chengxuphd/liar2 huggingface dataset:
Statement: Say Maine U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin "voted to gut your retirement benefits.
Speaker: maine democratic party
About the speaker: The Maine affiliate of the Democratic Party.
 
Date: October 5, 2018
Location: national
Topics: medicare;social security
Context: a campaign mailer
Fact-check justification: The Maine Democratic Party said Poliquin "voted to gut your retirement benefits." Technically, Poliquin did not vote to do anything to Social Security, although a discussion about cuts is likely. As he said in 2012 of Social Security, "The way to do it is raise the retirement age for new entrants and also slow down the rate of growth of benefits." Similarly, he voted for a budget blueprint that, while not binding, called for getting more insurers involved in Medicare, offering a "premium support" for it and gradually raising the program’s eligibility age. PolitiFact is not pollyannaish. There easily could be slices and dices, which is partly why we have rated claims that referred to that possibility — claims based on the tax and budget bills — as . But "gut" is a strong word and, based on what is known, goes too far. We rate  .
Statement: Brazil's presidential election was "stolen.
Speaker: instagram posts
About the speaker: Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters.
Date: November 3, 2022
Topics: elections;facebook fact-checks
Context: an Instagram post
Fact-check justification: Bolsonaro previously claimed that election officials counted votes in secret and that he suspected hackers tried to steal the 2018 election from him but failed. Brazil’s election officials, fact-checking agencies and independent election-security experts who studied the country’s voting system said these claims are , the Times reported.   Claims of widespread election fraud in Brazil are now circulating in the United States, where misinformation about the upcoming U.S. midterm elections is already swirling.   We’ve already debunked a  that Bolsonaro would hold a press conference to announce a military audit of the election. This , that Brazil’s election was stolen, gets the same rating: .
Statement: We paid down the debt for four years -- paid down $600 billion on the national debt.
Speaker: bill clinton
About the speaker: Bill Clinton was president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He is married to Hillary Clinton, the 2016 presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
Date: September 19, 2010
Location: national
Topics: federal budget
Context: an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press"
Fact-check justification: We see merit in using both public debt and gross debt, so we are reluctant to declare that Clinton is definitively right or definitively  in citing statistics supported by the public debt figure. Clinton's phrasing -- talking about "the debt" and "the national debt" -- strikes us as vague enough to refer to either the public debt or the gross federal debt. So we are left with a statement that's correct using one measurement and  using another measurement. In addition, Clinton overestimated by about one-third the dollar amount by which the public debt declined from its peak during his term, though he also correctly characterized the changes in the debt under Republican presidents. So on balance, we rule Clinton's statement .
Statement: Over the past year ... our 16 counties have hemorrhaged more than 6,000 jobs with no apparent end in sight.
Speaker: steve southerland
About the speaker: Steve Southerland, a funeral home owner in the Florida Panhandle, was elected to the U.S. House representing Congressional District 2 on Nov. 2, 2010. He lost re-election to Democrat Gwen Graham on Nov. 4, 2014.
Date: September 17, 2010
Location: florida
Topics: economy;stimulus
Context: a press release
Fact-check justification: In the same time period, 1,807 less people are employed -- meaning that 1,807 jobs were lost. That is, of course, a significant number, but it's way lower than what Southerland claimed. We ran the figures and Southerland's statement by Robert Barro, the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University. He agreed that "lost jobs" should equal the change in the number employed, not the change in the number of unemployed. We rate Southerland's statement .
Statement: One Wisconsin school district "is so worried about losing state funding that it has stopped giving milk to elementary school kids during snack time.
Speaker: al sharpton
About the speaker: The Rev. Al Sharpton, a minister based in New York City, is founder of the National Action Network civil rights organization. He is a nationally syndicated radio talk show host and he hosts MSNBC PoliticsNation. Sharpton has run for the U.S. Senate and was a Democratic candidate for president in 2004.
