A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these is legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked these out. Here are the real facts:
Image suggests Republicans are responsible for government shutdowns in 1995, 1996, 2013 and 2018, with a caption stating, “Does anyone see a pattern?”
Republicans controlled Congress in 1995, 1996 and during the three most recent government shutdowns, all of which began in 2018, but they did not control both chambers of Congress when the government shut down in 2013, as the image circulating online falsely suggests. The inaccurate image also does not tell the whole story. It leaves out past government shutdowns when Democrats controlled chambers of Congress. The government has shut down 13 times since the early 1980s when former Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti issued a legal opinion stating the government should shut down in part or whole when Congress fails to pass a spending bill. Democrats held a majority in one or both chambers of Congress during shutdowns in 2013, 1990, 1987, 1984 and 1981. Party control does not always determine who is at fault for a shutdown, either, given that 60 votes are required in the Senate to approve a bill funding the government, said Roy Meyers, a political science professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
“Kamala Harris is NOT a natural born citizen. She is NOT eligible for the Presidency”
The day after U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris entered the Democratic presidential race, false claims circulated on social media saying she was not eligible to hold the office because she is not a natural born citizen. The posts falsely claimed that Harris, 54, did not fulfill that requirement because “neither parent was a legal resident for five years prior to her birth, a requirement for naturalization.” Harris was born Oct. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California. Her father, an economist from Jamaica, and her mother, a cancer researcher from India, met at the University of California, Berkeley, while graduate students. She was born in the U.S. and is regarded as a natural born citizen under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, said Jack Maskell, retired legislative attorney for the Congressional Research Service. “I can’t believe people are making this idiotic comment,” Laurence Tribe, Harvard University professor of constitutional law, told The Associated Press. “She is a natural born citizen and there is no question about her eligibility to run.”
Piles of syringes photographed on a blue tarp are said to have been “found lying around the streets of San Fran.”
The photograph, which is circulating on social media with the caption “This is the promise of socialist policies,” was taken October 2017 during a cleanup at a homeless camp south of Everett, Washington. While it is unclear who took the photo used online, Caleb Hutton, a journalist at The Daily Herald in Everett, Washington, took a photo that is almost identical. Hutton told the AP in an email that the image is from a cleanup in Everett organized by the Hand Up Project, a volunteer group that aims to get people off the streets and into sober housing.
This is part of The Associated Press’ ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online.
