Fact Check

Does a Photograph Show Joe Biden Putting a Gun in a Woman's Mouth?

An old photograph of Joe Biden chatting with a woman at a town hall meeting was digitally manipulated to look sinister.

Published Jan. 20, 2017

Claim:
A photograph captured Joe Biden posing menacingly with an elderly woman and a gun.

The above-reproduced image of Joe Biden seemingly posing menacingly with an elderly woman and a gun appeared in our inbox in January 2017, but versions of this same image have been circulated online since at least May 2012.

The image appears to depict former Biden at a crowded event, menacingly holding what looks like a gun with its barrel pointed into the mouth an elderly woman. However, the captioned image was just a digitally manipulated version of a rather mundane photograph showing Biden conversing with participants at a town hall event while he was on the campaign trail in Florida in 2008:

Sen. Joe Biden chats with Annalou Trebitz, 87, after a town hall meeting at Century Village in Deerfield Beach, Fla., on , Sept. 2, 2008.

Sources

Bacon Jr., Perry.   "Joe Biden, Yiddishe Veep."     The Washington Post.   2 September 2008.

Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes.

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