chengxuphd/liar2 huggingface dataset:
Statement: Almost 75 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 in the state of Texas are a result of people contracting COVID-19 who are age 65 and older.
Speaker: greg abbott
About the speaker: Greg Abbott won election as governor of Texas in November 2014, carrying 59 percent of the vote. Abbott was re-elected in 2018. Abbott, a former member of the Texas Supreme Court, served three terms as the state's attorney general before being succeeded by Ken Paxton in early 2015.
Date: May 5, 2020
Location: texas
Topics: coronavirus
Context: a press conference
Fact-check justification: Abbott said almost "75 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 in the state of Texas are a result of people contracting COVID-19 who are age 65 and older." Of confirmed coronavirus deaths, close to 75% were people within the age group Abbott provided, but he failed to include the caveat that this statistic leaves out more than half of the total deaths that have not yet been investigated.  We rate this  .
Statement: The minimum wage is mostly an entry-level wage for young people.
Speaker: mitch mcconnell
About the speaker: Mitch McConnell is a U.S. Senator from Kentucky and the Republican minority leader in the U.S. Senate.
Date: January 26, 2014
Location: national
Topics: income
Context: an interview with "Fox News Sunday"
Fact-check justification: McConnell said "the minimum wage is  an entry-level wage for young people." The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that indeed half of all workers making a minimum wage are 16 to 24, and another 20 percent are in their late 20s or early 30s. That’s a large chunk of the minimum wage workforce, though about 30 percent of people making the minimum wage are 35 and older. McConnell also goes a bit too far in calling these jobs "entry-level." For most young people, these are part-time jobs in the food or retail businesses or similar industries with little hope for career advancement. We rate McConnell’s statement as .
Statement: There is not one single federal housing program yet that has not needed a bailout to survive.
Speaker: lynn westmoreland
About the speaker: Rep. Lynn Westmoreland is a Republican from Georgia.
Date: February 29, 2012
Location: georgia
Topics: housing
Context: a congressional hearing
Fact-check justification: The three other federal housing efforts have not been bailed out. And it’s not clear that they will need taxpayer assistance. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHA are much larger players in the housing market. This bolsters Westmoreland’s larger point that organizations designed to help the housing market need help, too. Westmoreland earns a .
Statement: Conservative groups have spent $5 million "against" Tammy Baldwin -- five times more than against all other Democratic U.S. Senate incumbents up for election in 2018 combined.
Speaker: martha laning
About the speaker: Martha Laning was elected chairwoman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party at the party's state convention in June 2015.
Date: January 5, 2018
Location: wisconsin
Topics: campaign finance;elections;negative campaigning
Context: an interview
Fact-check justification: But the consultant could not provide a comparable tally for the other Democratic incumbents. Laning says conservative groups have spent $5 million "against" Baldwin -- five times more than against all other Democratic U.S. Senate incumbents up for election in 2018 combined. Based on reports to the Federal Election Commission that were analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics, the total exceeds $5 million and is actually seven times more than what has been spent against the other Democrats. The only caveat is that $3 million has been spent directly attacking Baldwin, while the rest has been spent in support of one of her opponents. For a statement that is accurate but needs clarification, our rating is .
Statement: Since the fourth quarter of last year until most recently, we've added almost 50,000 jobs in the coal sector. In the month of May alone, almost 7,000 jobs.
Speaker: scott pruitt
About the speaker: Scott Pruitt is administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, since February 2017. Before that, he was the state attorney general for Oklahoma.
Date: June 4, 2017
Location: national
Topics: environment;energy;jobs
Context: an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press"
Fact-check justification: Pruitt said, "Since the fourth quarter of last year until most recently, we've added almost 50,000 jobs in the coal sector. In the month of May alone, almost 7,000 jobs." The official Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows strikingly smaller increases than what Pruitt said, even when taking into account his comments on other Sunday shows. Meanwhile, there is  that coal production and shipment is higher this year compared to early 2016, but the rise actually began under Obama and it’s not clear that Trump policies have been the driving factor. We rate the statement .
