Disgraced Senator Chuck Schumer Announces Retirement- Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
New York Senator Chuck Schumer resigned in disgrace after learning that the White House has enough dirt on Schumer to ruin his marriage and to send him to prison.
The Truth:
A self-described fake news website is behind false reports that Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, has resigned in disgrace after learning that the White House had damaging information on him.
The story appeared at Last Line of Defense under the headline, “Chuck Schumer Resigns ‘in Disgrace’?” in May 2017. The story, which has been widely circulated on social media and re-reported on fringe websites, begins:
Libtard Democrat Chuck Schumer will resign his seat as US Senator and Minority Leader this morning after learning that the White House has enough on him to ruin his marriage and send him to jail. Rather than face the backlash and vindictive response from the Trump administration to his requests to play ball, Schumer will resign, deny all of the allegations and spend the next 7 1/2 years under investigation by Trey Gowdy.
This was a great move by Trump. Not only does he get rid of a huge political opponent, he shows America that our elected officials can be compromised and forced to do as they’re told. No more of this pussyfooting around with majority votes and filibusters…either get in line of get out.
The report quickly made the rounds on social media, where links to websites that had re-reported the original report were widely shared and celebrated by some:
False reports that Chuck Schumer resigned in disgrace spread across social media.
Last Line of Defense, however, is not a trustworthy source of news. The site’s disclaimer states that its content should be considered satire, and that it’s stories rely on facts “that don’t necessarily exist.” Given that, it’s pretty easy to classify reports of Chuck Schumer resigning from the Senate in disgrace as “fiction.”
A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:
Collected on: 05/24/2017
False reports that Senator Chuck Schumer resigned in disgrace came from a fake news website.