Fact check: Video shows Josh Hawley calling for Joe Biden's resignation, not impeachment

Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY
·2 min read
160
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., departs the chamber during the vote to confirm former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti as the next ambassador to India, more than a year and a half after he was initially selected for the post, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 15, 2023.
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The claim: Video shows Hawley calling for Biden's impeachment

A Facebook video shows Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, speaking on the Senate floor.

"'RESIGN OR BE IMPEACHED' Josh Hawley HUMILIATES Biden LIVE... calls for IMPEACHMENT," reads the caption of the April 24 post (direct link, archive link).

The video was viewed more than 180,000 times and shared more than 7,000 times in two days.

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Our rating: False

The video shows Hawley criticizing Biden for his handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He does not call for Biden to be impeached.

Hawley criticizes Biden, but does not call for impeachment in video

Hawley's speech was delivered Sept. 14, 2021, roughly two weeks after the U.S. ended a 20-year occupation of Afghanistan. A bombing attack on the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul during the final days of the U.S. withdrawal killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghan civilians.

The Biden administration recently acknowledged errors in its handling of the withdrawal, but also assigned blame to the previous administration.

In the video, Hawley says Biden should resign, but he does not call for impeachment, or even threaten impeachment.

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USA TODAY has debunked other miscaptioned videos, which belong to a class of misinformation called "false framing," Mike Caulfield, a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, previously told USA TODAY.

While the caption is obviously wrong if someone watches the entire video, “the majority of people scroll past these with the sound off," Caulfield said. “The fact it autoplays silently makes it engaging, without undermining the (inaccurate) framing.”

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Video shows Hawley calling for Biden to resign