A viral meme on Facebook shows a photo with former President Bill Clinton sitting next to the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in what appears to be a position of worship. The letter of the photo reads “Funerals of July 30, 2020”, then in capital letters “NOT A MASK ON THE SITE (sic)” and “CAN’T YOU STILL?”
July 30 is the Atlanta funeral of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil rights leader who served in Congress for 33 years before his death on July 17 from cancer.
The messages alleged hypocrisy on the part of Democrats not to wear coronavirus mask.
USA TODAY contacted Facebook user David Winter, the many users who shared the meme publicly, to comment.
Fact Check: Obama never said mail voting was mandatory because entire rooms were “dangerous”
The photo used in the meme in consultation was not taken at Lewis’ funeral. Instead, the photograph taken by Greenville News photographer Heidi Heilbrunn in Greenville, South Carolina, on September 14, 2015, at a funeral of Jackson’s mother, Helen Burns Jackson.
Lewis’ funeral in Atlanta was broadcast nationwide on live television over various networks. Viewers can obviously see mourners dressed in a mask and sitting socially distant.
Photo galleries also showed photographs of mourners dressed in masks and sitting next to others.
The mourners in the room included high-level Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who wore a mask during serve. The same was the case with former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who only took their faces off when they were on the podium to congratulate Lewis.
The message is FALSE. He used a photo from one occasion five years ago to present a false claim that is obviously contradicted through footage and a video of John Lewis’ Atlanta funeral.
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, our ad-free app or our email playback here.
Our data verification paintings are funded through a Facebook grant.