President Joe Biden‘s departure from the 2024 presidential race has left both Republicans and Democrats reassessing election strategies with new pitches and attack lines for their rivals.
On Wednesday, Biden made his first major public appearance since he confirmed he was ending his reelection campaign and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democratic Party‘s 2024 nominee.
During his speech, he said his achievements as president “merited a second term,” but that he believed it was in the best interest of the country to “pass the torch to a new generation.”
With Biden out, claims appeared online that merchandisers with piles of excoriating merchandise were planning to sue the president for the money they had now lost.
The Claim
A post by user @Roshan_Rinaldi on X, formerly Twitter, posted on July 25, 2024, viewed 934,400 times, said “Man says he lost $10,000 in now-worthless ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ merch.
“So he wants to sue Joe Biden for dropping out.
“Ahahaha!”
The post included what appeared to be a still from a TV news broadcast that said, “BREAKING NEWS – BIDEN SUED FOR DROPPING OUT – MAN SAYS HE LOST $10,000 ON WORTHLESS LET’S GO BRANDON MERCHANDISE.”
The Facts
The “Let’s Go Brandon” slogan is an anti-Biden mantra, based on an infamous news broadcast in which a sportscaster mistook chants of “F*** Joe Biden” heard during a live show.
Presumably, much of the merchandise with this slogan will have little relevance for the rest of the presidential campaign. However, the claim of a lawsuit, let alone a “Breaking News” story about it, appears to have been made up.
The image used in the post on X was pulled from an unrelated Fox News story about a Trump merchandise seller published in 2021. Business owner Keith Lambert shared the photo from one of his “Let’s Go Brandon” stores in New England.
There have been no reports that Lambert is planning to sue the president over losing money on merchandise purchases.
Newsweek has contacted an associate of Lambert for comment.
There are no other legitimate news stories about such a lawsuit. The screenshot shows no news widget or icon to indicate which network broadcast the story, although it bears some similarity to Sky News’ formatting.
It appears the image was produced using a template that allows users to create fake headlines. It is a well-known template used in other misleading news stories. The only difference with the image shared on X is that a watermark usually generated automatically onto the template has been removed.
The image was also sent by BrooklynDad_Defiant on July 23, 2024, who may have created it in accompaniment to a post he wrote.
“Good morning and Happy Tuesday to everyone who JUST realized that MAGA has wasted a TON of time, money, and energy on all of their Let’s Go Brandon tee shirts, flags, lawn signs and other dumb anti-Biden merchandise for the 2024 election,” BrooklynDad_Defiant wrote.
“Sure it’s petty, but it’s hilarious.”
In any case, the image appears to have been created for satire. Newsweek has contacted a White House media representative for comment.
The Ruling
Satire.
There are no legitimate news reports that a business owner is suing President Biden over wasted “Let’s Go Brandon” stock. The image used to accompany the claim appears to have been created by a popular online template generator used elsewhere in an attempt to prop up other misleading and false stories.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
