Erika Kirk has been involved in countless controversies in the months since her husband, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed.
And one of the strangest mini-scandals had to do with a public display of affection.
As you may recall, Erika introduced Vice President JD Vance at a recent event at the University of Mississippi.
The two embraced on stage, and many thought that the hug went on for an inappropriately long time.
Numerous media outlets and commentators offered their two cents on the hug and the public reaction to it.
And one widespread rumor claims that Erika was so upset about Whoopi Goldberg’s reaction that she’s now filed an eight-figure lawsuit against the View co-host.
“Erika Kirk Files a $90 Million Lawsuit Against Whoopi Goldberg: ‘She Turned an Innocent Hug Into an Adultery Scandal That Didn’t Exist,'” reads a Facebook post from one of those shady-looking pages that nonetheless receives hundreds of comments.
“In a move that legal scholars are already calling ’emotionally ambitious,’ Erika Kirk has reportedly filed a $90 million defamation lawsuit against The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg, accusing her of ‘turning an innocent hug into an adultery scandal that didn’t even exist — not even in an alternate timeline,'” the post continues.
“Erika Kirk has taken the legal drama to the next level, officially filing a lawsuit against The View host Whoopi Goldberg for a whopping $110 million,” another page wrote.
“Kirk accuses Whoopi of ‘twisting an innocent compliment’ about her on-air outfit into a veiled admission of intellectual property infringement.”
We’re not linking to these accounts because they’re the sort of AI-dependent slop factories that are far too common on Facebook these days, and we refuse to encourage them.
So what’s the deal here? Is Erika really suing Whoop over a hug?
Well, as you’ve probably already guessed, the answer is no. At least there’s no evidence that Erika has filed a lawsuit, much less a $90 million one.
See, the outlets that are reporting that “news” item have about as much integrity as Matt Gaetz, and their business model relies entirely on making stuff up.
In the age of AI, any disingenuous opportunist can crank out a 1,000-word article claiming some sort of nonsense, get a bunch of ad revenue from the clicks of confused Facebook users (usually older folks), and then pull up stakes and move on to the next one.
It’s a revolting and increasingly common strategy, and in the years to come, it’s gonna get even harder to separate the facts from the BS.