Did members of the press swipe bottles of wine from the tables right after the shooting during the White House Correspondents' dinner? No, that's not true: Everything at the dinner was paid for, a source close to the event told Lead Stories. The source added, "We have receipts for all of it. No one stole anything." The claim appeared in…

Did Cole Allen, the suspect in the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting, work as a production crew member on films and tours for a dozen actors and musicians? No, that's not true: The false claim is part of an AI-generated series of articles and posts created by a spam operation managed from Vietnam. Fake fan pages are used to target…

Does a viral video on YouTube discuss a real-life scandal involving BBC host "James Whitmore" mocking Filipino Doctor "Elena Reyes" for her accent? No, that's not true: The story was made up by AI. Multiple online tools detected AI across different elements of the story, and the BBC website showed no record of either the host or the guest. The…

Did President Donald Trump post about the White House Correspondents' Dinner shooting two hours before it took place? No, that's not true: Truth Social shows timestamps based on your device's time zone and updates them automatically to match when you view them. The incident occurred at about 8:36 p.m. in Washington, D.C., which is in the Eastern time zone. The…

Does a video showing a judge dancing on a desk show an authentic judge in a courtroom? No, that's not true: The video was created by comedian Ebony Merkerson and is a staged skit. She is a recurring actress from other viral rage-bait clips that do not show authentic courtroom footage. Signs of the skit are she is dancing on…

Did Jimmy Kimmel make an "expectant widow" joke about Melania Trump after the shooting at the White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD)? No, that's not true: Kimmel made the joke on his late night show on April 23, 2026. He was making a mock speech about the WHCD and was not at the actual event on April 25, 2026. The joke…

Did Usha Vance, the wife of Vice President JD Vance, attend the same 2017 conference as White House Correspondents' Dinner suspect Cole Tomas Allen? No, that's not true: The communications office of the Office of the Second Lady at the White House told Lead Stories that it "can confirm that it was not her." There is also no evidence that…

Does a viral video show high-resolution "unedited raw security footage" of the suspected shooter running through a checkpoint at the 2026 White House Correspondents' dinner? No, that's not true: The video was enhanced with AI, and, in the process, the technology altered the details. The clip showed glitches typical of AI-generated content, and the account that first published it confirmed…

Does a viral social media post show a real passport for someone from India named "Priyanka Rao" who is supposedly the wife of Cole Tomas Allen? No, that's not true: There have been no news reports mentioning that name in connection with the man who was accused of being the shooter at the 2026 White House Correspondents Dinner. The passport…

Did journalist Taylor Lorenz, who was at the White House Correspondents' Dinner (WHCD), say somebody should "do it" while referring to "killing Trump"? No, that's not true: Lorenz reported on people using that phrase with that meaning in May 2025. But she was not herself calling for somebody to "do it" -- she was only reporting on the meme. The…