After the 59th presidential inauguration on January 20, users on social media made the false claim that President Joe Biden was ‘followed’ by a ‘Chinese handler’ or ‘a Chinese bodyguard’, some reports suggest that this is evidence that Biden ‘works for China ”. This is false. The man in the photos posting these posts is David Cho, a decorated Asian-American secret service agent who also served during the Trump administration.
Posts with this claim are visible here, here and on Twitter here , here .
According to NBC News here, Cho is Korean-American. On December 30, 2020, the Washington Post reported that the Secret Service was planning to appoint him to “lead the Biden presidential details.” (here)
Footage of Cho during the inauguration can be seen youtu.be/ZwvbQR887W0?t=12411, here and here.
As alleged evidence, some reports with the claim here on the pen visible on Cho’s jacket are not ‘American’. However, this pin appears on the US Secret Service logo (www.secretservice.gov/), which will also be used visibly by other agents in the 2021 inauguration ceremony. here .
Reuters surveys of another agent in 2020 include a closer look at the pen visible here.
In 2019, Cho was recognized with the Gold Medal of the Department of Homeland Security’s Extraordinary Service Medal (here) for ‘tireless and direct participation in high-level negotiations with the leaders of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who plans all security details for both presidential visits to that country ”And for the leadership of the men and women of the White House Division of the Presidential Protection Division in their zero-failure mission on the White House complex. ”
During the Trump administration, Cho ‘became second in command of the protective details’ as reported here by the Washington Post.
Footage of Cho with President Trump can be seen here, here and here.
VERDICT
Untrue. Photos show David Cho, a Korean-American secret services agency.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.