Quotes Joe Biden as saying “people who have never died before are now dying from coronavirus.”
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Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus on March 12, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. (AP)
First Trump, now Biden. Neither said ‘People who have never died before are now dying’
If Your Time is short
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The quote was first misattributed to President Donald Trump. Joe Biden didn’t say it either.
First it was Trump, now supposedly it’s Biden.
A Facebook post claims that Joe Biden said, "People who have never died before are now dying from coronavirus." The post also displays a faded photo of Biden with the words "confused & irritated."
We fact-checked the same claim on March 19, 2020, except that one attributed the quote to President Donald Trump. He never said it, and neither did Biden.
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
Featured Fact-check
Although it’s pretty clear this statement is fabricated and its social media misattribution has moved on from Trump to Biden, we checked out the Democratic presidential candidate’s recent comments to be sure.
We reviewed Biden’s comments in tele-town halls, campaign ads and media interviews and found no evidence he said anything close to the statement. We also searched for it in Google and the Nexis database and found no mention of the quote "people are dying who have never died before."
According to multiple biographies, author Ernest Hemingway reportedly enjoyed using the phrase, but it isn’t clear whether he was the one who coined it.
Either way, Trump didn’t say it and neither did Biden. Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Facebook post, March 21, 2020
PolitiFact, Says President Donald Trump said, "People are dying who have never died before.", March 18, 2020
Nexis search, March 24, 2020
Reuters, False claim: Trump said "people are dying who have never died before", March 21, 2020
FactCheck.org, Death Quote Wrongly Attributed to Trump, March 28, 2020
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More by Samantha Putterman
First Trump, now Biden. Neither said ‘People who have never died before are now dying’
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