family business when the story first became prominent in 2019.
The Washington Post, for example, had a September 2019 “fact check” defending the Biden family from “Trump’s false claims” about foreign ties. Every one of the paper's rebuttals have fallen apart in light of newer information.
DON'T MOVE BACKWARD ON FREE SPEECH
The paper declared it false that Biden, as vice president, “pushed out” a prosecutor for investigating the Ukrainian company his son belonged to. It even said the prosecutor was not investigating the company at all. "Biden was among the many Western officials who pressed for the removal of Shokin because he actually was not investigating the corruption endemic to the country," it said.
In reality, the investigation was dormant, not closed at the time. The prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, reportedly told Rudy Giuliani that he paused the investigation “out of fear of the United States.” According to a credible FBI informant, a Burisma executive knew that his company was guilty of corruption and said he had paid Joe and Hunter Biden to resolve the situation. The senior Biden then withheld funds from Ukraine with the explicit intent of pressuring the country to fire Shokin.
It is indisputable that Biden’s actions had the effect of saving his son’s business partners from investigation. That other leaders had their own reasons for disliking Shokin was never proof of what Biden’s motives were.
“False: Hunter Biden made a killing on a Chinese deal,” the Washington Post’s article blared. I suppose that’s correct in the sense that it wasn’t one Chinese deal. There were several, including ones with entities tied to the Chinese government, according to bank records.
The first son’s equity stake in BHR Partners, a fund tied to the state-owned Bank of China, was already proven at the time of the article. The Washington Post dismissed the “claim” of a deal just because he had not received money yet. It was already known that the fund was tied to investments in the Chinese government’s surveillance technology. Nothing to see here, says the fact-checker.
Later on, Hunter Biden’s emails revealed him bragging that his “last name” helped him secure the deal.
The paper even embarrassingly claimed it was “false” that the president misled people by saying he “never” talked business with his son. We now know so much about his involvement that even the White House has changed its story. It now specifies that the president has never “been in business” with his son, supposedly.
Investigating the president's suspicious and secretive foreign ties and how they might affect his leadership is undeniably important for America. Polling indicates that most voters agree. It is no thanks to the self-declared defenders of "democracy" at the Washington Post that the public has found out more over the years.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Hudson Crozier is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.
Opinion Beltway Confidential Hunter Biden Joe Biden Media
Share your thoughts with friends.
| 367
|
Liberal Commentators Go All In on Kamala Harris’s Lie about Florida’s History Curriculum
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-28-0835/facts-and-fact-checking-liberal-commentators-go-all-kamala-harris-s-lie-about
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/liberal-commentators-go-all-in-on-kamala-harriss-lie-about-floridas-history-curriculum/
| 368
|
|
Florida does not teach students that slavery was good
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-21-0550/education-florida-does-not-teach-students-slavery-was-good
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/florida-does-not-teach-students-that-slavery-was-good
|
OPINION
Florida does not teach students that slavery was good
by Hudson Crozier
July 20, 2023 05:56 PM
Latest
Social Security update: Direct payment worth $914 arrives in eight days
By: Misty Severi
Social Security update: Third round of direct payments worth up to $4,555 to arrive in six days
By: Misty Severi
Recent polls reveal potential ominous signs for Biden’s reelection campaign
By: Christopher Tremoglie
Videos
Merrick Garland hearing: Six takeaways on Hunter Biden investigation
Merrick Garland hearing: Texas representative grilled Garland over whether his department was still targeting parents
WATCH: Dusty Johnson on the farm bill: 'Farmers will fight you if you do anything to damage their land'
Fed holds interest rates steady amid recent upswing in inflation
Newsletters
Sign up now to get the Washington Examiner’s breaking news and timely commentary delivered right to your inbox.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has done a lot to scale back the Left’s outsize influence over education. To rile up resistance, activists, politicians, and the media have spread almost every falsehood imaginable about what his anti-woke education policies actually do.
Those same forces have mobilized against Florida’s new standards for history courses, which they accuse of “whitewashing” the truth about slavery and racism. It’s hard to keep up with the deluge of flat-out lies they are relying on.
NO PLACE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Critics claim the curriculum portrays slavery as “beneficial” to black people. The word “beneficial,” however, does not appear anywhere in the document in relation to slavery. Their issue is with one sentence that reads, “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
The guidelines do not, by any stretch of the imagination, describe slavery as a positive thing. They emphasize the brutal “conditions” of slaves, how “an enslaved person” was treated as “property with no rights,” and how slavery was at odds with “founding principles of liberty, justice and equality.” Including facts about what slaves did to help themselves in these circumstances does not change that. It’s simply a relevant part of the history of slaves.
Another controversial passage reads, “Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre.”
This “suggests that the [Ocoee] massacre was sparked by violence from African Americans,” said Florida Democratic state Sen. Geraldine Thompson. “That’s blaming the victim.” Journalists have explained what white people did to ignite the deadly race riot as if to debunk the guidelines.
But the sentence is not assessing the blame in any of the particular Jim Crow-era events listed. When discussing incidents of racial violence, such as the four mentioned, the state wants teachers to include any known details about violence committed by both groups. Are we supposed to believe that whites were never among the casualties? Again, these are just relevant, neutral pieces of information.
The local newspaper Florida Phoenix was so caught up in the narrative that it misquoted the standards as saying “violence perpetrated by African Americans,” leaving out the “against.” At publishing time, it has not bothered to correct the error in its incredibly misleading article.
Liberal activist Genesis Robinson even claimed that Florida’s secession from the Union during the Civil War is not mentioned in the curriculum. Once again, the easiest way to defend it is to quote its exact words: “Describe Florida’s involvement (secession, blockades of ports, the battles of Ft. Pickens, Olustee, Ft. Brooke, Natural Bridge, food supply) in the Civil War” (emphasis mine).
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
And what fake racial controversy would be complete without melodrama from the NAACP?
"Today's actions by the Florida state government are an attempt to bring our country back to a 19th century America where Black life was not valued, nor our rights protected,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson wailed.
I appreciate Johnson for articulating the pure paranoia driving this entire "whitewashing" hoax. Many on the Left are desperate to prove that conservatives want to erase history, desensitize the next generation to the evils of racism, and ultimately reintroduce discriminatory systems and the subjugation of blacks. It's one of the most difficult conspiracy theories to defend, so when they cannot find evidence for it, they make things up.
Hudson Crozier is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.
Opinion Florida Education Ron DeSantis Race
Share your thoughts with friends.
| 369
|
Kamala Harris Falsely Claims Gun Violence Leading Cause of Death for Children
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-19-0637/facts-and-fact-checking-kamala-harris-falsely-claims-gun-violence-leading-cause
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2023/07/17/fact-check-kamala-harris-falsely-claims-gun-violence-leading-cause-death-children/
|
Fact Check: Kamala Harris Falsely Claims Gun Violence Leading Cause of Death for Children
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images for GLAAD
AWR HAWKINS17 Jul 2023
CLAIM: Vice President Kamala Harris claimed on Sunday that gun violence is the leading cause of death for children.
VERDICT: False. Numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show firearm-related deaths for children aged 0-17 was 2,281 in 2020, while the number of motor vehicle deaths for the same ages was 2,503.
Harris tweeted:
Congress must have the courage to step up and pass commonsense gun safety laws. pic.twitter.com/J0Naa8WHW8
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 16, 2023
Moreover, according to CDC numbers, children are are 27 times more likely to die an accidental car death than an accidental gun death and unintentional suffocation deaths are 10 times higher among children than accidental gun deaths.
Harris coupled her false claim about the number one killer of children with a push for universal background checks and an “assault weapons” ban.
WATCH — AWR Hawkins: Universal Background Checks = Gun Registry
ahawkins
California has had universal background checks and an “assault weapons” ban since the late 20th century, yet the CDC’s Homicide Mortality map shows California led the nation in 2021 with 2,495 homicides, according to the CDC.
WATCH: Here’s the Difference Between an AR-15 and an Assault Weapon”
ahawkins
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
2nd AmendmentPolitics"Assault Weapons" Ban Gun ControlCaliforniaCDCCenters for Disease Control and PreventionDemocrat Gun ControlKamala Harrisuniversal background checks
| 370
|
Wash Post publishes piece with debunked claim about DeSantis’ Florida despite source admitting it was wrong
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-17-0859/facts-and-fact-checking-wash-post-publishes-piece-debunked-claim-about-desantis
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
rights
|
https://www.foxnews.com/media/wash-post-publishes-piece-debunked-claim-about-desantis-florida-despite-source-admitting-wrong
|
MEDIA
Wash Post publishes piece with debunked claim about DeSantis’ Florida despite source admitting it was wrong
Twitter critics grilled Jennifer Rubin and the Washington Post, accusing them of not editing their pieces.
By Gabriel Hays Fox News
Published July 15, 2023 4:33pm EDT
Facebook
Twitter
Flipboard
Print
Email
Video
Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin’s calls to 'defund' Walter Reed Hospital
Fox News contributor Joey Jones, U.S. Marine Corps veteran joins 'Fox & Friends Weekends' to discuss the backlash Rubin faces from both sides of the aisle.
Several days after Business Insider admitted they had published inaccurate numbers of state residents that moved to Florida during the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin cited them and used them in an attack piece about Gov. Ron DeSantis’, R-Fla., leadership of the state.
Rubin published the column Friday in which she claimed, "DeSantis likes to brag that more people are moving to Florida than ever. Not so fast. ‘An estimated 674,740 people reported that their permanent address changed from Florida to another state in 2021.’" Those numbers are wrong and the Post, in a correction on Saturday, admitting the column "mischaracterized" the stats.
She originally added, "’That’s more than any other state, including New York or California, the two states that have received the most attention for outbound migration during the pandemic,’ according to the American Community Survey released in June tracking state-by-state migration."
I AM LEAVING NEW YORK CITY FOR FLORIDA. I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin published cited incorrect facts about Florida residents in a column Friday, three days after her source admitted they were wrong. ((Photo by: William B. Plowman/NBC/NBC Newswire/NBCUniversal via Getty Images))
Business Insider published the figure earlier in the week, claiming that 674,740 residents left the state, overtaking 433,402 residents leaving California and 287,249 residents moving from New York.
Though the outlet corrected it Tuesday, after critics, including Team DeSantis’ Christina Pushaw, pointed out, consulted the data the report was based on and blasted the paper.
Pushaw tweeted, "That figure -- 674,740 -- is people who moved TO Florida, not OUT OF Florida. Retraction needed."
Confirming critics’ analysis, Business Insider wrote a new piece correcting the figure, which was headlined, "We got it wrong: More people moved out of New York and California in 2021."
In it, reporter Kelsey Neubauer – who wrote the original erroneous piece – stated, "Out-of-staters flocked to Florida in 2021, with some 674,740 people moving there," amending the claim.
It added, "About 469,577 residents left the state, for a net population gain of 205,163," and affirmed, "The state became a big draw for Americans who decided to move during the pandemic."
Despite Business Insider admitting its original claim was contrary to the actual numbers, Rubin published the debunked fact in her piece three days later.
On Saturday afternoon, the Post offered a correction to Rubin's column, admitting to "mischaracterizing" the numbers: "A previous version of this article mischaracterized Floridians' state-to-state migration in 2021. According to the Census Bureau, more people moved into Florida than any other state that year. This version has been corrected."
NEW YORK, CALIFORNIA SUFFER BIGGEST BLOW AS MORE AMERICANS FLEE TO LOW-TAX STATES
Rubin published her erroneous column Friday in an effort to trash Gov. Ron DeSantis', R-Fla., governance of the state during the COVID-19 lockdowns. (Ronn Blitzer, Fox News)
Since Rubin published the piece, multiple Twitter users blasted her and the Washington Post outlet for not catching the error.
The National Review’s Charles Cooke shared screenshots of Rubin’s error and the new article from Business Insider on Twitter. He wrote, "In which Jennifer Rubin writes a piece in the Washington Post on Friday that is based around the massive mistake that Business Insider made—and then corrected—on Tuesday. ‘Does she have editors?’ was just emphatically answered."
Cooke added, "It really is jarring to see. When I’ve written for the Post and the Times, I’ve been fact-checked until I bled. If I wrote that there are 50 states, I was asked for a citation. That’s fine—good, even. But, as is evident if you read those papers, it only happens in one direction."
Outkick.com writer Ian Miller tweeted, "Jennifer Rubin and the Washington Post lied about the amount of people who moved to Florida because they didn’t want it to be true since it makes Ron DeSantis look good — and they still haven’t corrected their very obvious mistake. Amazing to see how desperate they are."
RedState.com senior editor Joe Cunningham commented, "Hell, CNN fact-checked the hell out of an op-ed I wrote. But Jennifer Rubin gets all the free passes."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Fox News Digital reached out to the Washington Post for comment on the error. This article will be updated with any response.
Video
Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
| 371
|
James Comer claims that Biden pseudonym email was code. That’s nonsense.
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-07-0659/joe-biden-james-comer-claims-biden-pseudonym-email-was-code-s-nonsense
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/06/james-comer-claims-that-biden-pseudonym-email-was-code-thats-nonsense/
|
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Listen
9 min
Share
Comment
“Joe Biden was using a pseudonym and he copied his son about a shady, shady transaction where Joe Biden was going to leverage American tax dollars to save his son’s butt. … Along the same time period, we found a pseudonym where he copied Hunter Biden and it would lead one to believe that this was Joe Biden’s way of copying Hunter Biden to say, okay, send it to the Burisma owners and tell them help is on the way, and five days later, Joe Biden flew to Ukraine to begin the process of firing the prosecutor in exchange for America tax dollars in the form of foreign aid.”
Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.
— Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), in an interview with Newsmax, Aug. 29
Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, is leading the congressional investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings when his father was vice president. Last week, in an interview, he pointed to an email in which he claimed that Joe Biden was sending a secret message to his son that he was about to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor — a move that supposedly would have furthered his son’s business interests.
Advertisement
Newsmax flashed an image of the email, sent from an assistant to the vice president to the address of “[email protected].” The email listed the vice president’s schedule for the day, including a planned call with the Ukrainian president, who then was Petro Poroshenko. Hunter Biden was copied on the email.
The discovery of this email and Biden’s use of the pseudonym Robert L. Peters led Comer to request from the National Archives and Records Administration all unredacted documents and communications in which Biden used a pseudonym while vice president, as well as any emails in which Hunter Biden or his business associates were copied.
But there’s one big problem with Comer’s claim: The email is dated May 26, 2016. The prosecutor in question had been dismissed by the Ukrainian parliament two months earlier.
The Facts
As we have noted before, there are two narratives about the dismissal of Viktor Shokin, the former Ukrainian prosecutor general.
Advertisement
The original narrative — documented at the time — was that the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the United States (along with some Republican senators) believed that Shokin was not acting aggressively to root out corruption, and that Poroshenko needed to remove Shokin to demonstrate he was serious about dealing with a perennial problem in the Ukrainian government. To put pressure on Poroshenko, Biden withheld a promised $1 billion loan guarantee until Shokin was removed.
The alternative narrative, advanced by Republican critics of Biden, is that Shokin was removed at Biden’s behest because he was getting ready to act against the owner of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm that had put Hunter Biden on its board. There is little evidence that is the case, as the specific complaint of the international community was that Shokin had failed to act against Burisma. But that has not stopped Republicans like Comer from advancing this alternative narrative, even in the face of new evidence.
For instance, Devon Archer, a fellow Burisma board member, said in a closed-door interview with lawmakers July 31 that he was told at the time of Shokin’s firing that it was a setback for the company, according to a transcript. “That’s what was I told, that it was bad for Burisma,” he said. “But I don’t know. I don’t know if it was good or bad.”
Advertisement
Paradoxically, a key reason for the rise of this alternative narrative was remarks Joe Biden made in 2018 at a Council on Foreign Relations event. He managed to squeeze several months of slow diplomacy into a damaging sound bite: “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b----. He got fired.” The Trump campaign widely circulated the video during the 2020 campaign, and it continues to resonate with Biden critics.
Comer, in his interview, appears to be counting on his listeners to accept the idea that Biden was acting as a shakedown artist on behalf of his son. He said it was “alarming” that Hunter was copied on the email. He asked: “Why was he receiving emails about Ukrainian policy right before they were going to fire that prosecutor?”
It’s a nonsensical question. Here’s a quick timeline of Shokin’s firing. Keep in mind that the email is dated May 26, 2016.
Advertisement
Sept. 24, 2015: U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt makes a speech in Ukraine in which he blasts the prosecutor’s office for “openly and aggressively undermining reform” and having “undermined prosecutors working on legitimate corruption cases.”
Dec. 8: Vice President Biden addresses the Ukrainian parliament and decries the “cancer of corruption” in the country. “The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform,” he says. In a meeting with Poroshenko the day before, Biden had linked granting the loan guarantee to Shokin’s ouster.
Jan. 20, 2016: Biden meets with Poroshenko on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He emphasizes “the need to continue to move forward on Ukraine’s anti-corruption agenda,” according to a White House statement.
Feb. 11: Biden speaks to Poroshenko by phone. “The two leaders agreed on the importance of unity among Ukrainian political forces to quickly pass reforms in line with the commitments in its IMF program, including measures focused on rooting out corruption,” the White House said.
Advertisement
Feb. 16: Poroshenko announces he has asked Shokin to resign. “This morning I have met and had a serious conversation with the prosecutor general. I have suggested Viktor Mykolayovych [Shokin] should write a letter of resignation,” the president said in a statement.
Share this article
Feb. 18: Another call takes place between Biden and Poroshenko. “The Vice President also commended President Poroshenko’s decision to replace Prosecutor General Shokin, which paves the way for needed reform of the prosecutorial service,” the White House said in a statement.
Feb. 19: Poroshenko announces he has received Shokin’s resignation letter.
March 29: The Ukrainian parliament, in a 289-6 vote, approves Shokin’s dismissal.
May 12: Poroshenko nominates Yuri Lutsenko as the new prosecutor general.
May 13: In a phone call, Biden tells Poroshenko he welcomed Lutsenko’s appointment and the creation of an inspector general in the prosecutor’s office. “The Vice President informed President Poroshenko that the United States was prepared to move forward with the signing of the third $1 billion loan guarantee agreement, which will support continued progress on Ukrainian reforms,” a White House statement said. (The loan guarantee was signed on June 3, with Pyatt representing the United States.)
Advertisement
So, all of this took place before the email that so concerns Comer. The email mentions “8:45 a.m. prep” for a 9 a.m. call with Poroshenko. The White House statement on the call shows Shokin was no longer a subject of discussion.
“The Vice President congratulated President Poroshenko on the release of Ukrainian pilot and Rada member Nadiya Savchenko and called for the release of all Ukrainians unlawfully detained in Russia,” the statement said. “The leaders discussed the importance of continuing to institute reforms in the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the significance of Ukraine’s progress toward implementing judicial reforms and meeting IMF conditions. The leaders condemned the increasing attacks by combined Russian-separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and reaffirmed the need to continue moving forward on Minsk implementation. They also condemned Russia’s persecution of Crimean Tatars.”
So why would Hunter Biden be copied on this particular email concerning his father’s schedule? One clue: the schedule notes that the vice president would remain overnight at “Lake House,” a Biden property in Delaware. Local Delaware media reported that the Biden family gathered that Memorial Day weekend on the first anniversary of the death of Beau Biden, Biden’s other son, when Delaware’s National Guard headquarters was dedicated to him.
Advertisement
A representative for Hunter Biden’s legal team said that Joe Biden copied his son on the email to let his son know that he was getting back to Delaware because he wanted him there for the anniversary weekend of Beau’s passing.
As for the use of a pseudonym, it’s no surprise Biden would have had one, as it was disclosed during the Obama presidency that senior officials had such accounts. After the Associated Press reported in 2013 that many top officials had secret email accounts, White House spokesman Jay Carney said these were secondary government accounts, subject to the Freedom of Information Act, to avoid having inboxes flooded with messages.
“Having alternate email addresses for cabinet secretaries and other high-profile officials makes eminent sense,” Carney said. “If they are inundated in one account with either public emails, or spam or the like, then they can continue to use their other account for normal work.”
Advertisement
Indeed, a listing of federal domain names on GitHub shows that “pci.gov,” which is how the Robert L. Peters email ends, is associated with the Executive Office of the President, which includes the vice president’s office. NARA, in response to a FOIA request filed in 2022 by the Southeastern Legal Foundation, has said it found 5,138 emails and 225 other records that reference three pseudonyms used by President Biden, including the Robert L. Peters address. Two email addresses are associated with Gmail accounts. The emails have not yet been released.
