Fact Check

Biden Endorses Romney for President

Did Joe Biden endorse Mitt Romney for President?

Published Oct. 21, 2012

Claim:

Claim:   Joe Biden has endorsed Mitt Romney for President.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, October 2012]

Is this true?

Vice President Joe Biden shocked the nation in a speech last night when he endorsed Mitt Romney for President.

Vice President Joe Biden reportedly told a crowd in Tampa last night that “I am one hundred percent positive that for the next four years, Mitt Romney will be President of the United States.” Many in the audience thought it was another one of Biden’s infamous "gaffes" but after the speech Biden confirmed to local reporters that he was endorsing Mitt Romney for President.



 

Origins:   It would be the political shocker of the year if a sitting vice president of the U.S. were to endorse not his running mate, but the presidential candidate of the opposing party. The claim that Democratic vice president Joe Biden had done so by endorsing Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney circulated on the Internet in October 2012, but it was just a bit of political humor, a spoof of Vice President Biden's reputation for letting loose with occasional verbal gaffes.

This item originated as a 15 September 2012 article published on the Weekly World News (WWN) web site, the online successor to the popular entertainment tabloid, whose stock in trade is fantastically fictional headlined stories such as "Alien Spaceships to Attack Earth in November 2012" and "George Clooney Running for President!"

Last updated:   21 October 2012

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

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