Did protesters deface the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia or burn the U.S. flag on the Capitol grounds as a video on TikTok claimed? No, that's not true: Video and photo evidence show that they defaced a replica bell in Washington, D.C. While protesters did burn a U.S. flag in Washington, media coverage and a statement from Vice President Kamala Harris prove that did not happen at the Capitol. There is no reporting or National Park Service statement that protesters put graffiti on Philadelphia's Liberty Bell on July 24, 2024.
The claim about the Liberty Bell and flag appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on July 25, 2024. The clip's narrator said:
It is remarkable what you can do with the Capitol building, and how many American monuments you can deface, as long as you're not a conservative ...
He continued:
People took down the flag of the United States of America in front of the Capitol building of the United States of America and burned it and then replaced it with a flag supporting terrorists, and, at that same time, protesters in the city of Philadelphia, which, if you were unaware, is my home city, decided to try to destroy the Liberty Bell, defaced it ...
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jul 26 18:28:46 2024 UTC)
The post implied that protesters defaced the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia and burned the U.S. flag at the Capitol at the same time to mark Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's July 24, 2024, speech to Congress. However, the video did not present a factually accurate summary of the protests surrounding Netanyahu's speech.
Liberty Bell
A search of Google News for the keywords seen here (archived here) did not show a single report that confirmed that the Liberty Bell had been damaged in any way around July 24, 2024. The National Park Service, which oversees Philadelphia's Liberty Bell site and screens visitors, issued no statements about any July 2024 incidents concerning the Liberty Bell on its website or its official social media accounts on X (archived here), Facebook (archived here) and Instagram (archived here).
Rather, numerous news reports (archived here) proved that a Washington-based replica of the Liberty Bell was what was covered with graffiti during the protests. The replica, called the American Legion Freedom Bell, is located in front of the city's Union Station and has no security guards.
On July 24, 2024, a senior editor for The Hill, a news outlet based in Washington, posted a clip on X that shows a 360-degree view (archived here) of the graffiti-covered American Legion Freedom Bell.
A Lead Stories editor in Washington also took a photo on July 26, 2024, that shows the D.C. bell covered with graffiti.
Burning the U.S. flag
On the day of Netanyahu's address, the same area in front of Union Station was the scene of a flag-burning episode, as reported by The Washington Post (archived here), among others. Reuters correspondent Idrees Ali posted a photo on X (archived here) on July 24, 2024, that showed the scene.
Union Station -- one of the main transportation hubs in Washington -- is a federal property (archived here) within a seven-minute walk from the Capitol. But it's not the same as the Capitol building (archived here) where the Senate and House of Representatives hold their sessions.
On July 25, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement (archived here) that indicated that both the flag-burning and graffiti had occurred at Union Station:
Yesterday, at Union Station in Washington, D.C. we saw despicable acts by unpatriotic protestors and dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric.
I condemn any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas, which has vowed to annihilate the State of Israel and kill Jews. Pro-Hamas graffiti and rhetoric is abhorrent and we must not tolerate it in our nation.
I condemn the burning of the American flag. That flag is a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America. It should never be desecrated in that way.
Find out more
Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims related to the Hamas-Israel war can be found here.