We repeatedly sought comment from Comer’s communications staff but did not receive a response.
The Pinocchio Test
Comer has a tendency to mess up details or lose nuance when he shows up on television, but he really shoots himself in the foot here. He claims that Biden was sending a secret message to his son about how he was going to tell the Ukrainian president to fire the prosecutor — but the email was sent two months after the firing. Skeptics may doubt whether Hunter Biden was copied on the email for family matters, but it’s certainly not because of the nefarious purpose suggested by Comer.
Comer earns Four Pinocchios.
Four Pinocchios
(About our rating scale)
Send us facts to check by filling out this form
Sign up for The Fact Checker weekly newsletter
The Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles
Share
Comments
View more
| 372
|
Post claiming IOC banned transgender swimmer Lia Thomas for life is satire
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-05-0800/sports-post-claiming-ioc-banned-transgender-swimmer-lia-thomas-life-satire
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/09/01/claim-that-olympic-committee-banned-lia-thomas-is-satire-fact-check/70727437007/
|
Post claiming IOC banned transgender swimmer Lia Thomas for life is satire | Fact check
JOEDY MCCREARY USA TODAY
Show Caption
The claim: The IOC banned transgender swimmer Lia Thomas for life
An Aug. 28 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) shows a cutout photo of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
“International Olympic Committee Issues Lifetime Ban For Lia Thomas,” reads text in the photo.
Many commenters took the post seriously.
“Finally a win for real girls competing!!!!” wrote one Facebook user.
“It should be this way across all women's category sports!!!” wrote another.
The Facebook post was shared more than 7,000 times in three days.
Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks
Our rating: Satire
The post was published and shared by a satirical website. A footnote to the story linked in the post states, "Nothing on this page is real."
Post came from website labeled as fiction
Thomas became the first transgender athlete to win a national championship at the NCAA’s highest level in March 2022, when she won the Division I title in the women’s 500-yard freestyle.
The accomplishment made her a central figure in the ongoing national discussion about transgender women in sports – and a subject of satire.
Fact check: Twitter suspension of fake Réka György account unrelated to Lia Thomas
The post was shared by an account for America’s Last Line of Defense, a network of satirical websites. It contains a link to a longer story with the same title posted on The Dunning-Kruger Times, one of the satirical network's websites.
The story includes a disclaimer at the bottom that reads, "Nothing on this page is real.” The site’s “About Us” section says “Everything on this website is fiction.”
A previous satirical story on the site claimed the U.S. national women’s volleyball team threatened to quit if Thomas had been allowed to try out.
“The answer to the satire question is always going to be yes,” Christopher Blair, who operates the website, previously told USA TODAY. “I don't publish the truth on any of the websites you'll find on ALLOD.”
When the International Olympic Committee sanctions an athlete, the organization makes an announcement on its website, as it did in 2017 when four Russian athletes who compete in the skeleton event were barred as part of a doping investigation. The organization has made no such announcement about Thomas, and there have been no credible media reports of her supposed ban.
The story also identifies the IOC chairman as Joe Barron – a name that frequently appears in Dunning-Kruger Times stories. It has been used to refer to the supposed CEO of Publix, the CEO of Levi's and the chairman of Disney. The IOC does not have a chairman, and Thomas Bach has been its president since 2013.
Our fact-check sources:
Christopher Blair, Aug. 3, Email exchange with USA TODAY
IOC, Nov. 22, 2017, IOC sanctions four Russian athletes as part of Oswald Commission findings
IOC, accessed Aug. 31, Press releases
IOC, accessed Aug. 31, Mr. Thomas Bach
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
View |61 Photos
Simone Biles: The Olympic gold medalist's gymnastics career in photos
Simone Biles, who won four Olympic gold medals in 2016, then suffered the 'twisties' in 2021 in Tokyo, may have her eyes on Paris in 2024.
| 373
|
Trump falsely claims he ‘never’ faced an impeachment inquiry
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-30-0613/facts-and-fact-checking-trump-falsely-claims-he-never-faced-impeachment-inquiry
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/28/politics/fact-check-trump-impeachment-inquiry/index.html
|
Former President Donald Trump walks to speak with reporters before departure from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2023, in Atlanta.
Alex Brandon/AP
CNN
—
Former President Donald Trump falsely claimed Monday that he “never” faced an impeachment inquiry.
Trump made the claim in a social media post the day after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in a television interview that launching an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is a “natural step forward” from current Republican efforts to gather information on the business dealings of the president’s family.
Trump posted on Sunday that Republicans should swiftly impeach Biden without first holding an inquiry, which is not a mandatory precursor to an impeachment vote. (CNN reported Monday that some members of McCarthy’s caucus remain skeptical of impeachment, with one lawmaker noting that they have not found evidence of Biden abusing his office for family profit.) Then Trump posted on Monday: “I NEVER HAD AN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY, I HAD AN IMPEACHMENT, WHICH I WON! IT WAS STARTED IMMEDIATELY, NO MEETINGS, NO STUDY, NO DELAYS.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim that he “never” faced an impeachment inquiry is incorrect. Before the Democratic-led House impeached Trump for the first time, over his 2019 efforts to use the power of the presidency to pressure the president of Ukraine to investigate Biden, the House held an impeachment inquiry that lasted more than two months.
The inquiry was announced by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi on September 24, 2019. As part of the inquiry, House committees held closed-door hearings and then high-profile public hearings to hear testimony from witnesses. On December 3, 2019, Democrats released a 300-page report that summarized the inquiry’s findings; it was titled “The Trump-Ukraine Impeachment Inquiry Report.” Trump was impeached by the House on December 18, 2019, 85 days after Pelosi announced the inquiry.
Trump would have been correct if he had made a more limited claim that Democrats did not conduct an official inquiry prior to impeaching him a second time, in the final days of his presidency in early 2021, over what the House concluded was his incitement of the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol. That impeachment, which the House voted on just seven days after the riot, centered on his public statements and actions that were publicly known at the time.
The Senate acquitted Trump after both impeachments.
| 374
|
Untangling Ron DeSantis’ debate anecdote about an improbable abortion survival story
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-25-0754/facts-and-fact-checking-untangling-ron-desantis-debate-anecdote-about
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/aug/24/untangling-ron-desantis-debate-anecdote-about-an-i/
|
Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.
More Info
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis listens as former Vice President Mike Pence and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy cross-talk during a Republican presidential primary debate Aug. 23, 2023, in at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. (AP)
When the topic of abortion came up during the first Republican primary presidential debate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shared a perplexing anecdote about a woman he met who he said had survived the procedure.
"I know a lady in Florida named Penny," DeSantis said. "She survived multiple abortion attempts. She was left discarded in a pan. Fortunately, her grandmother saved her and brought her to a different hospital."
Some accused the governor of fabricating the story.
"Let me see if I understand this correctly. Doctors tried to abort ‘Penny’ multiple times and discarded her in a pan, and then her grandmother took her to another hospital? DeSantis lies like a toddler," one person posted on X, formerly Twitter.
Our research found that a woman named Penny, who tells an unusual birth story about an attempted abortion, does exist.
We asked DeSantis’ campaign for evidence or more information. The campaign replied via email, sending only a link to a Daily Signal article that identified "Penny" by her full name and recounted her story.
The woman DeSantis referred to is Miriam "Penny" Hopper, an anti-abortion activist who said she survived an abortion attempt in Florida in 1955. Her claim, which is uncorroborated, has been featured online by Protect Life Michigan, an anti-abortion advocacy group.
In a video and in interviews, Hopper said she had been delivered around 23 weeks gestation after her mother went to a hospital in Wauchula, Florida, while experiencing bleeding. In a 2013 interview with radio station WFSU, Hopper said she believes an abortion had been attempted at home before her parents went to the hospital, which also could be why DeSantis referenced "multiple" abortion attempts.
Hopper said the doctor at the hospital induced labor, and she was born at 1 pound, 11 ounces and was left in a bedpan. She told WFSU her grandmother found her alive the next day and was enraged about her being abandoned. Then a nurse volunteered to transport Hopper to what was then Morell Memorial Hospital in Lakeland, Florida, now the site of Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center. That’s about 40 miles north of the hospital where Hopper says she was born.
Her story has been used to support "born alive" bills in state legislatures, which aim to protect infants that survive an abortion, even though there are federal laws for that purpose.
We were unable to gauge the accuracy of Hopper’s account. We couldn’t find records, such as news reports, dating to the 1950s, and people who could corroborate the story, such as her grandmother, are no longer living. Hopper did not respond to requests for comment.
Medically speaking, the scenario is dubious.
From the 1950s through 1980, "newborn death was virtually ensured" for infants born at or before 24 weeks of gestation, The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology says on its website.
Recent studies have shown wide variation in modern-day survival rates for infants born around 23 weeks, partly because of improved hospital practices for resuscitation and active treatment.
A 2022 University of Rochester Medical Center study found that babies born at 23 weeks — who were "actively treated" at academic medical centers in the National Institutes of Health-funded Neonatal Research Network — had a 55% chance of survival.
This is considerably higher than the 23-week survival rate at many other institutions, as well as a previous study conducted from 2008 to 2012 in the same network, which put the rate at 32%. (Lifesaving care for babies born at 22 and 23 weeks varies by hospital policy and physician opinion, according to a New York Times story.)
Before the 1970s, most babies born before 28 weeks gestation died because they lacked the ability to breathe on their own for more than a short time, and reliable mechanical ventilators for these infants did not yet exist. That also makes it improbable that Hopper could have survived overnight without medical intervention when born at 23 weeks in the 1950s.
PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
RELATED: Fact-check: What Republican candidates got right, wrong in first debate on Fox News
RELATED: Ron DeSantis’ False claim that some states allow ‘post-birth’ abortions. None do.
Facebook video, YouTube archive, Sept. 16, 2022; Feb. 2, 2020
WFSU Public Media, For pro life advocates, the issues are both personal and political, April 18, 2023
Jezebel, Asked about abortion, Ron DeSantis tells bizarre story about a fetus in a pan, Aug. 23, 2023
The Lakeland Ledger, 100-year timeline: Lakeland hospital grew from 65 to nearly 900 beds
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Periviable Birth, October 2017
PubMed, Neonatal mortality rate: relationship to birth weight and gestational age, October 1972
PubMed, Neonatal mortality risk in relation to birth weight and gestational age: update, December 1982,
University of Pennsylvania Nursing, Care of Premature Infants, accessed Aug. 23, 2023
University of Rochester Medical Center, New research shows survival rate improvement for extremely pre-term infants, March 3, 2022
The New York Times, Parents of extremely premature babies face an impossible choice, April 16, 2020
Email interview, American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology press office, Aug. 24, 2023
The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter
| 375
|
Did Obama Once Say Democrats Rigged Elections?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-18-0351/voting-rights-and-voter-fraud-did-obama-once-say-democrats-rigged-elections
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-democrats-rig-elections/
| 376
|
|
Biden tells three false personal anecdotes in economic speech
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-17-0551/facts-and-fact-checking-biden-tells-three-false-personal-anecdotes-economic
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/politics/fact-check-biden-amtrak-grandfather-pittsburgh-bridge-debt/index.html
|
President Joe Biden speaks on August 15.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden made three false claims about his own past in a Tuesday speech in Milwaukee.
The speech was focused on the economy and the Inflation Reduction Act the president signed into law one year ago Wednesday, and his economic claims in the prepared address were almost entirely accurate. But he also peppered in three false personal anecdotes, including two that have previously been debunked, continuing his habit of inaccurate ad-libbing about his biography.
In addition, Biden repeated one false and previously debunked political boast. As he did earlier this year and during the 2022 midterm elections, he wrongly asserted that he has significantly reduced the national debt, which has actually increased significantly during his presidency. He was once again mixing up the debt with the deficit; the White House made a correction in the official transcript, as it previously did with a transcript in February when Biden did the same thing.
Here is a fact check on his Tuesday remarks.
Another rendition of the Amtrak story
Biden has long been known as a devotee of Amtrak, the train service he used during his 36 years as a US senator to commute between Washington and his home in Delaware. At least nine times as president, he has told a vivid personal story about a conversation he claims to have had during his vice presidency with an Amtrak conductor named Angelo Negri.
Except, as CNN pointed out in 2021, that conversation could not possibly have happened – because Negri was deceased at the time the conversation would have had to have taken place.
In the version of the story Biden told on Tuesday, he said that in the sixth or seventh year of his vice presidency, a newspaper headline announced that he had traveled almost 1.2 million miles on Air Force planes. He said that when he then was “getting on a train to go home and see my mom, who was sick and in hospice in my home,” a man he identified as “Ang,” his nickname for Negri, “comes up and goes, ‘Joey, baby,’ and grabs my cheek.” Biden said he thought the Secret Service was going to shoot Negri.
Biden then said: “And I said, ‘No, no, no, no.’ I said, ‘What’s the matter, Ang?’ He said, ‘We just – I read this thing about…over a million miles on Air Force planes.’ He said, ‘Hell, you know how many miles you traveled on Amtrak?’ I said, ‘No, Ang. I don’t know.’ He said, ‘We just had a retirement dinner up in Newark.’ He said, ‘You traveled a hundred – an average 117 days a year, round trip, 300 miles a day, 36 years. That’s 1,285,000 miles. I don’t want to hear any more about the Air Force!’”
The crowd reacted with laughter and applause, and Biden said, “True story, I swear to God.” But it isn’t a true story.
Facts First: Biden’s story is false in two ways. First, as CNN and others have pointed out before, he could not possibly have had this exchange with Negri: Biden did not reach the million-miles-flown mark as vice president until September 2015, according to his own past comments, but Negri had died more than a year earlier, in May 2014. Second, as CNN has also noted before, Biden’s mother was not sick at his home at the time he hit the million-miles-flown milestone. In fact, she had died more than five years prior.
Negri’s stepdaughter, Olga Betz, told CNN in 2021 that Negri and Biden were indeed friends. She said Negri “adored” Biden and spoke of how Biden was “very thoughtful and personable with the conductors; knew them all by name.” She also provided a photo of Biden hosting a retirement party for Negri in his Senate office in 1993.
Nonetheless, Biden has been telling a false story about his late friend for more than two years. We wrote in 2021 that Biden might have been misremembering the details of some real conversation he had with Negri prior to Negri’s death in 2014 or mixed up Negri with another Amtrak employee he spoke to in 2015 or 2016. After numerous media fact checks, however, he has now had ample time to correct himself.
The White House did not immediately respond Wednesday to a request for comment for this article. When Karine Jean-Pierre, now the White House press secretary, was asked in 2021 about reports that Biden’s story about Negri was inaccurate, she said, “I haven’t seen that. But the President’s long history with Amtrak and appreciation for the hardworking employees is very well known.”
Biden’s birth and his grandfather’s death
Biden also repeated a version of a family anecdote he told in April. He said Tuesday that his grandfather, who had worked as an oil company executive, died just days before he was born himself in the same hospital.
“And, by the way, my Grandpop Biden, who died very young – he was – died in the hospital I was born in six days before I was there, I mean before I was born,” Biden said.
Facts First: Biden’s claim is false in two ways, as conservative media outlets pointed out in April when Biden said his grandfather “died in the same hospital I was born in two weeks before I was born.” His paternal grandfather who had worked in the oil industry, Joseph Harry Biden, died in a hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, in September 1941; the president was born more than a year later, in November 1942 – and at a different hospital, in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Biden’s maternal grandfather, Ambrose Joseph Finnegan, did die at the Scranton hospital where the president was born, but in 1957, when the president was 14 years old.
Biden and a Pittsburgh bridge collapse
Touting his administration’s investments in infrastructure projects around the country, Biden invoked a 2022 bridge collapse in Pittsburgh – and claimed that he personally saw the bridge fall.
“A lot of you were with me when I was in Pittsburgh. And, by the way, the – Pittsburgh is the ‘City of Bridges.’ More bridges in Pittsburgh than any other city in America. I watched that bridge collapse. I got there and saw it collapse. With over 200 feet off the ground, going over a valley, and it collapsed,” Biden said.
Facts First: It’s not true that Biden “got there and saw it collapse.” The collapse occurred before 7 a.m. on January 28, 2022, more than six hours prior to Biden landing in the Pittsburgh area for a scheduled visit that included a speech about the economy and infrastructure. He visited the site of the collapse after 1 p.m. that day.
So Biden could have accurately said that he witnessed the damage from the collapse. But his statement that “I got there and saw it collapse” is not true.
Biden and the national debt
Biden claimed, “And unlike the last president, in my first two years in office, even with all we’ve done – I’m the first one to cut the federal debt by $1 trillion $700 billion.”
Facts First: This is false, as the White House implicitly acknowledged in the official transcript by striking through the word “debt” and replacing it with “deficit.” As CNN noted in February, when Biden made a near-identical claim, Biden has not reduced the national debt (the accumulation of federal borrowing plus interest owed); in fact, the national debt has increased from about $27.8 trillion on Biden’s first day in office in 2021 to about $32.7 trillion today, though it’s important to note that debt increases are not solely the fault of any current president. It is the federal deficit – the one-year difference between spending and revenues – that declined by roughly $1.7 trillion between fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2022, from about $3.1 trillion to about $1.4 trillion.
And the debt-versus-deficit mix-up is not the only issue with Biden’s claim.
As CNN has repeatedly noted, it is highly questionable how much credit Biden deserves for the $1.7 trillion decline in the deficit, since the decline happened overwhelmingly because emergency pandemic spending from the end of President Donald Trump’s administration expired as planned. In fact, independent analysts say Biden’s own new laws and executive actions have significantly added to current and projected future deficits, not reduced those deficits.
You can read more here and here.
| 377
|
8 Pants on Fire statements by Donald Trump about Georgia 2020 election
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-15-0636/facts-and-fact-checking-8-pants-fire-statements-donald-trump-about-georgia-2020
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/aug/15/8-pants-on-fire-fact-checks-of-donald-trump-about/
|
Former President Donald Trump walks to speak with reporters before boarding his plane at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Aug. 3, 2023, in Arlington, Va. (AP)
Former President Donald Trump was indicted by a Fulton County grand jury for a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
The Aug. 14 indictment highlights falsehoods uttered by Trump and his allies after he lost to President Joe Biden — including that he won Georgia when he had lost. Trump has continued to make false statements about the 2020 election as he seeks to regain the presidency.
The indictment charged 19 people with violations of Georgia law. The 41 felony counts included violations of the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, making false statements, soliciting violation of oath by a public officer and conspiracy to commit election fraud.
"Trump and the other defendants charged in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the election in favor of Trump," the indictment states.
Here is a look at eight Trump statements about the 2020 election in Georgia that we rated Pants on Fire, our rating reserved for ridiculous falsehoods.
"We won Georgia": In a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump said, "We won Georgia easily. We won it by hundreds of thousands of votes." The final result showed that Biden beat Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes.
"Suitcases" of ballots: Also in the call with Raffensperger, Trump said after a "major water main break," Georgia election workers counted "18,000 ballots, all for Biden" that they pulled from suitcases and with no election observers present. State and county officials said the surveillance video Trump mentioned showed normal ballot processing. There’s no evidence that the ballots shown were fraudulent or "all for Biden." State Farm Arena reported that one room being used for ballot counting had a 6 a.m. water leak. There was a brief delay in tabulating absentee ballots during the two hours required to repair the leak, which resulted from an overflowing urinal. No ballots were damaged, the arena said.
Nobody found anything "wrong" with his phone call: In April remarks about his phone call with Raffensperger, Trump said, "Nobody found anything wrong with that perfect call until a book promotion tour many months later." "Nobody" was a ridiculous overstatement. Many politicians criticized Trump’s phone call in the days after the transcript and audio were published. Fani Willis, the Fulton County prosecutor, on Jan. 4, 2021, denounced the phone call as disturbing and said some government office would investigate. On Feb. 10, 2021, Willis told state officials that she was investigating.
"More votes than people who voted" in swing states. Trump tweeted this claim in November 2020. There was zero proof. If he meant there were more votes cast than registered voters, election data shows the opposite. In the six key states we examined, there were several hundred thousand to 2 million more registered voters than votes cast.|
No signature verification: In a November 2020 fundraising email, Trump said Georgia’s secretary of state wouldn’t let people recounting ballots check signatures on the ballots for fraud. This reflects a flawed understanding of how mail-in votes work. Before a mail ballot is counted, the voter’s signature has already been verified. In Georgia, it is verified twice. To protect the privacy of the vote, after verification, every state separates the ballot from the signed envelope it came in. By design, there is no way to reunite the two pieces of paper. A recount can be only of ballots.
