The Associated Press rounds up false claims each week, and provides the facts. This week, a false tweet involving Maryland congressman Jamie Raskin was shared widely on social media, so the AP checked it out.
House Republicans are requiring Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, to remove the headwear he's donned on the House floor while undergoing chemotherapy.
Republicans have made no such request and have in fact been nothing but supportive, a spokesperson for Raskin told the AP. Raskin, who announced he'd been diagnosed with lymphoma last year, attended the year's first House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday wearing a bandana.
But as the new Republican House majority takes control, confusion over a joke Raskin made about House rules governing headgear fueled a false rumor on social media.
"Kevin McCarthy has insisted Jamie Raskin remove the headscarf he is wearing because chemotherapy has caused his hair to fall out," wrote one Twitter user in a tweet with 34,000 likes, referring to the Republican House speaker. "You would think they would have compassion for a colleague with cancer but they are monsters."
But Republicans have not imposed such a rule, and the false claim grew from a misunderstanding. In a Tuesday tweet, Punchbowl News reporter Heather Caygle wrote that Raskin had received a standing ovation in a House Democratic Caucus meeting after saying he'd push back on Republican efforts to make him remove his headwear. "And I will...
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