(PresidentialInsider.com)- Last week while visiting Rome, President Biden had an unusually lengthy visit with Pope Francis at the Vatican. And unlike previous presidential visits, this one was held off-camera away from public scrutiny.
According to some reports, the White House was concerned that the Pope might lecture the “devout Catholic” Joe over his support of abortion, so they didn’t want the meeting filmed live. Instead, the Vatican later released an edited video of their meeting.
It was unclear at the time why the President’s visit was longer than usual. And on Saturday, a rumor began to spread on social media that Biden’s lengthy visit at the Vatican was because he pooped his pants.
The rumor was started by Amy Tarkanian, the former Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman, who tweeted on Saturday that “word around Rome” is that the President’s meeting with Pope Francis was “unusually long” because he had a “bathroom accident” while he was there and had to clean himself up before leaving the Vatican.
Tarkanian didn’t explain where she heard this rumor, nor did she offer anything by way of proof that the rumor even existed. But it didn’t matter. Within no time social media erupted over Tarkanian’s tweet and the hashtags #PoopGate and #PoopyPantsBiden began trending on Twitter.
That’s when Snopes stepped in to “fact-check” Tarkanian’s claim.
Snopes declared that there was no evidence that the President lost control of his sphincter. Instead, the social media trends were based on nothing but “idle gossip.”
Killjoys.
Snopes assured its readers that there were no photos or video of Joe Biden, nor any “credible” news reports that confirmed Tarkanian’s rumor.
They concluded that a rumor is not a fact.
Snopes then pointed out that Biden isn’t the only president to have “unflattering and untrue rumors” about his “bodily functions on social media.” They cited the rumor from April 2017 that President Donald Trump had pooped his pants while on the golf course. That rumor was based on an altered photo.
