Podcast · ms.now
Deadline: White House
Nicolle Wallace, MS NOW
Drawing on years of experience as communications chief for President George W. Bush and senior advisor for the McCain-Palin campaign, Nicolle Wallace provides political insight and clarity on where the decision-makers stand on complex issues. Join her for analysis and discussion with the key newsmakers every weekday.
172 claims
Mixed60% confidence8 sourcesOct 22, 2026Every state except Louisiana has a paper trail record of the votes cast in elections.Said by BAt the statewide level the claim holds: Louisiana is the only state whose machines lack a voter-verified paper trail (PolitiFact, LegalClarity, Himes, Becker). At the jurisdiction level it does not hold literally, since EAVS 2024 data cited by one source shows 80 jurisdictions in three states without a verified paper trail, so the answer depends on whether the measure is statewide or jurisdictional. The claim was made 2026-10-22, and the sources describe the situation as of their publication dates, which is consistent with that date.Mixed50% confidence6 sourcesOct 22, 2026As of July 2026, the Department of Homeland Security targeted at least 148 nonprofits and churches conducting voter engagement.Said by AThe district court's October 21 order, as quoted in the court filings, states that as of July 2026 DHS had targeted at least 148 such organizations, matching the claim's figure and its scope of nonprofits and churches doing voter engagement. However, the Ninth Circuit opinion of October 30 states the figure as at least 165 for the same July 2026 date, so the sources conflict on the number. The extraction is faithful to the post, which quotes the 148 figure.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed60% confidence5 sourcesOct 22, 2026The Department of Defense has a $1 trillion budget.Said by 3CThe claim that the Department of Defense has a $1 trillion budget is broadly supported as a topline framing: the White House says the 2026 defense topline was historic $1 trillion, and ProPublica says Congress appropriated $1 trillion for defense this year. However, the sources give different measures: CBO's DoD base request was $961 billion, CRS reports $839.2 billion in discretionary appropriations for DoD activities, and the 2026 request with reconciliation was about $1.01 trillion, so the figure depends on the measure used. The post's 'Department of Defense' reference and the date of 2026-10-22 are consistent with the passage, and the claim is graded against the sources as of that date.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed70% confidence7 sourcesOct 22, 2026Pete Hegseth's staff relocated a floor globe used by General Dwight Eisenhower during World War II.Said by ASources support that Hegseth's staff attempted to move a WWII-era Eisenhower floor globe to his office without curators and dropped it, but they contradict the word 'relocated': The Hill and the Kansas City Star both report the globe was ultimately not relocated. The post also describes it as a 'floor globe', while the Pentagon statement calls it a replica, a detail the sources do not resolve.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed70% confidence6 sourcesOct 20, 2026CISA was established by George W. Bush and Donald Trump.Said by DTrump is supported as the establishing figure: CISA was created by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Act of 2018, which he signed on November 16, 2018. Bush's role is overstated, since the sources show only that its predecessor, NPPD, was formed within DHS in 2007 under his administration, not that he established CISA. The claim matches the passage's wording, so no extraction departure applies.Mixed60% confidence4 sourcesOct 20, 2026The Trump administration terminated a contract with a research contractor in Puerto Rico after the contractor failed to find evidence of 2020 election rigging.Said by DMultiple reports (ProPublica, CNN, Reuters, GovExec) say the administration stopped renewing or shut down the Puerto Rico contract with Mojave Research after the firm found no evidence supporting 2020 fraud claims. However, an ODNI spokesperson told reporters the work ceased because Mojave had completed its contract, so the causal link is disputed by an official source. The claim's core sequence is supported, but its stated reason is contested.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed60% confidence6 sourcesOct 20, 2026John Solomon stated that no votes were flipped in the 2020, 2024, or 2022 elections.Solomon did tell MS NOW's Vaughn Hillyard that the intelligence community has "zero evidence" that a foreign power flipped a vote in 2020, '22 or '24, so that part is supported. But the claim drops the qualifiers he used: he said "foreign power," that he was "still researching," and that "we're not through all the documents," so he did not flatly state that no votes were flipped.Mixed70% confidence7 sourcesOct 20, 202670% of Americans are not at all confident that Donald Trump will accept Republican losses in the 2026 election.Said by 2BThe 70% figure is accurate for Americans who are not confident (any degree) that Trump would accept Republican midterm losses, per the Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll. The claim's specific wording, 'not at all confident,' does not match the record, which puts that group at about half of Americans, not 70%.Mixed50% confidence1 sourceOct 20, 2026The speaker's organization is currently litigating 90 cases in 41 states.Said by 2CThe only relevant source, a Washington Examiner report published November 2, 2026, has Marc Elias saying his Elias Law Group is litigating 92 election-related cases across 42 states, close to but not matching the claimed 90 cases in 41 states. The report is dated after the October 20 claim date and relays the claimant's own statement, and no source names the speaker's organization as the Elias Law Group, so the identification is inferred.Minor detail. The sources confirm the claim; only a minor detail differs, such as a name's spelling, a title's wording or a rounding.Mixed50% confidence4 sourcesOct 20, 2026The largest 100 law firms in the country employ 130,000 lawyers.Said by 2CThe claim's figure of 130,000 lawyers for the largest 100 firms is not what the sources report for that scope. The only headcount total for the Am Law 100 in the sources is 115,043 attorneys (2023 data, published 2024-06-04), about 13% lower, so the figure is overstated for that cohort. The claimed 130,000 matches a different measure: adding up firms with 250+ lawyers in the Law360 400 gives 129,922, which is not the top 100. The sources contain no 2026 headcount data, and the extraction matches the post's wording, so the claim is graded as stated.Mixed40% confidence3 sourcesOct 20, 2026Aaron Wrights is a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas appointed by Donald Trump.Said by 2BSources conflict on who holds the post. A September 2026 USAO SDTX video transcript has Aaron Wrights calling himself the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, but the DOJ profile and the Wikipedia list of Trump appointees name Aaron Reitz (2026–present) for that post, and Wrights does not appear on the Trump list. The claim also departs slightly from the passage, which says only that Wrights is Trump's U.S. Attorney, but the verdict turns on the identity conflict.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed60% confidence6 sourcesOct 20, 2026Elon Musk spent between $100 million and $150 million in the Texas midterm race.Said by AThe claim's range of $100M to $150M is only partly supported. Musk's disclosed contributions tied to the Texas Senate race were about $158M (via the Senate Leadership Fund, passed to Texas PAC), plus $10M to Lone Star Liberty PAC, which exceeds the $150M ceiling. Texas PAC's own spending, reported at more than $148M by October 19, falls inside the range, so the result depends on whether contributions or spending is counted. The speaker's 'probably 100-150 million' was an estimate, and by October 20 filings already showed more than $150M.