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Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke September 13, 2023

Don’t confuse President Joe Biden with Leatherface; claims he’s wearing a ‘skin mask’ are unfounded

If Your Time is short

Halloween decorations are already on display at some stores, and on social media, so are claims that President Joe Biden was recorded wearing a skin mask, à la Leatherface, the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" villain. 

"Shocking video shows Biden wearing a skin mask," reads the text in a Sept. 12 Instagram post’s video.

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

Biden has, ahem, faced allegations before that the commander in chief is an impostor in a mask. So have former President Donald Trump and former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci. None of these claims have merit. 

The video in the Instagram post appears to show Biden at The White House on May 9 discussing the debt ceiling. We saw nothing to signal he’s someone else wearing a Biden mask. 

The video also compares images of Biden, 80, to images of him when he was younger. So, it’s worth noting: skin loses elasticity as humans age; it’s not evidence of a presidential impostor. 

We rate this post Pants on Fire!

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Don’t confuse President Joe Biden with Leatherface; claims he’s wearing a ‘skin mask’ are unfounded

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