Jill Biden did not make ‘stunning admission,’ said the president is ‘fine’ after COVID-19 diagnosis

On July 21, the White House announced that President Joe Biden had tested positive for COVID-19. 

Biden was experiencing "very mild symptoms," according to a statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and had begun taking Paxlovid to treat the sickness. 

But shortly after the news broke, a video posted on Facebook had this clickbait description: "Jill Biden makes stunning admission after Joe diagnosed." 

This 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.)

The supposed admission comes up about two and a half minutes into the video. Spoiler alert: She didn't say anything unusual, unexpected, shocking or, in the post’s parlance, stunning. 

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on October 23, 2024 in a Threads post

Kamala Harris’ statements about Trump invoking Adolf Hitler were based on a “debunked hoax from The Atlantic.”

"First lady Jill Biden was quick to make an update on his condition," someone in the video says. "Speaking to reporters, she said she had just spoken to her husband and he was feeling just fine. Then he went on and made a video where he thanked everybody for their concern and said he was feeling fine and of course there’s a lot of rumors and speculation when a 79-year-old man has COVID, you’ll want to know what’s going on, what’s his health condition, what’s it look like, so it was important for her to make that statement."

We watched a video of the first lady’s remarks that CNN published on its website. 

"My husband tested positive for COVID," she said. "I talked to him just a few minutes ago, he’s doing fine, he’s feeling good. I tested negative this morning. I am going to keep my schedule I am — according to CDC guidelines — I am keeping masked."

The post’s claim of a "stunning admission" falls short.

We rate it False.