PolitiFact slammed for 'fact-check' on Ocasio-Cortez arrest where she seemed to pretend to wear handcuffs

PolitiFact was criticized on Monday for a recent fact-check video that said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., "did not fake" the arrest outside the Supreme Court where it seemed she pretended to be handcuffed.

Ocasio-Cortez was seen being led away from a demonstration near the Supreme Court in multiple videos posted to Twitter on July 19. Ocasio-Cortez appeared to have her hands behind her back as if she was handcuffed and at one point in one of the videos, she can be seen holding her fist in the air. 

She denied "faking" having handcuffs on and said that "putting your hands behind your back is a best practice while detained." Several people criticized the tweet from PolitiFact, which included a video that said Ocasio-Cortez was issued a $50 fine for blocking and obstructing traffic. 

The written fact-check said that U.S. Capitol Police told Politifact that "none of the demonstrators were handcuffed because the arrests were noncustodial." Critics of the fact-check generally noted most of Ocasio-Cortez's critics didn't claim she faked the arrest, but rather dramatized the event by pretending to wear handcuffs. 

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"Was AOC faking her arrest? Here’s how we know it was real," the video title states to refute "some social media users."

Podcast host and contributing editor to The Spectator, Stephen Miller, said that Ocasio-Cortez's arrest was likely much different from "someone who is not a member of congress arrested 12 miles from the Capitol in a DC neighborhood."

"You guys are the absolute worst," Matt Whitlock wrote.

Senior writer at RealClear Investigations, Mark Hemingway, responded to the tweet by saying "stay gold, PolitiFact."

The Daily Wire's Twitter account responded with a picture of Ocasio-Cortez holding her hand up in the air while being led away by Capitol Police. 

"They’re using her picture faking being cuffed to argue she wasn’t faking being arrested," podcast host Noam Blum said. Another response asked a similar question, "so her pretending to be handcuffed was her fake faking an arrest?" 

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After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization case, demonstrations and protests in favor of abortion rights have broken out across the country.

Ocasio-Cortez has been a vocal supporter of abortion rights and called for opening abortion clinics on federal land. While speaking to a crowd of protesters in June, she said, "I’ll start with the babiest of the babiest of baby steps. Open abortion clinics on federal lands in red states right now!"

Democrats renewed calls to pack the Supreme Court following the leak of Justice Samuel Alito's draft opinion in the Dobbs case. 

"Expand the court. Abolish the filibuster. Pass the Women's Health Protection Act to codify Roe v. Wade into law," Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted after the draft was leaked. Omar was also arrested at the event and, like Ocasio-Cortez, walked as though she was handcuffed as she was led away.