One podcaster said President Biden “may be dying or already dead,” a Newsmax host asked for “proof he's alive,” and a former Republican congressman simply asked, “Does anyone else think Biden is dead?”
When Biden re-emerged late last month after a brief COVID-19 quarantine (and still alive), many did not retract or correct their erroneous suggestions.
NewsGuard, which monitors online misinformation, identified 19 prominent accounts on X that shared the idea in July that Biden was dead or possibly near death. The New York Times tracked those accounts to see how they handled the news that Biden was alive and found that most either ignored it or stoked further conspiracy theories. Only a few admitted they were wrong.
The frenzied debate over Biden's health offered a brief glimpse into how wild speculation and conspiracy theories can appear and disappear in a flash – and rarely are they retracted when they turn out to be false.
According to NewsGuard, conversations about Biden on X using the words “dead” or “passed away” had nearly 500,000 mentions and more than 4 million interactions in one week last month. Two of the most popular posts spreading the conspiracy theory were viewed more than 85 million times combined.
The New York Times reached out to all 19 accounts for comment. Comedian Terrence K. Williams, who is on Newsguard's list, said he still believes “Joe Biden is dying.” Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer said in an interview that “I stand by my reporting” and clarified that when she wrote that Biden was “terminally ill,” she meant that he had “a year or less” to live. A spokesman for podcaster Charlie Kirk said Kirk's post was based on police speculation and that “Charlie assumed Biden was still alive.” Influencer and radio host Stu Peters said in a statement that the Biden administration has yet to provide “any legitimate evidence of survival.” The other 15 did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ten accounts raise further doubts
Some of the 19 accounts continued to stomp on doubts about Biden after his public appearances, suggesting he was terminally ill or that his entourage was using a double. According to Sarah Comer and Jack Brewster, reporters and editors at NewsGuard, who prepared the report, mentions of the word “double” on X increased 74% from July 23 to 25 compared to the two days prior.
Charlie Kirk, a right-wing personality whose podcast show is consistently one of the most popular in the US, was one of the first to spread the theory on X that Biden was dead or dying, sharing a convoluted story in a July 22 post that has been viewed more than 24 million times.
After Biden's July 24 address to the nation, Kirk suggested the president didn't say much, stoking doubts again by asking, “Why did Biden decline?”
All of the accounts tracked by The Times and NewsGuard have seen an increase in their follower numbers since July 22, and some saw a surge in their follower numbers after their posts went viral.
Kirk gained nearly 50,000 followers on X in the two days after posting on July 22, up from an average of about 2,000 before then, according to data from social media monitoring company Socialblade.
“These influencers don't seem to lose their influence when they're obviously wrong,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation. “This just shows that people are willing to believe false information, even if they know it's inaccurate, if it confirms their existing biases or prior beliefs.”
Four accounts confirmed the truth (more or less)
Breck Worsham, a conservative journalist and supporter of former President Donald J. Trump, predicted on July 22 that Biden was on the brink of death. However, after Biden was spotted boarding Air Force One on July 23, Worsham corrected himself, saying he had been fooled by false information from a reliable source.
Her change of tack didn't last long: In the same post about X, which was viewed just 1,200 times, she suggested that the whole incident was actually a plot to divert attention from other news.
Author and podcaster Bret Weinstein echoed this sentiment, suggesting on July 23 that bad actors might have somehow tried to get people like him to question Biden's health so that they would feel embarrassed when the president appeared in public again.
His post has been viewed 2.2 million times on X, and Weinstein has gained more than 10,000 followers since the speculation began.
Five accounts ignore the news
As of Monday, some of the accounts had not mentioned the idea again after it was proven false. They instead moved on to attack Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris, sometimes with dozens of posts a day, essentially burying their earlier theories.
“In today's news cycle and fractured media environment, it's very difficult to hold people accountable for things they've said in the past,” said Brewster, NewsGuard's enterprise editor.