Statement: If you got rid of the income tax today you'd have about as much revenue as we had 10 years ago.
Speaker: ron paul
About the speaker: Ron Paul, a Texas physician, served two stints in the U.S. House. He also was the Libertarian Party nominee for president in 1988 before later seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2012. He didn't seek re-election to the House in 2012.
Date: December 23, 2007
Location: national
Topics: taxes
Context: a <i>Meet the Press</i> interview
Fact-check justification: We'll concede that it's possible Paul could reduce the budget by that much, based on some of the positions he advocates. Paul has said he'd like to slash the defense budget by pulling back all U.S. troops on foreign soil, zeroing out foreign aid and reducing the size of the active military. He also advocates abolishing other federal functions, like the Department of Education. Whether he makes up that 12 percent difference or not will have to wait for a Paul presidency. Meanwhile, we find his statement that ending the income tax would roll back revenues 10 years to be .
Statement: Today almost half our debt is owned by foreigners.
Speaker: jeb hensarling
About the speaker: Jeb Hensarling is a U.S. representative from Texas and chairman of the House Republican Conference.
Date: July 8, 2010
Location: texas
Topics: federal budget;history;foreign policy
Context: a speech
Fact-check justification: "There is certainly nothing ," Leeds said, about Hensarling's statement. Leeds added in an e-mail: "Dividing the foreign debt by the publicly held debt is fair. One way of thinking about this is to think of all of the debt that we had to go to the outside markets to finance. Foreigners financed 50 percent." We rate Hensarling's statement .
Statement: Says President Barack Obama said when "we got bin Laden, terrorism problem solved.
Speaker: dick cheney
About the speaker: Dick Cheney served as Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush.
Date: June 22, 2014
Topics: terrorism;punditfact
Context: an interview on ABC's "This Week"
Fact-check justification: So did Obama, as Cheney claimed, say "we got bin Laden, terrorism problem solved"? No. Obama’s foreign policy speeches since bin Laden’s death have qualified the killing as a major achievement in the battle against terrorism, but not the solution to a complex threat. Obama usually notes the problem remains despite the fact that core al-Qaida has decentralized into regional, still dangerous groups. Cheney is either missing or ignoring Obama’s nuanced statements. We rate Cheney’s statement .
Statement: Tennis star Serena Williams wrote that she's "sick of COVID-19. I'm sick of black vs. white. I'm sick of Democrats vs. Republicans. I'm sick of gay vs. straight. I'm sick of Christians vs atheists. I'm REALLY sick of the media.
Speaker: facebook posts
About the speaker: Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
 
Date: June 24, 2020
Topics: race and ethnicity;sports;facebook fact-checks
Context: a Facebook post
Fact-check justification: An image being shared online purports to come from tennis star Serena Williams. It says, in part, that she’s "sick of COVID-19. I’m sick of black vs. white. I’m sick of Democrats vs. Republicans. I’m sick of gay vs. straight. I’m sick of Christians vs atheists. I’m REALLY sick of the media. I’m sick of no one being allowed to think what they want & feel what they do without offending someone." The words were written by a person named Serena Williams, but someone took that post, and changed it so that it looked like it came from Williams the tennis star.  Professional athlete Serena Williams never wrote that, and based on recent interviews, probably wouldn’t agree with the sentiment. We rate this  .
Statement: The reality is when you look at the Biden plan, it reads an awful lot like what President Trump and I and our task force have been doing every step of the way.
Speaker: mike pence
About the speaker: Mike Pence is the former vice president of the United States. A Republican, Pence was elected governor of Indiana in 2012. Pence previously served for 12 years as a congressman from Indiana representing the Sixth Congressional District; he was first elected in 2000. During his time in the U.S. House of Represenatives, he served as House Republican Conference chairman and chairman of the House Republican Study Committee. Pence was born in Columbus, Ind. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1981 from Hanover College and a law degree in 1986 from Indiana University. After accepting Donald Trump's offer to be running mate, Pence ended his 2016 campaign to be re-elected as Indiana governor. 
