Update January 7, 2021: Including comments from MPD
Social media users are sharing posts claiming that Vice President Mike Pence has been arrested after hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol to protest the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. This allegation is untrue: the District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has confirmed to Reuters that they did not arrest Pence, and videos show Pence addressing the Senate after the protesters left.
The posts (here, here , here) shared between about 3pm and 7pm ET on January 6, says for example: “Multiple reports of Mike Pence being arrested.”; “Break: Mike Pence was arrested for betraying Donald Trump.”; or “Word on the street. Mike Pence was arrested. ”
Trump, who has repeatedly made unfounded allegations of voter fraud during the presidential election, put pressure on Pence to unilaterally reject state election votes to block the election of President Joe Biden by Congress, but Pence refused, saying he did not have the power not to do so (here).
Hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, with four people dying in the chaos.
The MPD told Reuters in an email that allegations that MPD had arrested Pence were false: “MPD did not arrest Mike Pence.”
It was seen that Pence was speaking in the Senate on January 6 just after 20:00 ET (after the social media messages illegally reported about his arrest were shared), as shown in a Reuters video here and with ‘ a timestamp on CSPAN here.
Pence was then in the House of Representatives early on January 7 when Congress resumed its work to ratify the votes of Biden’s Electoral College, as seen in a Reuters video here.
There is no evidence to suggest that Pence was arrested; Pence can be seen resigning from Capitol Hill police in his own tweet (here). Pence’s press secretary, Devin O’Malley, tweeted that Pence was inside the building while the Capitol was stormed and kept in touch with police to secure the Capitol (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. MPD confirmed to Reuters that they did not arrest Pence. Photos and videos of Pence after the Capitol were cleared show that he was not arrested.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work here.