Nancy Pelosi didn’t order anyone to be shot Jan. 6, 2021. You’re seeing a deepfake.

A viral TikTok video falsely claimed to unveil a cover-up from Jan. 6, 2021.

The April 19 post showed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi talking on the phone on Jan. 6. Pelosi supposedly says: "I’ve given a shoot-to-kill order for any breach of the speaker’s lobby." 

The video cuts to a TikTok user who says, "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Alisha Bobbit? Murdered? Somebody might want to look into this." It appears to refer to Ashli Babbit, who was fatally shot while trying to climb through the broken window of a door to the Speaker’s Lobby.  Her death has been the subject of many false claims. 

The TikTok video also includes text that says "Is this why O’Keefe was fired?" That appears to refer to James O’Keefe, who founded Project Veritas, an organization known for undercover reporting, using hidden cameras and selectively edited recordings. In February, O’Keefe was forced out after allegations that he mistreated staff and mishandled funds. 

TikTok identified the video as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact’s partnership with TikTok.)

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stated on October 27, 2024 in an Instagram post

Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz “says that if Democrats win they’ll make (U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) speaker of the house.”

But this video isn’t evidence of a cover-up — it’s a deepfake, a manipulated video. Pelosi did not order people to be shot Jan. 6. 

Other TikTok posts shared longer videos that included the same clip, and those gave the appearance that the deepfake of Pelosi was part of a Project Veritas report. 

We searched Project Veritas’ videos and found no evidence that the deepfake was part of their videos.

The real video of Pelosi came from a documentary by her daughter Alexandra Pelosi that first aired Oct. 13, 2022, on CNN. The conversation the elder Pelosi had on the phone in that clip was with former Vice President Mike Pence about his safety and how to reconvene the electoral count for the presidential election. 

"We’re being told it could take days to clear the Capitol and that we should be moving everyone here to get the job done … uh, we’re at (redacted) which has facilities for the House and the Senate to meet," Pelosi said, according to a CNN transcript. "We’d rather go to the Capitol and do it there, but it doesn’t seem to be safe."

We rate the claim that this video shows Pelosi giving a shoot-to-kill order on Jan. 6, 2021, Pants on Fire!