Where Is Joe Biden?

About

Where Is Joe Biden? refers to a hashtag wondering about the whereabouts of presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden in the middle of March 2020, as he had not appeared in public for a full week during the Coronavirus Outbreak unlike his political rivals Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Biden's absence from the public eye led to an ironic conspiracy theory that Biden had passed away. Biden posted a video on March 23rd, 2020, putting the theory to rest.

Origin

On March 16th, 2020, Joe Biden appeared in a video posted to Twitter in which he discussed the Coronavirus outbreak and encouraged social distancing practices (shown below). He appeared again on March 17th to address his supporters after Primary wins.

After posting this video, Biden did not appear in public or on video until March 23rd, 2020, when he again delivered remarks on the Coronavirus on a live stream.^[1]

Spread

In the intervening week, Joe Biden's absence from the public eye was highly criticized, especially by people comparing Biden's actions to those of his political rivals, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, who were actively talking to Americans throughout the Coronavirus crisis. Twitter user and Sanders staffer Brianha Joy Gray^[2] stated that a presidential candidate should be at the front and center of a nation in a time of crisis like Bernie Sanders, gaining over 5,000 retweets and 20,000 likes (shown below, left). Peter Daou^[3] tweeted, "People, I mean this sincerely: #whereisjoe? Trump is in front of the cameras every day, reassuring people, putting on the appearance of "leadership." Where is #Biden? Why isn't he dominating the airwaves???", gaining over 4,200 retweets and 20,000 likes (shown below, right).

During this period, Biden held a telephone press conference with reporters on March 20th.^[4] His Instagram account also gave a "thumbs up" to a livestream hosted by DJ D-nice^[6] (shown below).

Biden's eventually returned to the public eye in a March 23rd livestream where he delivered a statement, but it was marred by a strange lighting effect that made it appear as though he were standing in front of a green screen and teleprompter issues.^[7][8]

Joe Biden Is Dead

Biden's absence led some to sarcastically theorize that he had died. For example, Twitter user @assignedcowgal^[5] joked, "joe biden has actually shrunk himself down to virus size and he’s fighting the virus in hand to hand combat this second. all you guys screaming 'biden is dead' are gonna look real stupid when he gets back from singlehandedly ending corona," gaining over 140 retweets and 700 likes (shown below, left). User @FeralJokes^[9] tweeted simply, "Joe Biden prove you're not dead challenge," gaining over 790 likes (shown below, right).

On Facebook, memes about the absence include a post by The Meme-Industrial Complex^[10] which gained over 1,100 reactions (shown below, left) and a post by Rikki Hiller^[11] (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References