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Not Real News

In this 2006 file photo, Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter, actress Miley Cyrus, present an award during the 41st Academy of Country Music Awards. A story circulating online incorrectly asserted that at a Miley Cyrus concert in 1993, the pop singer told a 9-year-old girl that anything was possible as long as you believed in God and that little girl grew up to be Judge Amy Coney Barrett.

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

<b>Claim</b>At a Miley Cyrus concert in 1993, the pop singer told a 9-year-old girl that anything was possible as long as you believed in God. The little girl said she believed in God and was going to become famous one day by stopping Obamacare and making it illegal to kill babies. That little girl grew up to be Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who has been nominated to a Supreme Court seat.<b>The Facts</b>A Facebook post sharing this claim spins a folktale that is both baseless and logistically implausible. A 27-year-old pop singer did not inspire a lawyer more than 20 years her senior to become a judge. Cyrus was born in 1992 and was only 1 year old in 1993. Barrett, a 48-year-old judge, began her legal career in the late 1990s, when Cyrus was still a child. Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, was not enacted until 2010, when President Barack Obama was in office. In 1993, Obama was not a well-known name, nor was his nationwide health care plan in consideration. President Donald Trump nominated Barrett to the Supreme Court after the death of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September. Senators are scheduled to vote on her confirmation by Monday, Oct. 26, according to reporting by The Associated Press. Cyrus supported Trump's opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 presidential election. Since then, she has criticized Trump, calling him racist, sexist and hateful in a Vanity Fair interview last year.

<b>Claim</b>Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said if your 8-year-old child wants to be transgender to make life easier, “they have a right to transition and there is no reason for you to deny it.”<b>The Facts</b>Social media users are altering comments made by Biden during an Oct. 15 town hall to falsely suggest he supports sex changing medical procedures for young children. Biden said transgender children should not experience discrimination, but he did not say they “have a right to transition.” At the town hall, Pennsylvania voter Mieke Haeck asked Biden how he would reverse actions by the Trump administration that had negatively affected LGBTQ people, including her 8-year-old transgender daughter. Biden responded, “I will flat out just change the law. Every — eliminate those executive orders, number one.” He added, “The idea that an 8-year-old child or a 10-year-old child decides, `You know I decided I want to be transgender. That's what I think I'd like to be. It would make my life a lot easier.' There should be zero discrimination.” Social media users shared an edited quote distorting his words to say: “If your 8 year old child says they want to be transgender to make life easier, they have a right to transition and there is no reason for you to deny it.” A transcript of the town hall shows Biden never mentioned transitioning or sex changing medical procedures in his response. Biden has outlined a series of policy goals related to the LGBTQ community on his website.

<b>Claim</b>Video shows only six people showed up at a recent rally with Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Orlando, Florida.<b>The Facts</b>The video does not provide a full view of the audience at Harris' “drive-in” rally at the Central Florida Fairgrounds in Orlando on Oct. 19. More than 50 cars were at the event and attendees honked their horns to show support, according to the pool reporter who was there. Harris and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden are purposefully limiting attendance at their events due to the pandemic. A video used to support the false claim that only six people besides her staff and Secret Service attended shows only a side angle of Harris waving, leaving out the area where the audience was.

<b>Claim</b>Democrats voted to fine American citizens for not buying health insurance and conspired to give it to “illegal aliens” for free.<b>The Facts</b>Immigrants without legal authorization to be in the country do not get free health insurance. The Affordable Care Act, which originally included fines for not buying health insurance, excludes immigrants living in the country without legal permission from receiving tax credits or purchasing insurance on the ACA marketplace. “Under current rules, undocumented immigrants are not eligible to purchase coverage through the ACA marketplace,” said Samantha Artiga, vice president and director of the Racial Equity and Health Policy Program at Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-partisan organization that does health policy analysis. A widely shared post on social media claims: “The Democrats voted to fine American citizens for not buying insurance, and then conspired to give it to illegal aliens for free.” Although the health care overhaul signed into law by former President Barack Obama in 2010 originally fined Americans who did not buy insurance, the penalty has since been set to $0, after Congress passed a reform that took effect last year.

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