Amy Klobuchar image doctored with 'defund the police' signs

"Which is it Amy Klobuchar?????" says a February 19, 2024 post sharing three pictures on Facebook. "You never let a tragedy go to waste."

Two of the images show screenshots of Klobuchar's posts about three Burnsville, Minnesota first responders who were shot and killed while responding February 18 to a domestic abuse call (archived here and here).

The third photo appears to show the former Democratic presidential candidate smiling for a photo with a crowd of people, some of whom are holding posters that say, "defund the police."

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Screenshot from Facebook taken February 21, 2024

The picture also spread on X, formerly Twitter.

Controversial cries to "defund the police" erupted ahead of the 2020 US presidential election as demonstrations flared up across the country in response to the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minnesota. While moderates such as then-presidential candidate Joe Biden opposed such reforms, other Democratic politicians supported them.

But Klobuchar did not -- and the picture of her is doctored.

A reverse image search reveals Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison posted the original photo to X on October 16, 2022 -- three weeks before he won re-election in the midterms (archived here).

"The photo is digitally altered," Brian Evans, Ellison's press secretary, told AFP in a February 21 email. "The original photo was taken at a Get Out the Vote event on October 16, 2022 at the AFL-CIO Midwest Region building."

Jane Meyer, a spokeswoman for Klobuchar, also confirmed the photo's origin.

No one is holding a sign in the original version.

One X user who posted the manipulated image of Klobuchar and Ellison has previously shared similarly altered photos of Ellison and other Minnesota politicians holding identical signs.

Klobuchar, a former prosecutor, lists funding for the US Capitol Police and federal programs aimed at helping state and local law enforcement to hire, train and equip officers as priorities on the "public safety and criminal justice reform" page of her official Senate website (archived here). In May 2023, she introduced legislation to extend a community police program (archived here).

Following Floyd's murder, the senator pushed for national police reforms and a federal investigation of Minnesota's police department. But she opposed an initiative that would have replaced the department with a new, public health-focused public safety department.

"I just heard about 'defund the police,'" Klobuchar said during a July 2022 Senate hearing on law enforcement safety (archived here). "I'll give you an example of my city of Minneapolis. There was a ballot initiative that was described that way. I opposed it, so did the governor, and it actually was defeated in a liberal city.

"I think one of the focuses has got to be, as you all know, reforming some of the practices -- but at the same time funding the police."

In a February 21, 2024 email, Klobuchar's spokesperson Meyer said: "Senator Klobuchar strongly and publicly opposed the defund the police measure in Minnesota, has repeatedly made clear she opposes defunding the police, and is in fact the longtime lead author of the bipartisan bill in Congress which funds police."

Ellison supported the failed Minnesota measure, meanwhile, but argued in an op-ed that it would not have amounted to defunding the police (archived here).

He told the Wisconsin Examiner in October 2023 that defunding police units was "an emotional reaction to a horrendous situation, but it was not a sound policy prescription" (archived here).

Evans, his press secretary, said: "Attorney General Ellison does not and has never supported defunding the police."

AFP has debunked other misinformation about US politics here.