Polygraph

Podcast · podcasts.voxmedia.com

Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov

Vox Media Podcast Network

Raging against the extremes. Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov are in the middle — and they’re mad, because being a moderate in America these days does NOT mean staying silent. New episodes every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evening. Part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

False75% confidence5 sourcesSep 30, 2026ICE fired approximately 5,000 agents two months ago.Said by BThe claim that ICE fired about 5,000 agents two months ago is contradicted by the sources. The 5,000 figure is a planned hiring push reported by the NYT and Washington Post, while federal workforce data show about 2,900 total departures in the first half of 2026, with firings only about 18% of separations, and no source reports a 5,000-person firing.False88% confidence8 sourcesSep 30, 2026Iran's crude oil exports have returned to pre-war levels.Said by AThe claim that Iran's crude exports returned to pre-war levels is contradicted by multiple sources: Iranian exports were at or near zero in September 2026 under a US naval blockade, while the recovery to pre-war levels reported by Kpler, Vortexa and others applied to Gulf or Middle East exports excluding Iran. The post's sentence is ambiguous about whose exports it means, but the claim as extracted refers to Iran and is contradicted as of 2026-09-30.Mixed88% confidence7 sourcesSep 30, 2026John Cornyn held a fundraiser in Dallas with George W. Bush for every Republican Senate candidate in the country except Ken Paxton.Said by AThe record supports the core event: Cornyn hosted a Dallas fundraiser on Sept 21, 2026 with George W. Bush as special guest, and Paxton was excluded. The claim's scope is overstated, however: the fundraiser benefited six Republican Senate candidates (Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, plus Minnesota's Tafoya), not every Republican Senate candidate in the country.Mixed50% confidence5 sourcesSep 30, 2026A YouGov poll shows Democrats up 15 points on the generic ballot.A YouGov/Economist poll released Sept. 29, 2026 showed Democrats up 16 points among likely voters (53%-38%), close to the claimed 15, but the same poll showed only a 6-point lead among registered voters. A separate CBS/YouGov poll (fieldwork Sept. 30-Oct. 2) showed Democrats +9, so the claim's 15-point figure matches neither the registered-voter nor the CBS/YouGov result.Mixed75% confidence8 sourcesSep 30, 2026An Axios article published on the morning of October 1, 2026, stated that Eric Schmitt is considered a top contender to be JD Vance's vice president when JD Vance runs for president.Said by BThe core assertion holds: an Axios piece reported that Sen. Eric Schmitt was seen as a top prospect to be Vance's 2028 running mate. However, the sources date that Axios article to September 29, 2026, not the morning of October 1 as the claim states, so the date element is contradicted.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.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed60% confidence7 sourcesSep 30, 2026Undocumented children are not entitled to counsel in asylum proceedings.Said by BSources support that unaccompanied children in immigration and asylum proceedings have no right to government-appointed counsel, but they also show a statutory duty to ensure access to counsel 'to the greatest extent practicable' and a right to counsel at the child's own expense, so the flat claim is contested. The claim also drops the speaker's qualifiers ('don't necessarily', 'always') and so reads more absolutely than the passage.True97% confidence6 sourcesSep 30, 2026Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election.Multiple tier1 and primary sources (AP, Reuters, FEC official results) confirm Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election with 306 electoral votes to Trump's 232 and about 81.3 million popular votes. The extracted claim matches the passage's assertion, which the post made as its own content; the claimant's dispute over 'certified' does not change the core assertion.True90% confidence6 sourcesSep 30, 2026Ken Paxton is the Republican U.S. Senate nominee for Texas.Said by AAs of 2026-10-24, multiple sources describe Ken Paxton as the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, including a tier1 Reuters report calling him the Republican Senate candidate, a Texas Tribune item calling him the Republican nominee, and Ballotpedia and Wikipedia listing him as the Republican nominee in the 2026 general election against James Talarico. No source contradicts this, and the extracted claim matches the passage's wording.True85% confidence5 sourcesSep 30, 2026Ken Paxton was impeached by the Republican party.Said by AThe Texas House, which was Republican-controlled, voted 121-23 on May 27, 2023 to impeach Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, with 60 Republicans voting in favor according to the Washington Post. The claim's wording is loose, since the House rather than the party as an organization cast the vote, but the post's 'impeached by his own party' reading holds on a standard interpretation.True92% confidence5 sourcesSep 30, 2026Donald Trump endorsed Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate race in Texas one week before the primary.Said by AMultiple tier-1 sources (AP, Reuters) report that Trump endorsed Ken Paxton on May 19, 2026, one week before the May 26 Texas GOP Senate runoff, so the core claim holds. The claim's 'primary' is the runoff in the same contest, a label difference rather than a contradiction.True85% confidence7 sourcesSep 30, 2026The Wall Street Journal poll shows Democrats up eight points on the generic ballot.Said by AThe Wall Street Journal poll (conducted September 16-21, 2026, 1,500 registered voters) showed Democrats at 50% and Republicans at 42%, an eight-point Democratic lead on the generic ballot, as the claim states. The claim matches the post's wording, and the poll was already public before the September 30 posting date.True70% confidence5 sourcesSep 30, 2026The Justice Department is investigating accusations that Jack Smith lied to the House of Representatives about obtaining lawmakers' phone records.House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan referred Jack Smith to the Justice Department in July 2026 for allegedly lying to the House about obtaining lawmakers' phone records, and a DOJ spokesperson said the agency "will investigate all evidence of criminal conduct." Sources from late September still describe the accusations as unresolved, with no charges filed, so the claim holds as of 2026-09-30. Smith's lawyers deny the allegations.

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