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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke January 7, 2021

Protest footage from 2017 confuses some social media users

If Your Time is short

  • This clip of protesters being removed from the Capitol is from 2017, not Jan. 6, 2021.
 

Footage from a 2017 demonstration has started circulating on Facebook, but not everyone realizes that it’s old — and some people are confusing it with the events that happened in Washington on Jan. 6, when a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol. 

In a clip shared on Facebook, officers appear to be escorting a group of people — many in wheelchairs — down a hallway as they chant in unison. 

But they’re not talking about the 2020 election results. They’re saying: "No cuts to Medicaid, save our liberty." 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Featured Fact-check

The video is authentic. You can see some of the protesters in this C-SPAN footage from a September 2017 Senate hearing on health care legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

U.S. Capitol police arrested 181 people, including 15 people who were charged with disruption of Congress, the Associated Press reported at the time.  

We rate claims that footage from that demonstration happened during the siege at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as False.

 

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Protest footage from 2017 confuses some social media users

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