Joe Biden Shartgate

Overview

Joe Biden Shartgate is an online debate as to whether or not presidential candidate Vice President Joe Biden defecated during a May 2020 live stream.

Background

On May 27th, 2020, Biden's verified YouTube account published "A Conversation on the Impact of COVID-19 in States Featuring Governor Tom Wolf." At about 20 minutes and 50 seconds into the stream, a sound can be heard that resembles flatulence. Within 24 hours, the video received more than 74,000 views (shown below).

Developments

Online Reaction

That morning, Twitter user @ComfortablySmug tweeted an isolated clip from the interview. The tweet received more than 714,000 views, 6,800 likes and 2,900 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Minutes later, President Donald Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr shared the video and compared the incident to Eric Swalwell's Fartgate. The post received more than 17,000 likes and 7,200 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below).

Did @JoeBiden just pull an Eric Swalwell? 🤣 pic.twitter.com/xmlgqIXdWH

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 27, 2020

Others shared jokes about the fart. Twitter user @Solmemes1 shared an edited clip from the film Step Brothers in which the characters fart, replacing stars heads with Joe Biden and Eric Swalwell. The post received more than 27,000 views, 1,500 likes and 1,100 retweets in less than 24 hours (shown below)

I think they just became best friends! pic.twitter.com/larrONPz7Y

— SolSec🎬 (@Solmemes1) May 28, 2020

On May 27th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @findmearle posted an analysis of the audio clip made in Adobe Audition, concluding that Joe Biden did indeed pass gas. The tweet received over 1,300 retweets and 6,200 likes (shown below).

Media Coverage

That day, BuzzFeed ^[1] published a poll on the clip in the article "There Was A Pretty Loud Fart Noise During A Joe Biden Livestream." As of May 28th, 52% of voters believe that the fart was made by Biden (screenshot below).

Search Interest

Not available.

External References