Joe Biden addressed seated audience members around him during an event in Wisconsin on December 20, 2023, but the U.S. president did not “shake hands with invisible people several times,” as claimed in social media posts circulating a clip from the event.
Posts on X and Facebook shared a short clip showing Biden at a lectern turning and gesturing toward the sides of the raised stage, where people were seated but not visible in the camera frame.
Biden spoke to guests during a Dec. 20 visit to the Milwaukee Black Chamber of Commerce to discuss what the White House called a boom in Black-owned small businesses.
The fragment circulating on the misleading posts is visible at the end of a longer livestream of the event by CNBC on its YouTube channel (timestamp 1.04.06- 1.04.34).
In another part of that broadcast and in an image of the event published by Reuters, people can be seen on the sides and behind the stage.
Other media outlets, such as C-SPAN (timestamp 18:14) and FOX6 News Milwaukee (timestamp 17:34), also showed footage of this moment recorded from other angles that show the people in the audience.
VERDICT
Missing context. Videos show Biden waved to people around the stage during an event in Milwaukee.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts.
