No, the military didn’t arrest congressional representatives
If your time is short
- This claim is unfounded. No U.S. congressional lawmakers have been arrested.
A few hours before the members of the House select committee investigating the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol commenced their first primetime hearing, a Facebook post alerted readers to a wild development:
“U.S. military at the White House arresting Congress,” the title of the June 9 video said.
But it’s not real.
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.)
The video itself offered no credible evidence to support the claim, and there’s no evidence elsewhere — online or in news reports, for example — that this is true.
The Twitter account of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has continued to tweet as normal, and not about the arrest of her fellow House representatives. Pelosi and President Joe Biden were in California for the Summit of the Americas the night of the post.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who delivered the committee’s opening statement, has also not indicated on social media or her House website that anything was amiss. Nor have branches of the military announced the arrest of any lawmakers—or the entire Congress.
We rate this post Pants on Fire!
