copenlu/druid huggingface dataset:
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2023-09-28): But much more needs to be done to hold Trump and his allies who facilitated this plot fully accountable—and it must be done quickly. The myth of widespread voter fraud is still spreading, violent political rhetoric is being spewed, and extremist candidates who believe the "big lie" have been elected to positions of public trust, often pushing legislation aimed at subverting elections.20 U.S. democracy is at risk of sliding toward autocracy under the immense pressures of election lies and disinformation, dangerous conspiracy theories, political extremism, mob rule, and white supremacist-inspired violence. It is little wonder that the majority of Americans are demanding accountability.21 [...] - Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, are actively conducting a criminal investigation into whether Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election in that state violated the law. The potential charges against Trump and his allies might include solicitation and conspiracy to commit election fraud, intentional interference with the performance of election duties, tampering with an electors list, false statements, and racketeering.48 The special grand jury investigating the matter concluded its work in early 2023.49 Although its report has not yet been released in full, a redacted version shows that the grand jury believes that some witnesses may have committed perjury, and it "unanimously agreed that Georgia’s 2020 presidential vote had not been marred by ‘widespread fraud,’ contrary to what Trump and many of his allies have claimed."50 Prosecutors in Georgia should act expeditiously in moving to the next phase of this investigation, including, and if appropriate, possible prosecution of Trump.
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2021-12-17): We wanted to look for the voter fraud, and we wanted to identify what voter fraud had occurred, what potential voter fraud had occurred in the November 3 election.And so we embarked on this reporting effort that involved reporters in six states, the six states that were disputed by President Trump and his allies. And we went to the local election officials. And we asked them to identify for us any potential instances of voter fraud that they had flagged during their post-election certification and canvassing work. Judy Woodruff: And what did you find? Christina Cassidy: Well, in the end, we found it was just shy of 475 potential cases of voter fraud in those six states, which would not have made a difference in the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Judy Woodruff: And this was out of millions of votes cast, if you add up all the votes in those states.Christina, tell us — just give us a couple of examples of the fraud that you did find, those individual cases. Christina Cassidy: Sure.I mean, they ran the gamut.
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2023-04-03): In July 2021, Carlson claimed: "It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. It’s true." He told viewers he was giving them a "fact-based" "official version" of what happened in the presidential election in Georgia’s most populous county, Fulton County, which is a Democratic stronghold that includes Atlanta. [...] The Secretary of State for Georgia, Brad Raffensperger told Politifact that the state disputed the assertion that thousands of Georgians had illegally voted or voted without residing in the county. Infamously, Trump had tried to pressure Raffensperger to find him 11,000 votes so that Georgia would be counted as voting for Trump rather than Joe Biden for the Electoral College count that Trump later tried to disrupt on January 6, 2021. There is no editorial note or update added to The Federalist’s piece to acknowledge that its primary claim was rated false or that the head of elections in Georgia disputed the 35,000 votes claim. A subsequent lawsuit alleging fraud in the Georgia election was dismissed by a judge. The Federalist article mentioned "fraud" 17 times. (Raffensperger has expressed a different concern about Fulton County: a fear that additional procedures are needed to protect voters from being accidentally disenfranchised.)
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2021-08-09): In a series of e-mails and phone calls with me, Mitchell adamantly defended her work with the Trump campaign, and said that in Georgia, where she has centered her efforts, "I don’t think we can say with certainty who won." She told me that there were countless election "irregularities," such as voters using post-office boxes as their residences, in violation of state law. "I believe there were more illegal votes cast than the margin of victory," she said. "The only remedy is a new election." Georgia’s secretary of state rejected her claims, but Mitchell insists that the decision lacked a rigorous evaluation of the evidence. With her support, diehard conspiracy theorists are still litigating the matter in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta. Because they keep demanding that election officials prove a negative—that corruption didn’t happen—their requests to keep interrogating the results can be repeated almost indefinitely. Despite three independent counts of Georgia’s vote, including a hand recount, all of which confirmed Biden’s victory, Mitchell argues that "Trump never got his day in court," adding, "There are a lot of miscarriages of justice I’ve seen and experienced in my life, and this was one of them."