Date: September 7, 2011
Location: wisconsin
Topics: education;pundits;state budget
Context: a TV show
Fact-check justification: But she said the discussions aren’t reflected in the minutes. OK, it’s almost break time. In criticizing Walker, Sharpton said "one school district is so worried about losing state funding that it has stopped giving milk to elementary school kids during snack time." Baraboo school officials now say state budget cuts had little or nothing to do with the decision to stop providing milk at snack time, but previously some of them indicated that fear of state budget cuts was the main reason. We rate Sharpton’s statement .
Statement: Says 85 percent of Milwaukee shootings involve "people with extensive criminal records shooting other people with extensive criminal records.
Speaker: edward flynn
About the speaker: Edward Flynn was the police chief in Milwaukee, Wis., from January 2008 to February 2018. He was police commissioner in Springfield, Mass., from 2006 to 2008. He served as secretary of public safety under then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney from January 2003 until taking the Springfield job.
Date: February 9, 2012
Location: wisconsin
Topics: corrections and updates;crime;guns
Context: an interview
Fact-check justification: But he made a specific statistical  that isn’t fully supported by the study he cites. And as compared with charges or convictions, prior arrests as a measure of a person’s criminal record is on the lower end of the scale. In sum, Flynn’s  was partially accurate, but left out important details -- our definition of . Editor's note: This item was changed on 3/20/2012 to fix a confusing reference to median arrests. The change was made initially for print, but not changed immediately online.
Statement: Obama "remains silent" and "is never asked how he feels about his church honoring Farrakhan.
Speaker: chain email
About the speaker: Chain emails circulate on the Internet, usually anonymously, making a variety of political claims.
Date: January 18, 2008
Location: national
Topics: religion
Fact-check justification: The blog "Talking Points Memo" said it too asked Obama about Farrakhan and received the statement from Obama rejecting the award. After the statement was released, it was reported in other news outlets as well. For these reasons, we find the e-mail's claims about Obama's response to the award to be . UPDATE: Barack Obama resigned from Trinity United Church of Christ on May 31, 2008, after church pastor Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. made controversial remarks about U.S. foreign policy and other matters. Obama said he intends to join another church after the election.
Statement: Says Joe Biden stayed silent about violence at Black Lives Matter protests.
Speaker: instagram posts
About the speaker: Posters on Instagram, where people share photos and graphics and sometimes add filters.
Date: January 12, 2021
Topics: criminal justice;race and ethnicity;facebook fact-checks
Context: an Instagram post
Fact-check justification: An Instagram post six days after the attack on the U.S. Capitol  suggested that Biden, who condemned the attack, had stayed silent about violence at Black Lives Matter protests during June through August of 2020.  Biden made several statements during that period denouncing the violence.  We rate the statement .
Statement: Documents released by Edward Snowden reveal that American, British and Israeli intelligence agencies worked together to create the Islamic State.
Speaker: bloggers
About the speaker: Blog posting on the Internet
Date: August 19, 2014
Topics: iraq;israel;foreign policy;military;punditfact
Context: stories
Fact-check justification: Middle Eastern publications have been circulating a rumor that Snowden’s NSA leak reveals "Operation Hornet’s Nest," an American, British and Israeli plot to create the Islamic State to destabilize the Middle East. This isn’t the first time Iranian publications have mischaracterized the Islamic State as an American creation, but it is the first time Snowden’s name has been attached. Sources with access to Snowden’s documents have directly refuted the hoax. The Islamic State started as an al-Qaida offshoot, and there’s no reason to believe otherwise. We rate this  !
Statement: Says state Rep. Sandy Pasch "did nothing to stop" people from scamming the Wisconsin Shares child-care subsidy program and voted against funding for fraud investigators.
Speaker: club for growth
About the speaker: The Club for Growth is an anti-tax group.
Date: August 1, 2011
Location: wisconsin
Topics: state budget
Context: a radio ad
Fact-check justification: She did vote against a 2009 budget amendment that increased funding for fraud investigations (of a different program) and voted against the 2011-’13 state budget that included fraud investigation funds. So there is an element of  to the statement made by Club for Growth. But Pasch and supported numerous other measures to address problems with the child care program, including ones that cracked down on fraud. That means the statement "ignores critical facts that would give a different impression." And that’s the yardstick used by the -O-Meter to describe one thing: a statement that is .
