The claim: An image shows Joe Biden signing executive orders with his left hand, and previous photos show him writing with his right hand
After conspiracy theorists falsely claimed that former first lady Melania Trump used a double body for public appearances, some social media messages appeared on President Joe Biden accusing him of doing the same.
In a viral report shared on February 12, photos of Biden’s signing documents were compared with different hands in an attempt to support the claim.
One photo is a recent image of Biden signing executive orders in the Oval Office with his left hand, and the other is a photo he apparently writes with his right hand. A caption below the two photos reads: “Is he left or right?”
“Oops. Biden’s corpse double is left-handed. Cast director slips up!” read a text included in the report, with more than 600 shares.
Another Facebook user shared the same image on February 3, writing, “Okay, here’s the case in 2008. Joe Biden is right-handed. Joe Biden in 2021 is left-handed. The stories are where our president is a double body. . “
USA TODAY targeted Facebook users for comment.
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Photo reversed
Both photos included in the post are authentic, but the recent image of Biden in the Oval Office has been flipped over to make it look like he is writing with his left hand.
In the original image, taken by AFP photographer Jim Watson on January 20, the pocket square on the left side of Biden’s coat is not right, and he is writing with his right hand.
The executive orders sitting on Biden’s desk and the American flags behind the president also appear across the photo in the authentic version.
The second photo taken in the report is genuine and was taken by White House photographer David Lienemann. However, it was not captured in 2008 as the post claims and was taken on April 14, 2010 when Biden served as vice president under the Obama administration.
The photo shows Biden signing a consolation book at the Polish embassy in Washington, and he is writing with his right hand.
Social media users have previously used this method to reflect images to spread false claims. In 2010, for example, an inverted photo of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama was used to claim they were saluting the flag with their left hand instead of their right, Factcheck.org reports.
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Biden is right-handed
In a 2020 auto-complete interview with Wired, Biden answers the most popular questions about him on Google, one of which is: “Is Joe Biden left-handed?” In response, Biden confirmed that he is not writing with his left hand.
Only eight presidents are left-handed. James. A Garfield was the first left-handed president, according to Potus.com. Barack Obama was the most recent.
The claims that Biden holds an individual position for public events have previously been denied by Snopes.
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Our rating: false
A report with a modified image of President Joe Biden claiming to have a double body is FALSE, based on our research. A photo taken in the report was digitally flipped to make Biden look like he was writing with his left hand. Biden earlier in an interview confirmed that he is right-handed, and claims that the president has a double body is untrue.
Our sources for fact checking:
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Getty Images, January 20, TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-INAUGURATION
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Factcheck.org, January 11, Mirror Image
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Flickr, April 14, 2010, Obama Withuis
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Wired, May 20, “Joe Biden answers the most searched questions on the web”
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POTUS.com, left handed
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Snopes, Dec. 17, “Does Joe Biden have a double body?”
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This article originally appeared in the US TODAY: Fact-checking: reports use a reverse image to make false Joe Biden claims