Joe Biden didn’t board an empty plane after prisoner swap

Maria Ramirez Uribe
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Maria Ramirez Uribe
Maria Ramirez Uribe is an immigration reporter at PolitiFact. Previously she served as a Report for America corps member, working as a race and equity reporter...
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Claim: President Joe Biden walked “onto an empty airplane for no reason” after the prisoner swap at an airport.

Three Americans touched U.S. soil for the first time since they were freed Aug. 1 in the biggest prisoner swap with Russia in post-Soviet history.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were among the people waiting at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to greet Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan and Alsu Kurmasheva, along with Russian dissidents, who were set free as part of the deal. 

Biden later boarded the plane that had brought the prisoners to Maryland, setting off a chorus of claims questioning the president’s movements. 

“This is BEYOND bizarre … even for Joe Biden!” said one Instagram post from Sebastian Gorka, a former deputy assistant to President Donald Trump. “The Old Man walks onto an empty airplane for no reason and just disappears for a few minutes! Talk about ‘weird.’”

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Maria Ramirez Uribe is an immigration reporter at PolitiFact. Previously she served as a Report for America corps member, working as a race and equity reporter in Charlotte, North Carolina, for WFAE, an NPR member station, and La Noticia, the state’s biggest Spanish-language paper. Before this, Maria worked as a freelance researcher for CNN’s international desk. She graduated from North Carolina’s Elon University with a double major in journalism and strategic communications and a double minor in international relations and peace and conflict studies.