What was claimed
A video shows US President Joe Biden falling down the steps of Air Force One.
Our verdict
The video does not show this. A White House spokesperson said the video was of a member of staff, not the President himself.
Video doesn’t show Joe Biden falling down stairs of Air Force One in Poland
22 February 2023
Claims that a video shows US President Joe Biden falling down the stairs of Air Force One have been shared online.
The video appears to show someone falling down steps as they exit a plane. A tweet questioning whether Mr Biden is the person falling in the picture has been shared almost 10,000 times on Twitter, with very similar posts appearing on Facebook.
But the video on social media doesn’t show the US President falling down the stairs. As has been widely reported, the incident, which took place in Poland on Tuesday, actually involved a female member of staff.
A White House spokesperson told Newsweek that the person falling in the video was not Mr Biden. A different video, published on YouTube by ABC, shows Mr Biden walking down the stairs without falling.
False or misleading claims about politicians have the potential to affect people’s opinions of individuals, parties or how they choose to vote. We often see these types of claims spread widely online.
While it is not true in this instance that Mr Biden was filmed falling down the stairs, the US president has made headlines in the past for stumbling as he entered Air Force One.
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Image courtesy of The White House |
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because this video shows a member of Mr Biden’s staff falling—not the President himself.