In October 2023, news spread on the Internet that, at the height of the war in the Middle East, the US President was spotted dozing on a beach chair. We decided to check whether these reports are true.
Some Russian media (for example, "Arguments and facts" And "Time Press"October 23, and also "Gazeta.ru"two days later) reported that American rapper 50 Cent criticized President Joe Biden for relaxing on the beach during the political crisis in the United States and the war in the Middle East. The artist allegedly posted photographs on Instagram* depicting the head of state dozing under a sun umbrella. Many social media users also shared posts with such information (“VKontakte", X, Facebook*) And blogging platforms. The news spread most widely on Telegram - it was published, in particular, by the channels “Live broadcast"(732,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Videos in different languages"(204,000), "RT in Russian"(175,000), Voblya (167,000), "Evil proof" (139,000) and "First People's"(128,000).
On October 18, 2023, the American President arrived with visit to Israel, expressed support for the country in the wake of the Hamas attack that occurred earlier that month, promised to provide humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and advised Israelis not to succumb to anger over the terrorist attack, as the United States did after the attacks of September 11, 2001. In two days Biden appealed to Congress asking for more than $100 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Israel, as well as humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip. Later he spoke with a televised address to the nation, calling the amount requested from Congress a “smart investment” in US security. All this happened against the backdrop of an internal political crisis in the States. At the end of September, after much debate, congressmen approved a temporary budget that will allow the government to operate for 45 days. Soon the House of Representatives (for the first time in history) sent resignation of the speaker, which virtually paralyzed the work of the lower house of the American parliament, and only three weeks later approved new leader.
On October 23, rapper 50 Cent actually posted on his page in Instagram photo of Joe Biden relaxing on the beach with his wife Jill. The post was accompanied by the caption, “Hey Joe, wake up, damn it! We've got problems, man." The next day the artist posted another photo of an American politician and his wife, also sitting on the ocean, with the comment: “We have some shit going on here, Joe. What's the plan - tan and relax? In the Russian-language segment of the Internet, they mainly quote the musician’s first post.
However, both of these photos of the President and First Lady were taken long before Biden's visit to Israel and Biden's State of the Union address. A photograph of the politician dozing on a sun lounger, published by the Daily Mail published at the beginning of August 2023 - then the American president had a week's vacation. A photo from the rapper’s second post first appeared on the Internet even earlier - photos and videos of Joe and Jill Biden reading on the ocean were published by many media outlets at the end of July, for example C-SPAN, Business Insider And Reuters.
However, on Sunday, October 22, Biden and his wife actually visited the beach in Rehoboth Beach in Delaware - photos of their walk appeared in several American media, for example in Newsweek And Delaware Business Times. Judging by the photographs, it is difficult to imagine that a politician could fall asleep that day while sunbathing in a sun lounger. The President and First Lady were dressed too warmly for sunbathing, given the temperature in Rehoboth Beach that day. didn't get up above 19 °C. Fact-checking project Lead Stories with reference to the report of the White House press service also confirmsthat the Bidens were walking on the beach that day near their home in Delaware.
In Rehoboth Beach, the Bidens own home, and, according to news agencies, the president spends a significant portion of his weekends there, for which he has been criticized by opponents from the Republican Party. White House Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates commented Newsweek said: "As has been the case for most of a century, presidents can carry out the full range of their duties from anywhere in the world, whether in a war zone in Israel or 100 miles from the White House in Delaware."
This is not the first time 50 Cent has expressed dissatisfaction with Biden. Thus, during the 2020 presidential race, he called for vote for Donald Trump despite the fact that he “doesn’t like black people.” The reason for this was Biden's campaign promise to raise taxes on high incomes (over $400,000 per year) to 62%.
Thus, 50 Cent posted old photos of Biden on the beach on his Instagram page, providing them with outraged comments, and many media outlets, social network users and bloggers reposted one of them, did not double-check when the photo was taken, and groundlessly tied it to the current news agenda. Photos of the US President on the beach on October 22 exist, but in them the politician is depicted walking with his wife not far from the house where the couple usually spend their weekends.
*Russian authorities think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is an extremist organization; its activities in Russia are prohibited.
Cover photo: screenshot Daily Mail
Read on the topic:
- Business Insider. The Bidens own a vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Take a look inside the 1,108-person town
- Is it true that Joe Biden has been banned from entering Saudi Arabia?
- Is it true that Joe Biden accidentally called for voting for Donald Trump?
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