Election wasn’t legitimate: Trump said in a statement in June 2021 that "facts have now come out to show conclusively" that the 2020 election was illegitimate. The election was legitimate, as affirmed by experts on elections, including Republicans; officials from Trump’s administration; and local and state bodies that certified the results. Multiple audits and court cases also have also concluded the election was legitimate.
"Fake" ballots: In a June interview with Fox News, Trump said in 2020 the ballots that were counted "were fake ballots." Trump nodded to right-wing filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza’s documentary "2,000 Mules," which alleges drop box fraud in multiple states, including Georgia. That film was widely debunked, including by Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr.
Georgia didn’t update voter rolls: In a June 2021 statement, Trump said Georgia didn’t update its voter rolls before the 2020 presidential election; "This means we (you!) won the presidential election in Georgia." Trump was wrong on both counts. Federal law requires states to establish programs to keep voter rolls up to date. To comply with the law, Georgia and other states routinely handle such removals in nonfederal election years. In 2019, the state removed about 290,000 voters. It is a fact: Trump lost the 2020 election in Georgia and the U.S.
Bonus round!
Trump also made a false statement that Georgia had 4,925 out-of-state voters. He appears to have gotten his number from a list created by a former Trump campaign staff member about "potentially" illegal voters. Statisticians and election experts criticized the list widely. The Georgia secretary of state’s office investigated the claim and found it baseless.
Trump wasn’t the only person spreading falsehoods about the Georgia election. We also debunked statements by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson about Fulton County, former Sen. David Perdue about Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, and U.S. Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., alleging that election equipment switched votes from Trump to Biden.
RELATED: Read the indictment of Donald Trump in Georgia 2020 election case
RELATED: Here's what Donald Trump asked Georgia election officials in phone call about 2020 election
RELATED: What did Trump say in the other phone calls to Georgia officials?
See links in fact-checks
Fulton County Superior Court, Indictment of 19 individuals including Donald Trump for an alleged conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia, Aug. 14, 2023
The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter
| 378
|
Woody Harrelson Was Photographed Wearing RFK Jr. Hat?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-12-0045/facts-and-fact-checking-woody-harrelson-was-photographed-wearing-rfk-jr-hat
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/woody-harrelson-rfk-2024/
| 379
|
|
21 Donald Trump election lies listed in his new indictment
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-03-0813/facts-and-fact-checking-21-donald-trump-election-lies-listed-his-new-indictment
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/02/politics/trump-indictment-lies/index.html
|
Video Ad Feedback
Dale fact-checks 21 election lies in Trump's indictment
04:56 - Source: CNN
Dale fact-checks 21 election lies in Trump's indictment
04:56
Report: Former Trump aide claims Giuliani groped her in new book
See More Videos
Washington
CNN
—
Special counsel Jack Smith said Tuesday that the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol was “fueled by lies” told by former President Donald Trump. The indictment of Trump on four new federal criminal charges, all related to the former president’s effort to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election, lays out some of those lies one by one.
Even in listing 21 lies, the 45-page indictment does not come close to capturing the entirety of Trump’s massive catalogue of false claims about the election. But the list is illustrative nonetheless – highlighting the breadth of election-related topics Trump was dishonest about, the large number of states his election dishonesty spanned, and, critically, his willingness to persist in privately and publicly making dishonest assertions even after they had been debunked to him directly.
Here is the list of 21.
1. The lie that fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 election, that Trump “had actually won,” and that the election was “stolen.” (Pages 1 and 40-41 of the indictment)
Trump’s claim of a stolen election whose winner was determined by massive fraud was (and continues to be) his overarching lie about the election. The indictment asserts that Trump knew as early as 2020 that his narrative was false – and had been told as such by numerous senior officials in his administration and allies outside the federal government – but persisted in deploying it anyway, including on January 6 itself.
2. The lie that fake pro-Trump Electoral College electors in seven states were legitimate electors. (Pages 5 and 26)
The indictment alleges that Trump and his alleged co-conspirators “organized” the phony slates of electors and then “caused” the slates to be transmitted to Vice President Mike Pence and other government officials to try to get them counted on January 6, the day Congress met to count the electoral votes.
3. The lie that the Justice Department had identified significant concerns that may have affected the outcome of the election. (Pages 6 and 27)
Attorney General William Barr and other top Justice Department officials had told Trump that his claims of major fraud had proved to be untrue. But the indictment alleges that Trump still sought to have the Justice Department “make knowingly false claims of election fraud to officials in the targeted states through a formal letter under the Acting Attorney General’s signature, thus giving the Defendant’s lies the backing of the federal government and attempting to improperly influence the targeted states to replace legitimate Biden electors with the Defendant’s.”
4. The lie that Pence had the power to reject Biden’s electoral votes. (Pages 6, 32-38)
Pence had repeatedly and correctly told Trump that he did not have the constitutional or legal right to send electoral votes back to the states as Trump wanted. The indictment notes that Trump nonetheless repeatedly declared that Pence could do so – first in private conversations and White House meetings, then in tweets on January 5 and January 6, then in Trump’s January 6 speech in Washington at a rally before the riot – in which Trump, angry at Pence, allegedly inserted the false claim into his prepared text even after advisors had managed to temporarily get it removed.
5. The lie that “the Vice President and I are in total agreement that the Vice President has the power to act.” (Page 36)
The indictment alleges that the day before the riot, Trump “approved and caused” his campaign to issue a false statement saying Pence agreed with him about having the power to reject electoral votes – even though Trump knew, from a one-on-one meeting with Pence hours prior, that Pence continued to firmly disagree.
6. The lie that Georgia had thousands of ballots cast in the names of dead people. (Pages 8 and 16)
The indictment notes that Georgia’s top elections official – Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger – a republican – explained to Trump in a phone call on January 2, 2021 that this claim was false, but that Trump repeated it in his January 6 rally speech anyway. Raffensperger said in the phone call and then in a January 6 letter to Congress that just two potential dead-voter cases had been discovered in the state; Raffensperger said in late 2021 that the total had been updated and stood at four.
7. The lie that Pennsylvania had 205,000 more votes than voters. (Pages 8 and 20)
The indictment notes that Trump’s acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue had both told him that this claim was false, but he kept making it anyway – including in the January 6 rally speech.
8. The lie that there had been a suspicious “dump” of votes in Detroit, Michigan. (Pages 9 and 17)
The indictment notes that Barr, the attorney general, told Trump on December 1, 2020 that this was false – as CNN and others had noted, supposedly nefarious “dumps” Trump kept talking about were merely ballots being counted and added to the public totals as normal – but that Trump still repeated the false claim in public remarks the next day. And Barr wasn’t the only one to try to dissuade Trump from this claim. The indictment also notes that Michigan’s Republican Senate majority leader, Mike Shirkey, had told Trump in an Oval Office meeting on November 20, 2020 that Trump had lost the state “not because of fraud” but because Trump had “underperformed with certain voter populations.”
9. The lie that Nevada had tens of thousands of double votes and other fraud. (Page 9)
The indictment notes that Nevada’s top elections official – Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, also a Republican – had publicly posted a “Facts vs. Myths” document explaining that Nevada judges had rejected such claims.
10. The lie that more than 30,000 non-citizens had voted in Arizona. (Pages 9 and 11)
The indictment notes that Trump put the number at “over 36,000” in his January 6 speech – even though, the indictment says, his own campaign manager “had explained to him that such claims were false” and Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican who had supported Trump in the election, “had issued a public statement that there was no evidence of substantial fraud in Arizona.”
11. The lie that voting machines in swing states had switched votes from Trump to Biden. (Page 9)
This is a reference to false conspiracy theories about Dominion Voting Systems machines, which Trump kept repeating long after it was thoroughly debunked by his own administration’s election cybersecurity security arm and many others. The indictment says, “The Defendant’s Attorney General, Acting Attorney General, and Acting Deputy Attorney General all had explained to him that this was false, and numerous recounts and audits had confirmed the accuracy of voting machines.”
12. The lie that Dominion machines had been involved in “massive election fraud.” (Page 12)
The indictment notes that Trump, on Twitter, promoted a lawsuit filed by an alleged co-conspirator, whom CNN has identified as lawyer Sidney Powell, that alleged “massive election fraud” involving Dominion – even though, the indictment says, Trump privately acknowledged to advisors that the claims were “unsupported” and told them Powell sounded “crazy.”
13. The lie that “a substantial number of non-citizens, non-residents, and dead people had voted fraudulently in Arizona.” (Page 10)
The indictment alleges that Trump and an alleged co-conspirator, whom CNN has identified as former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, made these baseless claims on a November 22, 2020 phone call with Bowers; the indictment says Giuliani never provided evidence and eventually said, at a December 1, 2020 meeting with Bowers, “words to the effect of, ‘We don’t have the evidence, but we have lots of theories.”
14. The lie that Fulton County, Georgia elections workers had engaged in “ballot stuffing.” (Pages 13 and 14)
This is the long-debunked lie – which Trump has continued to repeat in 2023 – that a video had caught two elections workers in Atlanta breaking the law. The workers were simply doing their jobs, and, as the indictment notes, they were cleared of wrongdoing by state officials in 2020 – but Trump continued to make the claims even after Raffensperger and Justice Department officials directly and repeatedly told him they were unfounded.
15. The lie that thousands of out-of-state voters cast ballots in Georgia. (Page 16)
The indictment notes that Trump made this claim on his infamous January 2, 2021 call with Raffensperger, whose staff responded that the claim was inaccurate. An official in Raffensberger’s office explained to Trump that the voters in question had authentically moved back to Georgia and legitimately cast ballots.
16. The lie that Raffensperger “was unwilling, or unable,” to address Trump’s claims about a “‘ballots under table’ scam, ballot destruction, out of state ‘voters’, dead voters, and more.” (Page 16)
In fact, contrary to this Trump tweet the day after the call, Raffensperger and his staff had addressed and debunked all of these false Trump claims.
17. The lie that there was substantial fraud in Wisconsin and that the state had tens of thousands of unlawful votes. (Page 21)
False and false. But the indictment notes that Trump made the vague fraud claim in a tweet on December 21, 2020, after the state Supreme Court upheld Biden’s win, and repeated the more specific claim about tens of thousands of unlawful votes in the January 6 speech.
18. The lie that Wisconsin had more votes counted than it had actual voters. (Page 21)
This, like Trump’s similar claim about Pennsylvania, is not true. But the indictment alleges that Trump raised the claim in a December 27, 2020 conversation with acting attorney general Rosen and acting deputy attorney general Donoghue, who informed him that it was false.
19. The lie that the election was “corrupt.” (Page 28)
The indictment alleges that when acting attorney general Rosen told Trump on the December 27, 2020 call that the Justice Department couldn’t and wouldn’t change the outcome of the election, Trump responded, “Just say that the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.” (Deputy attorney general Donoghue memorialized the reported Trump remark in his handwritten notes, which CNN reported on in 2021 and which were subsequently published by the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot.)
20. The lie that Trump won every state by hundreds of thousands of votes. (Page 34)
The indictment says that, at a January 4, 2021 meeting intended to convince Pence to unlawfully reject Biden’s electoral votes and send them back to swing-state legislatures, Pence took notes describing Trump as saying, “Bottom line-won every state by 100,000s of votes.” This was, obviously, false even if Trump was specifically talking about swing states won by Biden rather than every state in the nation.
21. The lie that Pennsylvania “want[s] to recertify.” (Page 38)
Trump made this false claim in his January 6 speech. In reality, some Republican state legislators in Pennsylvania had expressed a desire to at least delay the congressional affirmation of Biden’s victory – but the state’s Democratic governor and top elections official, who actually had election certification power in the state, had no desire to recertify Biden’s legitimate win.
| 380
|
Conspiracy theory falsely links Obama to personal chef's paddleboarding death
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-03-0810/facts-and-fact-checking-conspiracy-theory-falsely-links-obama-personal-chefs
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/08/02/obama-chef-tafari-campbell-died-in-paddleboarding-accident-fact-check/70507813007/
|
Conspiracy theory falsely links Obama to personal chef's paddleboarding death | Fact check
GABRIELLE SETTLES USA TODAY
Show Caption
The claim: Post implies image of Obama golfing is evidence he killed personal chef Tafari Campbell
A July 29 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a photo of former President Barack Obama on the golf course alongside a closeup of his face and what appears to be bandaged fingers.
“This is the very first picture taken of Barack Hussein Obama just days after his personal chef, Tafari Campbell, mysteriously died in three feet of water at Obama’s home in Martha’s Vineyard,” reads the caption. “Golfing, no care in the world. Black eye. Cuts on his hands. As if he got into a fight. VERY odd.”
Commenters took this to mean Obama was involved in the death.
One commenter wrote, "Sounds like a suspect to me. Where’s the FBI? Barack Obama belongs (in) jail."
"How does a grown man die in 3 foot of water and nobody question it?? On top of that the dudes employer has cuts all on his hands and a black eye," another commenter posted.
The post accumulated more than 13,000 likes in three days.
Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks
Our rating: Missing context
The implied claim here is wrong. There is no evidence Obama was involved in Campbell's death. Police say there is no evidence the death was suspicious and that his body had no signs of trauma.
Obamas were not at home at the time of Campbell’s death
Massachusetts State Police said in reports that there was no evidence Campbell's death was suspicious, and his body showed no signs of injury or trauma.
Campbell died in a July 23 paddleboarding accident in Martha’s Vineyard when he fell off of his board and struggled to resurface. Campbell was in a pond near the Obamas’ home, but the Obamas were not there at the time, police said.
Campbell was with another paddle boarder in Edgartown Great Pond and was not wearing a life jacket when he fell into the water. The other paddle boarder, who authorities have yet to name, tried to save him but swam to shore for help when those attempts were unsuccessful.
After a search that involved side-scan sonar, police found Campbell’s body on July 24. He was found 100 feet from shore in 8 feet of water, which means he did not drown in 3 feet of water, as the post claims.
Fact check: No evidence Bronny James, other athletes, were injured by COVID-19 vaccine
Obama’s taped fingers are golf equipment, not evidence of a crime
The photos in the post are cropped versions of photos originally published by the Daily Mail tabloid on July 28. Those photos, from various angles, to not appear to show a black eye.
As for his fingers, it’s a common practice for golfers to tape their fingers to protect from blisters while they play. Obama has previously been photographed with taped fingers while playing golf, including in 2015.
USA TODAY reached out to the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The Associated Press and PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Massachusetts State Police, July 24, UPDATE #3–Joint Search Operation Underway for Missing Paddle Boarder on Edgartown Great Pond
Massachusetts State Police, July 24, UPDATE #2-MSP Divers, Environmental Police Recover Body of Paddle Boarder from Edgartown Great Pond
The Independent, July 27, Obama chef Tafari Campbell died in a tragic paddleboard accident. Three questions remain unanswered
Daily Mail, July 28, EXCLUSIVE: Barack Obama pictured playing golf while wife Michelle hits the tennis courts on Martha's Vineyard for the first time since the death of their personal chef Tafari Campbell
The Spokesman-Review, Aug. 9, 2015, People: Obama hits the golf course in Martha’s Vineyard
GolfSpan, July 20, Why Do Golfers Tape Their Fingers?
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
| 381
|
Everything old is new again? The latest round of health policy proposals reprises existing ideas
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-28-0831/healthcare-everything-old-new-again-latest-round-health-policy-proposals
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/jul/25/everything-old-is-new-again-the-latest-round-of-he/
|
Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., has backed the CHOICE Arrangement Act, one of several new measures the GOP has floated that could subtly circumvent the Affordable Care Act. (AP)
Forget "repeal and replace," an oft-repeated Republican rallying cry against the Affordable Care Act.
House Republicans have advanced a package of bills that could reduce health insurance costs for certain businesses and consumers, partly by rolling back some consumer protections. Rather than outright repeal, however, the subtler effort could allow more employers to bypass the landmark health insurance overhaul’s basic benefits requirements and most state standards.
At the same time, the Biden administration seeks to undo some of the previous administration’s health insurance rules, proposing to retighten regulations for short-term plans.
Health policy experts aren’t surprised. Most of the GOP policy ideas have long drawn Republican support, have raised concern from Democrats about reduced consumer protections and could fall under the theme: Everything old is new again.
Association health plans. Self-insurance. Giving workers money to buy their own individual coverage instead of offering a group plan. These are the buzzwords and, ultimately, revolve around one issue, said Joseph Antos, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-learning Washington, D.C.-based think tank. "The real problem is the rising cost of health care. Always has been," he said. And that problem, he added, is larger than the proposed solutions.
"It’s not clear that this kind of an approach would substantially help very many people," Antos said.
The latest round of rules and legislation comes as the Affordable Care Act — passed in 2010 — is now cemented in the system. More than 16 million people enrolled in their own plans this year, and millions more are getting coverage through expanded Medicaid in all but 10 states, leading to an all-time-low uninsured rate.
But even with enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans, initially approved in the American Rescue Plan and extended through 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act, some people still struggle to afford deductibles or other costs, and employers — especially small ones — have long wrestled with rising insurance costs and the ability to offer coverage at all.
So, what is on the table in Washington? First, a caveat: Little is likely to happen in an election year.
Although the Biden administration’s proposed regulations on short-term plans are likely to go into effect, either this year or early next, the GOP’s House-passed legislation — dubbed the CHOICE Arrangement Act, for Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense — is unlikely to win favor in the Democratic-controlled Senate. If Republicans were to retake the Senate and White House, though, it illustrates the health policy direction they could take.
Here are the broad issues on the radar:
These types of plans have been sold for decades, often as a stopgap measure for people between jobs.
They can be far less expensive than more traditional coverage because short-term plans vary widely and "run the gamut from comprehensive policies to fairly minimal policies," said Louise Norris, an insurance broker who regularly writes about health policy.
The plans don’t have to cover all the benefits required of Affordable Care Act plans, for example, and can bar coverage for preexisting medical conditions, can set annual or lifetime limits, and often don’t include maternity care or prescription drugs. Despite notices warning of such policies’ limitations, consumers may not realize what isn’t covered until they try to use the plan.
Concerned that people would choose this option instead of more comprehensive and more expensive insurance offered through the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s administration set rules limiting the policy terms to three months.
President Donald Trump’s administration loosened those rules, allowing plans to again be sold as 364-day policies, and adding the ability for insurers to renew them for up to three years. Now, President Joe Biden, whose representatives have called such plans "junk insurance," proposes reining those in again, restricting policies to four months, at most.
The Biden proposal cites estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation that about 1.5 million people are enrolled in such plans.
Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank, decried the proposed rule in an opinion piece published by The Hill. He wrote that the Biden proposal removes an important lower-cost alternative and could leave some consumers facing "sky-high medical bills for up to one year" if their policies expire between open enrollment periods for Affordable Care Act plans.
The real fight comes down to defining "short-term," said John McDonough, a professor of public health practice at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, who worked on the original Affordable Care Act legislation.
Progressives and Democrats support the view that "short-term" should end after four months and "then people go into an ACA plan or Medicaid," he said. "Republicans and conservatives would like this to be an alternative permanent coverage model for folks, some of whom legitimately know what they are getting and are willing to roll the dice."
Meanwhile, the House-passed CHOICE Arrangement Act, among other things, would allow more self-employed people and businesses to band together to buy association health plans, which are essentially large group plans purchased by multiple employers.
These can be less expensive because they don’t have to meet all Affordable Care Act requirements, such as covering a specified set of benefits that includes hospitalization, prescription drugs, and mental health care. Historically, some also have had solvency issues and state regulators have investigated claims of false advertising by certain association plans.
Another piece of the legislation would help more small employers self-insure, which also allows them to bypass many ACA requirements and most state insurance rules.
Both proposals represent a "chipping away at the foundation edges of the ACA structure," said McDonough.
The package also codifies Trump-era regulations allowing employers to provide workers with tax-free contributions to shop for their own insurance, so long as it is an Affordable Care Act-qualified plan, a benefit known as an individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement.
The CHOICE Arrangement Act "will go a long way toward reducing insurance costs for employers, ensuring that workers continue to have access to high-quality, affordable health care," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., in prepared remarks as the bill went before the House Committee on Rules in June.
Giving workers a set amount of money to buy their own coverage allows employees to choose what works best for them, supporters say. Critics warn that many workers may be unprepared to shop and that the effort by some employers might prove discriminatory.
