Fake News: Michelle Obama Did NOT Announce 2020 Presidential Run

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk

Famous fake/satire website The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense posted an article titled "BREAKING: Michelle Obama Announces 2020 Presidential Run" which opened:

Donald Trump's challenger in 2020 might be more pathetically familiar than you would expect. No, it's not Hillary Clinton (well, it might be, but this is someone else). It's not Kamala Harris (once again, it might be but this is another man altogether). It's Michelle Obama.

Despite saying numerous times, often without being asked, that she would not run for President, Obama registered for "her" presidential run with the FEC on Wednesday - a move that delighted people who wear "pussy hats" and scream "black lives matter" while ignoring, like the Obamas, the plague of blacks killing blacks that is gripping inner cites across the country.

As of the writing of this article, the FEC website lists just one 'Obama' as a candidate (and that is her husband Barack). There is no listing under her maiden name 'LaVaughn Robinson' either. This is unsurprising since the entire story is false.

michelleforpresident.jpg

The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense carries a satire disclaimer at the bottom of the page which reads:

In a cynical world where the news of the day often seems fake, The Last Line of Defense offers today's busy conservative a place to go to read things they'll enjoy and congregate with a bunch of people they agree with. So while everything on this site is a satirical work of fiction, we are proud to present it to those who will have called it real anyway.

The owner/writer of the site is self-professed liberal troll Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has made it his full time job to troll gullible conservatives and Trump supporters into liking and sharing his articles. He runs several other websites including asamericanasapplepie.org and freedumjunkshun.com and is also known under his nickname "Busta Troll".

Blair's articles frequently get copied by "real" fake news sites who often omit the satire disclaimer and any other hints the stories are fake. These copycats often get more likes/shares out of the stories than the original version. Blair has tried to get these sites shut down in the past but new ones keep cropping up.

If you see one of his stories on a site that does not contain a satire disclaimer you can safely assume it is fake news. If you do see the satire disclaimer it is of course also fake news.

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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