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2023-03-24): Until recently, it would have been absurd to raise the possibility of such election subversion or a stolen election in the United States. Few cases have emerged in at least the last fifty years of actual election sabotage by election officials,1 leading to an election loser being declared the election winner, despite other unique pathologies of American election administration.2 [...] Republican claims of widespread voter fraud committed mostly by Democrats, people of color, and union members are not new, but they accelerated after the disputed election between then–Governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore in 2000.4 These statements from a segment of conservatives and Republicans (and resisted by other conservatives and Republicans) persist despite all reliable evidence that voter fraud in the contemporary United States is rare and that when such fraud occurs it tends to happen on a small scale that does not tip the result of elections.5 The purported "evidence" of widespread voter fraud consists primarily of describing isolated instances of fraud as the "tip of the iceberg" or by taking administrative error or slack in election administration as conclusive proof of malfeasance.6 [...] Trump’s voter fraud claims were a hallmark of his presidency. He remarkably claimed that there was voter fraud in the 2016 election that he won against Democrat and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, falsely stating that at least three million noncitizens voted in the election, all for his opponent.10 Not coincidentally, the number of purported fraudulent votes matched the margin by which Clinton beat Trump in the national popular vote for President.11
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2024-02-20): Freeman had been a temporary poll worker in Fulton County, Georgia, in the 2020 election. Her daughter, Shaye Moss, was with her at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, counting ballots as a county employee on the night of the election. Footage of the pair engaging in routine vote-counting procedures went viral after Rudy Giuliani and his legal team began to falsely claim it showed them conducting election fraud. As the lies about what happened that night in Atlanta spread on social media, Freeman and Moss were thrown into a firestorm. Racist, violent language arrived via letters, texts, phone calls, emails, social media messages, and even in person at each of their front doors. [...] At the same time, the domestic networks used to spread false information and undermine confidence in American elections have, if anything, strengthened. A conglomeration of right-wing organizations called the Election Integrity Network, led by election denier and Trump lawyer Cleta Mitchell, encourages people to "research" their local election offices to identify supposedly unsavory influences, hunt for voter fraud by signing up as poll watchers, and perform amateur voter roll list maintenance. The group claims more than 20 right-wing organizations as partners, ranging from small policy organizations to more well-known entities like the Heritage Foundation. [...] - Protect voters against the spread of malicious falsehoods about the time, place, and manner of elections.
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2023-08-15): On Monday night, Donald Trump was indicted for the fourth time in less than five months by a grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, where he and 18 others were charged with participating in an illegal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Prosecutors accused Trump of working with the other defendants to mastermind a "criminal enterprise" to change the outcome of the election. That means the former president — and leading contender for the 2024 GOP nomination — is heading into the primary season with nearly 100 criminal charges in four different jurisdictions. His three previous indictments include charges of: falsifying business records in an attempt to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election in New York; illegally retaining classified documents and obstructing efforts to get them back in Florida; defrauding the U.S. in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Washington, D.C. Two of the trials are already scheduled for next year, and prosecutors in the 2020 election case have requested a trial starting on Jan. 2, although the judge has to agree to the schedule. The Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis, said at a press conference on Monday night that she’ll seek a trial within the next six months.
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2024-01-17): Tucker Carlson stated on July 14, 2021 in a TV segment: "It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. Tucker Carlson stated on June 28, 2021 in a show: "In Texas, the power companies have automatically raised the temperature of people's thermostats in the middle of a heatwave without their permission." Tucker Carlson stated on May 5, 2021 in a TV segment: "Between late December of 2020 and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the COVID vaccine in the United States … The actual number is almost certainly higher." Tucker Carlson stated on February 22, 2021 in a TV segment: "There's no evidence that white supremacists were responsible for what happened on Jan. 6. That's a lie." Tucker Carlson stated on October 13, 2020 in a TV segment: According to a recent CDC report, "almost everyone — 85% — who got the coronavirus in July was wearing a mask, and they were infected anyway. So clearly (wearing a mask) doesn’t work the way they tell us it works." [...] Tucker Carlson stated on November 1, 2021 in a documentary film: Federal agents directly incited people on Jan. 6, 2021, and "intentionally entrapped" American citizens. [...] Tucker Carlson stated on July 14, 2021 in a TV segment: "It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November.