"Firms may find strategies to shift sicker workers to HRAs, even with guardrails in the legislation meant to prevent this," according to a blog post from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Not so, said Robin Paoli, executive director of the HRA Council, a nonprofit advocacy organization with members that include insurers, employers and other organizations that support such individual accounts.
Employers have some discretion in choosing which groups of employees are offered such accounts, often based on geography, but cannot create a group made up solely of "people over 65, or a class of sick people," said Paoli. "The rules absolutely prohibit discrimination based on age or health condition."
The other two ideas — associations and the self-insured proposal — have drawn opposition from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which wrote to House leaders that the package "threatens the authority of states to protect consumers and markets" because it affects the ability of states to regulate such plans.
Current law allows businesses in the same industry to band together to buy coverage, essentially creating a larger pool that then can, theoretically, wield more negotiating clout and get better rates.
The House legislation would make changes to allow more self-employed people and businesses that aren’t in the same industry to ally similarly.
Some policy experts said expanding access to association plans and self-insurance to smaller businesses might adversely affect some workers by drawing healthier people out of the overall market for small-group insurance and potentially raising premiums for those who remain.
"The big picture of what these bills do is allow (employers and) insurance companies to get out from under the ACA standards and protections and offer cheaper insurance to younger and healthier employee groups," said Sabrina Corlette, a researcher and the co-director of the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University.
But attorney Christopher Condeluci, who worked with GOP lawmakers in drafting the legislation, takes a different view. The entire GOP package, he said, represents "improvements to the status quo" that are needed because small businesses and individuals are confronting "health costs continuing to rise" and "out-of-pocket costs continuing to increase."
See source links in story text.
The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter
| 382
|
Did Matt Gaetz’s Wife Call for Boycott of 'Barbie' After Watching the Movie?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-21-0549/facts-and-fact-checking-did-matt-gaetz-s-wife-call-boycott-barbie-after
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/matt-gaetz-wife-boycott-barbie-movie/
| 383
|
|
Video shows comedian, not Disney executive, speaking at city council meeting
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-19-0636/facts-and-fact-checking-video-shows-comedian-not-disney-executive-speaking-city
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/07/17/no-disney-isnt-opening-pediatric-transgender-clinics-fact-check/70414918007/
|
Video shows comedian, not Disney executive, speaking at city council meeting | Fact check
HANNAH HUDNALL USA TODAY
Show Caption
The claim: Video shows Disney executive announcing company's new pediatric transgender clinics
A July 7 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) begins with a screenshot of a headline that reads, "DISNEY EXECUTIVE REVEALS SHOCKING NEXT PHASE FOR COMPANY – NOBODY SAW THIS COMING…OR DID THEY?"
The video then shows a man walking up to a podium and speaking to a table of city council members.
"Thank you, I'm Alan Bergman," the man says. "I'm the co-chair of the entertainment division at Disney and we have a special announcement to make today. ... We're proud to announce that this summer we're going to be opening Disney-themed pediatric transgender clinics for the children across the country."
The video includes screenshots of articles about Disney including LGBTQ characters in its shows and movies.
The post garnered more than 4,000 shares in a week, while the original TikTok garnered more than 7,000 likes in nine days. Similar versions of the claim have been shared on Facebook and Instagram.
Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks
Our rating: False
The video features a comedian satirically posing as a Disney executive. The company isn't opening any transgender clinics.
Video was created as satire
The headline featured in the Facebook video comes from a Bitchute video shared by conservative comedian Mark Dice, who attended a June 21 Oceanside City Council Meeting in California.
The video's description says Dice was posing as Bergman, the Disney co-chair, as a form of satire.
"While it's 'just' satire, is it really that far from the actual truth?" reads the description.
Dice shared the video on YouTube as well with the same satire disclaimer.
Fact check: No, National Guard is not blocking Disney World entrances; claim is satire
Nine days later, the comedian shared a similar video on YouTube, in which he attended a Del Mar City Council meeting in California and made the same claim posing as Bergman.
The Facebook video is an example of what could be called "stolen satire," where posts created as satire and presented that way originally are reposted in a way that makes them appear to be legitimate news. As a result, readers of the second-generation post are misled, as was the case here.
Dice has uploaded numerous videos of himself attending various city council meetings across California, posing as other characters such as a professor who teaches critical race theory and a father of a transgender Ugandan child.
Bergman is pictured on the Disney website and clearly looks different than Dice.
There haven't been any credible reports of Disney opening transgender clinics.
USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. The TikTok user couldn't be contacted.
The claim has also been debunked by PolitiFact.
Our fact-check sources:
Mark Dice (Bitchute), June 28, DISNEY EXECUTIVE REVEALS SHOCKING NEXT PHASE FOR COMPANY - NOBODY SAW THIS COMING…OR DID THEY?
Mark Dice (YouTube), June 28, Disney’s Creepy New Plans for Kids
Mark Dice (YouTube), July 7, Recognize This Guy? He's BAAACK
Mark Dice (YouTube), Aug. 3, 2022, Yes, That's Me! (Seriously)
Mark Dice (YouTube), April 6, 2022, Trolling City Council To Show People What Democrats Actually Believe
Mark Dice (YouTube), June 19, Wait For It…Telling the Truth about "Pride Month" to City Council Meeting
KOCT – The Voice of North County (YouTube), June 22, Oceanside City Council Meeting: June 21, 2023
The Walt Disney Company, accessed July 14, Alan Bergman
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
View |22 Photos
'The Little Mermaid': Disney live-action remakes, ranked worst to best
With Halle Bailey starring in new 'The Little Mermaid,' let's rank Disney's live-action revamps of their animated classics from worst to best.
| 384
|
Sen. Tommy Tuberville overestimates number of abortions military women would seek out under new DOD policies, researchers say
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-07-17-0859/facts-and-fact-checking-sen-tommy-tuberville-overestimates-number-abortions
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/12/politics/tommy-tuberville-abortion-military-fact-check/index.html
|
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
CNN
—
Despite frequent claims from Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama that new Pentagon reproductive health policies would result in thousands more abortions a year, the number estimated by a study Tuberville himself cites is far lower, though nearly impossible to actually know.
Tuberville is protesting new Pentagon reproductive health policies, which provide a travel allowance to service members and their dependents who must cross state lines to get an abortion because of where they are stationed. In the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last year, many states had so-called “trigger laws” go into place, immediately restricting abortion access. Tuberville is holding up hundreds of senior military nominations that must be confirmed by the Senate to protest the policies.
The Defense Department said earlier this year that because service members cannot choose what states they are stationed in, the Pentagon would provide up to three weeks of leave and a travel allowance for service members and dependents who have to travel out of state to receive care. The leave also applied to people who were traveling to receive other reproductive health care not covered by the military, including in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intrauterine insemination (IUI).
In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in December, Tuberville referenced a briefing he said he received from the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. The briefing, he said, stated that the new policies “would increase DoD subsidized abortions by as much as 4,100 per year. That estimate does not include dependents, which your policy also intends to cover, who might seek assistance in obtaining an abortion.”
The new policies providing a travel allowance to receive an abortion do apply to dependents. Tuberville’s office told CNN that the number he is referencing came from a study by the RAND Corporation, a research organization which often conducts research on behalf of the DOD.
Tuberville repeated a similar claim on Monday, during an interview on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.”
“We’ve done a couple of dozen abortions in the military for the last 40 years, a couple dozen a year,” he said. “Now we’re going to have 4,000 to 5,000 a year because this new rule, this new supposedly law that this administration’s pushing through. So let’s think about the unborn.”
Facts First: Tuberville’s claim is incorrect. He is misleadingly comparing the number of covered abortions provided by DOD health facilities with an estimate of how many women in the military receive abortions outside of those health facilities, have ectopic pregnancies or still births annually. RAND researchers, one of whom was directly involved in the study Tuberville cites, told CNN that Tuberville is significantly overestimating the number of women in the military who would take advantage of the new DOD policies.
The survey being referenced by Tuberville was conducted in 2020 and sponsored by the Defense Department, according to Dr. Sarah Meadows, a senior sociologist at RAND.
While it’s not possible to know exactly how many people would use the Pentagon’s new policies to be reimbursed for travel to receive an abortion, the estimates calculated through the 2020 survey provide a window into how many women in uniform may seek out abortion care.
In the survey, Meadows said they asked women who had been pregnant in the last 12 months how their pregnancy ended – in a birth, miscarriage, or “other.” The “other” category included ectopic pregnancies, still births and abortions. Meadows said other data on pregnancies led researchers to believe the bulk of the pregnancies marked as ending in “other” were abortions.
That number was then taken by RAND and applied to the total population of women in the military, which gave them an estimated range of how many pregnancies of members of the military would end in one of the “other” categories.
“The other thing to keep in mind,” Meadows explained, “is that’s total. That is every active-duty service woman in every state in the continental United States, to include Alaska and Hawaii. So, of those, only a certain percentage will need to travel to receive abortion care … So, people use those numbers, but it’s really only like half, 46% actually, of those women who are seeking an abortion will need to travel to get it based on where they live.”
Even Meadow’s estimate of about 2,000 assumes all of the women who would need to travel to get an abortion would take advantage of the Pentagon’s new policies, which even she said is not likely. Previous data shows that a “not insubstantial percentage” of women don’t feel comfortable even getting contraceptive care through military health facilities, Meadows said.
“They don’t want the military health system to know what they’re doing, essentially,” she said. “So, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that … there’s still this barrier, that you’re going to have to go to your commander and say, ‘I need this, you know, administrative leave,’ and then I have to process the paperwork to get reimbursed for travel and my hotel and per diem.”
RAND senior political scientist Dr. Kyleanne Hunter added that many women in the military are barely comfortable telling their commanders of planned pregnancies because of long-existing stigma.
“What we do know as well from other research surveys, but also a lot of focus group research that has been done in the past, is that service women are often very uncomfortable even telling commanders about pregnancies that are wanted,” she said. “And there’s a lot of stigma around just reporting pregnancies – a planned, wanted pregnancy. So again, I think that we don’t have an estimate, but it’s a very reasonable assumption that having to go through the process of getting the travel claim will provide an additional barrier.”
Both Hunter and Meadows pushed back on the idea that the Pentagon’s new policy was providing more abortions as Tuberville has claimed. It is “a factually incorrect statement to say that they’re paying for abortion,” Meadows said.
The Defense Department is not allowed to provide abortions in DOD health facilities outside of three exceptions – in the cases of rape or incest, and when the life of the mother is at risk. A defense official told reporters last year that between 2016 and 2021, a total of 91 covered abortions were performed – coming out to roughly 15 a year.
| 385
|
3 key differences between Donald Trump’s Georgia indictment and his other three
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-15-0622/facts-and-fact-checking-3-key-differences-between-donald-trump-s-georgia
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
lefts
|
https://politifact.com/article/2023/aug/15/three-key-differences-between-Donald-Trump
|
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, center, speaks during a news conference on Aug. 14, 2023, in Atlanta. (AP)
A grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, handed up an indictment against former President Donald Trump and 18 alleged co-conspirators, charging them with efforts to overturn his 2020 loss in the battleground state.
The Aug. 14 indictment in Georgia was Trump’s fourth in less than five months, following indictments in a New York state hush money case, a federal classified documents case and a federal case addressing efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Trump allies have portrayed the four cases as politically motivated and amounting to prosecutorial overkill.
Although the Georgia case is the last out of the gate, legal experts say it could pose important challenges to Trump that differ from those in the previous three cases.
Here are three ways the Georgia case is different from the previous three, and how that could shape Trump’s legal and political fate.
A key element of the Georgia case will be the use of the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization, or RICO, statute. All 19 people indicted were charged with a RICO count.
RICO laws let prosecutors draw a web of illegal activities committed by co-conspirators — not all of whom may be working directly with one another — into racketeering charges.
RICO laws have been passed both federally and in many states, including Georgia. Traditionally, RICO laws have been used to take down organized crime families and drug trafficking networks, but it’s not unheard of to see RICO used in other contexts.
The Georgia case is the only one of the four indictment cases to include RICO charges, and that gives Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis unusual powers.
"RICO is a very expansive statute in Georgia, as well as on the federal level," said Joan Meyer, a former prosecutor and partner at the law firm Thompson Hine LLP.
Meyer said a RICO case has advantages, and downsides, for the prosecution.
A RICO case is more complicated and time consuming to try in court, because it involves a more detailed web of charges.
In contrast to Willis, Jack Smith, the federal special counsel, sought to indict just Trump in the election-overturning case, rather than also seeking indictments for a half-dozen co-conspirators who were cited anonymously in the indictment. Smith’s approach was widely seen as an effort to simplify the prosecution’s task — and quicken the case’s resolution.
However, using RICO provides prosecutors with useful leverage, too, legal experts said. RICO-related charges carry a maximum of 20-year prison terms — the longest of any of the charges Trump has been indicted for. And, under Georgia’s RICO statute, anyone convicted must serve a mandatory minimum sentence, all but guaranteeing prison time for Trump or others if they are convicted.
"When defendants face these kinds of charges, they generally opt to plead guilty and cooperate against each other," Meyer said. State prosecutors typically have room to negotiate a deal after indictment, she said, so "we may see some plea maneuvering even at this late stage."
The Georgia case could become the hardest one for Trump to avoid consequences.
A big part of Trump’s legal strategy has been to delay his cases from advancing for as long as possible. That way, he might be able to win the presidency and make his federal legal problems disappear.
If he takes office before the federal cases reach a verdict, he could order the Justice Department to shut down the prosecutions. If the federal cases have proceeded to a verdict or sentencing, he could argue that presidents can’t be prosecuted while in office, or Trump might even try to pardon himself.
These actions in federal cases would be untested legally, but a president’s ability to interfere in a state prosecution would be even more limited, legal experts agreed. Arguing that Trump has immunity from prosecution in a state case would be a tough sell.
"His argument would likely rely on principles of federalism and separation of powers," said Thomas Healy, a Seton Hall University law professor. "Would this argument succeed? It's hard to say because no court has ever addressed the question."
Trump would also be unable to pardon his co-conspirators in a state case, which gives the state prosecutors greater leverage to flip them against Trump, said Seth Kreimer, a University of Pennsylvania law professor.
In Georgia, the governor lacks pardon power. Instead, it’s up to a five-member state panel, which would complicate potential lobbying efforts by Trump. In any case, under Georgia law, pardons can be given only to those who have completed their sentence for at least five years.
The New York state case — which involves charges of falsifying business records in connection with payments to adult film actor Stormy Daniels — could also provide enough distance to preclude any efforts by a reelected Trump to intervene.
However, the New York charges "are based on a new legal theory and could be dismissed at some point," said Ric Simmons, an Ohio State University law professor. "That is unlikely to happen to the Georgia RICO charges."
Adding another case for Trump to defend against will further burden his team of attorneys. "Trump’s lawyers are fighting on all fronts now, so the emergence of a case this large means that scheduling and legal strategizing are made much harder," Meyer said.
Gregory P. Magarian, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, agreed.
"Politically, I don’t see the Georgia indictment moving any needle much," he said. "Legally and materially, however, it will make Trump’s situation even more challenging."
RELATED: Fact-check: 8 Pants on Fire statements by Donald Trump about Georgia 2020 election
RELATED: Read the indictment of Donald Trump in Georgia 2020 election case
RELATED: Read all of PolitiFact's coverage on Donald Trump indictments
The Washington Post, "RICO, the Georgia anti-racketeering law that could be used to charge Trump," Aug. 14, 2023
Axios, "Why Georgia's case against Trump could be so damaging," Aug. 14, 2023
Email interview with Joan Meyer, former prosecutor and partner at the law firm Thompson Hine LLP, Aug. 14, 2023
Email interview with Neama Rahmani, former federal prosecutor who is now president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, Aug. 14, 2023
Email interview with Gregory P. Magarian, law professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Aug. 14, 2023
Email interview with Seth Kreimer, University of Pennsylvania law professor, Aug. 14, 2023
Email interview with Ric Simmons, Ohio State University law professor, Aug. 14, 2023
Email interview with Thomas Healy, law professor at Seton Hall University, Aug. 14, 2023
The Principles of the Truth-O-Meter
| 386
|
COVID-19 Vaccines Have Not Been Shown to Cause ‘Turbo Cancer’
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-09-01-0622/facts-and-fact-checking-covid-19-vaccines-have-not-been-shown-cause-turbo
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/covid-19-vaccines-have-not-been-shown-to-cause-turbo-cancer/
|
SciCheck Digest
People with cancer are particularly vulnerable to severe disease and death from COVID-19. Vaccines provide needed protection. It has not been shown that COVID-19 vaccines cause or accelerate cancer. Nor does a recent paper about a mouse that died of lymphoma “prove” that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine induced “turbo cancer,” contrary to social media claims.
How do we know vaccines are safe?
Full Story
COVID-19 has killed more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. People with cancer who get COVID-19 have an elevated risk of severe disease and death, especially those who have certain blood cancers. Vaccines help mitigate these risks.
The COVID-19 vaccines can cause largely minor and short-lived side effects, such as fatigue and soreness at the injection site, which have been generally consistent in people with and without cancer. There isn’t evidence to date that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer or lead to worsening cancer for people who already have it.
However, unsupported claims that the COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer have repeatedly surfaced on social media. “SHOCKING: New Study proves Pfizer mRNA induced turbo cancer,” recent posts have said. They claimed that a single mouse in this study “died suddenly,” a phrase associated with a family of groundless claims that the COVID-19 vaccines are killing large numbers of people.
Sander Eens, a cardiovascular disease researcher at the University of Antwerp who co-authored the study in question, criticized how the social media posts characterized his work.
“Specifically, our case report has been misinterpreted as evidence that Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 mRNA vaccine could cause a scientifically unrecognized phenomenon called ‘turbo-cancer,’” he told us in an email.
“Turbo cancer” is a term used by people who claim that the COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous and can cause particularly fast-growing cancer, but there isn’t evidence that this phenomenon is real.
The recent study, published May 1 in Frontiers in Oncology, describes one mouse that died from lymphoma out of 14 mice that were given a high dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine delivered into their veins, which is not how the COVID-19 vaccines are given to people. The study does not show the mouse’s blood cancer was related to the vaccine.
“Our case report in no way attempts to demonstrate a causal relationship between the identified lymphoma and the mRNA vaccine,” Eens said. He added that he and his colleagues have now dosed 70 mice with the vaccine and have seen no further cases of any type of cancer.
Dr. Jason D. Goldman, an infectious disease physician, clinical researcher and epidemiologist at Swedish Medical Center and the University of Washington, emphasized the difficulty of determining whether one event causes another.
“You really can’t tell from a one-off if something has a causal relationship, meaning, does the vaccine cause the cancer? … Cancer happens, and when you vaccinate billions of people, of course many events are going to happen after the vaccines because that’s what happens and it would have happened anyway,” he said. “When we start seeing more patterns is when we think about causality.”
So far, researchers have not seen a larger pattern. “Lastly, we would like to stress that COVID-19 vaccines have demonstrated exceptional safety and efficacy in the fight against the pandemic, and manifestations of serious adverse events after COVID-19 vaccination are very rare,” Eens told us. “To date, there is no scientific evidence of a causal link between mRNA vaccines and cancer development.”
Mouse Study Does Not ‘Prove’ Vaccine Caused Cancer
COVID-19 vaccines are injected into the muscle. Eens and his colleagues gave mice either a high dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine or a placebo delivered directly into their bloodstream.
The study was not meant to evaluate cancer in mice. Rather, the researchers were attempting to induce myocarditis, they explained in their paper, with the intent to use the mice to study this problem. Myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, is a rare serious side effect of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
Photo by Daniel Jędzura/stock.adobe.com
The mice generally did not experience adverse events, with the exception of the one mouse that died of B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma two days after its second vaccine dose. Lymphomas are cancers of immune cells originating in the lymphatic system. There are many different types of lymphoma and they come with a variety of possible treatments and prognoses in humans.
Sanjay Mishra, coordinator of the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium registry and a researcher at Brown University, told us in an email that the particular type of mice used in the study “are predisposed to developing sarcomas and lymphomas, which is why they are used so frequently in neoplastic [cancer-related] studies.” He also said the “unusually high concentration” of vaccine delivered to the mice and the intravenous delivery were limitations of the work.
Eens called his paper a “case report” and explained that these studies “are certainly not used to demonstrate causality (i.e., in this case between COVID-19 vaccination and the lymphoma).”
Writing on his blog Respectful Insolence, surgical oncologist and researcher Dr. David Gorski said that it was highly unusual to even write a case report about a mouse — case reports are usually done to describe clinical cases in humans.
