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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke November 2, 2020

Photo of Biden on plane without face mask is from before the pandemic

If Your Time is short

  • A photo of Joe Biden talking to an aide without a face mask is from November 2019, before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in China.
 

An old photo of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is spreading on social media, suggesting the former vice president is a hypocrite when it comes to wearing face coverings to protect against the coronavirus. 

While he urges Americans to "be a patriot" and wear a mask, a widely shared tweet makes it look like he doesn’t hold himself to the same standard.

"Washington, DC phony!" reads the tweet from former acting national intelligence director Richard Grenell. "@JoeBiden doesn’t wear a mask on a plane - but wears one OUTSIDE!?"

The tweet features two photos. One shows Biden talking to a woman on a plane, and neither one is wearing a mask. The second shows Biden standing outdoors wearing a mask while speaking into a microphone. 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) 

Featured Fact-check

That’s because the photo of Biden without a mask is from November 2019, before the first case of COVID-19 was reported in China the following month. 

The image ran in a story in Vogue magazine about Remi Yamamoto, Biden’s traveling national press secretary. The caption says: "Yamamoto and Biden huddle on a flight to South Carolina in November 2019."

We rate this tweet False.

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more.

 

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Photo of Biden on plane without face mask is from before the pandemic

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