Statement: A photograph of 21-year-old Hillary Clinton featured a Confederate battle flag in the background.
Speaker: dinesh d'souza
About the speaker: Dinesh D’Souza is a former policy analyst in the Reagan White House and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He served as the president of The King’s College in New York City from 2010 to 2012 and is the author of numerous books and director several documentary films, including "2016: Obama's America."
Date: July 7, 2015
Topics: candidate biography;history;punditfact
Context: a tweet
Fact-check justification: D’Souza tweeted out to nearly 200,000 followers a photograph of 21-year-old Hillary Clinton that appeared to feature a Confederate battle flag in the background. But as a look at the original images makes clear, the photograph has been manipulated to include the flag, and D’Souza’s accompanying comment in the tweet doesn’t indicate that he was aware of the fakery. (He later corrected the tweet.) We rate the  .
Statement: As president, Barack Obama has never visited Israel.
Speaker: mitt romney
About the speaker: Mitt Romney is a U.S. senator from Utah. He ran for president in 2012 as the Republican nominee, losing to incumbent President Barack Obama. Prior to that, Romney served one term as governor of Massachusetts, elected to the post in 2002. He was born in 1947 in Michigan, where his father was governor from 1963 to 1969. Romney graduated from Brigham Young University and received both a law degree and an MBA from Harvard University. Romney helped found the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984, which launched or rebuilt such companies as Staples and Dominos Pizza. Romney managed the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City from 1999-2002. He ran for president in 2008 but lost the Republican nomination. He and his wife, Ann, have five sons, Tagg, Craig, Matt, Ben and Josh.
Date: August 5, 2012
Location: national
Topics: israel;message machine 2012
Context: a campaign ad
Fact-check justification: Democratic Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton were the only ones to visit during their first term. George W. Bush went to Israel twice during his last year in office. That historical context is noteworthy: A majority of the last 11 presidents did not visit Israel. But the Romney ad’s  is still accurate. We rate it .
Statement: Says stories about his birth certificate drowned out media coverage of the Republican and White House budget plans the week of April 11.
Speaker: barack obama
About the speaker: Barack Obama is the former president of the United States. Obama also served as a U.S. senator from Illinois. He was born in 1961 in Hawaii, where his parents met as students at the University of Hawaii. Obama's father is from Kenya and his mother is from Kansas. He graduated from Columbia University and received his law degree from Harvard Law School. Obama previously served in the Illinois state Senate and was an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School. He and his wife, Michelle, have two daughters, Malia and Sasha.
Date: April 27, 2011
Location: national
Topics: deficit;federal budget;obama birth certificate
Context: a press conference
Fact-check justification: It was about my birth certificate." He would have been correct if he’d simply referred to coverage one week later. But his precise  -- and he was clear about the timing --  is not accurate. According to both PEJ’s analysis and our own, the big, substantive issues of the economy and the Democratic and Republican budget plans received quite a bit more coverage than the birth certificate story did during the week Obama referenced. We rate his statement .
Statement: Says House Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry are "denying President Trump basic fairness and due process accorded every American.
Speaker: lindsey graham
About the speaker: Lindsey Graham is a U.S. senator from South Carolina. He was a candidate for the Republican nominee for president in 2016.
Date: October 24, 2019
Location: national
Topics: congress;corrections and updates;impeachment
Context: a Senate resolution
Fact-check justification: In the resolution, Graham wrote that House Democrats leading the impeachment inquiry are "denying President Trump basic fairness and due process accorded every American." Constitutional scholars said due process rights are not necessarily guaranteed to a president during an impeachment inquiry. If they were, they would be granted during the Senate trial, not the House’s -gathering process. We rate this statement . CORRECTION:  This fact-check has been updated to include the House Oversight Committee among the congressional committees leading the investigations as part of the House impeachment inquiry.
Statement: We've got dozens of counties around America that have zero insurers left.
