A video going viral on social media (here, here, and here) shows a law student in the United States questioning a panel about Islam’s negative portrayal, Muslim representation, and combating ideologies with weapons. The post claims that she raised these concerns to US President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 cabinet picks. This post is shared in the context of Donald Trump announcing his Cabinet picks after winning the 2024 elections. Let’s verify the truth behind the video in this article.
Claim: The video shows a U.S. law student questioning Islam’s portrayal, Muslim representation, and ideologies with weapons to Donald Trump’s 2024 cabinet picks.
Fact: The video, dating back to 17 June 2014 is of a panel discussion held by The Heritage Foundation on the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. It is not from 2024 or recent years. Notably, Barack Obama was the US President in 2014 and not Donald Trump. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A reverse image search of the keyframes from the viral video led us to the same video (archived) uploaded on The Heritage Foundation’s YouTube channel on 17 June 2014, titled “Full Context: Benghazi Accountability Coalition Event.”
The video features an exchange between questioner Saba Ahmed and a panel at the 16 June 2014 event, “Benghazi: The Difference It Makes Is Accountability!” The discussion focused on the 2012 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
We found reports from June 2017 (here and here) (archived here and here) covering the same issue. It is important to note that Barack Obama served as the US President in 2014.
To sum up, an old and unrelated 2014 video of a Heritage Foundation panel discussion is falsely shared as a student asking questions to Trump’s 2024 Cabinet picks.