Gorski also estimated that relative to their body weight, the mice got a vaccine dose that was hundreds of times greater than the dose adult humans get. And he said that the mouse likely already had cancer before ever being vaccinated, pointing out that it had already lost a large amount of weight before getting the first dose — a sign of preexisting disease.
No Established Link Between COVID-19 Vaccines and Cancer
The COVID-19 vaccines were tested in large clinical trials, which helped establish their more common side effects and did not show a link between the vaccines and cancer.
Safety monitoring systems look out for further side effects once vaccines are broadly available. And although the initial COVID-19 vaccine trials did not include many people with cancer, researchers have subsequently studied safety in this group of people.
“Whether original trials studied enough cases with lymphoma or not, there is no evidence since their roll-out that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer, lead to recurrence, or lead to disease progression,” Mishra said.
Pfizer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration told Lead Stories in response to questions about Eens’s study that their monitoring had not uncovered a causal link or safety signal related to cancer and COVID-19 vaccines.
Scientists have raised theoretical concerns about a relationship between vaccination and lymphoma before, based on an association of some lymphomas with inflammation and autoimmune conditions. Vaccines “may overstimulate the immune system as well as trigger autoimmune responses,” Mishra said.
Dr. Jeremy Warner, a physician focused on blood cancer and cancer informatics at Brown University, told us that “lymphomas are a very unusual family of cancers and I don’t want to pretend that we know everything about their etiology.” He said that inflammation-related lymphomas are often indolent, meaning they are slow-growing.
Studies have mainly either found no association between vaccination and risk of lymphoma or have found a decreased risk.
A 2022 study of 2,461 people with lymphoma and 2,253 people without lymphoma compared their history of vaccination for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, yellow fever and flu. The study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, did not find an increased risk of lymphoma in people who had been vaccinated and found that vaccination was in some cases associated with a lower risk of lymphoma.
“COVID-19 vaccines should be no different than other vaccines, despite being of a different class,” Mishra said.
Human Case Reports Do Not Show What Caused Lymphomas
Eens and his colleagues cited past case reports of lymphoma diagnosis, progression, regression or recurrence in humans after vaccination. These case reports describe a variety of types of lymphoma.
As we have discussed, case reports can help guide hypotheses, but they are not meant to be definitive or show causal relationships.
“Any observations in humans are most likely confusing correlation for causation,” Warner said. He added that “most people are getting vaccinated now, which means most new lymphoma diagnoses will occur in temporal relation to vaccination, whether or not they have anything to do with vaccination.”
Some of the case reports describe lymphomas that developed on one side near the site of vaccination, but this is also not necessarily evidence that the vaccines caused the lymphomas. A study published earlier this year in Cancer Medicine illustrates this point.
A group of German researchers decided to look into lymphoma and COVID-19 vaccination at two medical centers after they diagnosed lymphoma in the armpits of two patients. These lymphomas were found on the same sides where the patients had been vaccinated, in lymph nodes that could have received drainage from the deltoid region where the COVID-19 vaccines are generally given.
But after analyzing 313 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the researchers found that lymphomas manifested on one side of the body in deltoid drainage lymph nodes at similar rates both before and after the COVID-19 vaccines became available. For patients diagnosed with lymphoma after vaccination, there was no association between the sides where the lymphomas appeared and where they got the shot.
COVID-19 Vaccines Benefit Cancer Patients
The CDC and various cancer-related organizations recommend that cancer patients get vaccinated against COVID-19. Some people with cancer, particularly those with certain blood cancers or receiving certain treatments, may have a weaker immune response to the vaccines. Even so, most patients have at least some benefit from vaccination.
“Patients with hematologic malignancies are at greater risk of illness and mortality from COVID-19, so despite the limited immunological response of the vaccines, they are highly advised to get the vaccines and boosters,” Mishra said.
“When we give vaccines to patients with lymphoma, we don’t see any turbocharging of the cancer clinically, and we do see protection sometimes from getting COVID at all, but more commonly from getting a serious form of COVID that could result in getting on a ventilator or death,” said Goldman, who specializes in treating immunocompromised patients in his work as an infectious disease doctor at Swedish Medical Center.
The CDC recommends that people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised get extra vaccine doses. This group includes people who have blood cancers associated with reduced vaccine response, as well as people with cancer who are currently in treatment.
Editor’s note: SciCheck’s articles providing accurate health information and correcting health misinformation are made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation has no control over FactCheck.org’s editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation.
Sources
“COVID Data Tracker: Trends.” CDC website. Accessed 31 Aug 2023.
Venkatesulu, Bhanu Prasad, et al. “A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cancer Patients Affected by a Novel Coronavirus.” JNCI Cancer Spectrum. 24 Feb 2021.
Han, Shuting et al. “Impact of Cancer Diagnoses on the Outcomes of Patients with COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” BMJ Open. 7 Feb 2022.
Starkey, Thomas et al. “A Population-Scale Temporal Case–Control Evaluation of COVID-19 Disease Phenotype and Related Outcome Rates in Patients with Cancer in England (UKCCP).” Scientific Reports. 25 Jul 2023.
Khoury, Emma et al. “Differences in Outcomes and Factors Associated With Mortality Among Patients With SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Cancer Compared With Those Without Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” JAMA Network Open. 9 May 2022.
“COVID-19 Resources and FAQs.” Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website. Updated 11 Aug 2023.
Henley, S. Jane et al. “COVID-19 and Other Underlying Causes of Cancer Deaths — United States, January 2018–July 2022.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 16 Dec 2022.
“Overview COVID-19 Vaccination.” CDC website. Updated 23 May 2023.
Hicks, Lisa K. and Vijenthira, Abi. “COVID-19 and Blood Cancer in the Vaccination Era.” Blood. 29 Dec 2022.
Best, Ana F. et al. “COVID-19 Severity by Vaccination Status in the NCI COVID-19 and Cancer Patients Study (NCCAPS).” Journal of the National Cancer Institute. 25 Jan 2023.
Tan, Wei Chong et al. “COVID-19 Severity and Waning Immunity After up to 4 mRNA Vaccine Doses in 73 608 Patients With Cancer and 621 475 Matched Controls in Singapore: A Nationwide Cohort Study.” JAMA Oncology. 13 Jul 2023.
“How Safe Are the Vaccines?” FactCheck.org. Updated 17 May 2023.
Fendler, Annika et al. “COVID-19 Vaccines in Patients with Cancer: Immunogenicity, Efficacy and Safety.” Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. 11 Mar 2022.
“COVID-19 Vaccines in People with Cancer.” American Cancer Society website. Updated 12 May 2023.
“COVID-19 Vaccines and People with Cancer.” National Cancer Institute website. Updated 1 Aug 2023.
Spencer, Saranac Hale. “Idaho Doctor Makes Baseless Claims About Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines.” FactCheck.org. Updated 10 Feb 2022.
Spencer, Saranac Hale. “Three Canadian Doctors Died of Long-Term Illnesses, Contrary to False Claims COVID-19 Vaccine Was Cause.” FactCheck.org. Updated 5 Aug 2022.
Dr Liz O’Riordan (@Liz_ORiordan). “This is complete and utter NONSENSE!!!!” X. 3 Aug 2023.
Leading Report (@LeadingReport). “BREAKING: New study proves Pfizer mRNA vaccine induced turbo cancer.” X. 18 Aug 2023.
DiedSuddenly (@DiedSuddenly_). “SHOCKING: New Study proves Pfizer mRNA induced turbo cancer.” X. 18 Aug 2023.
Welbern Media (@welbernmedia). “SHOCKING: New Study proves Pfizer mRNA induced turbo cancer.” Instagram. 20 Aug 2023.
Spencer, Saranac Hale et al. “‘Died Suddenly’ Pushes Bogus Depopulation Theory.” FactCheck.org. 1 Dec 2022.
Jaramillo, Catalina. “Autopsy Study Doesn’t Show COVID-19 Vaccines Are Unsafe.” FactCheck.org. 21 Dec 2022.
Eens, Sander et al. “B-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma Following Intravenous BNT162b2 mRNA Booster in a BALB/c Mouse: A Case Report.” Frontiers in Oncology. 1 May 2023.
Gorski, David. “Do COVID-19 vaccines cause “turbo cancer”?” Science-Based Medicine. 19 Dec 2022.
“Lymphoma.” National Library of Medicine: Medline Plus. Updated 23 May 2016.
“Advances in Lymphoma Research.” National Cancer Institute website.
Orac (Gorski, David). “A Mouse ‘Died Suddenly’ of ‘Turbo Cancer’ after COVID-19 Vaccination.” Respectful Insolence. 12 Jul 2023.
McDonald, Jessica. “A Guide to Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine.” FactCheck.org. Updated 21 Apr 2023.
McDonald, Jessica. “A Guide to Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 Vaccine.” FactCheck.org. Updated 21 Apr 2023.
McDonald, Jessica. “A Guide to Novavax’s COVID-19 Vaccine.” FactCheck.org. Updated 20 Oct 2022.
“Selected Adverse Events Reported after COVID-19 Vaccination.” CDC website. Updated 13 Jul 2023.
Desai, Aakash et al. “COVID-19 Vaccine Guidance for Patients with Cancer Participating in Oncology Clinical Trials.” Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology. 15 Mar 2021.
“Covid-19 Vaccine Safety Among Blood Cancer Patients.” Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website. Updated 8 Oct 2021.
Payne, Ed. “Fact Check: New Study Does NOT Prove Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine Induces “Turbo Cancer.”” Lead Stories. 10 July 2023.
Kleinstern, Geffen et al. “Vaccination History and Risk of Lymphoma and Its Major Subtypes.” Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. 7 Feb 2022.
“indolent lymphoma.” NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms. Accessed 31 Aug 2023.
Claaß, Luise Victoria et al. “No Association of Malignant B‐cell non‐Hodgkin Lymphomas with Ipsilateral SARS‐CoV ‐2 Vaccination.” Cancer Medicine. 12 Feb 2023.
“Vaccine Recommendations and Guidelines of the ACIP: Vaccine Administration.” CDC website. 20 Jun 2023.
“Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines in the United States.” CDC website. Updated 12 May 2023.
“COVID-19 Resources for People With Cancer.” Cancer.Net. Accessed 31 Aug 2023.
“Letter to President Biden and Leaders of State Public Health Departments: Prioritizing COVID-19 Vaccines for Patients with Cancer and Survivors of Cancer.” American Association for Cancer Research. 17 Feb 2021.
“COVID-19 Vaccines for People Who Are Moderately or Severely Immunocompromised.” CDC website. Updated 31 May 2023.
Categories FactCheck Posts Featured Posts SciCheck
Issue Cancer COVID-19 COVID-19 Vaccination COVID-19 Vaccines Lymphoma Vaccination Vaccinations Vaccine Vaccine Safety Vaccines
Misconceptions Distortions Of Science Vaccination Safety
| 387
|
Does Joe Biden Want a Two Beers a Week Limit? Explained
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-31-0649/facts-and-fact-checking-does-joe-biden-want-two-beers-week-limit-explained
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.newsweek.com/does-joe-biden-want-two-beers-week-limit-explained-1823358
|
-
| 388
|
Number of Counties Won in Presidential Election Doesn’t Determine Outcome
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-31-0646/facts-and-fact-checking-number-counties-won-presidential-election-doesn-t
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/number-of-counties-won-in-presidential-election-doesnt-determine-outcome/
|
Quick Take
Democrats tend to win in densely populated counties, while Republicans win more sparse, rural counties. In 2020, the counties won by President Joe Biden had 67 million more residents than counties won by former President Donald Trump. Yet a social media post falsely asserts that because Biden won with fewer counties than Trump, “something isn’t adding up.”
Full Story
For decades, Democratic presidential candidates have gotten more votes in densely populated, urban areas than Republicans, who have been favored in more sparsely populated, rural areas.
The same trend held in the 2020 election, when President Joe Biden won 81 million votes, defeating former President Donald Trump, who received 74 million votes. Since Biden’s votes were more concentrated in population centers, he won far fewer counties overall than Trump, whose votes were more spread out.
In fact, the counties that Biden won had 67 million more residents than the counties Trump won, according to an analysis from the Brookings Institute, which counted 551 counties for Biden and 2,588 counties for Trump.
But in the weeks following that election — as Trump and his allies were spreading the false claim that Trump had won the election — conservative commentator Charlie Kirk suggested that there was something suspicious in the outcome because Biden had won fewer counties.
The claim was recently revived by conservative activist Brigitte Gabriel in the days following Trump’s Georgia indictment, which accused him of conspiring to “unlawfully change the outcome” of the 2020 election. On Aug. 20 Gabriel wrote on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, “Biden won 477 counties. Trump won 2,497 counties. Who do you think won the election? Something isn’t adding up.”
Gabriel got the numbers slightly wrong, but the real problem is in her mathematical reasoning.
“The reason Biden won a clear majority of votes while winning a minority of counties is that his support was concentrated in populous counties,” Andrew Eggers, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, and his co-authors wrote in a 2021 paper that addressed several claims made in support of Trump’s false assertion that the election had been stolen from him.
“As Democratic support has become more concentrated in cities, Democratic candidates have tended to win a smaller share of counties even as their share of votes holds steady,” Eggers and his co-authors wrote.
“Thus, the supposedly incredible discrepancy Charlie Kirk highlighted is simply the continuation of a stable trend in US presidential elections,” the authors wrote.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
Parker, Kim, et al. “What United and Divides Urban, Suburban and Rural Communities.” Pew Research Center. 22 May 2018.
Federal Election Commission. “Federal Elections 2020 — Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.” Oct 2022.
Frey, William. “Biden-won counties are home to 67 million more Americans than Trump-won counties.” Brookings Institution. 21 Jan 2021.
Kiely, Eugene, et al. “Trump’s Falsehood-Filled ‘Save America’ Rally.” FactCheck.org. Updated 1 Aug 2023.
Gore, D’Angelo, et al. “Q&A on Trump’s Georgia Indictment.” FactCheck.org. 15 Aug 2023.
Eggers, Andrew, Haritz Garro and Justin Grimmer. “No evidence for systematic voter fraud: A guide to statistical claims about the 2020 election.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2 Nov 2021.
Categories Debunking Viral Claims FactCheck Posts
Tags 2020 Election
Location National
Issue 2020 Election Voter Fraud
People Charlie Kirk
| 389
|
Video: Hearst on the First GOP Debate
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-30-0644/facts-and-fact-checking-video-hearst-first-gop-debate
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/video-hearst-on-the-first-gop-debate/
|
Our article about the first Republican debate of the 2024 election was the basis for this fact-checking video segment produced by Hearst Television — one of our media partners.
The segment — which features Hearst’s Washington, D.C., correspondent Christopher Salas — focuses on claims some of the presidential candidates made about climate change, abortion, education and illegal immigration.
For the full analysis, see our Aug. 24 story, “FactChecking the First GOP Debate.”
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.
Categories FactCheck Posts FactCheck.Org On The Air
Tags 2024 Elections
Location National
Issue Abortion Climate Change Education Illegal Immigration
| 390
|
Did Biden 'Forget' Top Official's Name in White House Speech?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-30-0612/facts-and-fact-checking-did-biden-forget-top-officials-name-white-house-speech
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-biden-forget-top-official-name-1823126
|
-
| 391
|
No Support for Viral Claim That COVID-19 ‘Lockdowns’ Are Returning This Fall
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-28-0629/facts-and-fact-checking-no-support-viral-claim-covid-19-lockdowns-are-returning
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/scicheck-no-support-for-viral-claim-that-covid-19-lockdowns-are-returning-this-fall/
|
SciCheck Digest
The U.S. is seeing an uptick in COVID-19 cases, so it may be prudent for people to wear masks when out in public and take a few extra precautions. But the government is not planning to implement mask mandates or “lockdowns,” despite claims from the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Full Story
In recent weeks, COVID-19 cases, as estimated from wastewater data, and COVID-19 hospitalizations have been on the rise in the U.S. This comes as the omicron variant EG.5, recently designated as a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization, became the newly dominant variant in the country.
This has led some public health experts to suggest that some people — especially those at higher risk of severe COVID-19 — wear masks when out in public, and to be a bit more cautious about contracting the coronavirus.
In a few limited instances, colleges and companies have announced they will be requiring masks for the time being.
But contrary to many viral social media posts, there is no indication that any kind of government-ordered COVID-19 restrictions are about to begin.
In an Aug. 18 episode of “The Alex Jones Show,” the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed sources within the federal government told him “new lockdowns are coming.”
Specifically, he said a “high level manager” in the Transportation Security Administration told him that by mid-September, TSA and airport employees would be required to wear masks due to concerns over “the new variant in Canada.” By mid-October, everyone would have to wear masks on airplanes, he said. He added that the public should expect by December a return to “full COVID protocols.”
Jones then claimed that he called a source within Customs and Border Protection after hearing this, and the source allegedly told him to expect “COVID protocols” to begin rolling out in mid-September and to “get ready for a whole new rollout of what happened before.”
The episode was headlined on Jones’ website InfoWars as “Federal Officials Blow the Whistle on Biden’s Plan for New COVID Lockdowns.”
Jones is best known for his false claim that the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 was fake. Last fall, he was ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in defamatory damages to the families of the victims as a result of his falsehoods. Jones is also a prolific spreader of COVID-19 misinformation, among other topics.
Clips of Jones’ show began circulating online, and dubious websites such as the Gateway Pundit, which frequently traffics in misinformation, and others reported on the “news,” helping to spread the claims on social media. An associated rallying cry, “do not comply,” briefly trended on X, the platform previously known as Twitter. Others have since repeated the claims.
Whether from Jones or not, the rumor that COVID-19 restrictions might be coming back has since been picked up by some politicians.
“If bureaucrats try to reinstate any COVID tyranny measures, resist them with a vengeance,” tweeted Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky on Aug. 25. “Do not comply.”
No Basis for Returning COVID-19 Restrictions
A TSA spokesperson denied Jones’ claims, noting that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — not TSA — is the federal agency responsible for transportation mask requirements.
“TSA is unaware of such a requirement,” the spokesperson told us in an email. “There was no TSA meeting on the topic.”
The CDC similarly said the claims were untrue. “These rumors are utterly false,” Nick Spinelli, a CDC spokesperson, told us in an email.
Moreover, all the talk of the Biden administration reimposing “lockdowns” is not even legally feasible. “The restrictions that were put into place on businesses, on going to the movie theater, on going to the retail mall … all of those were done by states and local governments, not the federal government,” Wendy E. Parmet, a public health law expert at Northeastern University, told us in a phone interview.
The federal government did advise states on restrictions, including when to lift them, and guided Americans on what they should and should not do to stay safe. But ultimately, these were just suggestions.
“It’s conspiracy thinking and it’s catastrophizing,” Parmet said of Jones’ claims.
Parmet added that the restrictions in the U.S., which included business closures and limits on gathering sizes, were not true lockdowns, such as those imposed in China. “The ‘lockdown’ terminology is certainly a misnomer,” she said.
Parmet said that legally, TSA probably could impose mask mandates on its employees, but those would not extend to all airport workers or to passengers. That would be a “labor law issue,” she said, and there might be pushback from the union.
The CDC’s ability to impose a face mask mandate during travel has been contested in court. (Parmet is one of many public health and public health law experts who signed an amicus brief supporting the CDC on this issue.)
The CDC’s previous order expired due to the end of the public health emergency in May and had already become unenforceable in April 2022 due to a court order.
“I think CDC would be extremely wary, and I suspect that the Biden administration will be exceptionally wary right now … for both litigation and political reasons to go down that route unless they feel it is absolutely essential,” Parmet said.
Spinelli noted that the CDC “continues to recommend that all people—passengers and transportation workers, alike—are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccines before they travel and take steps to protect yourself and others.” That can include wearing a mask, if you so choose, when using public transit — but it is not mandated.
The agency currently advises higher-risk people and their contacts to mask up when a person’s county-level hospital admission level is “medium.” When it’s “high,” everyone is advised to wear a high-quality mask or respirator, such as an N95, and higher-risk people are advised to avoid “non-essential indoor activities in public.” But again, these are just recommendations.
As of Aug. 12, no counties are listed as “high,” and fewer than 3% are “medium.”
Some experts have criticized tying public health recommendations to hospital admissions, as this is a lagging indicator, and the warning to take more precautions may come too late for many people.
Customs and Border Protection did not respond to an inquiry about Jones’ claims with any information by the time of publication.
Update, Aug. 28: CBP told us the agency follows CDC guidelines and that “[c]laims that CBP has plans to independently reintroduce COVID-19 protocols are false.”
