claim: Joe the Plumber was killed in an accident after announcing he was seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate.
origin: On 12 June 2017, the Americaâ€™s Last Line of Defense web site published an article positing that Joe the Plumber, a minor celebrity from the 2008 president election, had died in an accident after announcing he was seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate: < â€œJoe the Plumberâ€ Wurzelbacher, the tradesman who made a name for himself by making Obama look foolish on the campaign trail in 2008, died this morning unexpectedly when a piece of heavy equipment fell over and crushed him at a ribbon-cutting ceremony in his hometown of Camden, New Jersey. Joe, who wasnâ€™t really a licensed plumber and has since held onto his 14 1/2 minutes of fame somehow, had just announced that he was running for Senate to replace Senator Hal Lindsay, who was found dead of a heart attack yesterday after his ranch in Minnesota was raided for drugs and tied to the Clinton Foundation. > There was no truth to this story, which originated solely with Americaâ€™s Last Line of Defense, a fake news site whose disclaimer notes that it â€œis a satirical publicationâ€ which presents â€œfiction as factâ€ and uses â€œsources [that] donâ€™t actually exist.â€