Yahoo News Fact Check: Unfounded Rumor Claims Masked Joe Biden 'Body Double' Captured on Video
Claim:
Hidden footage exists showing a masked "body double" for U.S. President Joe Biden.
Rating:
In June 2024, X user Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888), who previously has trafficked in various unsupported conspiracy theories, created a series of posts and a brief video promoting rumors about U.S. President Joe Biden. Wallace primarily claimed to have "hidden footage" showing a masked "body double" for Biden. He also said that "body double" would stand in for the president at the June 27 CNN debate with former President Donald Trump.
However, Wallace's posts and video did not provide any credible evidence to support his claims. As such, we decided on our fact-check rating of "Unfounded." We define our "Unfounded" rating as claims we have investigated but found no supportive demonstrable evidence. Such claims usually originate as hearsay, speculation or groundless rumor.
We contacted Wallace via a direct message on X to ask questions and have detailed our correspondence later in this story.
In this article, we will provide details about Wallace's posts and brief video, as well as further information looking into the veracity of his claims.
Wallace's Posts on X
On June 20, Wallace posted on X, "BREAKING: I HAVE OBTAINED EVIDENCE THAT THEY ARE GOING TO USE A FAKE JOE BIDEN FOR THE TRUMP DEBATE."
A day later, Wallace created another post on X reading, "BREAKING: HIDDEN FOOTAGE CAPTURED OF FAKE JOE BIDEN MASK BODY DOUBLE. SHARE THIS VIDEO QUICKLY BEFORE IT IS WIPED FROM THE INTERNET."
Wallace's second post featured a link to a video (archived) on his channel (archived) on the Rumble video platform. That video's title read, "HIDDEN FOOTAGE CAPTURED OF FAKE JOE BIDEN MASK BODY DOUBLE." The video received nearly 100,000 views in just four hours — a relatively high mark for Rumble.
Several other posts in Wallace's feed on X also promoted similar claims. For example, one post posited after Biden won the coin toss for the upcoming debate, he chose the option of picking his podium position over being the last candidate to deliver closing remarks, supposedly for "body double" reasons.
Breaking Down Wallace's Video
Wallace's video on Rumble lasts 2 minutes and 32 seconds and features a spooky-sounding music track. At no point during the video does Wallace present any source information for the content displayed.
The beginning of Wallace's video features a moment from a CNBC interview from December 2019. The video shows a zoomed-in look at Biden's face and neck during a campaign stop in New Hampton, Iowa. We located further photos and a video of Biden from the same visit to the town.
Wallace then shows pages from a book without disclosing its title. The book purportedly contains picture comparisons of Biden and a "body double." Wallace narrates, "It's so easy to tell which one of those is the fake Joe Biden and which is the real Joe Biden."
Some of the pictures in the book appear to compare photos of Biden's face from several years before to more-recent images. Regarding such comparisons, we'll note that in 2019, New York magazine reported about rumors of Biden undergoing plastic surgery. We were unable to find any official statements in which Biden ever confirmed such procedures.
Jonna Mendez Clips
The middle portion of Wallace's video displays clips from a years-old video from the conspiratorial Instagram account @thetruthworldorder. That Instagram video includes clips of a woman named Jonna Mendez talking about her time working with the CIA. Her work featured the creation of masks and other protective disguising practices intended for CIA agents.
According to the YouTube video description for a TEDx Talk delivered by Mendez during or before 2019, she is a retired CIA intelligence officer with 27 years of service, including serving under the title of chief of disguise. The Instagram video and Wallace's video both featured a portion of Mendez's TEDx Talk from TEDxFoggyBottom.
Wallace's Primary Claims
At the end of Wallace's video, he mentions several major claims without providing any credible evidence. For example, one of his claims says of Biden, "We don't even know if he's still alive." Wallace narrates as follows:
That's the former CIA chief of disguise. She is revealing everything as Joe Biden is not going to be the man on the debate stage. He is nowhere near capable of that. With the age, with all of the [inaudible], with all of the problems, Joe Biden may not even exist anymore. We don't even know if he's still alive. That right there is extremely scary, as the people controlling our government are not only running things into the ground, they are making billions of dollars doing it. All of it's controlled. All of it is part of this big plan that they're running to try to enslave all of us. It's very scary and I certainly hope people start to wake up before it's too late.
