Joe Biden or Donald Trump dropped out of the 2024 presidential race as of Feb 15.
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Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump have dropped out of the 2024 presidential race
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Neither President Joe Biden nor former President Donald Trump had dropped out of the 2024 presidential race as of Feb. 15, when the claim was posted.
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The field of candidates vying for the nation’s highest office in 2024 is shrinking. Of 20 Republican, Democratic and independent candidates who had been pursuing the parties’ nominations in 2024, only eight remain.
But the race hasn’t narrowed quite as dramatically as one Feb. 15 social media post suggested.
"2024 Presidential Candidate Abruptly DROPS OUT — ‘I’m Done,’" read text above pictures of the two leading candidates: incumbent Democratic President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, the current Republican front-runner.
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.)
People who encountered the post might have believed Biden or Trump dropped out of the race. That’s False.
(Screenshot from Facebook.)
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Both Trump and Biden were still running for president when the post was published Feb. 15, and that remained true when this article was published Feb. 16.
On Feb. 14, Trump held a campaign rally in South Carolina, 10 days ahead of the state’s Republican primary. Biden’s reelection campaign released a new campaign ad Feb. 16.
The Facebook user who posted the image shared a link in the comments to a story on the website Conservative Brief. The preview for that link seemed to again claim that one of the leading candidates had exited the race.
(Screenshot from Facebook)
Clicking the link showed the article was about self-help author Marianne Williamson, who had been running for president as a Democrat. "Marianne Williamson has suspended her 2024 presidential campaign, leaving President Joe Biden with one challenger in the Democratic primary," the article read. (The remaining Biden challenger is Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn.)
Williamson said Feb. 7 she was suspending her campaign.
We rate the claim that Biden or Trump dropped out of the race False.
Our Sources
The New York Times, Who’s Running for President in 2024? updated Feb. 16, 2024
Conservative Brief, Marianne Williamson Suspends Presidential Campaign, Feb. 8, 2024
The Washington Post, Marianne Williamson drops out of Democratic presidential race, Feb. 7, 2024
NBC News, Biden campaign blasts Trump's comments on Putin and NATO in a new ad, Feb. 16, 2024
The Hill, Trump rallies voters on Valentine’s Day in South Carolina: Watch live, Feb. 14, 2024
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Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump have dropped out of the 2024 presidential race
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