Latest Stories

Showing 1705-1716 of 8420 items
Biden Milwaukee

Fact-checking Biden’s Milwaukee visit

February 17, 2021

President Joe Biden chose a town hall event in Milwaukee for his first major appearance as president outside the nation’s capital. We took a closer look at a number of key statements he made while speaking for a little over an hour topics including COVID-19, racial justice and stimulus funds. “Kids don’t get … COVID […]

Feb. 17, 2021 press briefing at White House

Ask PolitiFact: Are the White House press briefings ‘staged?’

February 17, 2021

When President Joe Biden took over the White House, his administration resumed a tradition that had gone by the wayside during the Trump years: regular press briefings.  Since Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, press secretary Jen Psaki has fielded questions from White House reporters in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room nearly every weekday. Journalists […]

Michael van der Veen walking to Senate floor Feb. 12

Fact-checking impeachment trial claims by the Philly-area lawyers who played big roles

February 17, 2021

Lawyers from the Philadelphia region played starring roles in the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, who was acquitted of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol attack.  U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, a second-term Montgomery County Democrat, was one of the House impeachment managers who prosecuted the case against Trump. Bruce L. Castor Jr., a former […]

Texas power lines

Natural gas, not wind turbines, main driver of Texas power shortage

February 16, 2021

When a rare blast of Arctic air and ice hit Texas and resulted in a massive power outage, the critics of wind power were quick to focus on the wind turbines that came offline. Supporters of wind power argued back that frozen turbines played a minor role in the outage. Texas does have a bodacious […]

mother and child at border 2018

Joe Biden’s plan to reunify families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under Trump

February 15, 2021

President Joe Biden called it a “human tragedy”: the Trump administration immigration policy that caused the separation of children from their parents or legal guardians as they arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border, usually asking for asylum protection. “We’re going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally — […]

McConnell leaves senate post acquital

Impeachment over, Donald Trump faces more investigations

February 13, 2021

By a vote of 57 to 43, the Senate acquitted former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., cautioned that Trump might still face charges or lawsuits for his role in the attack on the Capitol. “We have a criminal justice system in this country,” McConnell said after […]

Schoen pic

How solid is Donald Trump’s First Amendment impeachment defense?

February 12, 2021

On the Senate floor, former President Donald Trump’s defense team used a series of quick-cut videos to make a case that the words he spoke to supporters before the storming of the Capitol were just the kinds of words Democrats use all the time to rally their supporters. A key element of Trump’s defense is […]

California unemployment office

COVID-19 aid for states and localities: How dire is the need?

February 11, 2021

A decade ago, the Great Recession broadly undermined state and local government finances, which economists say dragged out the recovery for several years.  The coronavirus pandemic, by contrast, has had a more uneven impact, cratering state and local revenues in some places, while barely touching others.  Still, Democrats aren’t taking any chances. They say they […]

Trump video saying we love you to rioters on Jan. 6 2-10-21

House Democrats press timeline in Day 2 of Senate impeachment trial

February 11, 2021

As the evidence phase of the impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump started, House impeachment managers sought to portray Trump as the “inciter-in-chief” of a dangerous insurrection. Their presentation focused on Trump’s statements and actions in the runup to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. “To us, it may have felt like […]

House impeachment managers rotunda

Fact-checking Day 1 of Trump’s second impeachment trial: To try or not to try

February 10, 2021

Before senators could consider a scrap of evidence in the case against former President Donald Trump, they first had to vote whether to try the case at all. House Democratic impeachment managers argued that even though Trump no longer holds office, the future of the nation hinges on allowing the Senate trial to move forward.  […]

Walker signs Act 10

A look back at our Act 10 fact checks

February 9, 2021

Even with the hindsight of 2020, Act 10 stands out as one of the most unique and polarizing moments in Wisconsin history. Ten years ago this month, tens of thousands of protesters packed the State Capitol daily, pushing back against then-Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to limit union power as a fix to government fiscal woes. […]

Biden and Byrd

What you need to know about the budget reconciliation process

February 8, 2021

Reconciliation — even by the standards of legislative procedures, its name is almost comically dry. But the budget reconciliation process is poised to provide President Joe Biden with his best shot of passing something approximating his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, a proposal to contain the coronavirus crisis and the resulting economic downturn.  But what […]

Showing 1705-1716 of 8420 items