Some Concern from New Variants, But No Expectation of a Return to 2020
Scientists and public health officials have been watching two newer coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, variants: EG.5 and BA.2.86.
EG.5, which the CDC estimates made up about a fifth of all coronavirus cases in the U.S. in the past couple of weeks, is a spinoff of XBB.1.9.2, another omicron variant. In this regard, it doesn’t appear to be that different from its immediate predecessors, although it may be a bit more transmissible and more readily able to evade immunity, which could explain its current rise. There isn’t evidence that the variant causes more severe disease.
“Collectively, available evidence does not suggest that EG.5 has additional public health risks relative to the other currently circulating SARS-CoV-2 descendent lineages,” the WHO concluded in an Aug. 9 risk evaluation report.
An updated COVID-19 booster, which targets the XBB.1.5 variant, is expected to be available in late September or early October. Because EG.5 is quite similar to XBB.1.5, experts anticipate that the updated vaccine will provide good protection against this variant.
The other variant, BA.2.86, is an omicron descendant, but has many more mutations that make it considerably different. As Jesse Bloom, a computational biologist at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center, put it on X, its high number of mutations “makes it an evolutionary jump comparable in size to that which originally gave rise to Omicron.”
Only a small number of BA.2.86 cases have been identified in the U.S. or elsewhere, but mutation analyses indicate the variant may be especially able to evade immune defenses. It is still too soon to know whether the variant causes more severe disease or is more transmissible, according to the CDC. The variant, however, has been identified in many countries, suggesting it has some ability to spread.
Even if BA.2.86 does turn out to be the next big variant, it would not be the same as 2020, when the entire world was susceptible to the coronavirus, with no kind of prior immunity and no vaccine available.
The forthcoming updated vaccine may be less effective against BA.2.86 than against other variants, but the CDC expects it will still work to reduce severe disease and hospitalization, which is the primary goal. This makes it highly unlikely that the U.S. would have to impose restrictions similar to those early in the pandemic, even if there is a bad COVID-19 surge and public health officials encourage people to take extra precautions.
“We aren’t returning to March 2020; our immune systems will still recognize the highly mutated variant, albeit suboptimally,” epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina wrote in her Substack about the possible risks of BA.2.86. “This will protect a lot of us from severe disease.”
Editor’s note: SciCheck’s articles providing accurate health information and correcting health misinformation are made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation has no control over FactCheck.org’s editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation.
Sources
“COVID Data Tracker.” CDC. Accessed 25 Aug 2023.
“EG.5 Initial Risk Evaluation.” WHO. 9 Aug 2023.
Tin, Alexander. “CDC says COVID variant EG.5 is now dominant, including strain some call ‘Eris.’” CBS News. 7 Aug 2023.
LaMotte, Sandee. “It may be time to break out the masks against Covid, some experts say.” CNN. 23 Aug 2023.
King, Michael. “Atlanta-based Morris Brown College says they are reinstating Covid mask mandates.” CW69 Atlanta. 22 Aug 2023.
Andreeva, Nellie. “Lionsgate Reinstates Mask Mandate In Parts Of Santa Monica Office Following Covid Outbreak.” Deadline. 21 Aug 2023.
Williamson, Elizabeth. “‘We Told the Truth’: Sandy Hook Families Win $1 Billion From Alex Jones.” New York Times. 12 Oct 2022.
Williamson, Elizabeth. “With New Ruling, Sandy Hook Families Win Over $1.4 Billion From Alex Jones.” New York Times. 10 Nov 2022.
Massie, Thomas (@RepThomasMassie). “If bureaucrats try to reinstate any COVID tyranny measures, resist them with a vengeance. Do not comply. They are not empowered by the Constitution to make laws that govern your lives, so it is they who will be engaged in disobedience.” X. 25 Aug 2023.
Transportation Security Administration spokesperson. Email to FactCheck.org. 22 Aug 2023.
Parmet, Wendy E. Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law and Faculty Director, Center for Health Policy and Law, Northeastern University. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 23 Aug 2023.
Spinelli, Nick. CDC Media Support Branch. Emails to FactCheck.org. 25 and 25 Aug 2023.
“Expired Order: Wearing of face masks while on conveyances and at transportation hubs.” CDC. Accessed 25 Aug 2023.
Raifman, Julia and Eleanor Murray. “The CDC’s new mask guidance guarantees we’ll be too slow for the next surge.” Washington Post. 8 Mar 2022.
DeGuzman, Colleen. “The CDC’s New Guidelines on Covid Risk and Masking Send Confounding Signals.” KFF Health News. 9 Mar 2022.
Wasiluk, Jacqueline E. U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Email sent to FactCheck.org. 26 Aug 2023.
Smith, Dana G. “What to Know About the New Dominant Covid Variant.” New York Times. 11 Aug 2023.
Katella, Kathy. “What to Know About EG.5 (Eris)—the Latest Coronavirus Strain.” Yale Medicine. 18 Aug 2023.
Tin, Alexander. “New COVID vaccine and booster shots for this fall to be available by end of September.” CBS News. 9 Aug 2023.
Tin, Alexander. “New COVID variants EG.5, FL.1.5.1 and BA.2.86 are spreading. Here’s what to know.” CBS News. 22 Aug 2023.
Abbasi, Jennifer. “What to Know About EG.5, the Latest SARS-CoV-2 ‘Variant of Interest.’” JAMA. 18 Aug 2023.
Bloom, Jesse (@jbloom_lab). “As has been noted already, this variant has lots of amino-acid mutations in spike: 33 relative to its putative ancestor BA.2. It is also very different from XBB.1.5. This makes it an evolutionary jump comparable in size to that which originally gave rise to Omicron.” X. 16 Aug 2023.
“Risk Assessment Summary for SARS CoV-2 Sublineage BA.2.86.” CDC. 23 Aug 2023.
Callaway, Ewen. “Why a highly mutated coronavirus variant has scientists on alert.” Nature. 21 Aug 2023.
Jetelina, Katelyn. “A new variant: BA.2.86.” Your Local Epidemiologist Substack. 22 Aug 2023.
Categories FactCheck Posts Featured Posts SciCheck
Issue Coronavirus COVID-19 Lockdowns
People Alex Jones Gateway Pundit
Misconceptions Conspiracy Theories
| 392
|
Did Donald Trump Call to Suspend the Constitution?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-25-0752/facts-and-fact-checking-did-donald-trump-call-suspend-constitution
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-call-suspend-constitution-gop-debate-chris-christie-1822131
|
-
| 393
|
FactChecking Trump’s Interview with Carlson
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-25-0719/facts-and-fact-checking-factchecking-trump-s-interview-carlson
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/factchecking-trumps-interview-with-carlson/
|
In lieu of joining his fellow Republican presidential candidates in the Aug. 23 debate, former President Donald Trump granted an interview to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson — who posted it to X minutes before the debate began. Trump made several familiar false and misleading claims.
Trump continued to insist that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to reject electors from certain states for Joe Biden when Congress counted electoral votes for president. He claimed Pence got “very bad advice,” even though it was the advice of White House lawyers — including then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
Referring to wind energy, Trump falsely claimed that “windmills … don’t work” and that “most” of them are made in China. Wind turbines do work, and by dollar value, more than half of the parts used in onshore U.S. wind projects are domestically sourced.
He claimed that former Attorney General Bill Barr “didn’t do an investigation on the election fraud.” Barr authorized U.S. attorneys to investigate fraud in the 2020 presidential election, but he and other top Justice Department officials have said they found no evidence to support many specific allegations.
Trump falsely claimed that the district attorney who indicted him in Georgia “said basically” that Trump did not “have any right to challenge an election.” She said Trump didn’t “abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges.”
He complained that Hillary Clinton and Stacey Abrams were not indicted for comments they made after losing elections. But Trump was indicted for what he allegedly did to overturn the 2020 election results — not what he said about his election loss.
The former president repeated the false claim that the Presidential Records Act “allowed” him to take classified documents after leaving office, and he repeated the misleading claim that Biden had “25 times” more boxes of documents than Trump did.
Trump continued to make the unsubstantiated claim that countries “all over South America” are “emptying out their prisons” and “emptying out their mental institutions” and sending them to the U.S. border.
A former business partner of Biden’s son, Hunter, recently said that Hunter wasn’t involved in a real estate deal that produced a $3.5 million commission from the wife of a former Moscow mayor. But Trump still pushed the unsupported claim that Hunter Biden had received the money.
He claimed there was “one reason” Democrats oppose voter identification laws: “because they want to cheat.” There’s no evidence for Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud, and Democrats oppose certain laws that could disenfranchise voters, especially minority voters.
‘Very Bad Advice’ on Electoral Vote Count
As he has done in the past, Trump insisted that Pence had the authority, in his constitutional role as Senate president, to reject Biden electors from certain states when Congress met on Jan. 6, 2021, to count electoral votes for president.
Pence refused, as we’ve written, saying it was unconstitutional.
Trump claimed Pence got “very bad advice,” even though it was the advice of Trump’s top legal advisers — including then-White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
“I think the vice president did the right thing. I think he did the courageous thing,” Cipollone told the Jan. 6 committee. “I have a great deal of respect for Vice President Pence. I worked with him very closely. I think he understood my opinion. I think he understood my opinion afterwards as well. I think he did a great service to this country. And I think I –I suggested to somebody that he should be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his actions.”
In that interview, Cipollone also told the committee that he didn’t have “any reason to contradict” testimony given by a Trump campaign aide who said Cipollone “confronted” outside attorney John Eastman, architect of the elector plan. “Pat Cipollone thought the idea was nutty and at one point confronted Eastman, basically, with the same sentiment.”
Separately, Eric Herschmann, another White House attorney, also confronted Eastman about the plan.
“I said to him, hold on a second, I want to understand what you’re saying,” Herschmann said in his committee testimony. “You’re saying you believe the vice president, acting as president of the Senate, can be the sole decisionmaker as to, under your theory, who becomes the next president of the United States? And he said, yes. And I said, are you out of your F’ing mind, right.”
In his interview, Trump went on to baselessly claim that he now has proof that Pence had the power to reject Biden electors.
“After the election was over, the RINOs [Republicans In Name Only] got together with the Democrats and they redid the election, so you couldn’t do it anymore,” Trump said. “So, then I called the people, ‘So, in other words you’re saying I was right you could do it.’ ‘Yes, you could do it.’”
Trump distorts the facts. In December 2022, Congress amended the Electoral Count Act to “reaffirm that the vice president’s role at the count is ministerial.” It was not an admission that the law previously allowed Pence to reject lawful electors that were properly certified by the states.
False Claim About Wind Power
Trump also bashed Democrats for their support of clean energy.
“But you have people that are very smart but they’re fascists and they’re radical left lunatics and they’re destroying our country with the all-electric cars and the windmills all over the place, which by the way, don’t work, and they’re all — most of them — made in China,” he told Carlson.
It’s unclear exactly what Trump means by “work,” but a common complaint — and one Trump has focused on before — is that there are problems when the wind doesn’t blow.
As we’ve explained, wind power is variable, but the energy feeds into an electrical grid that is able to accommodate periods of high wind or no wind. It’s not the case that when the wind doesn’t blow that someone’s power goes out.
In 2022, 10.2% of U.S. utility-scale electricity generation came from wind, according to the Energy Information Administration — the most from any renewable source.
Much of this generation is concentrated in the middle of the country, where wind speeds are highest and it makes more sense to locate a turbine. Texas is the country’s top wind energy producer, followed by Iowa, Oklahoma, Kansas and Illinois. Combined, these five states produced nearly 60% of the nation’s wind energy in 2022.
Trump also misleads when he says that most turbines are made in China. China is a growing power in wind energy and produces more total wind energy than any other country, but in terms of the turbines that are put up in the U.S., only a small proportion of parts were made in China.
PolitiFact explained in 2021 that about 16% of imported wind turbine parts come from China. This is more than any other country, but hardly means “most” turbines in the U.S. are made in China.
According to a 2021 BloombergNEF report cited by a Department of Energy report, a typical onshore wind project gets 57% of its parts by dollar value from within the U.S.
The Department of Energy also notes on its website that the “wind supply chain that has developed in the United States in recent years has increased the domestic content of wind turbines installed in the United States, with over 80% of nacelle assembly and up to 70% of tower manufacturing occurring in the United States for turbines installed here.”
Recognizing that growth of wind energy in the U.S. would benefit from improved domestic supply chains, the Biden administration is supportive of policies that would decrease reliance on foreign-made turbine parts.
Trump has long expressed an aversion to wind energy. In 2019, he baselessly claimed that wind turbines cause cancer, and has repeatedly exaggerated the risks of wind power to birds.
Pivoting from Epstein to ‘Election Fraud’
In an abrupt segue, Trump turned to voter fraud when Carlson asked why then-Attorney General Bill Barr “would cover up the death of Jeffrey Epstein” and not even investigate it, referring to the 2019 suicide of the wealthy financier and accused sex trafficker in a New York federal prison.
“Bill Barr didn’t do an investigation on the election fraud, either,” Trump replied. “He said he did, and he pretended he did, but he didn’t. [Bill] McSwain, the U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, said Barr just wouldn’t let him do it.”
As we wrote, Barr sent a memo on Nov. 9, 2020, authorizing U.S. attorneys around the country to “pursue substantial allegations of voting and vote tabulation irregularities.” Barr said McSwain told him of just one alleged case of “irregularities” in Delaware County, Pennsylvania — which turned out to be a baseless claim, as we wrote, that was advanced by former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
In an interview with the special House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Barr said: “My opinion then and my opinion now is that the election was not stolen by fraud.”
In addition to Barr, other top Justice Department officials have testified that they repeatedly told Trump the department found no evidence of widespread election fraud. For example, Richard Donoghue, who was deputy attorney general under Trump, told the Jan. 6 committee that he tried “to put it in very clear terms to the president” that “major allegations” of fraud in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada were “not supported by the evidence.” (For more, see our June story “Trump Ignored Aides, Repeated False Claims.”)
As for Carlson’s baseless claim about a “cover up” regarding Epstein’s death, Barr did order the FBI and the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate. An IG report released in June 2023 said: “The OIG conducted this investigation jointly with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with the OIG’s investigative focus being the conduct of BOP personnel. Among other things, the FBI investigated the cause of Epstein’s death and determined there was no criminality pertaining to how Epstein had died.”
Georgia Indictment
Regarding his indictment in Georgia on 13 felony counts, Trump claimed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis “said basically” that Trump didn’t “have any right to challenge an election.” That’s wrong.
In a press conference announcing the indictment, Willis said there is a legal process to challenge election results, but Trump didn’t accept that. “The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results,” Willis said on Aug. 14.
After the 2020 election, Georgia conducted an audit, recounting every vote in the state by hand. After that recount, Georgia certified Joe Biden as the winner of the state, and the Trump campaign requested a machine recount, as it was legally entitled to do. That recount, too, showed that Biden had won.
Comparison to Clinton and Abrams
Trump misleadingly compared himself to Hillary Clinton and Stacey Abrams, who he said should also be indicted for their comments about elections they lost.
“Hillary called me up and conceded,” Trump said. “Now the word is that [Barack] Obama said you have to do that. But she called up and totally conceded. But now, every time you see her on television … she’s challenging the election. So that would mean that she should be indicted. But that would mean also that Stacey Abrams, in Georgia, should be indicted because she still thinks she won the election for governor.”
But Trump was not indicted for believing, or falsely claiming, that he won the 2020 election, as he suggested. Instead, Trump was indicted by two grand juries for his actions — specifically efforts he made to remain in office despite losing to Biden.
Among other things, the federal indictment alleges that Trump tried to obstruct the official certification of Biden as president, and that Trump participated in a scheme to have slates of fake electors in multiple states vote for him instead of Biden. The Georgia indictment alleges that he engaged in similar activities to change the election outcome in that state.
Clinton did call Trump an “illegitimate president” and said she would have won in 2016, if not for election interference by Russia, as well as then-FBI Director James Comey reopening an investigation into Clinton’s private email server shortly before the election. And Abrams did refuse to concede after her 2018 gubernatorial election loss to Brian Kemp, whose win she attributed to him suppressing voter turnout as Georgia’s then-secretary of state.
But neither Clinton nor Abrams is alleged to have tried overturning the results of their elections, as Trump’s indictments say he did.
Classified Documents
Trump criticized the four indictments against him as “nonsense,” and then repeated false and misleading claims about his classified documents case and Biden.
“It’s horrible when you look, and when you look at what they’re doing,” Trump said. “The boxes hoax. I’m covered by the Presidential Records Act. I’m allowed to do exactly that. [Biden’s] not covered, and he’s got 25 times the number of boxes.”
Trump’s first federal indictment alleges that he willfully retained sensitive classified documents after he was no longer president and obstructed federal officials who tried to get them back.
As we have written, the Presidential Record Act does not allow former presidents to take classified national security documents with them after leaving office. They may keep personal materials, but not presidential documents, which the act says should be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
We also have addressed Trump’s distorted claim that Biden kept a much greater number of boxes than him, which is a reference to 1,850 boxes of Biden’s personal Senate records that Biden donated to his alma mater, the University of Delaware, in 2012. There’s no evidence the boxes, which have been searched by Justice Department officials, contain documents with classified information.
It is true that about 20 classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president were found in 2022 at one of his Delaware homes and his old private office in Washington, D.C. As in Trump’s case, a special counsel has been appointed to investigate how the documents ended up in those spaces.
Border Wall and Immigration
Trump continued to misrepresent his success in building the 1,000-mile-long border wall that he promised during the 2016 campaign. Trump said, “I had the strongest border in the history of our country, and I built almost 500 miles of wall. You know, they like to say, ‘Oh, was it less?’ No, I built 500 miles.” Trump added that, if given another three weeks in office, he would’ve built 200 more miles of wall.
As we wrote in “Trump’s Final Numbers,” 458 miles of “border wall system” was built during the Trump administration, according to a Customs and Border Protection status report on Jan. 22, 2021. Most of that, 373 miles of it, was replacement for primary or secondary fencing that was dilapidated or outdated. About 52 miles of it was new primary fencing where there were no barriers before.
In December 2020, CBP said it had funding in place to construct another more than 200 miles of fencing where there were no barriers before. But given that less than 50 miles of a wall system in new areas was built in Trump’s final three months in office, it seems dubious 200 miles of such wall would have been built in three more weeks. Biden halted new wall construction when he took office.
As for whether Trump left the strongest border in the history of our country, as we have noted, illegal border crossings, as measured by apprehensions at the southwest border, were 14.7% higher in Trump’s final year in office compared with the last full year before he was sworn in.
Finally, there is simply no evidence to back up Trump’s claim — which he has made repeatedly this year — that countries “all over South America” are “emptying out their prisons” and “emptying out their mental institutions” and sending them to the U.S. border. Border experts told us the claims are evidence-free and dubious. Adam Isacson, director for defense oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, told us in March, “As far as I can tell, it’s a total fabrication.”
Moscow Mayor’s Wife
Trump falsely said his accusation during a Sept. 29, 2020, debate that Hunter Biden received a $3.5 million payment from the “mayor of Moscow’s wife” has “turned out to be much more appropriate than people thought.”
In fact, recent testimony from Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer, contradicted Republican claims that Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina, the wife of a former Moscow mayor, paid Hunter Biden, Joe Biden’s son, $3.5 million. Archer said that was a commission on a $120 million real estate deal in Brooklyn that Hunter Biden was “not involved” in. Archer said the money was mistakenly put in an account once shared by Hunter Biden. “Quite frankly,” Archer said, “it was not supposed to go there, but that’s where it went.”
In a subsequent debate on Oct. 22, 2020, Trump went one step further and alleged that Joe Biden got the $3.5 million. But there is no evidence any of that money went to Joe Biden.
Voter ID
Trump distorted the facts when he claimed that Democrats oppose voter identification laws because “they want to cheat.”
“But you look at what’s happening to our country, even no voter ID,” Trump said. “I mean, why don’t they want voter ID? There’s only one reason they don’t want voter ID, because they want to cheat.”
As we’ve written on multiple occasions, voter fraud is rare, and there has been no evidence for Trump’s repeated claims about widespread voter fraud.
Democrats and voting rights advocates — including the League of Women Voters and the Brennan Center for Justice — oppose certain voter ID laws that could disenfranchise voters, especially minority voters.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 36 states had voter ID laws on the books as of March 2023. In the remaining 14 states and the District of Columbia, “voters must verify their identity in other ways, such as by signing an affidavit or poll book, or by providing personal information. All states have procedures for challenging voter eligibility,” the NCSL said.