Speaker: paul ryan
About the speaker: U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, R.-Wis., became Speaker of the House in 2015 and served until his retirement in January 2019. Ryan was elected to represent southern Wisconsin in Congress in 1998 and for part of his tenure chaired the House Budget Committee. He was Mitt Romney's vice-presidential running mate in the 2012 presidential election. He did not seek re-election in 2018.
Date: August 21, 2017
Location: national
Topics: health care
Context: a CNN town hall broadcast
Fact-check justification: Ryan said dozens of counties have no insurers left on the Obamacare exchanges. The day he said that, there was only one such county. Less than a week before he said that, there were two counties. His office acknowledged that he misspoke. Ryan has established himself as an architect of health care reform in the House and the viewers of CNN’s town hall would expect him to have his facts straight. We rate this  .
Statement: Jason Carter backed three of Nathan Deal's budgets but accuses the governor of "underfunding education.
Speaker: john padgett
About the speaker: Party chair for Georgia Republican Party
Date: August 12, 2014
Location: georgia
Topics: education
Context: press release
Fact-check justification: Carter, who was member of a special Senate task force on education in 2012, has said, if elected governor, he would push to create a separate education budget that would be tantamount to an untouchable trust fund for schools. In summary, John Padgett, GOP state chairman, was correct. Jason Carter voted in favor of three of Gov. Nathan Deal’s state budgets that each included $1 billion-plus in austerity cuts to education. Carter voted this year against a fourth, annual state budget proposed by Deal that included about $747 million in austerity cuts to K-12 education, the smallest cut since 2009. We rate Padgett’s statement .
Statement: Gov. (Scott) Walker has yet to create a job, he gives away millions to his friends, and he raises taxes on working people.
Speaker: lena taylor
About the speaker: Lena Taylor is a Milwaukee Democrat, was elected to the Wisconsin Senate in 2004. She previously served for nearly two years in the state Assembly.
Date: March 29, 2011
Location: wisconsin
Topics: jobs;taxes
Context: a news release
Fact-check justification: But the state gained 13,000 jobs in January and February, ruining Taylor’s argument of "yet to create a job." Walker has not given away millions of dollars to "friends," and the "corporate" tax cuts cited as  by Taylor are, for the most part, available to all businesses in Wisconsin. By taking out funds from the Earned Income Tax Credit, Walker has raised taxes on "working people," meaning Taylor was spot on with one of her claims. Taylor batted one for three in her news release-- great numbers for a baseball player, but not a strong percentage on the -O-Meter. We rate Taylor’s statement as a whole as .
Statement: Italy drastically reduced the country's official COV1D-19 death count by over 97%. This means Covid killed fewer people than an average seasonal flu.
Speaker: facebook posts
About the speaker: Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
 
Date: November 10, 2021
Topics: corrections and updates;public health;facebook fact-checks;coronavirus
Context: a Facebook post
Fact-check justification: A Facebook post claimed that Italy lowered its COVID-19 death toll "by over 97%." This is  and misconstrues a report by the Italian health department that highlighted the most common diseases that people already had when they died after being diagnosed with COVID-19.  Pre-existing conditions are a known risk factor for COVID-19, and the agency said its analysis shows that COVID-19 is the direct cause of death in 89% of people who test positive for the virus. We rate the  . UPDATE, Nov. 15, 2021 : This fact-check has been updated to include comment from a spokesperson for the Italian National Institute of Health. The rating is unchanged.
Statement: Seventy four percent of Californians are absolutely against sanctuary state" policies.
Speaker: travis allen
About the speaker: Travis Allen is a Republican and a member of the California State Assembly, representing the Orange County area. He is a 2018 candidate for California governor.