Date: October 7, 2020
Topics: public health;health check
Context: the VP debate
Fact-check justification: Pence claimed the Biden plan to address COVID-19 was similar to the Trump administration’s plan "every step of the way." A cursory, side-by-side look at the Trump administration’s COVID-19 actions — no actual comprehensive plan has been released — and the Biden plan indicates some big picture overlap on securing a vaccine and ramping up testing. But that’s where the similarities end. Biden’s plan includes proposed actions the Trump administration has not pursued. It also is focused on federal rather than state authority, a significant distinction Pence himself pointed out during the debate. Additionally, the candidates’ behaviors toward COVID-19 and views on science have been diametrically opposed, with Trump eschewing the use of face masks and social distancing, and Biden closely adhering to both. Pence’s statement ignores critical facts and realities, making it  and . We rate it !
Statement: Hostages were released as soon as Ronald Reagan took office because Iran perceived that America was "no longer under the command of someone weak.
Speaker: marco rubio
About the speaker: Marco Rubio, a U.S. senator from Florida, was a candidate for president of the United States in 2016 and then dropped out and won re-election to the Senate. He was first elected to the Senate in 2010 and took office Jan. 5, 2011. Rubio served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008 and is a former Speaker of the Florida House. He served on the West Miami City Commission from 1998 to 2000. He is from Miami and holds a law degree from the University of Miami.
Date: January 17, 2016
Location: national
Topics: foreign policy
Context: an interview on "Meet the Press"
Fact-check justification: Rubio said that Iranian hostages were released in 1981 as Reagan took office because Iran perceived that America was "no longer under the command of someone weak." In reality, Reagan’s foreign policy approach wasn’t a factor in the hostages’ release, as scholars told us. The Carter administration negotiated the deal months before Reagan’s inauguration, without involvement by Reagan or his transition team. Rubio’s  is an imaginative re-reading of history. We rate the statement .
Statement: Karen Handel "would have felt like it was OK to go in and abort" Sarah Palin's son Trig, who has Down syndrome.
Speaker: melanie crozier
About the speaker: Melanie Crozier is director of Georgia Right to Life's Political Action Committee
Date: July 21, 2010
Location: georgia
Topics: abortion
Context: a Politico article
Fact-check justification: Instead, she told WSB-TV, she was really talking about in vitro fertilization.   But, as Geary pointed out, Trig wasn't conceived in a test tube. How could the subject apply to him? Crozier made a baseless and outrageous statement. She earns PolitiFact's lowest rating, .
Statement: The cost of the food stamp program is at an all-time high.
Speaker: facebook posts
About the speaker: Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
 
Date: January 29, 2014
Location: georgia
Topics: federal budget
Context: a Facebook post
Fact-check justification: Back to the  we were trying to check. Some Facebook users are posting claims that the cost of the food stamp program is at an all-time high. Indeed, the most recent total fiscal year budget has never been higher. Spending per recipient was slightly higher a couple of years ago. We rate this  .
Statement: Says Sen. Dianne Feinstein said "if she had 51 votes in the Senate for 'Mr. and Ms. America, turn in all of your guns,' they would do it.
Speaker: chris cox
About the speaker: Chris W. Cox is the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, the political and lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association. He has held the position since 2002.
Date: October 8, 2017
Location: national
Topics: corrections and updates;guns
Context: a "Fox News Sunday" interview
Fact-check justification: Cox said that Feinstein had once said "if she had 51 votes in the Senate for 'Mr. and Ms. America , turn in all of your guns,' they would do it." This is an  characterization of what Feinstein said in a 1995 interview on assault-type weapons. It is clear in context about loopholes in the 1994 assault weapon ban that Feinstein would have liked the ban to apply to all assault weapons but did not have the votes. That is a far cry from banning all firearms, and Feinstein has said she supports the right of people to own a weapon for hunting or self-defense. We rate this  .
