FactCheck.org's Weekly Update
July 18, 2020
SciCheck
Deflecting attention from the rise in COVID-19 cases, President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the Obama administration “stopped testing” during the H1N1 pandemic. But the two viruses are very different, making the comparison misleading.
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FactCheck Posts
In remarks in the White House Rose Garden on July 14, President Donald Trump falsely described many of the immigration recommendations drafted by allies of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his vanquished rival Sen. Bernie Sanders.
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During his July 14 press conference from the White House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump made the outdated claim that U.S. deaths from COVID-19 are down “tenfold.”
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In July 14 remarks in the White House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump made a series of false, misleading and unsupported statements about the novel coronavirus and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s position on it.
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Education Secretary Betsy DeVos used an outdated figure in claiming only 10% of school districts had “provided any kind of real curriculum and instruction program” after the coronavirus pandemic caused schools to shut down this spring. That was the case for 82 districts in late March, but by late April, 56% were doing so. In late May, the figure was 67%.
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In commuting Roger Stone’s prison sentence, President Donald Trump and the White House gave a misleading account of Stone’s conviction and the federal investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
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Debunking False Stories
A video clip of Joe Biden jokingly introducing a Black singer at a 1985 fundraiser as “Michael Jackson” has been manipulated and shared with a false claim that Biden was participating in a “black face” skit.
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An image circulating on social media claims to show former President Barack Obama, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Melinda Gates at the “Wuhan lab in 2015.” The photo was actually taken at the National Institutes of Health campus in Maryland — and Melinda Gates is not in the picture.
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Social media posts claim that Betsy DeVos said “only” 0.02% of children are “likely to die” of COVID-19 from schools reopening in the fall. There’s no evidence she ever said that.
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A viral video falsely labeled “Registered Republican Not Allowed to Vote!” suggests that Republicans were kept from voting in Louisiana’s recent primary. The person featured in the video — which has been viewed millions of times — was actually registered as a Democrat, so she couldn’t vote in the closed Republican primary.
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A “face mask exempt card” shared on social media invokes the Americans with Disabilities Act and claims to excuse people from wearing face masks. But the group behind the card — “Freedom to Breathe Agency” — is not a government agency, and federal officials say the ADA “does not provide a blanket exemption” from requirements to wear masks.
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Articles
Trump’s Numbers July 2020 Update Posted on Friday, July 17th, 2020
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Statistical measures of how things have changed since the president took office.
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