Popular Information, Washington D.C., DC (2026)

08/13/2026

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was hospitalized on June 14 after suffering a fall that left him unconscious. Two months later, McConnell has not returned to work in the Senate. Nevertheless, McConnell has continued to receive his Senate salary of $174,000 per year.

McConnell is fortunate to be employed in a job with excellent benefits. There is no federal law, however, that provides guaranteed paid sick leave.

One reason: Mitch McConnell.

Since he entered the Senate in 1985, McConnell has voted against creating or expanding medical leave — paid and unpaid — at least 23 times.

Read the full story here:

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was hospitalized on June 14 after suffering a fall that left him unconscious.

08/13/2026

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan says his company is a “global truth machine.” Coplan has argued that Polymarket is “the most accurate thing we have as mankind right now.“

On August 10, an official Polymarket account on X posted a graphic falsely claiming that, in the U.S., babies receive 72 injections. Trump, according to the Polymarket post, was ending this practice. This graphic, which was previously posted by the White House in January, is false, according to multiple independent fact checkers.

This is not an isolated incident. Popular Information identified numerous other occasions where Polymarket has spread misinformation on social media platforms.

Read the full story here:

Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan says his company is a “global truth machine.” Coplan has argued that Polymarket is “the most accurate thing we have as mankind right now“ and creates “an information landscape with less sensationalism and more truth.” In June 2025, Coplan announced a partners...

08/11/2026

Jared Kushner has been involved in nearly every consequential foreign policy negotiation since Trump returned to the White House in early 2025. But he has been pursuing these high-level negotiations as a side hustle, and continuing his role as an investor.

It has not been going well.

The Strait of Hormuz is closed, the fighting in Ukraine has intensified, and Israel is rejecting American leadership in Gaza. Meanwhile, Kushner is taking a family vacation in Iceland.

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From Gaza to Iran to Ukraine, things are not going well.

08/10/2026

Congressman Max Miller (R-OH) is facing serious allegations of domestic abuse.

Dozens of corporations are financially backing Miller’s campaign. Prominent corporations who donated $2,000 or more this cycle include Stanley Black & Decker, AT&T, Kroger, DraftKings, Nike, and Walmart.

Popular Information contacted all of Miller’s corporate donors and asked if they continued to support Miller’s candidacy. Citi declined to comment. The other donors did not respond.

Read the full story here:

Congressman Max Miller (R-OH) is facing serious allegations of domestic abuse.

08/06/2026

Popular Information uncovered a network of fake news websites fully controlled by One Nation, a dark money group that works in concert with the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC of Senate Republicans. One Nation has directly contributed over $70 million to the SLF this political cycle.

The websites are producing propaganda masquerading as journalism. Popular Information identified at least six sites operated by One Nation in states with key U.S. Senate races through disclosures in their Meta advertisements.

Collectively, One Nation has spent between $198,900 and $274,640 promoting these sites on Meta platforms.

Read the full story here:

One Nation, the Senate GOP's primary dark money group, is producing propaganda masquerading as journalism.

08/05/2026

Last week, CBS News New York falsely reported that “thousands of 9/11 victims’ families are asking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend this year’s solemn remembrance ceremony.” The article appeared to be based on misinformation promoted by the New York Post.

After inquiries from Popular Information, CBS News New York changed their story, but failed to include an editor’s note about the correction. The main CBS News accounts on Instagram and X, which have millions of followers, also quietly removed posts based on CBS News New York’s reporting.

This week, CBS News New York has radically changed their coverage. A segment that aired Monday highlighted that many people who lost a family member on 9/11 are “defending Mayor Mamdani’s inclusion in this year’s solemn remembrance ceremony.”

Read the full story here:

Last week, CBS News New York falsely reported that “thousands of 9/11 victims’ families are asking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani not to attend this year’s solemn remembrance ceremony.” The article appeared to be based on misinformation promoted by the New York Post.

08/04/2026

An opaque nonprofit affiliated with Senate Republicans, One Nation, has blanketed Georgia over the last five days with a new ad attacking Senator Jon Ossoff (D). The group has spent $1.7 million in less than a week, delivering 78 million impressions of the ad across the state, according to data from AdImpact.

Almost nothing in the ad is true. More than once, the ad attacks Ossoff for positions that have actually been pursued by Senate Republicans.

Read the full story here:

An opaque nonprofit affiliated with Senate Republicans, One Nation, has blanketed Georgia over the last five days with a new ad attacking Senator Jon Ossoff (D).

08/04/2026

Media outlets pushed a false narrative about the number of family members of 9/11 victims who signed a petition targeting Mamdani — and then tried to cover their tracks.

As Popular Information first reported last week, a New York Post headline falsely declared on its July 26 cover: “Thousands of 9/11 families demand Mamdani be banned from 25th-Anniversary.”

In a Popular Information interview with petition organizer Giovanni Galante on July 27, Galante admitted that he did not maintain a list of victims’ families who signed the petition.

Read the full story here:

Media outlets pushed a false narrative about the number of family members of 9/11 victims who signed a petition targeting Mamdani — and then covered their tracks.

07/30/2026

This week, Newsmax — a far-right news organization with a strong allegiance to President Trump and a history of pushing wild conspiracy theories — announced it had struck a deal with Meta.

Under the agreement, Meta will “draw upon Newsmax’s significant current reporting as well as archived content across its platforms to support AI queries across Meta’s apps and devices.”

CEO Mark Zuckerberg is aggressively integrating AI into Meta’s suite of apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which collectively have over 3.9 billion monthly users. In short, how Meta’s AI products are trained could have enormous impacts.

Read the full story here:

This week, Newsmax — a far-right news organization with a strong allegiance to President Trump and a history of pushing wild conspiracy theories — announced it had struck a deal with Meta.

07/29/2026

Last Friday, Trump released an executive order directing officials to install signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History informing visitors that the museum presents history inaccurately.

The order is the latest attack in a lengthy campaign by the Trump administration to discredit and control the Smithsonian Institution.

Why does the Trump administration care so much about controlling the Smithsonian Institution? One factor: the influence of right-wing Christian nationalist “historian” David Barton and his son Tim.

Read the full story here:

Last Friday, President Trump released an executive order directing officials to install signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History (NMAH) informing visitors that the museum presents history inaccurately.

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