Fact check: President-elect Biden has not resigned; claim comes from fake news generating website

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Social media users are sharing a screenshot of a ‘news article’ that falsely claims that President-elect Joe Biden ‘resigned’. This article was created on a Web site using fake news generators.

US President Joe Biden talks about the violence that took place during the US Capitol when he announced his nominees from the Department of Justice at his headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, USA, on January 7, 2021. REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque

Examples are visible here, here, here.

While some users reject the claim, others seem to take the content seriously, with comments such as “This is the most honorable thing he’s ever done” and “He’s retiring, but not for these reasons. was caught and they took pity on him ”.

The alleged article, titled “President Elect Joe Biden retires as President Elect”, bears a timestamp of “17:35 01-01-21” and is reportedly reported by “Fox” of “Atlanta”.

It begins: “The new president, elected Joe Biden, has resigned as elected president after consultation with his family and legal team over an unspecified health issue.” The article further states that Biden’s ‘advisers and legal team’ would make an official announcement tonight at 21:00.

Reuters has found no evidence that this is a legitimate article by Fox or any other media. A Google search for the headline brought up other factual articles that deny this claim.

The design of the logo and the layout of the text correspond to those created by the website “Channel 45 news” (here). The screenshot circulating appears to capture the mobile version of the fake article.

Since January 1, President-elect Joe Biden and the President’s Office have made several statements, some of which are visible ( here , here , here , here )

Democrat Joe Biden is expected to be sworn in as U.S. president on January 20. Congress confirmed to the Electoral College that the results of the states will be confirmed early on January 7, showing that Biden will play the game on November 3 against President Donald Trump (here).

VERDICT

Untrue. Elected President Joe Biden has not resigned and is expected to be sworn in on January 20. Reports that share this claim feature a fake article created with a fake news generator.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.

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