Video shows Rashida Tlaib protesting Trump in 2016, not backing Hamas | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Rashida Tlaib was dragged out of an event for protesting in support of Hamas

An Oct. 20 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, being pulled away by security officers at an event as she shouts at the attendees.

“You guys are crazy!” Tlaib is heard yelling as attendees shout back at her. "You're an animal! Get a job!" someone behind the camera yells.

“Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib a Democratic (sic) supporting Hamas,” the on-screen text says.

The post was liked more than 30,000 times in three weeks.

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Our rating: False

Tlaib was not protesting in support of Hamas. That video is seven years old and was taken at an event for former President Donald Trump.

Tlaib disrupted 2016 Trump event in protest

The video is from an August 2016 event in Detroit where Donald Trump delivered a speech during his first presidential campaign.

Tlaib, at that time a former state legislator, wrote in a guest opinion column for the Detroit Free Press that she disrupted the event because she felt it was “unbecoming of any American to not stand up to Trump’s hate-filled rhetoric and tactics.”

“Courteous behavior can’t be reserved for someone who labels hardworking Mexican immigrants who have come to pursue the American Dream as ‘rapists,’” Tlaib wrote in the piece.

The video of the incident resurfaced three years later after Tlaib was elected to Congress. Trump referenced the video while criticizing her in a 2019 speech.

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Though this video doesn't show a protest tied to Palestine, Tlaib has come under heavy condemnation by her colleagues in the U.S. House for her comments regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Tlaib, who is Palestinian-American, has long been critical of Israel's government and supportive of Palestinian actions.

Tlaib told the Detroit Free Press in October that the actions of the militant group Hamas were "war crimes" and that critics were distorting her position. But the House voted to censure her on Nov. 7 for comments she made in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Censure is a measure used to issue a severe public rebuke against a member of Congress, but it does not mean that member is removed from office.

USA TODAY reached out to Tlaib’s spokesperson and the Instagram user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response from either.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Old video shows Tlaib protesting Trump, not supporting Hamas | Fact check