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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke September 15, 2022

Obama and Clinton weren’t arrested by the military

If Your Time is short

  • This is unfounded. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton weren’t arrested.
 

Former President Barack Obama returned to the White House on Sept. 7 for the unveiling of his and former first lady Michelle Obama’s official portraits. 

Is he now in custody, alongside former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who in 2004, similarly unveiled her White House portrait with former President Bill Clinton?

A recent Facebook post makes just such a claim.

"Obama & Clinton are being arrested by the military," reads the description of a video posted Sept. 14 on the social media platform. 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.)

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The claim is bogus. The 15-minute video makes no mention of Obama or Clinton getting arrested. 

We also found no media reports to corroborate the claim. 

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And given that there was widespread reporting of the unveiling of the White House portraits of both Obama and Clinton, there would certainly have been wall-to-wall news coverage if they’d been arrested.

Both Obama and Clinton have remained active on social media since Obama’s portrait unveiling and the inaccurate Facebook post. And on Sept. 15, Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton appeared on "The Drew Barrymore Show." 

We rate this post Pants on Fire!

 

Our Sources

Facebook post, Sept. 14, 2022

Barack Obama Instagram account, visited Sept. 15, 2022

Barack Obama Twitter account, visited Sept. 15, 2022

Hillary Clinton Instagram account, visited Sept. 15, 2022

Hillary Clinton Twitter account, visited Sept. 15, 2022

People, Hillary Clinton Reveals the Story Behind Her Off-the-Rack Wedding Dress from Dillard's, Sept. 14, 2022

Washington Post, As Obamas visit White House on Wednesday, tensions linger between Obama, Biden camps, Sept. 6, 2022

Axios, Obamas return to White House for unveiling of official portraits, Sept. 7, 2022

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Obama and Clinton weren’t arrested by the military

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