Staff Reports
A video circulating on Facebook alleges that Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley made Attorney General Merrick Garland cry during a committee hearing, but this claim is unfounded.
As per the Independent, Hawley has been advocating to ban TikTok due to security concerns related to China’s possible access to American data on the app. Axios has reported that a former ByteDance employee informed Hawley about the weak access controls that TikTok has on U.S. user data.
Video footage from a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing shows that U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., didn’t make Attorney General Merrick Garland cry. Social media posts claim otherwise. https://t.co/Y8BKujAg9d
— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) March 13, 2023
Despite the Facebook video gaining more than 1,900 reactions and alleging that Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley made Attorney General Merrick Garland cry during a committee hearing, there is no substantiation to support this assertion. The video’s caption, which reads “WATCH: Josh Hawley makes Garland CRIES loud at hearing with SH0.CKING reveal over ‘Trump’s r.aid,'” is misleading since Garland does not seem to cry in the video, and the unedited C-SPAN footage does not depict any crying either.
The dissemination of false information about politicians on the internet is a common occurrence, and the circulation of misinformation is not surprising. In the past, Check Your Fact discredited a statement alleging that Lori Lightfoot purchased beer after losing an election, illustrating how simple it is for untrue details to be propagated and accepted online.
When dealing with political news, it is crucial to verify any information before distributing it online. It is critical to recall that Senator Josh Hawley did not induce Attorney General Merrick Garland to weep during a committee hearing, and this misleading assertion should not be considered as valid.
