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PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: Wikipedia editors extensively revised Vice President J.D. Vance’s page during the 2024 presidential campaign and its aftermath, significantly increasing negative content.
👥 Who’s Involved: Vice President J.D. Vance, Wikipedia editors, President Donald J. Trump, MRC Free Speech America, and various media outlets.
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📍 Where & When: United States, particularly Ohio; focus periods include Vance’s campaign announcements in 2021 and 2024.
💬 Key Quote: “Wikipedia editors flooded Vance’s page with 883 edits during the GOP vice presidential sweepstakes in the lead-up to Vance’s debut at the Republican National Convention—far more activity than the mere 500 edits made in a five-year span from March 2017 through May 2022,” the MRC report notes.
⚠️ Impact: During critical political phases, Vance’s public image was reshaped with heightened negativity.
IN FULL:
A recent examination of edits made to the Wikipedia page for Vice President J.D. Vance reveals that the online, open-source encyclopedia’s editors made substantial edits amplifying negative content during and after his selection as President Donald J. Trump‘s running mate. The research, published by MRC Free Speech America, found that in the months leading up to Vance being tapped as Trump’s vice presidential nominee at the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC), his Wikipedia page saw nearly double the number of edits made compared to the cumulative total over the five years prior.
“Wikipedia editors flooded Vance’s page with 883 edits during the GOP vice presidential sweepstakes in the lead-up to Vance’s debut at the Republican National Convention—far more activity than the mere 500 edits made in a five-year span from March 2017 through May 2022—signaling a clear attempt to negatively reshape his public image,” MRC states, noting: “This mass editing began soon after legacy media floated Vance as a possible Trump running mate.”
The edits made to Vance’s entry on the free online encyclopedia almost uniformly use partisan-style talking points to highlight allegedly negative aspects of the Vice President’s background. Instead of a viewpoint-neutral source of information on Vance, his Wikipedia page essentially became a dumping point for Democratic Party talking points and opposition research. This effectively allowed the corporate media to use Wikipedia’s perceived ‘legitimacy’ as a fig leaf to cover their laundering of a partisan Democrat narrative.
Despite Vance having on multiple occasions stated his opinion of President Trump had changed significantly after 2016, Wikipedia editors altered the Vice President’s page to amplify his nearly decade-old criticisms of the America First leader while downplaying his subsequent support for Trump’s policies and leadership. The edits, mostly occurring before Vance was formally announced as the vice presidential nominee, appear to have been intended to undermine his chances of being named as Trump’s running mate.
Additionally, the editors are accused of presenting Vance’s nonprofit work regarding the opioid crisis in a negative light, suggesting ties to Big Pharma. This was further compounded by contentious portrayals of his acclaimed book Hillbilly Elegy, which Wikipedia did not emphasize prior to his entry into national politics.
The findings published by MRC mirror a pattern found with other Trump administration officials. Previously, the media watchdog group found that Wikipedia editors made similar partisan interventions with the page entries for Pete Hegseth, Tulsi Gabbard, and Kash Patel. The National Pulse previously reported that Wikipedia’s cofounder, Larry Sanger, warned that the massive open-source online encyclopedia is likely ideologically corrupted due to the efforts of its former chief executive, Katherine Maher. Maher led the Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees the online resource, before she was hired as the CEO of NPR.
PULSE POINTS:
❓What Happened: New York Attorney General Letitia James, a key figure in Democratic Party lawfare efforts against President Donald J. Trump, could face jail time stemming from allegations she engaged in multiple instances of mortgage fraud and falsification of records. The allegations were made in a criminal referral submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) by Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte.
👥 Who’s Involved: The claims involve Letitia James, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and Bill Pulte of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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📍 Where & When: The alleged fraud involved properties in New York and Virginia in 2023, and the criminal referral was sent to the DOJ earlier this week.
💬 Key Quote: Kyle Welch, a George Washington University School of Business professor specializing in financial fraud, remarked on the allegations’ potential legal consequences, saying they “could carry jail time” and lead to disbarment.
⚠️ Impact: If charges are brought against James, the New York Attorney General could face a prosecution based on paperwork errors and falsified records similar to the one that she brought against President Donald J. Trump last year.
IN FULL:
New York Attorney General Letitia James faces allegations of mortgage fraud, sparking the potential for federal prosecution. Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), alleged in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that James falsified a mortgage application in 2023 by stating her primary residence was in Norfolk, Virginia, despite her official position requiring her to reside in New York.
James, a Democrat who took office as attorney general in 2019, is accused of indicating on a 2023 mortgage document that a Norfolk property was her primary residence. The single-family home, built in 1947, was acquired for $240,000, with James securing a $219,780 mortgage. Pulte also highlighted discrepancies in James’ ownership of a Brooklyn property, where she allegedly misstated the number of housing units in 2021. Furthermore, he raised concerns about a property purchased with her father listed as a spouse in previous transactions.
Kyle Welch, a financial fraud specialist and professor at George Washington University’s School of Business, noted in a recent interview the gravity of the allegations, suggesting a conviction could “carry jail time” and result in James’s disbarment as an attorney.
The New York Democratic Attorney General had sought similar legal actions against President Donald J. Trump in 2024 as part of a broader partisan lawfare effort to derail the America First leader’s presidential campaign. Last year, she sued Trump, leading to a civil judgment ordering him to pay $454 million for alleged business records fraud.
“Letitia James built her ‘nobody is above the law’ brand by prosecuting Trump for inflating his financial condition—statements that came with disclaimers, involved banks that said they weren’t harmed, and still resulted in a half-billion-dollar fraud conviction,” Welch said before continuing: “Was Trump’s case a 100 percent political prosecution? Yes. Now, James is under scrutiny for allegedly misrepresenting her own finances to get a mortgage. No disclaimers. No ambiguity.”
“James and her defenders can’t seem to see the carbon-copy nature of these cases. And unfortunately, New York Democrats and the DNC helped normalize this tit-for-tat legal targeting under the banner of ‘accountability.’ Well, the shoe’s on the other foot now,” the business professor added.
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