Was Joe Biden wearing a wire during the first presidential debate?
FAR-right social media accounts and QAnon promoters have spread a conspiracy theory that claims Joe Biden was wearing a wire during the first presidential debate.
Hours before the Tuesday night showdown against Donald Trump, Biden slammed rumors about him planning to wear an earpiece during the debate in Ohio. So is there any basis to the controversial claims?
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Was Joe Biden wired during the presidential debate?
No, Biden was not wearing a wire during the first presidential debate.
Fact-checking outlets Lead Stories and PolitiFact confirmed on Wednesday the Democrat was actually smoothing out a shirt crease – not adjusting a wire.
A low-resolution video claiming to show Biden covering a black wire with the lapel of his blazer while on stage went viral on Tuesday night after it was first shared on Facebook.
But high-definition footage of the moment during the debate shows the alleged “wire” line was really a crease in the former vice president’s shirt.
The distorted clip has been retweeted by more than 48,000 Twitter users as #JoeWire trended for hours Wednesday morning on Twitter.
The Trump campaign also accused Biden of wearing an earpiece in an attempt to discredit the former VP’s competency for the presidency.
What did Biden say about the rumors?
Biden’s campaign shot down the earpiece claims as “completely false” hours before the presidential debate.
In a conference call Tuesday afternoon, Biden’s senior campaign adviser Symone Sanders criticized reporters for focusing on the “ridiculous” claims made by Trump rather than the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re in the middle of a global pandemic,” Sanders said, as reported by KTXL. “Is this what you all would really like to spend your time on, these false, crazy, random, ridiculous assertions by the Trump campaign?”
Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield doubled down on the denial, calling the rumor “completely absurd.”
“His staff seems concerned that he may not do well tonight and they’re already laying the groundwork for how they’re going to lie about why,” she said of the Trump camp.
What did James Woods post on Twitter?
Actor James Woods retweeted the low-quality video that claimed to show Biden adjusting a wire beneath his suit jacket.
“And there it is. #JoeWired,” he captioned his retweet.
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Woods, a conservative with a history of promoting conspiracy theories, helped the clip go viral by sharing it on his account.
It has since been viewed more than 2.5million times on Twitter, and posts linking to the blurry video racked up thousands of interactions, according to a CrowdTangle data analysis by Forbes.