Statement: South Dakota, Idaho, Florida, Tennessee & Georgia are now mask FREE!
Speaker: facebook posts
About the speaker: Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
 
Date: September 27, 2020
Topics: facebook fact-checks;coronavirus
Context: a Facebook post
Fact-check justification: South Dakota’s fourth-largest city, Brookings City , approved an indoor public face covering ordinance and businesses in tourist areas, like Rapid City , are enforcing mask policies. In Tennessee, an executive order from Gov. Bill Lee urges residents to "wear face coverings in public places." Knox County, Shelby County, Memphis and Nashville, which make up a large chunk of the state’s population, have all enacted mask mandates . None of the states in the post has a statewide order requiring people to wear masks, but local governments in all have enacted some sort of face covering policy, and businesses have the right to enforce mask-wearing. We rate this .
Statement: You may have driven the length of a football field in the five seconds it takes to check a text.
Speaker: greg walden
About the speaker: Greg Walden is a U.S. representative from Oregon. He is leading the transition as Republicans take power in the 112th Congress.
Date: February 9, 2012
Location: oregon
Topics: public safety
Context: news television interview
Fact-check justification: Now, most people probably aren't driving 55 while texting. Most likely they are driving at lower speeds, say 20 miles per hour, which would be closer to half the length of a football field, if you think of one as 100 yards. Walden didn’t specify speed in his statement, but he hedged it to say that the driver may have covered the length of a football field while texting. We find his statement . And the message remains: Don’t text and drive.
Statement: Studies show that children who go to preschool are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a two- or four-year degree, no matter their background they came from.
Speaker: joe biden
About the speaker: Joe Biden is the president of the United States. A Democrat, Biden served as a Delaware senator from 1973 (elected at the age of 29) until 2009. During his time in the Senate, he served as chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, chair of the International Narcotics Control Caucus and chair of the Judiciary Committee. He subsequently served as Barack Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2016. Biden launched unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 1988 and 2008. He received a degree in history and political science from the University of Delaware and his J.D. from Syracuse School of Law. 
Date: February 7, 2023
Topics: children;education;poverty
Context: his State of the Union address
Fact-check justification: Biden said, "Studies show that children who go to preschool are nearly 50% more likely to finish high school and go on to earn a two- or four-year degree, no matter their background they came from." There is one study that backs this up, and experts agreed that it’s credible. Other studies of preschool programs have also shown gains in college attendance, but the rates have been lower, ranging from 12% to 18%. As a general pattern, experts said, the more socioeconomically disadvantaged the group of students is, the bigger the boost preschool provides for future college attendance. We rate the statement .
Statement: Says President Obama "has fired more cruise missiles than all other Peace Prize winners combined.
Speaker: yard sign
About the speaker: A yard sign is often made of wood or cardboard and, for our purposes, carries a political message.
Date: June 15, 2011
Location: national
Topics: foreign policy;military;new hampshire 2012
Context: a yard on Route 12 near Keene, N.H
Fact-check justification: Based on our review of historical records and interviews with military historians, it appears the sign along the New Hampshire highway is correct. The next closest contender was Sadat during the Yom Kippur war, but it appears he was far short of the number fired by Obama, even in combination with other laureates. If we hear of additional , we'll revisit this item. But in the meantime, the numbers indicate the sign is correct. We rate the statement .
Statement: We've seen local union after local union rush to their school boards, their city councils, their technical school boards and rush through contracts in the past two weeks that had no contributions to the pension and no contribution to health care.
Speaker: scott walker
About the speaker: Scott Walker, a Republican, is the former governor of Wisconsin. He was first elected in November 2010. He survived a recall election in 2012, defeating Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett after igniting controversy with a bill curtailing public-employee union collective-bargaining rights.  He won re-election to a four-year term in November 2014 and was a 2016 presidential candidate before dropping out in September of 2015. He was defeated by Tony Evers in the 2018 gubernatorial election. Walker is a former Milwaukee County executive and former member of the state Assembly.