In 2021, House Democrats passed H.R. 1 — known as the “For the People Act” — that would have given voters in states with voter ID laws the option to present a statement attesting to their identify. The statement would need to be “signed by the individual under penalty of perjury, attesting to the individual’s identity and attesting that the individual is eligible to vote in the election.”
Republicans argued that the Democratic bill would have eliminated state voter ID laws. But as we wrote at the time, the legislation would not have banned such state laws; it would have expanded the requirements to include another option for voters to prove their identity and vote in federal elections.
“There would be consequences for lying” in a sworn affidavit, Daniel Weiner, director of Election Reform at the Brennan Center for Justice, told us when the bill was being considered in Congress. “The idea that voters would casually lie is utterly baseless and not true.”
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.
Categories FactCheck Posts Featured Posts
Tags 2024 Elections Presidential Election 2024
Issue Border Wall Classified Documents Illegal Immigration Trump Indictments Voter Fraud Voter ID Wind Energy
People Donald Trump
| 394
|
Are Donald Trump and Melania Getting Divorced?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-21-0818/facts-and-fact-checking-are-donald-trump-and-melania-getting-divorced
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-divorce-melania-fact-check-1820111
|
-
| 395
|
Posts Misrepresent Military’s Response to Maui Wildfires
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-18-0350/environment-posts-misrepresent-military-s-response-maui-wildfires
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/posts-misrepresent-militarys-response-to-maui-wildfires/
|
Quick Take
The White House declared the site of the Maui wildfires a disaster area, and the Department of Defense has provided more than 400 troops, air support and other resources in firefighting and recovery efforts. Yet posts on Instagram misrepresent the federal response and one falsely claimed “the military is standing down.”
Full Story
The Maui wildfires that started on Aug. 8 caused widespread devastation in the historic Lahaina area, and the death toll had climbed to 111 by Aug. 17. Authorities have described it as the deadliest natural disaster in the state’s history. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green said the damage was estimated at close to $6 billion.
While the cause of the fire is still being investigated, Hawaii had been on a red flag warning for fire risk due to abnormal drought conditions, overgrowth of invasive grass species, and high winds that fanned the flames.
Vehicles depart the Kahului Airport carrying military personnel in the aftermath of the Maui wildfires on Aug. 15, 2023. Photo by Patrick T. Fallon via Getty Images.
The Biden administration declared the fire a major disaster on Aug. 10 — freeing up federal funds to assist the local government and the victims — and mobilized federal agencies for rescue and recovery efforts. President Joe Biden approved Hawaii’s request for a federal disaster declaration within six hours, the governor said.
A statement released by the White House on Aug. 15 detailed the coordinated response, highlighting the use of U.S. Coast Guard, Navy and Army support, as well as assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But online posts misleadingly suggested that the military was not being used to aid Maui. An Instagram post on Aug. 13, which received 12,000 likes, asked, in part, “Where is the surge of support for Americans? Where are the military helos and planes?”
The caption of a video posted on Instagram on Aug. 13 says, “I’m dumbfounded as to why the military is standing down?”
Contrary to the posts’ claims, the military has played an active role in the wildfire response.
The Department of Defense reported on Aug. 10 that the National Guard had activated “99 Army National Guard personnel and 35 Air National Guard personnel” to help in the wildfire response. Two National Guard CH-47 Chinook helicopters were “assigned to support wildfire response and search and recovery efforts” and “completed 58 aerial water drops of more than 100,000 gallons of water in a matter of five hours.”
The Army’s 25th Combat Aviation Brigade also “deployed two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and [a] CH-47 Chinook to assist in firefighting operations,” according to the Department of Defense. In addition, a “Navy maritime strike squadron has deployed two MH-60R Seahawk helicopters to the region to assist with the U.S. Coast Guard’s search and recovery efforts.”
Military.com reported that by Aug. 15, more than 400 service members were involved in support efforts on Maui.
Chuck Little, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Pacific, also told Military.com that MV-22 Ospreys, KC-130J Super Hercules aircraft and MQ-9 Reaper drones were available to assist in ongoing recovery efforts.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.
Sources
Salahieh, Nouran and Raja Razek. “Maui’s death toll reaches 111 as searchers — many coping with their own losses — comb the wildfire zone.” CNN. 17 Aug 2023.
Hutchinson, Bill. “Maui wildfire now ranks as the fifth-deadliest in US history.” ABC News. 15 Aug 2023.
White House. Press release. “President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Hawaii Disaster Declaration.” 10 Aug 2023.’
Green, Josh. (@govjoshgreenmd). “08/14/23 11:20am – Current Situation.” X. 14 Aug 2023.
NBC News. “Lahaina blaze now the deadliest in modern U.S. history: Recap.” Updated 14 Aug 2023.
NBC News. “Deaths in Maui rise to at least 99 as search goes on in Lahaina.” 15 Aug 2023.
CBS News. “How dangerous climate conditions fueled Maui’s devastating wildfires.” 14 Aug 2023.
White House. “FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration’s Response to the Maui Wildfires.” Whitehouse.gov. 15 Aug 2023.
CNN. “What we know about the federal government’s response to the Hawaii fires so far.” 11 Aug 2023.
Clark, Joseph. “DOD Mobilizes Support in Response to Hawaii Wildfire.” U.S. Department of Defense. 10 Aug 2023.
Toropin, Konstantin. “Military Now Has More Than 400 Troops Aiding Maui After Deadly Wildfires Devastated Island.” Military.com. 15 Aug 2023.
Categories Debunking Viral Claims FactCheck Posts
Location Hawaii Maui
Issue Climate Change Wildfires
| 396
|
Did Michigan Police Uncover 2020 Democratic Election Plot?
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-17-0551/facts-and-fact-checking-did-michigan-police-uncover-2020-democratic-election
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-did-michigan-police-uncover-2020-democratic-election-plot-1820154
|
-
| 397
|
Q&A on Trump’s Georgia Indictment
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-16-0626/facts-and-fact-checking-qa-trump-s-georgia-indictment
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/qa-on-trumps-georgia-indictment/
|
For the fourth time in a little more than four months, former President Donald Trump was indicted.
This time, it’s by a special state grand jury in Georgia that alleges Trump and 18 co-defendants “refused to accept that Trump lost” the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden and conspired “to unlawfully change the outcome.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis at an Aug. 14 news conference in Atlanta, where she announced that a state grand jury had indicted former President Trump and 18 others. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
The indictment lists 41 felony counts, including one count of violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO Act, which is better known as a prosecutorial tool to break up organized crime groups. The indictment details 161 “acts” in furtherance of the RICO conspiracy.
“The indictment alleges that rather than abide by Georgia’s legal process for election challenges, the defendants engaged in a criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results,” Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said at a press conference.
Willis asked that the defendants surrender by noon on Aug. 25.
Here we answer some questions about the indictment, as we did for two federal indictments and a state indictment that was brought against Trump in New York.
What are the charges against Trump?
The indictment lists a total of 41 felony counts, and Trump is facing 13 counts himself. The charges against Trump are:
One count of violation of the Georgia RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act, O.C.G.A. § 16-14-4(c)
Three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer, O.C.G.A. §§ 16-4-7 & 16-10-1
One count of conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer, O.C.G.A. §§ 16-4-8 & 16-10-23
Two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree, O.C.G.A. §§ 16-4-8 & 16-9-1(b)
Two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writings, O.C.G.A. §§ 16-4-8 & 16-10-20
One count of conspiracy to commit filing false documents, O.C.G.A. §§ 16-4-8 & 16-10-20.1(b)(1)
One count of filing false documents, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20.1(b)(1)
Two counts of false statements and writings, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20
Trump could get at least one year’s imprisonment for most of the charges, if found guilty. The most prison time he could receive for any single charge is 20 years, for violating the Georgia RICO Act, which also carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison. Fines are also a possibility for some of the charges.
Why is this a RICO case?
Everyone in the indictment is charged with one count of violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, “through participation in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere, to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office beginning on Jan. 20, ’21,” Willis said in an Aug. 14 press conference after the indictment was released.
RICO charges are associated with organized crime operations, but the statute can apply to other enterprises and criminal conspiracies. For instance, in 2015, Willis successfully prosecuted public school educators for a standardized test cheating scandal under RICO. She’s prosecuting rappers and those involved in a record label in a RICO case that charges those individuals are a criminal street gang.
The federal statute, which was enacted in 1970, “was not intended for just the mob,” lawyer Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor and assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, explained in a column for NBC News published last fall. “Its drafters understood that otherwise legal entities could also commit large-scale crimes. … Essentially, it allowed a centralized theory of prosecution for attacking an array of criminal activity under a single statute.”
Georgia enacted its RICO law in 1980.
“The idea of the RICO Act is you could take lots of different actions by different people over a large period of time, and you can link them together to create a compelling narrative for the, for the jury,” Clark D. Cunningham, a law professor at Georgia State University, told CNN on Aug. 15. “And so I think she [Willis] plans to present to the jury a story of a really pretty vast conspiracy to subvert democracy itself. And to be able to make that story, she has to take all kinds of individual events which by themselves might not seem that sinister, but when you start putting them together, she believes she has a compelling case of a criminal enterprise with Donald Trump at the top of it.”
Georgia’s law makes it a crime for anyone “associated with any enterprise to conduct or participate in, directly or indirectly, such enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity.” And a pattern is at least two racketeering acts that are related in “intents, results, accomplices, victims, or methods of commission.”
The law lists more than 40 predicate crimes that are considered racketeering activity, including false statements and writings, forgery, and impersonating a public officer — charges against Trump and others that are also in the indictment. Attempting to commit such acts or soliciting or coercing someone else to commit them are also racketeering activities.
Who are the other defendants?
Besides Trump, there are 18 other defendants.
Trump’s co-defendants are: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served as a lawyer to Trump; John Eastman, another lawyer to Trump; Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff; Kenneth Chesebro, a lawyer; Jeffrey Clark, who was acting assistant attorney general for the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice; Jenna Lynn Ellis, an attorney; Ray S. Smith III, an attorney; Robert David Cheeley, an attorney; Michael A. Roman, who was director of the Trump campaign’s Election Day operations; David Shafer, who was chairman of the Georgia Republican Party; Shawn Still, a Georgia state senator; Stephen C. Lee, an Illinois minister; Harrison William Prescott Floyd, also known as Willie Lewis Floyd III, who was associated with a group called “Black Voices for Trump”; Trevian C. Kutti, a Chicago publicist; Sidney Powell, an attorney; Cathleen Alston Latham, a former Republican Party leader in Coffee County, Georgia; Scott Graham Hall, a bail bondsman in Georgia; and Misty Hampton, who was the Coffee County elections supervisor.
For more, see our article “Trump’s Co-Conspirators in Georgia.”
What does the indictment allege?
The introduction to the indictment begins with these stark facts: “Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia.”
Nonetheless, the indictment states, Trump and the other co-defendants “refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump.”
The indictment then details 161 “acts” in furtherance of a RICO conspiracy, starting with a litany of false statements made by Trump and others about voter fraud.
For example, lawyers for the Trump campaign, including Rudy Giuliani and Ray Smith, appeared before the Georgia Assembly several times in December 2020 and made numerous false statements about vote fraud, from improper votes from dead or underage people or felons to voting machines changing votes to Joe Biden, the indictment states. The purpose of those falsehoods, the indictment states, was “to persuade Georgia legislators to reject lawful electoral votes cast by the duly elected and qualified presidential electors from Georgia” and instead to “unlawfully appoint their own presidential electors for the purpose of casting electoral votes for Donald Trump.”
The indictment notes that Trump parroted many of those false voter fraud claims in social media posts that talked about things like “ballot stuffing,” “dead voters,” “out of state ‘voters,’” a “‘ballots under the table’ scam” and, more generally, “Massive VOTER FRAUD.” (We have written about these sorts of claims numerous times.)
Trump and other co-defendants also tried to convince the Republican Georgia governor, secretary of state and speaker of the House to “violate their oaths to the Georgia Constitution and to the United States Constitution by unlawfully changing the outcome of the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia in favor of Donald Trump,” the indictment states. That included an effort by Trump on Dec. 7, 2020, to convince Speaker of the Georgia House David Ralston to convene a special session of the Georgia Assembly “for the purpose of unlawfully appointing presidential electors from Georgia.” With regard to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, it included Trump’s phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, seeking “to find 11,780 votes” to swing the state to Trump.
It also included a letter Trump sent to Raffensperger nearly a year after the election, on Sept. 17, 2021, asking Raffensperger to look into a report of 43,000 absentee ballots in DeKalb County that Trump said violated chain of custody procedures. Given that and “many other claims of voter fraud,” Trump asked Raffensperger to “start the process of decertifying the Election, or whatever the correct legal remedy is, and announce the true winner.”
According to the indictment, lawyers for Trump created “false Electoral College documents and recruited individuals to convene and cast false Electoral College votes at the Georgia State Capitol” on Dec. 14, 2020, and then sent those documents to the president of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. archivist, the Georgia secretary of state and the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
“The false documents were intended to disrupt and delay the joint session of Congress on January 6, 2021, in order to unlawfully change the outcome of the November 3, 2020, presidential election in favor of Donald Trump,” the indictment states. And, the indictment notes, those tactics were repeated in several other swing states that broke for Biden.
The indictment also includes charges related to allegations of harassment and intimidation of Georgia election worker Ruby Freeman. On Dec. 10, 2020, Giuliani told members of the Georgia House that Freeman and two others were “quite obviously surreptitiously passing around USB ports as if they’re vials of heroin or cocaine” at the State Farm Arena to be used to “infiltrate the crooked Dominion voting machines.” In a Jan. 2, 2021, phone call with Raffensperger and other state officials, Trump called Freeman “a professional vote scammer and hustler” who stuffed the ballot box with votes for Biden. As we have written, Freeman did nothing wrong. Freeman said those public comments by Giuliani and Trump led to numerous death threats.
The indictment accuses several of the co-conspirators of showing up at Freeman’s home with the “intent to influence her testimony.”
The indictment says co-defendants solicited high-ranking U.S. Department of Justice officials to make false statements about voter fraud in Fulton County. “In one instance,” the indictment states, “Donald Trump stated to the Acting United States Attorney General, ‘Just say that the election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.’”
And in some overlap of a federal indictment of Trump, the Georgia indictment includes accusations that Trump and other co-defendants repeatedly tried — unsuccessfully — to pressure Vice President Mike Pence “to violate the United States Constitution and federal law by unlawfully rejecting Electoral College votes cast in Fulton County, Georgia, by the duly elected and qualified presidential electors from Georgia.”
The indictment also alleges that several of the co-conspirators and unindicted co-conspirators — though not Trump — conspired to “unlawfully access secure voting equipment and voter data” in Georgia. The stolen data was then shared with other “members of the enterprise.”
According to the indictment, on Dec. 6, 2020, then Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell entered a written agreement with a forensic data firm to perform forensic analytics on Dominion Voting Systems equipment. Several of the co-conspirators subsequently and unlawfully “breach[ed]” election equipment and voter data in the Coffee County Board of Elections & Registration Office, the indictment says. Before the indictment was announced, CNN had reported that local investigators were “in possession of text messages and emails” implicating members of Trump’s team in the breach.
In addition to Powell, Misty Hampton, a former elections supervisor for Coffee County, Cathy Latham, a former GOP official in Coffee County, and Scott Hall, a pro-Trump poll watcher, were charged for their involvement in the breach.
Finally, the indictment alleges that several of the co-conspirators — including David Shafer, former chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, Powell and Latham — lied to government investigators and in court proceedings in Fulton County “to cover up the conspiracy.”
How has Trump’s campaign responded?
In a statement posted on its website, the Trump campaign called all the indictments against Trump “bogus,” and attacked Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, as a “rabid partisan” who “strategically stalled her investigation” for political reasons.
“They could have brought this two and half years ago, yet they chose to do this for election interference reasons in the middle of President Trump’s successful campaign,” the statement said.
The campaign added: “They are taking away President Trump’s First Amendment right to free speech, and the right to challenge a rigged and stolen election that the Democrats do all the time. The ones who should be prosecuted are the ones who created the corruption.”
In his own Truth Social post about the latest indictment, Trump wrote, “the Witch Hunt continues!” In another post, he said he would hold a press conference on Aug. 21 to release a “Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia,” claiming it would exonerate him and his co-defendants.
As we have noted before, a prosecution or conviction does not prevent Trump from running for or serving as president.
Can Trump be pardoned?
In Georgia, a five-member board — not the governor — considers applications for pardons, and those convicted of crimes can’t apply until five years after they have completed their sentences.
If Trump and others are convicted of crimes under this indictment, they would have to serve any prison sentences and then wait five years, pay any fines and “have no pending charges” against them before requesting pardons, according to the state Board of Pardons and Paroles’ website.
Board members are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate for seven-year terms, the state Constitution says.
A U.S. president can only issue pardons for federal, not state, offenses.
What is the status of other Trump investigations?
In April, Trump pleaded not guilty in New York to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. In the indictment, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged the records were falsified in order to help Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign by concealing hush money payments to three people alleging extramarital affairs with Trump. The trial has been scheduled for March 25, 2024.
Then, in June, Trump was charged with 37 federal felony counts related to his alleged mishandling of sensitive classified documents after he was no longer president, as well as obstructing federal officials who tried to retrieve those documents. A superseding indictment in July added new charges for corruptly attempting to alter, destroy or conceal evidence – which stemmed from his alleged attempt to delete security camera footage at Mar-a-Lago. Trump pleaded not guilty on all counts; his trial begins on May 20, 2024.
And earlier this month, the Justice Department filed its second indictment against Trump — for attempts he made to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election. Trump later pleaded not guilty to the indictment’s four federal counts, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. Jack Smith, the special counsel who is also leading the classified documents case, has requested that the trial start on Jan. 2, 2024.
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.
Categories FactCheck Posts Featured Posts
Tags Trump Georgia Indictment Trump Indictment
Issue Voter Fraud
People Donald Trump Fani Willis
| 398
|
Republicans Oversell Archer’s Testimony About Hunter and Joe Biden
|
https://www.allsides.com/news/2023-08-15-0636/facts-and-fact-checking-republicans-oversell-archer-s-testimony-about-hunter
|
Facts and Fact Checking
|
centers
|
https://www.factcheck.org/2023/08/republicans-oversell-archers-testimony-about-hunter-and-joe-biden/
|
Congressional testimony by Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer, on July 31 led to competing narratives about what Archer said, and how damaging his testimony was to President Joe Biden. The release of a transcript of Archer’s testimony on Aug. 3 undermined some of those narratives.
Archer revealed that on about 20 occasions over a 10-year period, Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone to exchange pleasantries with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates, part of what Archer described as the “brand” that Hunter Biden brought to foreign business deals.
But contrary to what some Republicans claimed, Archer said Joe Biden never discussed any business on those calls, and more often than not did not even know to whom he was speaking. Archer said he had no knowledge that Hunter Biden ever influenced his father to change any policies to further his son’s businesses.
Republican Rep. James Comer, chairman of the oversight committee, has accused Joe Biden of taking a bribe from a Ukrainian executive and said after Archer’s testimony that the bribery allegation is “more credible” — though Archer said he did not know anything about such a bribe.
Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, gets into an elevator as he arrives for closed-door testimony with the House Oversight Committee on July 31. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images.
Archer contradicted Republican claims – amplified by then-President Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential campaign –– that the wife of a former Moscow mayor paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million. Archer said that money was mistakenly put in an account once shared by Hunter Biden.
Archer’s testimony also cast some doubt on allegations that then-Vice President Biden forced the ouster of Ukraine’s prosecutor general at the behest of executives of the Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma, where Hunter Biden was being paid $1 million a year as a board member. Archer testified that the Burisma public relations team in Washington, D.C., told him at the time that the prosecutor was under Burisma’s “control” and that the vice president’s advocating for the prosecutor’s ouster was bad for the company.
Nonetheless, Archer’s testimony did paint a picture of Hunter Biden as a businessman who liked to emphasize the access he had to his father and leave the impression that he could influence his father to troubleshoot on behalf of foreign clients, even when that wasn’t true.
For example, Archer was asked about an April 12, 2014, email Hunter Biden sent to him ahead of an upcoming visit to Ukraine by the elder Biden.
“The announcement of my guy’s upcoming travels should be characterized [to Burisma officials] as part of our advice and thinking — but what he will say and do is out of our hands,” Hunter Biden wrote. “In other words, it could be a really good thing or it could end up creating too great an expectation. We need to temper expectations regarding that visit.”
