Fact Check

Image Shows President Obama with "Bernie 2016" Sign

A photograph purportedly showing President Obama posing with a "Bernie 2016" sign has been digitally doctored.

Published May 11, 2016

 (Instagram)
Image Via Instagram
Claim:
A photograph shows President Obama pointing to a "Bernie 2016" sign.

In May 2016, a photograph purportedly showing President Barack Obama posing with a "Bernie 2016" sign (in an apparent endorsement) started circulating on the internet. However, while the above-displayed image featured a real photograph of President Obama, the verbiage on the sign is fake. The real image was posted to the White House Instagram account in September 2015, and shows President Obama near Alaska's Exit Glacier:

Markers throughout Exit Glacier show how much it's receded over time. The impacts of climate change are real, and the people of Alaska are living with them every day. It's never been more important for us to work together to address this challenge.

obama exit glacier

President Obama has not endorsed Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton as of May 2016, and won't campaign for anybody until after the primaries:

White House chief of staff Dennis McDonough on Sunday said President Obama will not endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary race.

“We’ll do exactly what has been done in the past,” McDonough said in an interview for NBC’s “Meet the Press."

He added that Obama will be “out there” campaigning after the primary to support the eventual nominee.

This isn't the first time that the above-displayed photograph has been digitally altered. In September 2015, internet tricksters altered the sign to read "69" and spread the image on social media to insinuate that President Obama had a juvenile sense of humor.

Dan Evon is a former writer for Snopes.