Reports with a fabricated quote attributed to President Joe Biden about veterans come from a satire article. However, users on social media take the claim seriously.
Examples can be seen here, here and here.
The reports show an article with the headline: “Pray to cut benefits for veterans: ‘They get enough handouts.'”
A Google search for the text contains an article from the satirical website “America’s Last Line of Defense” with the same heading.
The site describes itself (here) as part of a ‘network of parody, satire and nonsense’. The page also states that “everything on this site is fiction. This is not a lie and it’s not fake news because it’s not really. If you believe this is true, you should have your head examined. Other sites in America’s Last Line of Defense network include DailyWorldUpdate.us, BustaTroll.org and TatersGonnaTate.com.
Reuters could not find Biden saying anything like this quote. A Google search did not return any trusted news reports.
The quote does not exist on Biden’s Twitter pages (twitter.com/POTUS and twitter.com/JoeBiden) or in ProPublica’s “Politwoops” archive, which follows deleted tweets from public officials here.
Reuters had earlier denied another allegation that Biden would “disregard” the Department of Veterans Affairs here, also intended as satire and stemming from the “America’s Last Line of Defense” website.
A page on Biden’s presidential campaign website (joebiden.com/veterans/) outlines his plans to support veterans.
In January, Biden signed an executive order to delay the collection of veteran matters (here); this month, the administration restored the POW-MIA flag at the top of the White House, honoring missing war veterans (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. Biden’s quote about veterans getting “enough handouts” stems from a satire publication.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.