Kamala Harris

Were there 18 million fewer votes in 2024 versus the election numbers from 2020, disproving reports of record turnout or implying cheating in vote totals? No, that's not true: As of November 7, 2024, final vote numbers had not been reported in every state in the country. An election expert told Lead Stories that count would take "weeks to finalize"…

Did President-elect Donald Trump release a statement saying "I look forward to ... enact[ing] Project 2025"? No, that's not true: This statement was fabricated. Lead Stories searched Trump statements released on November 6, 2024, the same day as the purported statement, and could not find this quote. Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025, a conservative think tank's initiative, posting…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris announce that she would not attend "the presidential induction ceremony" after Donald Trump won the November 5, 2024, election? No, that's not true: In a concession speech on November 6, 2024, Harris stated that she would "help" Trump transition to the White House and "engage in a peaceful transfer of power." As of this writing,…

Did "White Hats" stop "three busses" full of "Harris supporters" who had voted in New York, then boarded a bus to vote again in Pennsylvania, with 150 of these people detained? No, that's not true: This claim was made from an account connected to a website with a disclaimer that it publishes made-up content. A search on Google News brought…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris fail to outperform President Joe Biden's 2020 election results in any U.S. county in 2024? No, that's not true: A video on social media has been edited to make it look as if that's what CNN reported. The full version of CNN's coverage reveals that anchor Jake Tapper actually asked whether Harris had underperformed Biden…

Did Jill Stein's vote total jeopardize Kamala Harris' chances of winning in Virginia? No, that's not true: Harris did win in Virginia. The vote total showing Donald Trump in the lead in a social media post was earlier on Election Day, with just 52 percent of the ballots counted. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on…

Could Kamala Harris have won Wisconsin if the votes cast for one of the independent candidates -- Jill Stein -- had gone to the Democrat? No, that's not true: That implication on social media was based on incomplete early totals. As more and more ballots were counted, Donald Trump's lead significantly outgrew the number of Stein's votes. The claim appeared…

Does a video showing Kamala Harris holding a phone with the camera app open prove that she faked a phone call, as a post on X said? No, that's not true: According to Apple user documents, having the camera app open while on an active call is entirely possible. Lead Stories tested this with an iPhone 14 Pro Max and…

Does a viral video discussing poll workers bringing "machines" to voters' cars prove "election cheating" in Florence, South Carolina? No, that's not true: The head of the local elections board told Lead Stories that the video is "misinformation." Voters with disabilities, the elderly and those who can't stand in line for a long time may vote using a curbside machine.…

Did the FBI and U.S. Department of Education release a video recommending that U.S. schools close until November 11, 2024, because of a significant increase in the risk of school shootings and riots during the presidential election? No, that's not true: The FBI has called the video "fake" and its contents "false." The U.S. Department of Education also has not…