Video shows someone impersonating Joe Biden in a mask.
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President Joe Biden addresses members of the Irish parliament April 13, 2023, at Leinster House in Dublin. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP)
That’s no masked impersonator. It’s really President Joe Biden.
If Your Time is short
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If this video shows anything, it’s that Biden, 80, has wrinkles.
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The full video comes from Biden’s widely covered April trip to Ireland, during which he took questions from children.
Social media users are trying to unmask a claim about President Joe Biden.
A video clip posted to Instagram on April 26 showed the back of Biden’s head as he spoke to a group of people. Biden is seen scratching his neck, which left a wrinkle in his skin.
"Oh my gosh, that’s a mask!" someone is heard saying off-camera. "Holy cow!" Text on the video reads: "So y’all think Biden is still alive?"
Multiple Instagram users responded in the comments, claiming that it was proof of a "clone" Biden. The video and claim also spread to Twitter.
Biden’s wrinkle is not the sign of a mask. The Instagram 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 Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
Featured Fact-check
The clip comes from an April 12 C-SPAN video of Biden’s April 12 trip to Ireland, where he took questions from children and gave an answer about the key to success. His trip was widely covered by journalists worldwide. Had Biden been wearing a mask, it certainly would have made for interesting news. But it didn’t because he wasn’t.
We’ve checked "mask" claims like this before, which baselessly assert that powerful people are being impersonated by body doubles or people in masks. These claims tend to circulate among QAnon conspiracy theorists.
Biden has been a frequent target of these erroneous claims, but so have former President Donald Trump, former White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.
Biden is 80 years old, and it is natural to have wrinkles at that age. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Instagram post, April 26, 2023
Twitter post, April 12, 2023
C-SPAN, User Clip: Biden Takes Questions From Kids On Ireland Trip — Tells LENGTHY Story About 'Not Very Crazy About African Americans' Jesse Helms, April 12, 2023
PolitiFact, Viewers mistake shadow on Biden’s neck for a mask, Oct. 8, 2020
PolitiFact, Is that a masked man? No, that’s really Donald Trump. April 4, 2023
PolitiFact, Was someone in a Joe Biden mask at the State of the Union? No, It was Biden himself, Feb. 10, 2023
PolitiFact, No, this isn’t a video of someone wearing a Fauci mask, March 5, 2021
PolitiFact, Photos show Jeff Bezos, not his clone, Nov. 17, 2022
PolitiFact, No, this photo doesn’t show a John Fetterman body double. Here’s why. March 27, 2023
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That’s no masked impersonator. It’s really President Joe Biden.
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