A mother has been shared thousands of times on social media, claiming that a disguised body is an embezzled body of President Joe Biden signing Executive Orders in the Oval Office, rather than the president himself. As ‘evidence’, the meme links the image, which allegedly shows the ‘double’ signature with his left hand, to a previous photo of Biden, in which he signs a document with the opposite hand. The claim is false: the image of President Biden in the oval office has been overturned. Footage shows that Biden drew with his right hand in both cases.
‘Oops, Biden’s corpse double is left-handed. The casting director slipped! “, Says the meme. Reports with the claim can be seen here, here, here.
While some users acknowledge that the image on the right is doctored, others appear to be authentic. Comments include: “One is the fake actor taking over !!” and “Two different people!”.
Reuters had earlier uncovered similar lies that Biden doubled a disguised body during an interview (here) and that the Oval Office was a fake ‘movie set’ (here).
The image on the left can be seen here. It was captured on April 14, 2010 by White House photographer David Lienemann when Biden was vice president.
The picture on the right is turned upside down to mislead the viewers. The original, ‘unflipped’ photo was taken by the AP and can be seen here. Reuters photos of the same moments that show Biden signing 15 executive orders shortly after he was sworn in on January 20, 2021 (here, here) show the alignment of the office being reversed in the doctored photo (see flags behind Biden, stack of navy folders and white cup on his desk).
In a video from Wired “Joe Biden answers the most searched questions on the web” (youtu.be/nGrB-5ieeMU?t=75), the then presidential candidate said he was not left-handed. “No, that’s why I struggle to pull it off with my left hand,” he says of the cardboard he is holding.
VERDICT
Alter. President Joe Biden is right-handed, the photo turned upside down to falsely claim that a ‘disguised body doubles’, rather than the president himself signing the executive orders with his left hand.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.