PolitiFact

In a flurry of attacks against his likely 2024 presidential opponent, former President Donald Trump said Vice President Kamala Harris allowed millions of immigrants to illegally "stampede" across the border and supported eliminating a central immigration enforcement agency. "Lyin’ Kamala supported abolishing ICE," Trump said July 24 at a Charlotte, North Carolina, campaign rally. The Trump and Harris campaigns responded to our query about Trump’s rally claim with multiple citations of Harris statements; we found many more through our own research. It’s clear that Harris opposed, and opposes, many of Trump’s immigration positions. And she called for an end to the hard-line tactics that had been used by the administration. But she never said she would abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In fact, she said the opposite.

A viral Facebook video falsely claims a complex link between Thomas Matthew Crooks and BlackRock. Crooks had an unpaid cameo in a BlackRock ad. A plastics company, not BlackRock, owns the building he fired from.

A viral video on X claimed to have uncovered a conspiracy: Jill Biden was seen in Washington, D.C., with President Joe Biden and in Paris at the same time. No, she flew there after her husband’s Oval Office speech.

Social media posts claim a video clip of ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas shows he blamed the “government” in the assassination attempt against former President Trump. But Thomas’ report referred to a “gunman” several times and named the dead shooter.

The precision of language matters a lot. Especially in breaking news. When big news breaks, audiences are paying heightened attention to the language journalists use — and are likely making all sorts of assumptions. The caution and care journalists can take when reporting breaking news — like waiting to report there had been an assassination attempt on Donald Trump until it was confirmed — is so appropriate and responsible. But if we don’t explain that careful coverage approach to the public, it's all too easy for people to make assumptions that journalists are downplaying or hiding the truth.  However your newsroom approaches reporting breaking news, and whichever language you use, we encourage you to get on the record about how you're making those decisions. Here’s a great example of what explaining your breaking news can look like, from Ellen Hine and the PolitiFact team. https://lnkd.in/gAnc6st2 “Our job Is not to be first, our job is to get it right. That means we wait for information to be confirmed by official sources," Hine says. We have more resources on how to explain your breaking news coverage here: https://lnkd.in/g2rAQPNJ

Great explainer from our PolitiFact team of how fact-checkers approach breaking news events to get you the truth. Our job isn't to be first, but to be right.

Social media posts claimed that Starbucks was an official sponsor of the Republican National Convention. The company did not give financial contributions but partnered with a nonpartisan group to provide coffee for the event’s first responders.

The Republican National Committee said Biden appointed Harris "to be his border czar to deal with illegal immigration...Harris was put in charge of stopping illegal immigration." Biden tasked Harris with addressing the root causes that drive migration to the United States. He did not task her with controlling who and how many people enter the southern U.S. border. That's the Homeland Security secretary’s responsibility. Experts say that seeing the results of addressing root causes driving people out of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — violence, economic insecurity and corruption — takes time.

Claims that politicians aren’t eligible to be president began in earnest in the 2008 presidential election cycle when then-Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., first ran for the White House. Some baselessly questioned whether he was really born in Hawaii — a false line of attack later fueled by Donald Trump before Trump launched his own presidential campaign. Past Republican presidential candidates Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, (born in Canada to a U.S. citizen mother) and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., (born in the Panama Canal Zone to two U.S. citizens) have faced similar scrutiny. PolitiFact has debunked these claims about Harris before, but because the claims surfaced again following her July 21 announcement that she intends to seek the presidency, they're taking a fresh look. https://lnkd.in/g_ktgXUN

- A coup d’etat is a French term that means the overthrow of a government, usually by illegal means and with the threat of violence. - Experts said Democrats persuading President Joe Biden to drop out of the race for president doesn’t meet that commonly used definition. - Biden remains in power and Democrats’ persuading him to drop out of the race and then using party rules to replace him on the ticket is not illegal.