Did Democrats refuse to stand for Gold Star widow? FACT CHECK
On February 28th 2017, President Donald Trump delivered his first speech to Congress. During that speech, Trump honored Carryn Owens, the widow to the late U.S. Navy Special Operator Senior Chief William Owens, who was the first American combatant killed during Trump’s tenure as president.
Carryn Owens received two standing ovations in quick succession during Trumps speech. Subsequently, many online blogs have claimed that the Democratic politicians had refused to either stand or applaud, instead remaining firmly in their seats.
TL:DR – Headlines claiming the Democrats did not stand are false. From what we can tell via the video footage of the event, all politicians in the crowd had stood at one point, though many Democrats returned to their seats before their Republican counterparts.
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A video showing the entire speech given by Trump to Congress was soon released and is available on YouTube. At the 49.04 mark, the first standing ovation to Carryn Owens began. From the below video still of that moment, you can see both Democrats and Republicans standing, including Bernie Sanders (left center) and Debbie Wasserman Schulz and Keith Ellison (bottom left corner) who are often cited by rumours as having remained in their seats.
During the second ovation immediately after, the video footage naturally focused on a visibly moved Carryn Owens, and it wasn’t until around 20 seconds into the applause did we see a wide angle of the crowds. The image below shows this moment and the majority of the Democrats are still on their feet. A few are seated, including Debbie Wasserman Schultz & Keith Ellison (on the left.) At this point, we cannot ascertain whether Wasserman Schultz or Ellison remained seated during the second ovation or simply returned to their seats before the camera panned to the crowd shot.
If there was any lingering doubt as to what the Democratic side of the aisle were upto during the standing ovation, here is a shot of the crowd standing as Trump honoured Carryn Owens.
Given that all Democrats that we can see gave a standing ovation either once or twice (albeit returned to their seats quicker) any headlines claiming Democrats refused to stand is demonstrably false.
However, because the Democrats largely returned to their seats before their Republican counterparts, there are ample photos and video stills of standing Republicans and seated Democrats that can be exploited to paint an inaccurate picture that the Democrats had simply refused to stand at all.
And, sadly, that is exactly what many blogs have opted to do.
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