Date: February 27, 2011
Location: wisconsin
Topics: labor;state budget
Context: an appearance on a TV interview program
Fact-check justification: The words also suggest late-night sessions to finalize deals, when each example cited involved negotiations that had been going on for months -- and in some cases were finalized before Walker’s budget-repair bill was unveiled. Two governmental bodies -- Madison and MATC -- tapped on the accelerator to get deals approved before state lawmakers could slam on the breaks. But two others, Janesville schools and Sheboygan County, are making their workers wait until the contracts are brought up for a vote at regularly scheduled board meetings. That doesn’t reflect the ram-it-through image Walker pointed to. We rate his statement .
Statement: HR 1 is going to take your hard-earned tax dollars and millions more and send them to (a political candidate's) campaign so (they) can put ads on TV.
Speaker: mark walker
About the speaker: Mark Walker, a Republican, represented North Carolina's 6th Congressional District from 2015-2020. He is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in 2022. 
Date: March 7, 2019
Location: north carolina
Topics: campaign finance;taxes
Context: an ad video
Fact-check justification: Walker’s ad said, "HR 1 is going to take your hard-earned tax dollars and millions more and send them to (a candidate’s) campaign so (he) can put ads on TV." The video glosses over some key details about HR 1 to leave a  impression. First, the bill’s public-financing options would not be available to all candidates, generally speaking. To be eligible, candidates would have to satisfy certain threshold requirements and refuse to accept individual contributions of more than $1,000. Second, as the bill is currently structured, the program would get money from a 2.75 percent fee on people and corporations that commit malfeasance — not from a broad pool of tax dollars. The ad contains an element of  but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. So we rate it . This story was produced by the North Carolina Fact-Checking Project, a partnership of McClatchy Carolinas, the Duke University Reporters’ Lab and PolitiFact. The NC Local News Lab Fund and the International Center for Journalists provide support for the project, which shares fact-checks with newsrooms statewide. To offer ideas for fact checks, email [email protected]
Statement: Says Rick Scott's per-pupil education spending is "about $200 less" than what it was under Charlie Crist during the recession.
Speaker: charlie crist
About the speaker: Charlie Crist lost the race for Florida governor as the Democratic candidate in 2022. He served as a U.S. congressman from St. Petersburg since 2017 and resigned Aug. 31, 2022 to focus on his campaign.  As a Republican, Crist served as governor from 2007 to 2011. Crist left the Republican Party in 2010 to mount a campaign for the U.S. Senate as an independent. Crist lost the race to Marco Rubio. In 2012, he endorsed President Barack Obama and announced that he had registered as a Democrat. He lost his race as a Democratic candidate for governor in 2014.
Date: July 16, 2014
Location: florida
Topics: education;state budget
Context: a "Tampa Bay Times" editorial board interview
Fact-check justification: Crist said Scott’s per-pupil education spending is "about $200 less" than the Crist administration did during the recession. Scott’s current budget does spend almost $200 less per student than Crist did in 2007, but that was before the recession really hit. Spending was less during the other three years of Crist’s term -- although still higher than some of Scott’s years. It’s worth noting that Scott cut school funding when he came into office, but has gradually increased it to a level that’s currently higher than what Crist signed off on during the Great Recession. When you account for inflation, though, Crist’s per-pupil spending outpaces Scott’s for every year. We rate the statement .
Statement: In Georgia, "25 percent of rural residents" are "without access to high speed internet.
Speaker: brian kemp
About the speaker: Brian Kemp, a Republican, was elected governor of Georgia in 2018. Previously, he served as secretary of state.
Date: February 7, 2018
Location: georgia
Topics: technology
Context: campaign website
Fact-check justification: Kemp said that in in Georgia, "25 percent of rural residents" are "without access to high-speed internet." Kemp’s  is backed by data reported by the FCC in 2016. New data shows that the percentage of rural residents without access to fixed terrestrial broadband is 28.1 percent. We rate Kemp’s statement .