As President Biden fights to maintain his credibility as a 2024 candidate, he's got a modern problem to worry about: false rumors about his health spreading like wildfire on social media. On Friday night, one such bogus account surfaced, reports the AP—and it received a boost from a US senator. As the Salt Lake Tribune reports, GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah retweeted a claim about a Biden "medical emergency" aboard Air Force One as he returned from a rally in Wisconsin.
"If Biden is having a medical emergency at this moment—on board Air Force One or otherwise—that raises … a lot of questions," wrote Lee. One problem: When Lee posted that at 8:09pm, Biden was not only off the plane but back home, and video showed him disembarking without a hitch. Lee did not respond to the newspaper's questions about whether he attempted to confirm the report before posting his tweet, which remains up with more than 2 million views.
"There were no signs of a medical emergency on the flight," according to an account from the AP, which had a reporter on the flight. The outlet traces the rumor back to the first unconfirmed tweets based on "anonymous sources." Right-wing conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer was among those who ran with it, as well as podcaster Monica Crawley, whose rumor was retweeted by Lee. (More President Biden 2024 stories.)