Track outages and protect against spam, fraud, and abuse
Measure audience engagement and site statistics to understand how our services are used and enhance the quality of those services
If you choose to “Accept all,” we will also use cookies and data to
Develop and improve new services
Deliver and measure the effectiveness of ads
Show personalized content, depending on your settings
Show personalized ads, depending on your settings
If you choose to “Reject all,” we will not use cookies for these additional purposes.
Non-personalized content is influenced by things like the content you’re currently viewing, activity in your active Search session, and your location. Non-personalized ads are influenced by the content you’re currently viewing and your general location. Personalized content and ads can also include more relevant results, recommendations, and tailored ads based on past activity from this browser, like previous Google searches. We also use cookies and data to tailor the experience to be age-appropriate, if relevant.
Select “More options” to see additional information, including details about managing your privacy settings. You can also visit g.co/privacytools at any time.
President Joe Biden‘s departure from the 2024 presidential race has left both Republicans and Democrats reassessing election strategies with new pitches and attack lines for their rivals.
On Wednesday, Biden made his first major public appearance since he confirmed he was ending his reelection campaign and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic Party‘s 2024 nominee.
During his speech, he said his achievements as president “merited a second term,” but that he believed it was in the best interest of the country to “pass the torch to a new generation.”
With Biden out, claims appeared online that merchandisers with piles of excoriating merchandise were planning to sue the president for the money they had now lost.
Attendees wave “Let’s go Brandon” banners as they attend a “Don’t Tread on Florida” tour campaign event with Florida governor Ron DeSantis at the Alico Arena ahead of the midterm elections, November 6, 2022, in…GIORGIO VIERA/AFP via Getty Images
The Claim
A post by user @Roshan_Rinaldi on X, formerly Twitterposted on July 25, 2024, viewed 934,400 times, said “Man says he lost $10,000 in now-worthless ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ merch.
“So he wants to sue Joe Biden for dropping out.
“Ahahaha!”
The post included what appeared to be a still from a TV news broadcast that said, “BREAKING NEWS – BIDEN SUED FOR DROPPING OUT – MAN SAYS HE LOST $10,000 ON WORTHLESS LET’S GO BRANDON MERCHANDISE.”
Presumably, much of the merchandise with this slogan will have little relevance for the rest of the presidential campaign. However, the claim of a lawsuit, let alone a “Breaking News” story about it, appears to have been made up.
The image used in the post on X was pulled from an unrelated Fox News story about a Trump merchandise seller published in 2021. Business owner Keith Lambert shared the photo from one of his “Let’s Go Brandon” stores in New England.
There have been no reports that Lambert is planning to sue the president over losing money on merchandise purchases.
Newsweek has contacted an associate of Lambert for comment.
There are no other legitimate news stories about such a lawsuit. The screenshot shows no news widget or icon to indicate which network broadcast the story, although it bears some similarity to Sky News’ formatting.
It appears the image was produced using a template that allows users to create fake headlines. It is a well-known template used in other misleading news stories. The only difference with the image shared on X is that a watermark usually generated automatically onto the template has been removed.
“Good morning and Happy Tuesday to everyone who JUST realized that MAGA has wasted a TON of time, money, and energy on all of their Let’s Go Brandon tee shirts, flags, lawn signs and other dumb anti-Biden merchandise for the 2024 election,” BrooklynDad_Defiant wrote.
“Sure it’s petty, but it’s hilarious.”
In any case, the image appears to have been created for satire. Newsweek has contacted a White House media representative for comment.
The Ruling
Satire.
There are no legitimate news reports that a business owner is suing President Biden over wasted “Let’s Go Brandon” stock. The image used to accompany the claim appears to have been created by a popular online template generator used elsewhere in an attempt to prop up other misleading and false stories.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
Top Stories Tamfitronics Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Friends star Jennifer Aniston has jumped in to the election fray, positioning herself as the patron saint of childless cat ladies everywhere after the mainstream news media dug up Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance’s long-ago comment about Kamala Harris.
But in so doing, the Hollywood star also ended up spreading fake news about Vance’s position on IVF.
In her defense of cat ladies, Jennifer Aniston erroneously claimed that JD Vance wanted to take away womens’ access to in vitro fertilization.
“All I can say is … Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day,” Aniston wrote on Instagram. “I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”
However, Vance voiced his support for IVF in a February interview with local NBC affiliate WCMH-TV, during which he said he, Trump, and “pretty much every Republican that I know is pro-fertility treatments.”
“My view is babies are good, families are good,” Vance said. “And I want there to be as much access to fertility treatment as possible. And I think 99 percent of people agree with me, Democrat, Republican, or in the middle.”
The Washington Examiner was the first to correct Aniston’s false claim about Vance.
As Breitbart News reportedJennifer Aniston has publicly spoken about her difficulties conceiving a child naturally while she was married to actor Brad Pitt, adding that she wishes someone had told her to freeze her eggs when she was younger.
Certain news outlets reported on Saturday that PTI founder Imran Khan and his party have urged President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to provide better prison facilities at Adiala Jail in a letter through his counsel, Advocate Azhar Siddique. However, the former prime minister or his party have made no such request.
Imran is currently serving out his sentence in the Iddat case at Adiala Jail. His sentences in the two Toshakhana cases were suspended while he was acquitted by the Islamabad High Court in the cipher case.
In a May 30 Supreme Court hearing, Imran had said he was in solitary confinement where he had no access to any material, legal assistance or even a library.
Disputing the statements about his living conditions at Adiala Jail, the federal government on June 6 submitted a report to the Supreme Court with pictures and details of the facilities and arrangements provided to him. The PTI had criticised the state of Imran’s prison room.
Express Tribune published a report today titled, “Imran Khan seeks better jail conditions in letter to President Zardari and PM Shehbaz”.
The intro of the news report reads: “Imran Khan the incarcerated founding leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has urged President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to ensure proper jail facilities through a letter penned by his counsel, Azhar Siddique.”
Similarly, news outlet Capital TV also shared a video clip today on social media platform X with the caption: “PTI wrote letter to President and Prime Minister to provide facilities to Imran Khan in jail”.
However, perusing the July 5 letter, a copy of which is available with Dawn.comshowed that it was written by Advocate Siddique, chairman of the Judicial Activism Panel (JAP), a self-styled public interest forum based in Lahore.
Investigating the letter’s content showed nowhere that it was written by or on the request or instructions of the PTI founder.
The letter called for a report on Imran’s living conditions, a list of individuals who met Imran, information on whether he was placed in solitary confinement as well as for him to be provided all those facilities he was entitled to under the law.
Contacted for comment on the matter by Dawn.comAdvocate Siddique rubbished the impression that Imran had ordered the letter to be written or requested better prison facilities for himself.
“He makes no such requests,” Siddique said of the PTI founder. He said the JAP initiated the writing and sending of the letter due to it being a “human rights organisation”. He reiterated that Imran had not requested for the letter to be written or had any role in it.
Furthermore, neither Imran’s nor the PTI’s official X accounts shared links to the letter or its text which they would be expected to have done if it was penned by them or on their behalf.
Therefore, Dawn.com has determined that the reports of Imran or the PTI sending the letter to state functionaries seeking an upgrade in his prison facilities are untrue and inaccurate. As confirmed by Advocate Siddique himself, Imran made no such request or had anything to do with the letter, which was initiated on its own by JAP.
