Actor Rob Reiner was fact checked by “Community Notes” on X, formerly known as Twitter, after spreading a lie about January 6 prisoner and Proud Boys leader, Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison on Tuesday. The actor falsely claimed that Tarrio had “violently stormed” the U.S. Capitol on January 6, when the fact is that the Proud Boys leader wasn’t in Washington, D.C. that day.
“The leader of the Proud Boys was sentenced to 22 years in Federal Prison for violently storming the US Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the Government,” Reiner falsely stated. “He never would have been at the Capitol had it not been for Donald Trump. You do the math.”
The leader of the Proud Boys was sentenced to 22 years in Federal Prison for violently storming the US Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the Government. He never would have been at the Capitol had it not been for Donald Trump. You do the math.
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) September 5, 2023
The All in the Family star, however, was spreading false information in his X post, and was swiftly fact checked via the platform’s “Community Notes” feature, in which other social media users add context to a post that might contain falsehoods.
“This tweet contains a factual error,” the fact check reads. “While Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison it was not for ‘violently storming the U.S. Capitol.'”
The Community Notes then goes on to cite an article by ABC News, which correctly states that Tarrio was was not present during the riots on Capitol Hill.
“As ABC correctly reports ‘Tarrio wasn’t present in Washington the day of the attack.'”
As Breitbart News reported, Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison on Tuesday, was not in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021, due to his arrest in the city two days prior for allegedly defacing a Black Lives Matter banner. Instead, the Proud Boys leader spent most of that day in a Baltimore hotel.
Prosecutors, however, argued that Tarrio’s absence from the city that day “does nothing to detract from the severity of his conduct,” claiming he “was a general rather than a soldier.”
Federal prosecutors added that Tarrio is a “gifted communicator who excels at attracting followers” who “used those talents to inflame and radicalize untold numbers of followers, promoting political violence in general and orchestrating the charged conspiracies in particular.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