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2024-03-26): - National security — We now live with the looming threat of a mob coming to overturn our elections because they don’t have faith in the electoral system. - Election security — States are now passing restrictive voter fraud laws that are making it difficult for US citizens to access their right to vote. [...] Tucker Carlson & Fox News "It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. It’s true." —Tucker Carlson, July 14, 2021
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2023-07-13): Ramsey had been challenged by Jason Frazier, a member of the planning commission for the city of Roswell and urban farmer, who has filed almost 10,000 voter challenges in Fulton County. On a conservative podcast, Frazier described introducing other activists outside of Fulton County to the basics of voter roll analysis. He is also a prominent participant in frequent private conference calls about policing voter rolls hosted by the Election Integrity Network, a conservative organization focused on transforming election laws. During several calls, Frazier gave advice to more than 100 activists from at least 15 states, according to minutes provided by the watchdog group Documented. The vast majority of the challenges handled in the March hearing that Ramsey attended had been submitted by Frazier, who had challenged about 1,000 people registered at nonresidential addresses, such as P.O. boxes or businesses, and another 4,000 people who he claimed lived at invalid addresses (including one member of the county elections board), most because they had the wrong directional component at the end of their street name — e.g., "SE" instead of "NE." About a dozen people at the three-hour hearing spoke out against the challengers and Fulton officials’ handling of the challenge process. A woman who introduced herself as a survivor of domestic violence explained her use of a P.O. box as part of her "extraordinary lengths to try to protect myself and not keep my address public." A mother complained about how addressing the challenge was taking her away from caring for her children.
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2024-02-01): A sprawling six-year-long legal fight over the integrity of Georgia’s elections wrapped up in a federal courthouse in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon, teeing up a ruling that could shake voters’ faith in their electoral system and further fuel unfounded claims of fraud on the right. [...] "You are going to disenfranchise — especially in Fulton County — thousands of people, and I don’t think anybody wants that," he testified Wednesday, defending the state’s system as efficient and secure. Fulton County is home to Atlanta, Georgia’s largest city. [...] The state has sought to discredit Halderman's research, arguing that real-world security measures would prevent the kind of hacks he testified about, which he developed after having spent three months with a Fulton County election machine.
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2021-07-15): During his July 14 primetime show, Carlson stated, "It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia last November." He later added, "That is not a conspiracy theory. [...] The segment opened with a weeks-old piece of disinformation about an alarm sounding at an election warehouse in Fulton County. Carlson stated: [...] Although it's true that a small number of ballots were duplicated in Fulton County, the numbers are nowhere near as large as Carlson claimed; and contrary to what Carlson stated, the amount wouldn't have changed the outcome of the presidential election.
Claim: “It now appears there actually was meaningful voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, last November. That is not a conspiracy theory. It's true.” (Tucker Carlson, 2021-07-14)
Evidence (2023-10-11): An exhaustive AP investigation in 2021 found fewer than 475 instances of confirmed voter fraud across six battleground states — nowhere near the magnitude required to sway the outcome of the presidential election. The review of ballots and records from more than 300 local elections offices found that almost every instance of voter fraud was committed by individuals acting alone and not the result of a massive, coordinated conspiracy to rig the election. The cases involved both registered Democrats and Republicans, and the culprits were almost always caught before the fraudulent ballot was counted. [...] One theory advanced by both Trump and one of his lawyers, Rudy Giuliani, is that "suitcases" full of fraudulent ballots in Georgia cost Trump the election there.
Claim: Lists eight wealthy politicians and public figures who “got millions (or close to it) in PPP loans.” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-07)
Evidence (2020-07-07): The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a loan that’s aimed at incentivizing businesses to keep workers on their payroll during the coronavirus pandemic. The Facebook post correctly characterizes how Kanye West, Jared Kushner’s family and Rep. Roger Williams are connected to companies that received money from that program. However, the post oversimplifies how Elaine Chao, Brad Parscale, Betsy DeVos and Devin Nunes benefited.
