Facts Matter: Walz off on proposal detailed in Project 2025
During an Oct. 1 debate with Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz claimed a proposed conservative plan would include some new data.
Walz brought up Project 2025, an initiative created by the Heritage Foundation as a blueprint for another Donald Trump presidency, although Trump has claimed to have nothing to do with the plan.
“Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry of pregnancies,” Walz said.
But that’s not quite true, according to the Associated Press. The plan would call for “accurate and reliable statistical data” concerning abortions, but not pregnancies.
The proposal in Project 2025 would require each state to report data on abortions to the Department of Health and Human Services, including the number of abortions performed in that state and the reason for the abortion, the AP said.
Vance characterizes Trump’s actions
During the Tuesday debate with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said former President Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, were peaceful.
“(Trump) peacefully gave over power on January the 20th as we have done for 250 years in this country,” Vance said.
But that’s mostly false, according to PolitiFact. Although Trump left the White House on Jan. 20, his words and actions led to a violent attack earlier on the U.S. Capitol.
Before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol building that resulted in assaults on police officers and more than $1 million in damages, Trump encouraged his followers to fight the election results.
In a speech on the day of the insurrection, Trump said, “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore and that’s what this is all about.”
The crowd later chanted, “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!,” PolitiFact said.
Diddy didn’t send message from prison
Music producer and rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs is currently being held in Brooklyn, New York, after he was arrested last month on charges of racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
A recent social media post appears to show Combs continuing to make videos, even though he is incarcerated.
“Diddy Combs speaks from prison,” read the text on a Sept. 26 Instagram post that included a video showing a blurry, tight close-up of the singer’s face as he is talking.
“I’m trying to figure out what’s even going on, like how is this happening, and sometimes it’s like I’ve got to turn the TV off because it’s so overwhelming,” Combs says in the clip.
That is Diddy in the video, according to PolitiFact, but it’s not recent and it wasn’t shot in prison.
The footage was originally uploaded to Combs’ YouTube channel on Jan. 16, 2010. He posted the video following an earthquake, four days earlier in Haiti, that had killed an estimated 300,000 people and left more than a million others homeless. The video is titled, “Diddy Blog #1001 …. A message to Haiti.”
The version of the video posted recently to Instagram is zoomed in on Combs’ face and the clip is blurred, but he can be seen wearing civilian clothes, not a prison uniform.
No stimulus check for homeowners
A recent social media post claims homeowners will soon be receiving stimulus checks from the federal government.
“Biden gives homeowners $185,000 in CASH. This NEW EMERGENCY HOUSING STIMULUS for U.S. homeowners with a credit score above 600 has just been approved,” reads the text, in Spanish, on a Sept. 11 Facebook post. The post includes a photo of President Joe Biden in front of a stack of $100 bills. Text over those images says homeowners are owed $50,000.
But this claim is false, according to USA Today. There is no evidence this program exists.
Biden hasn’t approved stimulus payouts going to homeowners. Users who click on the “Learn More” tab on the post are directed to a nonworking website that appears to have nothing to do with the federal government.
The Internal Revenue Service, or IRS, would be responsible for distributing stimulus funds.
“This has nothing to do with the IRS,” spokesperson Alejandra Castro told USA Today. “I haven't heard anything about this.”
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.