Date: January 2, 2018
Location: california
Topics: immigration;corrections and updates;criminal justice;crime;polls and public opinion;public safety;the 2018 california governor's race
Context: interview on Fox News
Fact-check justification: Republican Assemblyman Travis Allen recently claimed "74 percent of Californians are absolutely against sanctuary state" policies. Allen appears to have based his numbers on a September 2015 survey. But much has changed since then: Donald Trump was elected president and recent polls show Californians’ opinions have evolved. Most importantly, we found four recent polls that contradict Allen’s statement. They show Californians generally favor cities having the ability to declare themselves sanctuaries. Two specifically found greater support than opposition for California’s sanctuary state law. We rate Allen’s  .    –  The statement is not accurate. Click here for  more  on the six PolitiFact ratings and how we select facts to check. UPDATE: A spokeswoman for Allen’s campaign responded to our request for  after we published our fact check. She confirmed in an email that Allen was referring to the September 2015 IGS survey. The spokeswoman described that poll as"the most accurate and appropriate to use" regarding California’s sanctuary state legislation. She claimed the March 2017 IGS poll "was biased" and "adds politics and  descriptions of sanctuary policies into the poll." Her statement did not address the other recent surveys that show a majority, or near-majority, of Californians support sanctuary policies. Our rating remains the same.
Statement: You can't pour water on flames from an electric car battery because "water makes lithium burn.
Speaker: facebook posts
About the speaker: Posters on Facebook and other social media networks.
 
Date: July 22, 2022
Topics: environment;energy;facebook fact-checks
Context: a Facebook post
Fact-check justification: Further, the report found that "the use of water does not present an electrical hazard to firefighting personnel." There are also real-world examples of how such fires were extinguished.  In 2021,  NBC  reported that when a Tesla caught on fire after it crashed in Houston, it was extinguished with water — 28,000 gallons, to be exact.   The Facebook post’s sweeping assertion that water can’t be used to extinguish a fire from an electric vehicle is . We rate it .
Statement: We are the only metropolitan area in the country that's losing population.
Speaker: lori lightfoot
About the speaker: Lori Lightfoot is the 56th mayor of Chicago. Prior to taking office in May 2019, she worked as an attorney and previously served as president of the Chicago Police Board, a civilian body responsible for deciding disciplinary matters involving allegations of police misconduct.
Date: May 20, 2018
Location: illinois
Topics: population
Context: a radio interview
Fact-check justification: While arguing that high taxes are pushing lower-income earners out of Chicago, Lightfoot said: "We are the only metropolitan area in the country that’s losing population." Lightfoot has used the "metropolitan area" phrase repeatedly in the opening days of her campaign for mayor, though a spokeswoman now says when she uses the word "metropolitan" we should really insert the words "major city."’ It could be tempting to cut Lightfoot some rhetorical slack in her quest for the mayoralty. After all, the original Mayor Richard Daley got so routinely tongue-tied that his exasperated press secretary famously admonished reporters: "Don’t write what he says, write what he means." In Lightfoot’s case, however, it's not clear exactly what she means. She keeps repeating an  statement that is  whether taken literally or figuratively. The Chicago metropolitan area is far from the only one in the country to lose population last year, according to the Census. And the city of Chicago by itself is far from the only city to lose population--though as the spokeswoman later pointed out, it is the only one among the nation’s very biggest cities. Experts also cast doubt on the existence of any  to back up the other beat of her , that lower-income Chicago residents were leaving because of high taxes. Lightfoot’s comments use a precise term imprecisely to make an unproven argument about population loss. We rate her  .
Statement: For the first time in history, Wisconsin has more government jobs than manufacturing jobs.
Speaker: leah vukmir
About the speaker: Republican Leah Vukmir was elected to the Wisconsin state Senate in 2010, representing a suburban Milwaukee district. She served in the state Assembly from 2002 to 2008. She lost a bid for the U.S. Senate in 2018.
Date: October 9, 2010
Location: wisconsin
Topics: jobs;message machine 2010
Context: a campaign brochure distributed door-to-door
Fact-check justification: So, where does that leave us? To press her case that more needs to be done to help create private-sector jobs, state Senate candidate Leah Vukmir said that for the first time in history, government jobs outnumber manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin. At various points in 2009, that was indeed the case -- though for the year as a whole, manufacturing jobs narrowly led. The jury is still out for 2010, though manufacturing jobs lead in five of the first eight months of the year. We rate Vukmir’s statement .