During much of this ending narration, Wallace's video continues to show clips from @thetruthworldorder's Instagram video featuring Mendez. At the 2:11 mark in Wallace's video, a clip of Biden speaking before Congress precedes another clip of a person apparently somewhat resembling Biden standing in front of a green screen. This comparison falsely implies one of Biden's past speeches before Congress featured him recorded at a different location in front of a green screen.
Aside from the scale of secrecy involving hundreds of people in the House chamber who would need to remain tight-lipped about the fact Biden did not attend his own speech, along with the technological challenges of ensuring a green-screened "body double" for Biden remained perfectly positioned at the lectern, we also noted the fact the two clips feature different neckties in different colors and mismatching lapel pins. The source of the green-screen footage was unclear, as again, Wallace provided no sources for any of the clips or information in his video.
Asking for Evidence
In our direct message to Wallace, we asked what credible evidence he has to substantiate his claims. We asked whether he personally believes Biden won't appear on the debate stage, has a "body double," "may not even exist anymore" and whether the government intends to try to "enslave all of us," as he claimed in his video. We also asked him whether he simply made up these rumors to make money from Rumble's monetization feature, all based on purposely misleading his own followers.
Additionally, we contacted a publicist for Mendez by email. We informed the publicist of Wallace's posts and video and asked if Mendez is available to comment on the claims or release a statement about her inclusion in the clip. We also asked whether anyone had notified Mendez she would feature in the video.
We will update this story if we receive any further details.
For further reading, we previously reported about rumors claiming the supposed existence of "body doubles" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and others. We also previously twice reported stories about a purported Biden "body double."
Sources:
"Biden Has Fiery Confrontation with Retired Farmer." YouTube, ABC News, 5 Dec. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhcsQ8PZy5M.
Bradner, Eric. "Trump Gets the Final Word at CNN Debate after Coin Flip | CNN Politics." CNN, 20 June 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/20/politics/cnn-debate-closing-statements-podiums/index.html.
"Deception, Illusion, and Espionage: An Unlikely Recipe for Success | Jonna Mendez | TEDxFoggyBottom." YouTube, TEDx Talks, 9 Sept. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MctMx-8lljU.
"Former CIA Operative Explains How Spies Use Disguises | WIRED." YouTube, WIRED, 22 Oct. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JASUsVY5YJ8.
"Home | Jonna Mendez | Bestselling Author, Former CIA Chief of Disguise." Jonna Mendez, https://www.jonnamendez.com.
Mendez, Jonna. "The Life-and-Death Theater of Espionage | Jonna Mendez | TEDxBermuda." TED, Oct. 2019, https://www.ted.com/talks/jonna_mendez_the_life_and_death_theatre_of_espionage.
Nuzzi, Olivia. "Joe Biden's Zombie Campaign." New York Magazine and Intelligencer, 27 Oct. 2019, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/joe-biden-2020-campaign.html.
"Royalty-Free Stock Photos, Creative Images & Vectors | News, Fashion, and Entertainment Imagery." Getty Images, https://www.gettyimages.com/.
"Squawk on the Street." TV News Archive via Internet Archive, CNBC, 6 Dec. 2019, https://archive.org/details/CNBC_20191206_140000_Squawk_on_the_Street/start/4500/end/4560.
Tenbarge, Kat. "Joe Biden's Changing Looks Have Reportedly Become a 'minor Obsession of the White House' and Trump." Business Insider, https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-thinks-joe-biden-got-plastic-surgery-does-not-like-2019-10. Accessed 21 June 2024.
@thetruthworldorder. "Former CIA 'Chief of Disguise,' Jonna Mendez Exposes How the CIA and Other Intelligence Agencies Have Literally Perfected the Art of Disguise." Instagram, 17 June 2022, https://www.instagram.com/p/Ce7f5-GAoBE/.
