No, these images don’t show politicians acting inappropriately with children
If your time is short
- These photos are mischaracterized or misleading.
A Facebook video shows photos of politicians apparently caught in compromising positions with girls. The photos appear interspersed with disturbing images of children and clips of celebrities on red carpets.
“Wake up!” implores text above the images of President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
But these images are altered or misleadingly presented.
A post sharing the video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook.)
We’ve fact-checked claims about some of these images before. One photo shows Biden leaning down by a boy with his hand cupping the child’s face. Previous social media posts have falsely framed this image as evidence that Biden is a pedophile.
The original photo accompanied a June 2015 Associated Press story about the funeral of Beau Biden, the president’s son who died of brain cancer.
The caption says: “Vice President Joe Biden embraces his grandson Hunter before funeral services for Hunter’s father, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, Saturday, June 6, 2015, at St. Anthony of Padua Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Del.”
Patrick Semansky, who took the photo, told PolitiFact in an email that “the extended Biden family walked in a procession behind a hearse carrying Beau Biden’s casket. They stopped roughly 30 feet in front of me, at the church’s front door, as a military honor guard removed the casket from the hearse and carried it inside for a funeral service. At different moments, the VP leaned over to comfort his grandson and granddaughter as they watched the honor guard and then followed the casket inside.”
The images of Obama have been similarly shared in a way that could lead viewers to think something sinister was happening. But that’s not the case.
The photos were taken on a boat on Lake Como in Italy with several people, including actor George Clooney, his wife, Amal Clooney, former first lady Michelle Obama, her daughter Malia Obama and other unidentified guests in 2019.
The photo of a man identified as Schumer shows him kissing a child — but it’s not Schumer. It doesn’t look like him, a spokesperson for the senator said it isn’t him, and the image has previously been published in connection with reports of British men exploiting children in Gambia.
We rate claims that this video shows politicians in compromising positions with children Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Facebook post, Nov. 25, 2022
PolitiFact, No, this photo doesn’t show Obama and Clooney acting inappropriately with a child, Aug. 17, 2020
PolitiFact, Photo of man kissing child is ‘absolutely not’ senator, office says, July 18, 2020
PolitiFact, No, this photo doesn't show Joe Biden engaging in disturbing behavior with a boy, March 14, 2019
