Twitter users fact-checked American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten for falsely claiming that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are his political opponents.
The false claim comes from a tweet written by Florida Planned Parenthood Action, the Twitter account for the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates and Florida Planned Parenthood PAC, which says in its bio that it defends “reproductive health care including abortion .”
On Monday, the group wrote that the Tallahassee Police Department arrested several pro-choice protesters at City Hall, including state Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book and state Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried.
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“The Tallahassee Police Department just arrested dozens of peaceful pro-choice protesters at City Hall outside the Florida Capitol,” wrote the group Planned Parenthood. “This includes Senator @LeaderBookFL and FDP Chair @NikkiFriedFL. Abortion is health care.”
Protesters gathered in front of Tallahassee City Hall, which is across from the state Capitol, on Monday to demonstrate against a bill that passed the state legislature that would ban abortion in Florida after six weeks of pregnancy, with some exceptions. The bill passed the state Senate earlier.
Weingarten retweeted Florida Planned Parenthood Action, writing: “Today DeSantis’ arrest is hostile.”
However, Twitter continued to call that statement false, with readers adding a note to fellow users flagging the fact that the City of Tallahassee issued a press release saying the protesters were allowed to use the premises during normal business hours and were warned at sunset they had to leave or face arrest.
“After multiple warnings throughout the day, the protesters acknowledged that they understood that anyone refusing to leave the area by sundown would be subject to arrest,” the press release stated. “Tonight, after sunset, the majority of people left the property while 11 people refused to leave despite multiple requests. They were arrested after trespassing after a warning.”
However, Florida Planned Parenthood Action tweeted several videos of police arresting protesters, telling readers to call Tallahassee Mayor John Dailey’s office “and tell him you are disgusted by the arrest of peaceful protesters.” The group did not note that Dailey is a Democrat or that Tallahassee is a blue city that overwhelmingly votes for Democrats.
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Fried and Book were both released from jail overnight.
Monday wasn’t the first time Weingarten got in trouble for tweeting about DeSantis. Last month, social media users lambasted him for making several grammatical errors and opining on issues outside his purview as head of the country’s second-largest teachers’ union when he attacked the governor on Twitter.
Weingarten has repeatedly criticized DeSantis for his policies in Florida, especially those related to the public school curriculum.