Facts Matter: Explosives not found near Trump rally
Former President Donald Trump was apparently the target of an assassination attempt Sept. 15 when a Secret Service agent fired at a suspect at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump was on the sixth hole of the course when the agent saw the barrel of a gun sticking through the bushes. The agent fired, and the suspect fled, but was soon captured. The former president was unhurt.
Also, in July, Trump was reportedly the target of an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania when a bullet grazed his ear.
With two such incidents involving the former president this campaign season, authorities in New York took quick action after a recent report of explosives in a car near a spot where Trump was planning to hold a rally.
However, the quick action taken by officials was to squash those false reports making the rounds on social media, according to the Associated Press.
The false reports began circulating Sept. 18, hours before Trump was scheduled to hold a rally at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, Nassau County, New York, on Long Island.
Nassau County Police detained a person near the rally site who “may have been training a bomb detection dog” and “falsely reported explosives being found,” Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder told the AP.
The fake story, which was shared on X by the platform’s owner Elon Musk, appears to have originated from a post by a reporter who cited unnamed police sources.
Nassau County Police spokesperson Lt. Scott Skrynecki told the AP the story about finding explosives is “false.”
Skrynecki said the person detained was not a member of law enforcement and was not affiliated with the rally or the venue.
Christopher Boyle, spokesperson for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, told the AP there is no truth to this claim.
“No. Ridiculous. Zero validity,” Boyle said.
Harris off on Black unemployment numbers
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, recently sat for an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists.
During the Sept. 17 session at a studio in Philadelphia, Harris claimed, “We have the lowest Black unemployment rate in generations.”
But that’s not completely accurate, according to PolitiFact.
The latest figures credited to President Joe Biden, from August, show the Black unemployment rate at 6.1% That’s actually higher than a year ago, when the rate was at a record low of 4.8% in April 2023.
The current rate is also higher than numbers during former President Donald Trump’s administration. In September 2019, during Trump’s term, the rate dropped to 5.3%, a record low at the time.
Swift didn’t cancel tour after endorsement
Following the Sept. 10 debate between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, the two major party candidates in the next election, singer Taylor Swift posted an endorsement for Harris on Instagram, which included information about registering to vote.
Recent social media posts make it appear Swift made a bad decision.
“Taylor Swift Forced to Cancel Eras Tour Dates Following Endorsement Backlash: ‘Only 2,300 Tickets Sold,’” read a Sept. 16 Facebook post.
But that’s not what happened after Swift endorsed Harris, according to PolitiFact. There are no reports of Swift canceling any tour dates after her post. The tour, which began in March 2023, is still going and currently all remaining shows are sold out on Ticketmaster.
After Swift’s endorsement, PolitiFact said, hundreds of thousands of people visited the voter registration site she recommended and Trump posted on his Truth Social account, “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”
The false story was originally published on the website Esspots, which describes itself as, “your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States.”
Fair ride malfunction not in Atlanta
A disturbing video making the rounds on social media shows a swing ride at a fair with each rider smacking into a truck parked too close to the ride.
“Do NOT come to the atlanta (sic) county fair,” reads text over the video in a Sept. 5 Instagram post.
Sadly, the video appears to be authentic, however it didn’t happen in Atlanta, Ga., according to USA Today. The event took place in China.
Ray Guthrie, president and CEO of the Atlanta Fair, told USA Today the clip wasn’t taken there.
“We don’t even own one of those rides,” Guthrie said.
The video, which has been circulating on the internet for more than a year, was filmed in Zhoukou, in China’s Henan province. The same video was posted Jan. 24, 2023, by the American branch of the China Global Television Network, a state-controlled media group.
In that post, the media group said “misoperation by an employee” was responsible for the incident.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.