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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke October 2, 2023

Altered video appears to show Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pelosi, Biden discussing Jan. 6

If Your Time is short

  • This video was altered.

In what appears to be a meeting among U.S. Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden discussing the Jan. 6 insurrection, civility is in short supply. 

"Listen, sweetheart, let the men handle this," Biden appears to say off-camera to Ocasio-Cortez, who is on screen in what appears to be a video call. 

"The public doesn’t fear us anymore, and you better do something," Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appears to retort, adding that Pelolsi should do her "f— job." 

The video then cuts to a tight shot of Pelosi, D-Calif.,wearing a mask and appearing to say, "I’ve given a shoot-to-kill order for any breach of the speaker’s lobby."

An Instagram post sharing the video 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 and Instagram.)

Featured Fact-check

We contacted Ocasio-Cortez’s and Pelosi’s offices about the video but didn’t immediately hear back. But spokespeople for both representatives’ offices told Reuters in April that the audio was fabricated. 

We found no further evidence to corroborate claims that the audio in this video is authentic. 

The Ocasio-Cortez footage appears to come from a January 2021 Instagram Live she conducted after the Jan. 6 attacks. In that video, he doesn’t make the comments that she appears to make in the supposed meeting now circulating social media. 

The Pelosi footage comes from "Pelosi in the House," a documentary by the former speaker’s daughter, Alexandra Pelosi. 

But the original clip doesn’t show Pelosi saying she’s been given shoot-to-kill orders. Rather, she was discussing how to proceed with counting the electoral college ballots.

We rate claims that audio in this video is authentic False.

 

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Altered video appears to show Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Pelosi, Biden discussing Jan. 6

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