Claim: Lists eight wealthy politicians and public figures who “got millions (or close to it) in PPP loans.” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-07)
Evidence (2020-07-23): Party committees boosting Republican candidates — typically a top target of business owners aiming to gain influence with the party — are among the top recipients of donors whose firms got PPP loans. Although Trump’s Republican National Committee is the top recipient, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden received more campaign cash from these donors than Trump. [...] Vital Pharmaceuticals, the company behind Bang Energy drink, got a PPP loan worth at least $5 million in early April as the program dolled out its first batch of loans. Last year the company gave $250,000 in corporate money to Trump’s preferred super PAC, America First Action. [...] Federally recognized Native American tribes, which are allowed to donate corporate money to candidates and parties under individual contribution limits, also received aid after spending big on politics. The Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians in California, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and the extremely wealthy Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community in Minnesota are among tribes that gave big to political parties affiliated with congressional Democrats and Republicans before taking PPP loans. The Oneida Indian Nation in New York made a $200,000 donation to Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). The Small Business Administration allowed tribal gaming operations to apply for PPP loans in April after tribes pushed for aid.
Claim: Lists eight wealthy politicians and public figures who “got millions (or close to it) in PPP loans.” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-07)
Evidence (2021-09-23): "This was a program designed for small businesses," then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, as companies like Shake Shack and Potbelly made headlines for grabbing millions from the newly created Paycheck Protection Program. "It was not a program that was designed for public companies that had liquidity." [...] A former finance manager at one company that received millions in PPP money and hasn’t paid it back said that he’d hoped the government would more closely examine his employer’s finances. [...] Another category of large PPP recipients consisted of clinical and early commercial-stage medical device and pharmaceutical companies, which are heavily investor-backed and which sometimes profited from COVID-related activity. A biotech company called PolarityTE, which makes regenerative tissue products, cut staff by 47% in 2020 and raised revenues by 79% by serving as a COVID-19 testing lab. It received $3.6 million, which was forgiven; the company didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Claim: Lists eight wealthy politicians and public figures who “got millions (or close to it) in PPP loans.” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-07)
Evidence (2020-07-13): Toyota Federal Savings, which issued $521 million in PPP loans, had the highest percentage of large loans with nearly half (46%) of its loans exceeding $1 million. [...] PPP loans from credit unions helped to retain 85 jobs per $1 million in loans and required just $11,792 to retain one job. But that was based on the smallest tranche of loans across the various types of financial institutions. [...] Since the data went public, there’s been an uproar about churches receiving PPP loans. A Newsweek article claimed that religious organizations received $7.3 billion, while a website called Done wrote:
Claim: Lists eight wealthy politicians and public figures who “got millions (or close to it) in PPP loans.” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-07)
Evidence (2020-07-06): Businesses backed by some of America’s wealthiest individuals—including hotel owner Robert Rowling, car dealer Norman Braman and auto loan tycoon Don Hankey—received Paycheck Protection Plan Loans from the U.S. government. [...] The program came under fire in April after its first round of funding. A Forbes analysis revealed that 71 publicly-traded companies received PPP loans, including national chains such as Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, which returned the loans following a public backlash. The billionaire founder of web hosting business GoDaddy, Bob Parsons, says he received $8 million in PPP loans for his 16 businesses including a golf club maker and Harley Davidson dealership in April but returned the money in May. "There’s many other businesses that needed it more than we do, so we felt like it was only right to give it back," Parsons told Forbes in May. "It took a little soul-searching—it was a sweet deal—but I've never been above doing the right thing, and that was the right thing." [...] Here are the billionaires—and the companies and nonprofits they back— that received PPP loans:
Claim: Lists eight wealthy politicians and public figures who “got millions (or close to it) in PPP loans.” (Facebook posts, 2020-07-07)
Evidence (2022-08-25): These Members of Congress Got PPP Loan Forgiveness, Dissed Student Loan Relief [...] Republicans aren’t alone in the fact they received PPP loans and had them forgiven. Democrat members of Congress also utilized the tool for themselves or their families. Nancy Bass Wyden, wife of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), received a $2.7 million PPP loan. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) partially owns a California hotel that received PPP loan money. The former law firm of Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pennsylvania), where Cartwright’s wife worked throughout the pandemic, received a PPP loan. The husband of Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada) helms a regional casino that received one.