Claim: Teachers union chief melted down

Question

Did Randi Weingarten really "melt down"? From the article it sounds like she was yelling, but aside from a silent clip on the splash page there is no source for that either.

I fund this Oxford definiton of "melt down": collapse or break down disastrously.

Is there any indication this happened?

Links:

https://www.foxnews.com/

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/randi-weingarten-melts-down-student-debt-outside-scotus-not-fair

Answer 1

This claim is false. It doesn't seem that she had a meltdown during her speech. According to Merriam-Webster, a meltdown is a rapid or disastrous decline or collapse, which is not what happened in the video clip you provided. She just seemed very passionate about the topic she was fighting for. In a different post from Fox News, it seems they labeled her speech as emotional rather than a meltdown, which is a bit more accurate than having a meltdown. I would not go as far as to say she was being emotional, but she seemed she was just trying to get through to her audience. Considering all the flack she got online, it seems that no one on the internet understands what a meltdown is either. Even if someone is ill-informed or using incorrect stances to defend her own, if they are speaking in the same tone she did, they would not be having a meltdown, they would just be passionate about their stance. Just because she belongs to certain political parties does not mean her words are more or less part of a meltdown.

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6321437618112

Comments

You did a nice job with your write up and provided details like the definition of a meltdown and how Fox News miscatgorized a passionate speech for something else.

Answer 2

No it doesn't appear she melted down giving a speech. I linked a twitter video of the actual speech and it seems she was very passionate about it. Compared to that definition I would not say she was melting down.

https://twitter.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1630625715279527938?s=20

Comments

So why is this not false?

Answer 3

According to the definition you provided, Randi Weingarten did not have a "meltdown".

This is an exaggerated statement in regards to her being passionate about the speech she was giving at the time. Meltdown is being used an an exaggerated term.

Here is the speech, she is yelling in it, but it doesn't appear to be a meltdown: https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1630972929499361280