Archer said it was an example of Hunter Biden trying to “get credit” for his father’s actions, even though he had no influence over them.
Hunter Biden “was getting paid a lot of money and I think, you know, he wanted to show value,” Archer said.
Archer said he was not aware that Hunter Biden had ever asked his father to change a foreign policy.
“In other words,” Archer was asked, “it’s not that Hunter Biden was influencing U.S. policy. It’s that Hunter Biden was falsely giving the Burisma executives the impression that he had any influence over U.S. policy?”
“I think that’s fair,” Archer said.
One of the bigger revelations in Archer’s testimony was that he recalled about 20 occasions over 10 years when Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone in the midst of meetings with overseas business associates or potential business associates.
Archer said it was all part of “the brand” Hunter Biden advertised and leveraged.
Archer said Hunter Biden’s job was to provide “corporate governance … but obviously, given the brand, that was a large part of the value. I don’t think it was the sole value, but I do think it was a key component of the value.”
And while Archer said he was not aware that the vice president had ever taken any policy actions to assist his son’s business, that doesn’t mean Hunter Biden’s link to his father didn’t provide value.
“My only thought is that I think Burisma would have gone out of business if it didn’t have the brand attached to it. That’s my, like, only honest opinion,” Archer said. Burisma was only “able to survive for as long as it did” because of “the brand” association that Hunter Biden brought by being a member of the Burisma board. “Because people would be intimidated to mess with them,” Archer said. “Legally.”
At one point, Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman asked if Hunter Biden was “selling the illusion of access to his father” but not actual access.
“Right,” Archer said. “An illusion of access to his father, other than social.” There was social access, he said, including two dinners that Joe Biden attended and speakerphone calls when overseas business associates of Hunter Biden’s were present.
“In the rearview, it’s an abuse of soft power, I’d say,” Archer said of Hunter Biden in a subsequent interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson on his new show, “Tucker on Twitter,” which is on the social media platform now known as X.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware has been investigating Hunter Biden for years.
A plea deal between federal prosecutors and Hunter Biden — which included a recommendation of probation on two misdemeanor charges for not paying federal taxes and an agreement to enter into a pretrial diversion program for a felony charge of firearm possession by a user of a controlled substance — fell apart on July 26. The deal dissolved after U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika raised questions about whether the deal shielded Hunter Biden from other federal charges, such as, hypothetically, failing to register as a foreign agent.
On Aug. 11, U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland announced the appointment of U.S. Attorney David Weiss to serve as special counsel in the ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden, “as well as for any other matters that arose or may arise from that investigation.” As we have written, Weiss is the U.S. attorney for Delaware who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Archer: Joe Biden Didn’t Talk Business
Some Republicans seized on Archer’s testimony about these social contacts to claim the elder Biden has repeatedly lied about never discussing his son’s business with him or others.
Archer “told us in his transcribed interview that he heard Hunter Biden speak to Joe Biden more than 20 times about their business deals,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a member of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, told the Daily Caller on the day Archer testified. “Not about anything else, but about the business deals.”
Rep. Lauren Boebert, another Republican member of the committee, posted on X, “Devon Archer confirmed today that the ‘Big Guy’ participated in more than 20 of Hunter’s shady business deals. Biden lied and is compromised.”
But the transcript of Archer’s testimony contradicts those claims. Archer made a point to note that in those phone calls, Joe Biden never discussed business and only exchanged pleasantries.
“Hunter spoke to his dad every day, right? And so in certain circumstances, when you’re in — you know, if his dad calls him at dinner and he picks up the phone, then there’s a conversation,” Archer said. “And the, you know, the conversation is generally about the weather and, you know, what it’s like in Norway or Paris or wherever he may be. But that was — yeah, that happened.”
Archer mentioned two specific instances, once when he and Hunter Biden were pitching business to executives of a large French energy company (which never panned out) and once in Beijing when they were having dinner with a Chinese businessman.
“From a blanket perspective, it was always, you know, what’s the — you know, not necessarily the weather, but, you know, there’s no … and I think you have to understand that there was no business conversation about a cap table or a fee or anything like that. It was, you know, just general niceties and, you know, conversation in general, you know, about the geography, about the weather, whatever it may be. But just on — as far as, like, a blanket for all of them … there was not a specific time that I witnessed a, you know, specific business deal or business dealings or, you know, specifics about any kind of financial stuff.”
Although the elder Biden knew he was talking to his son’s business associates, Archer said, Joe Biden often didn’t even know to whom he was speaking.
Nonetheless, Archer said, those phone calls had a positive impact on “the brand,” that Hunter Biden was offering.
“I think, at the end of the day, part of what was delivered is the brand,” Archer said. “I think that that’s what we’re talking about, is that there was brand being delivered along with other capabilities and reach.”
Archer: Not Aware of Any Bribes
Hours after Archer provided his testimony to the House oversight committee, Comer went on Fox News with Rep. Jim Jordan and said, “Every day, this bribery scandal becomes more credible.”
Comer is referring to an FBI report made public on July 20 in which an FBI informant said that years ago, Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky told him he was “pushed to pay” bribes of $5 million each to Hunter and Joe Biden for what the informant understood was assurance that the Ukrainian prosecutor general at the time, Viktor Shokin, would be fired. The informant said Zlochevsky told him “he did not send any funds directly to the ‘Big Guy'” — which the informant believes was a reference to Joe Biden — and that it would take investigators “10 years to find the records” of the illicit payments to the Bidens.
The FBI agent who wrote the report also stated, “Regarding the seemingly open and unsolicited admissions by [Vadym] Pozharskyi [the Burisma corporate secretary] and Zlochevsky about the purpose for their retention of Hunter Biden, and the ‘forced’ payments Zlochevsky made to the Bidens, [the informant] explained it is very common for business men in post-Soviet countries to brag or show-off. Additionally, it is extremely common for businesses in Russia and Ukraine to make ‘bribe’ payments to various government officials.” The report states that the informant was “not able to provide any further opinion as to the veracity of Zlochevsky’s aforementioned statements.”
Archer referenced those notes when asked if he found the bribery claim credible.
“I think it’s — the agent explains it pretty well on the bottom,” Archer said. “And it’s similar to, you know, Hunter Biden taking credit for his dad’s visit. It’s like sending a signal.”
Archer said he was not aware of any $5 million payments to either Hunter or Joe Biden.
Q: Were you ever made aware of Mr. Zlochevsky paying $5 million to two different Bidens?
Archer: No, I’m not. I would assume he’s probably talking about me and Hunter, but I don’t know. But I don’t know anything about those five.
During his testimony, Archer was asked, “If someone were to conclude from this that this is evidence, this [FBI] Form 1023 is evidence that Joe Biden was bribed by Mykola Zlochevsky, would you disagree with that conclusion?”
“Yeah, I would,” Archer said.
Archer agreed that the way Ukrainian businessmen exaggerate and “tell fibs” about bribes is “similar” to the way political operatives in Washington, D.C. “give off the impression of access that they don’t necessarily deliver on.”
“In Ukraine, in Russia, they brag about how much — they brag about bigger bribes than they actually give,” Archer said.
No Proof of a ‘Quid Pro Quo’ With Firing of Shokin
After a Burisma board meeting in Dubai in December 2015, Archer said, Hunter Biden placed a phone call to “D.C.” after Zlochevsky made an appeal for political help to resolve some problems Burisma was facing at the time. After Archer’s testimony, Comer and Jordan went on TV and claimed Hunter Biden’s phone call resulted in Joe Biden calling for Shokin’s firing. Comer called it evidence of an illegal “quid pro quo.”
Archer “also said that Hunter Biden was under immense pressure while they both served on the Burisma board to call Washington D.C. immediately and try to get Shokin fired,” Comer said in the Fox News interview with Sean Hannity. “And not many days later, Joe Biden traveled to Ukraine, and we’ve all seen the video where Joe Biden brags about withholding foreign aid to Ukraine in exchange for the Ukrainian president firing the prosecutor who was investigating his son’s corrupt energy company.”
“That’s a quid pro quo, Sean,” Comer said. “That’s very illegal.”
Jordan described the events on Dec. 4, 2015, this way: “During that meeting, they say, ‘We need the U.S. government to intervene. We’re under pressure from the prosecutor, we’re facing pressure in Great Britain because they’ve sanctioned and seized our assets – 23 million pounds, 23 million dollars. We need some help. They make a phone call to D.C. Mr. Archer said, ‘I don’t know who they called. But they called D.C.’ And five days later, Dec. 9, 2015, Joe Biden is in Ukraine and he gives a speech, starting the pressure on the prosecutor in Ukraine.”
“Five days after a phone call to D.C.,” Jordan added. “Five days where they used the Biden brand — according to what we learned today, the Biden brand was the value Hunter Biden brought to this business arrangement. … Five days after this conversation takes place, this [Joe Biden] speech takes place and then a few months later … Shokin gets fired. That’s how serious this was.”
Archer didn’t actually say specifically that Zlochevsky was seeking the ouster of Shokin. And the direct line Comer and Jordan draw between the meeting, the phone call to D.C. and Biden’s subsequent call to oust Shokin is not supported by the timeline of events.
Hunter Biden joined the Burisma board of directors in May 2014. The previous month, British authorities had opened an investigation into Zlochevsky and froze $23 million in his accounts there. In August of that year, then-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema also opened an investigation into Zlochevsky on suspicion of “unlawful enrichment.” Shokin replaced Yarema as prosecutor general in February 2015. Fast forward to a Burisma board of directors meeting in Dubai on Dec. 4, 2015. Archer, who was also a Burisma board member, said Burisma executives asked Hunter Biden for some political help.
“The request was I think they were getting pressure and they requested Hunter, you know, help them with some of that pressure,” Archer said. Archer said it was “government pressure from Ukrainian Government investigations into Mykola [Zlochevsky], et cetera. But it was — it was not — it wasn’t like a specific — not a specific request.”
Archer said there were “several pressure issues,” for Zlochevsky, including $23 million pounds “tied up in London” and U.S. and Mexican visas that were denied.
“And then there was — so Shokin wasn’t specifically on my radar as being an individual … that was targeting him,” Archer said. “But yes, there was constant pressure. And it was like — it was like whack-a-mole in regards to the pressures that had to resolve.”
Archer said the request from the Burisma executives was “like, can D.C. help? But … there weren’t specific, you know, ‘Can the big guy help?’ It was — it’s always this amorphous, ‘Can we get help in D.C.?’ … But it was — yeah, it was a high-pressure environment, and there was — there was constant requests for help.”
Archer said he was not privy to the phone call that followed, but he initially said that in response to the request, he was told that Hunter Biden “called his dad.” Archer later clarified that the call was simply to “D.C.” and he wasn’t sure whom it was to.
Matthew Schwartz, Archer’s attorney: He told you expressly he called his father or that he called D.C.?
Archer: D.C., D.C.
Five days later, on Dec. 9, 2015,Joe Biden visited Ukraine and delivered a speech to the Ukrainian Parliament in which he railed against the “shoals of corruption” and said, “The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform.” Biden noted that a day earlier he had announced $190 million in new American aid to fight corruption, adding, “But for Ukraine to continue to make progress and to keep the support of the international community you have to do more, as well. … It requires difficult reforms.”
Years later, in 2018, Biden famously boasted in a speech at the Council on Foreign Relations that around that time he threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid unless Shokin was fired.
“I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,” Biden said. “Well, son of a bitch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
In addition to that speech in Ukraine on Dec. 9, 2015, Biden also met in Kyiv with Ukraine’s then-president, Petro Poroshenko, on Jan. 20, 2016, to discuss “the need to continue to move forward on Ukraine’s anti-corruption agenda.” And Biden had a phone call with Poroshenko on Feb. 11, 2016, and discussed, among other things, the need “to continue to take action to root out corruption and implement reforms.” It’s unclear from Biden’s speech in 2018 exactly when he threatened to withhold aid unless Shokin were fired.
To be clear, Shokin was not immediately fired after Biden’s speech on Dec. 9, 2015. He was removed in late March 2016.
Nor did Biden’s or the American government’s negative position on Shokin suddenly materialize in early December 2015, as Comer and Jordan’s comments suggest.
In later congressional testimony, John E. Herbst, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine under George W. Bush, said, “By late fall of 2015, the EU and the United States joined the chorus of those seeking Mr. Shokin’s removal as the start of an overall reform of the Procurator General’s Office. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke publicly about this before and during his December visit to Kyiv; but Mr. Shokin remained in place.” (The emphasis is ours.)
Biden’s Dec. 9, 2015, trip to Ukraine was also publicly announced on Nov. 13, 2015, several weeks before the Dubai meeting Archer described.
In a Dec. 2, 2015, background briefing prior to Biden’s trip to Ukraine, an Obama administration “senior administration official” said: “The Vice President will emphasize the need to implement recently passed anti-corruption reforms. Ukraine has made significant strides in this regard, but there is a long history of corruption and of basically Ukraine oligarchs getting their way in the Ukrainian system. And while the Ukrainians have made good strides, there is still much more that needs to be done. So we’ll — undoubtedly that will be a major focus of conversation.” That was two days before the Dubai meeting.
Going back as far as Sept. 24, 2015, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt delivered a speech, declaring, “Corruption kills,” and imploring that Ukraine “can, and must, address the problem of corruption now.”
Pyatt singled out what he said were failures in the prosecutor general’s office to properly investigate Zlochevsky, Burisma’s owner.
Pyatt, Sept. 24, 2015: We have learned that there have been times that the [Prosecutor General’s Office] not only did not support investigations into corruption, but rather undermined prosecutors working on legitimate corruption cases.
For example, in the case of former Ecology Minister Mykola Zlochevsky, the U.K. authorities had seized 23 million dollars in illicit assets that belonged to the Ukrainian people. Officials at the PGO’s office were asked by the U.K. to send documents supporting the seizure. Instead they sent letters to Zlochevsky’s attorneys attesting that there was no case against him. As a result the money was freed by the U.K. court and shortly thereafter the money was moved to Cyprus.
As we have written, at the time, the international community and anti-corruption advocates in Ukraine were also calling for Shokin to be removed from office for his failure to aggressively prosecute corruption.
In February 2016, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde threatened to withhold $40 billion unless Ukraine undertook “a substantial new effort” to fight corruption after the country’s economic minister and his team resigned to protest government corruption. That same month, a “reform-minded deputy prosecutor resigned, complaining that his efforts to address government corruption had been consistently stymied by his own prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin,” according to a Jan. 3, 2017, Congressional Research Service report.
So Archer’s testimony didn’t provide any proof that Biden pushed for Shokin’s firing to help his son’s business with Burisma.
Did Burisma Want Shokin Out?
The Republican theory that Joe Biden provided quid pro quo to Burisma by having Shokin removed relies on the assumption that Burisma wanted Shokin removed.
In a press conference after Archer’s testimony, Goldman, a New York Democratic congressman, said, “Perhaps the most interesting thing that he [Archer] said is that Burisma believed that they had the prosecutor general, Shokin, in their pocket. They had control over him and they were concerned that if he was removed from office, that that would be very bad for Burisma.”
That’s not strictly accurate. Archer said that was “the narrative that was spun to me” by the Burisma PR team in Washington, D.C. But he said he never heard that from Burisma executives.
“The narrative that was spun to me was that Shokin was under control and that whoever the next person that was brought in was — you know, the fact that he was — this is the total, this is the narrative spun to me, that Shokin being fired was a — was not good, because he was like under control as relates to Mykola [Zlochevsky],” Archer said. That meant, he said, “that they were going to maybe give a slap on the wrist as opposed to, you know, seize all his assets.”
“I have no way to verify that,” Archer said. “And that was spun to me from various folks in D.C., not Hunter specifically, but that was what I was led to believe. Whether it’s true or not, I cannot speculate.”
There have been conflicting reports about whether Burisma would have wanted Shokin fired, and whether Joe Biden’s efforts to remove him worked in Burisma’s interest, or directly in opposition to them.
The New York Times in September 2019 reported that while Shokin “was not aggressively pursuing investigations into Mr. Zlochevsky or Burisma … the oligarch’s allies say Mr. Shokin was using the threat of prosecution to try to solicit bribes from Mr. Zlochevsky and his team, and that left the oligarch’s team leery of dealing with the prosecutor.”
In December 2015, the Wall Street Journal reported that Zlochevsky was under investigation by Ukrainian and British authorities for “alleged criminal wrongdoing,” and the article quoted anti-corruption advocates in Ukraine who were concerned that Zlochevsky would be protected from prosecution because of Hunter Biden’s role with Burisma.
“If an investigator sees the son of the vice president of the United States is part of the management of a company … that investigator will be uncomfortable pushing the case forward,” Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, told the Wall Street Journal.
In July 2019, Kaleniuk told the Washington Post that “Shokin was not investigating. He didn’t want to investigate Burisma. And Shokin was fired not because he wanted to do that investigation, but quite to the contrary, because he failed that investigation.”
In 2019, Keith Darden, an associate professor at American University’s School of International Service, told us in an email that there “is nothing more absurd than the notion that Shokin was removed to *prevent* him from prosecuting Zlochevsky…or any one else.”
“Ukraine has had a long line of prosecutors whose function has not been to enforce the law, but to perform the political function of selectively prosecuting political enemies and to hold out the threat of prosecution in order to secure political loyalty and compliance,” Darden said. “Shokin was precisely that kind of prosecutor. He would open cases as a way of holding the threat of prosecution over a business, but he did not actually prosecute cases. The reason that [the U.S. government the IMF, World Bank] and pretty much everyone else who wants reform in Ukraine wanted Shokin out was precisely because he was refusing to prosecute any corruption cases.”
Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration, on Sept. 20, 2019, tweeted that the “Obama administration policy (not just ‘Biden policy’) to push for this Ukrainian general prosecutor to go” was “a shared view in many capitals, multilateral lending institutions, and pro-democratic Ukrainian civil society.”
Archer: Hunter Didn’t Get Money from Moscow Mayor’s Wife
Late in the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly alleged in campaign speeches and in debates that Hunter and/or Joe Biden got $3.5 million from Yelena Baturina, a billionaire businesswoman and wife of the late Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov. The payment from Baturina was revealed in a joint report issued by Republican staff of the Senate Finance and Homeland Security committees less than two months before the election.
“Joe got $3.5 million from Russia and it came through Putin because he was very friendly with the former mayor of Moscow, and it was the mayor of Moscow’s wife, and you’ve got $3.5 million,” Trump said at the second presidential debate on Oct. 22, 2020. “Your family got $3.5 million. And you know, someday you’re going to have to explain why did you get three and a half.”
“I never got any money from Russia,” Biden responded.
On Aug. 9, Comer issued a press release in which he said, “Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina transferred $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton,” which he said was “a shell company associated with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer.”
During his congressional testimony, Archer said he was involved in a $120 million real estate deal with Baturina, CEO of the real estate company Inteco, that involved two warehouses in Brooklyn.
Archer acknowledged that $3.5 million from Baturina — which he said was a commission for the real estate deal — ended up in an account for Rosemont Seneca Thornton, a company in which Hunter Biden held an ownership stake. “Quite frankly,” Archer said, “it was not supposed to go there, but that’s where it went.”
Archer said that Hunter Biden was “not involved” in that real estate deal, and that the money was supposed to have gone to Rosemont Realty. Archer said Hunter Biden had only a “minimal” connection to, and no ownership stake in, Rosemont Realty.
In April 2022, the Washington Post Fact Checker did a deep dive on the $3.5 million payment from Baturina and reported that Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC was supposed to be quickly dissolved due to regulatory concerns from one of the partners, which jibes with what Archer said in his congressional testimony.
“But Rosemont Seneca Thornton was not dissolved as planned,” the Washington Post reported. Unnamed sources “familiar with the company” told the Post that “Archer had kept the vehicle alive for his own real estate business, Rosemont Realty, which raised money from Eastern European and Central Asian investors.” But, the sources said, Archer did not inform Hunter Biden or the third partner.
According to the Post, “Archer’s secret was exposed when the Senate report was published. Confronted, Archer told [the third partner, James] Bulger that he had used Rosemont Seneca Thornton to transfer funds from Baturina to purchase real estate in Brooklyn, according to a participant in the conversation.”
And as we said, according to Archer’s testimony, Hunter Biden did not receive $3.5 million from Baturina.
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.
Categories FactCheck Posts Featured Posts
Issue Ukraine Ukraine Bribery Allegation
People Devon Archer Hunter Biden Joe Biden
| 399
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.