(Crankers) Video clips from January 6 incident at the Capitol are still being shared on social media, and one of them has us asking a lot of questions. The short video clip shows Capitol Police walking with someone who is handcuffed, then releasing the person and doing a fist bump with them.
The clip was short on purpose, so we don’t see what happened before or after the fist bump. Things like this happen on both sides of politics – where videos are cut to portray a particular narrative or get extra views on social media.
In this case, we have no clue what’s going on. Is that person a rioter? An undercover? No one seems to have a concrete answer one way or the other, and it would’ve been nice if the Capitol Police responded when Newsweek answered. If they did respond, then the response is not listed below.
Maybe it’s absolutely nothing. Maybe the person who was cuffed was just thankful for being uncuffed, so threw up a fist bump as a sign of respect. Either way, I have no idea.
Newsweek did a report on the same video last year. Newsweek says they reached out to the Capitol Police for comment on what happened, but it doesn’t seem like they heard back. Here’s a few takes on the video from various commentary folks on social media, followed by Newsweek saying they reached out via email:
Radio and podcast host John Cremeans questioned the events in the video by asking, “A Fist Bump? WTH! Capitol Police uncuff a January 6th Protestor and give him a fist bump. Something is definitely not right about the J6 Pelosi narrative.”
Conservative commentator Benny Johnson posted to X: “I don’t think Capitol Police would take restraints off of a protester, FIST BUMP him, and then let him go if this were an actual ‘insurrection.'”
Newsweek has reached out to the United States Capitol Police via email for comment.
Here’s the video of the infamous Capitol Police fist bump: