Fact check: Photo shows woman in Kansas on Jan. 6, 2021, not at the U.S. Capitol

Molly Stellino, USA TODAY
·3 min read
24
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

The claim: Post implies photo of woman with American flag was taken at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6

A Jan. 6 Facebook post (direct link, archived link) features a photo of a woman smiling and holding an American flag and a water bottle. She is surrounded by three other people in what appears to be a government building.

“I don’t believe January 6th was an insurrection,” reads the caption.

The post was shared more than 1,000 times within a week. Donald Trump Jr. also shared the claim on Twitter and Truth Social, a social media platform founded by former President Donald Trump.

Many commenters believed the photo was taken at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the building in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election.

“Anyone ever hear of an insurrection that didn’t involve weapons?” one social media user wrote. “Yeah, I thought so.”

“A few friends & I were there for the entire day & it was extremely far from an insurrection," another user wrote.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: Missing context

The implied claim here is wrong. News reports show the photo of the woman holding the American flag was taken at a peaceful protest at the Kansas State House on Jan. 6, 2021, where demonstrators were allowed inside the building.

News reports confirm the woman was at the Kansas State House

The photo can be seen in a Jan. 6, 2021, Facebook post from KSN, a local news station in Kansas. The post links to a news story about a pro-Trump protest held at the Kansas State House.

The woman, holding a flag and donning a light purple shirt and a dark purple coat is also visible in the topmost video featured in the article.

The protest was peaceful and protesters were “allowed to be inside the rotunda area,” the article says.

The woman can also be seen at the event in a photo shared by KSNT, a different local news outlet.

Fact check: Photo of Brazilian 'QAnon shaman' dates back to 2021, not Jan. 8 riots

Further evidence that the photo shows Kansas are visuals that show a series of murals by David H. Overmyer, which are displayed in the first-floor rotunda of the Kansas State House. Bobbie Athon, director of communications of the Kansas Historical Society, confirmed to USA TODAY the photo of the woman in the post shows the Kansas State Capitol’s first-floor rotunda.

Sean and April McCoy, who led the Kansas State Capitol Rally, told AFP Fact Check the woman in the picture is a member of their conservative group “Kansas Patriots” and was present at the group’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021.

Violent protesters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Violent protesters, loyal to President Donald Trump, storm the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.

Since Jan. 6, 2021, the image has been spread widely and incorrectly as supposed proof there was no riot at the U.S. Capitol building, Joan Donovan, research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, said in a tweet.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media users who shared the claim for comment. Andy Surubian, a spokesperson for Trump Jr., responded but did not provide evidence to support the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Woman with flag was in Kansas on Jan. 6, not U.S. Capitol