Edited video shows Mitch McConnell with bandaged head

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tripped at the Capitol Dec. 10 and sustained minor injuries. A video shared on social media purported to show McConnell speaking to reporters afterward.

“Senator, is your head okay after that fall?” someone asked in a Dec. 12 Instagram video. McConnell, shown in the video with a bandage wrapped around his head, stared ahead blankly without responding.

Screenshot from X

The Instagram post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.) We also saw it being shared on TikTok and X.

But this video has been manipulated. It comes from an unrelated and widely covered July 26, 2023, press conference during which McConnell suddenly stopped speaking. In the unedited video of the Capitol Hill scene, McConnell wasn’t wearing a head bandage nor did a reporter ask him about his fall.

Photos of McConnell after the Dec. 10 accident showed him with a Band-Aid under his eye and a brace on his hand, not a bandage around his head.

We rate the claim that a video shows McConnell appearing in a press conference with his head bandaged False.