Hard Reset

Disinformation and propaganda have dominated the impeachment process from the beginning. On this week’s show, we look at this through the lens of two claims from Senate Republicans and Trump’s defense attorneys during the trial: Did the House of Representatives “not do its job” when requesting evidence for the impeachment investigation? And was attorney Alan Dershowitz’s jarring comment about quid pro quos and the public interest mischaracterized in the media?

President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial is underway, and there are still some uncertainties. Will the trial include witnesses? Will the Senate stay awake during any part of the proceedings? Will Sen. Rand Paul ever finish his crossword puzzle?

Also: Listeners, we want to know what you think about Hard Reset. Take our survey by visiting bigiftrue.org/survey.

Presidents and other officials can be impeached for “treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” On today’s show: What that means and why impeachment charges don’t have to be tied to a specific crime.

After an American drone strike killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani this month, President Donald Trump and other officials have said that the general had been planning an attack against the U.S. at the time of his death. But the White House has offered conflicting details of Soleimani’s plans to attack and no evidence to support them.

On this episode of Hard Reset, we’ll explore those contradictions and factcheck two other claims that emerged after Soleimani’s death: Did Democrats mourn Soleimani and is his daughter a U.S. citizen?

Last week, a report from the Department of Justice’s inspector general examined how the FBI conducted its investigation into whether or not the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. We factchecked a claim about the report and former Central Intelligence Agency head John Brennan. Plus: YouTube’s updated harassment policy and why Big If True looks for data voids, search engine results that provide little or no reliable information.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that a new policy for food stamp recipients will cause about 688,000 people to lose their benefits. We factchecked some of the reactions to this rule change, including whether or not children will be affected and if this will hit families before the Christmas holiday. Plus, an update from last week’s episode about hate speech podcasts.

As podcasts grow in popularity, white nationalists and white supremacists are using the platform to reach a broader audience ever. Experts on extremism have expressed concerns that these shows could radicalize others into hate groups.

Today on the show: How white nationalists use podcasts to fly under the radar, how these shows amplify conspiracy theories and how audio platforms are responding to this content.

A 21-year-old white nationalist is using online platforms like YouTube to rally his followers into trolling conservatives IRL. On this episode, we’ll hear from William Nardi, a conservative writer for National Review who met Nicholas Fuentes when they both were college students in Boston.

The internet is filled with hoax photos, but tracing where they came from isn’t as hard as you might think. The Hard Reset team gives you tips on how to identify a fake photo and walks you through the process reporters used to debunk two very different images – a K9 unit linked to the al-Baghdadi raid and Prince’s mugshot from a Mississippi jail.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a U.S. special operations raid in Syria. In his speech, Trump claimed he predicted the 9/11 attacks, but is that accurate?

And another fact check: Can medical abortions be reversed?