ABC News Photo Falsely Portrays AOC, Ilhan Omar as Being Handcuffed

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, is arrested outside the
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Paul Bois

ABC News perpetuated Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) fake propaganda when it shared photographs that appeared to show her and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) being handcuffed by police.

As viral video revealed on Tuesday, the two congresswomen were filmed holding their hands behind their backs as if they were handcuffed while being escorted by police away from a pro-abortion protest in front of the Supreme Court. At one point, AOC’s “miraculously” disappeared so she could throw up a power symbol.

Douglas Blair / The Daily Signal

Of course, nobody would know this if they were getting their information solely from ABC News, which showed AOC and Ilhan Omar from a different angle in order to feign the appearance that two congresswomen were being escorted away from a pro-abortion protest in handcuffs.

ABC News made sure to mention that “no handcuffs were seen” several paragraphs into the report.

Seventeen lawmakers in total were arrested, according to Capitol Police, including Reps. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, and Illinois’ Jan Schakowsky. The charge was crowding, obstructing or incommoding, police said.

Officers at the Supreme Court told the protesters that they were participating in “illegal demonstration activity” before advising anyone who didn’t want to get arrested to leave, which sparked singing and chanting from the group.

Officers then began arresting the demonstrators, though no handcuffs were seen. Police also collected IDs and took pictures of those arrested — including of some of the lawmakers — and brought water to the staging area for protesters to drink.

Needless to say, conservative Twitter did not let ABC News off the hook for its choice of photograph:

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