Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke November 17, 2023

Video doesn’t show President Joe Biden falling down plane stairs in Poland

If Your Time is short

  • This video doesn’t show President Joe Biden.

A video circulating social media is wrongly being characterized as showing President Joe Biden falling down a set of airplane stairs in Europe. 

"US President Joe Biden fell on the plane stairs shortly after landing in Poland after visiting Ukraine and talking about having suffered a stroke," read the text above a Nov. 15 Instagram post’s video. 

The video shows someone apparently slipping and sliding down the stairs. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Featured Fact-check


(Screenshot from Instagram)

This claim is an old one, first appearing online in February, when Biden visited Poland.

Sign up for PolitiFact texts

We don’t know who the person in the video is, but it’s not Biden. News footage of Biden arriving in Poland shows him descending the stairs without incident. He first appears at the 6:15 mark of this livestream posted on Facebook by ABC News. 

A White House spokesperson told Newsweek in February that the person who fell wasn’t Biden. 

We rate claims that this video shows Biden False.

 

Our Sources

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Ciara O'Rourke

Video doesn’t show President Joe Biden falling down plane stairs in Poland

Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!

In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.

Sign me up