Fact Check

Does This Photo Show Biden Posing Inappropriately with a Young Girl?

Ashley Biden introduced her father at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Published Oct. 28, 2020

 (Drop of Light / Shutterstock.com)
Image Via Drop of Light / Shutterstock.com
Claim:
A photograph captures Joe Biden posing inappropriately with a young girl.

Voting in the 2020 U.S. Election may be over, but the misinformation keeps on ticking. Never stop fact-checking. Follow our post-election coverage here.

During the 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, social media users circulated a photograph showing Democratic nominee Joe Biden and a young girl, along with text implying that the picture captured Biden at something (unspecified) that was inappropriate:

biden daughter photo

This type of post was intended to stir up baseless accusations of pedophilia that partisans have attempted promulgate against Biden and other Democrats.

However, the image used here is about as innocent as can be, and there is no rational reason to expect it will soon "become almost impossible to find," as the meme declares. It's merely an AP-distributed photograph capturing Biden on the presidential campaign trail in 1987 with his 6-year-old daughter Ashley:

In this Aug. 1, 1987, file photo, six-year-old Ashley Biden, daughter of Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., gets a taste of campaigning with her dad in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo)

Ashley and her brother Hunter (virtually) introduced their father at the 2020 Democratic National Convention:

Sources

Cauterucci, Christina.   "Why Republicans Have Become Obsessed with Accusing Their Opponents of Pedophilia."     Slate.   22 October 2020.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

Article Tags