We don’t use the word “lie” lightly at PolitiFact. Our Lie of the Year looks back at the most significant falsehood that tried to undermine truth in 2023.

The 2023 Lie of the Year goes to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign of conspiracy theories. (1/9) Pundits and politicos have debated if Kennedy's presidential campaign will factor into the outcome of the 2024 election.

But what's clear is that Kennedy’s political following is built on a movement that seeks to legitimize conspiracy theories. (2/9) bit.ly/3tymIqH

Donald Trump, who joined the 2024 presidential race tonight, repeated many false or misleading claims that we’ve already fact-checked: His claim that he rebuilt the military: Mostly False.
politifact.com/factchecks/202…

THREAD: We have been tracking Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ policy promises from his campaign in 2018. Here’s where his promises stand on the environment, teacher salaries, health care costs, and more: politifact.com/florida/promis… When he ran for governor, Ron DeSantis pledged to protect and enhance Florida’s air quality. Although he didn't institute clean air policies immediately, metrics suggest air quality has improved. We rated this promise a Compromise. bit.ly/3FwWhpa

Trump sent a letter to the Jan. 6 committee saying 2020 was “rigged and stolen.” Trump’s own advisers added to the evidence that the election wasn’t stolen, including Attorney General Bill Barr who told Trump his statements were “bull----.”
politifact.com/article/2022/j… Trump sent a letter to the Jan. 6 committee saying 2020 was “rigged and stolen.” Trump said even before the election that rigging would be the only way Dems would win. Pants on Fire! politifact.com/factchecks/202…

New: For decades, the word “grooming” has been associated with child sexual abuse.

Now, it has become used to imply members of the LGBTQ community deliberately prey on children by discussing sexual orientation and gender identity. politifact.com/article/2022/m… Exposure to these topics “does not change the way people develop,” said the University of Minnesota’s Jenifer McGuire, who studies family relationships and gender identity and the health of transgender youth.

You might have seen a clip of President Joe Biden “shaking hands” with thin air. It never happened. Here’s the truth, as well as how misinformers manufacture and embellish embarrassing presidential moments: The claim appeared on YouTube and Twitter, shared by Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz. It even appeared on Instagram, where Snoop Dogg shared the video with his followers. instagram.com/p/Ccf63NbFHme/

Yesterday, Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearings wrapped up. Here's the fact-checks we've written about it: Senator Josh Hawley failed to prove that Jackson is more lenient than federal judges on average. Judges regularly give lesser sentences than what the government wants. politifact.com/factchecks/202…

Social media posts claim that the drug labels for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine "were blank when they should have contained all these diseases and adverse events" listed in a confidential report. They fail to acknowledge several important caveats. bit.ly/3txBnzz Adverse events are any and all health issues that arise after someone receives a drug, whether or not it's caused by the drug. Not all adverse events that have been reported are included in a drug label because investigation may show they are not related to the drug.

It’s been one year since we watched, along with everyone else, as rioters overran the U.S. Capitol, fueled by misinformation from then-President Donald Trump and a storm of pro-Trump media. politifact.com/article/2022/j… #January6th #Jan6thCommittee We’ve spent the past year examining the events of Jan. 6, debunking false claims of election fraud in 2020, and trying to understand how misinformation — much of it spread online — spurred such real-life consequences. Here are some highlights:

The novel coronavirus emerged in December 2019 and the first vaccine was approved a year later. That may seem fast, but the science behind the coronavirus vaccines is years in the making.

politifact.com/article/2021/a… Vaccines are by no means perfect. They can have minor temporary side effects. A small number of vaccinated people will get break-through infections and get sick anyway.

*But for most people, vaccines keep you from getting seriously sick and dying of COVID-19.*

Critical race theory — a broad set of ideas about systemic bias and privilege — might have its roots in legal academia, but it is fast becoming one of the more explosive flashpoints in American politics. bit.ly/3wwyHBa Supporters describe critical race theory as a collection of ideas, not a single doctrine, that explain why racial inequality and disparities persist long after civil rights laws and court rulings barred discrimination.

1/ The U.S. Senate is now considering voting rights legislation to establish minimum nationwide standards.

Some Democrats have backed a wide-ranging bill addressing voting rights and campaign finance called the “For the People” Act.

bit.ly/3d5pDf4 2/ The roughly 800-page bill combines proposals for voter registration, absentee voting, in-person voting, campaign finance and ethics related to federal elections.

Republicans have vowed to defeat the expansive bill, and its passage is considered unlikely.

We're watching President Biden's speech to Congress live for fact-checking and coverage. Follow this thread 👇 Are you watching the #JointSession speech and hearing something that needs a fact-check? Tag #politifactthis or email truthometer@politifact.com

We get a lot of questions like this, but this reader did a *particular* succinct job of combining the most frequent questions PolitiFact receives. Read below if you've ever wondered about these aspects of our fact-checking organization. On donors:

PolitiFact sells content to media publishers and companies. Grants, individual donations and site advertising make up the rest of our revenue. We list donors over $1,000 here: politifact.com/who-pays-for-p…

Lies infected America in 2020. The very worst were not just damaging, but deadly. PolitiFact’s 2020 Lie of the Year: Coronavirus downplay and denial. bit.ly/lieoftheyear20… COVID-19 has killed more than 300,000 people in the United States. And yet, the threat of it has been downplayed at multiple levels since the very beginning of the pandemic.

In a video on Facebook, Trump said that Democrats pushed to mail out millions of ballots to voters “with virtually no safeguards.” That’s bogus. First, GOP election officials mailed out ballots too. And there were safeguards nationwide. bit.ly/37Y4ou4 Trump said that mail in voting led to “fraud and abuse” on a scale never seen before. Wrong. Federal officials said the Nov. 3 election “was the most secure in American history.” bit.ly/3pIhRfS

A note from PolitiFact's Editor-in-Chief @AngieHolan: Since the election, we’ve heard from many readers who are disappointed with our fact-checking work on the election results. Here are a few of the comments we’ve received. It's an unfortunate product of these polarized times that information deemed unfavorable toward a candidate is perceived as partisan.

In 2016 and 2018, Sen. @LindseyGrahamSC said a Supreme Court vacancy should not be filled in an election year.

"If an opening comes in the last year of President Donald Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait until the next election," he said Oct. 3, 2018. Now, Graham said he supports filling the current vacancy before the next president’s term begins.

https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1307382090703474690?s=20

Fact-checking President Trump's ABC town hall claims on coronavirus, Joe Biden bit.ly/32Bd0Uj THREAD: Trump deflected criticism of how he has handled the pandemic. Even as the death toll — about 200,000 — moves toward the higher end of initial forecasts, Trump said he took strong steps to stem the spread of the disease.

Thanks @PressSec, for the response. You said the president “never downplayed the virus.” It seems that the president’s words are the ones that matter. Here is some of what President Trump said. bit.ly/32c0sCB

https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/1303849383151251456

Jan. 30: "We think we have it very well under control. We have very little problem in this country at this moment — five. ... We think it’s going to have a very good ending for it."

Feb. 2: "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China."

President Trump referred to black-clad thugs on a plane in a Fox News interview. What was he talking about? No one seems to know for sure. bit.ly/2QKanZD We contacted every relevant agency and none provided any further information to substantiate the incident. bit.ly/2QKanZD