A viral claim stating that President Joe Biden's inauguration was staged is found to be fake. The claim originated after Biden's granddaughters were found missing from some of the video clips captured during the oath taking ceremony.
The conspiracy theorists also fueled the claim by stating that Jill Biden, the First Lady of the United States, was spotted wearing different pair of shoes during the ceremony.
Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States during a scaled down ceremony in wake of the global pandemic.
Did Biden's Granddaughters Really Vanish During Ceremony?
The viral video posted on Facebook by a user named Mdmdaannews, has been viewed over 290,000 times since it was uploaded two days ago. The video is from Biden's inauguration held at the Capitol on Jan.20. The post was captioned, "We are litterly (sic) watching a movie with 'bad actors'."
The video begins with a voice over saying, "Was the inauguration pre-recorded? Meaning, was it not live?" The video then shows Biden's granddaughters Natalie Biden and Naomi Biden standing behind him as he readies for the oath taking ceremony.
"I want you guys to take a look at the girl in pink, Natalie Biden. To the right of her, the girl in white that's Naomi Biden, these two are his granddaughters. They are clearly, clear as day, behind Jill Biden and Ashley Biden," explains the voice in the video.
The next clip in the does not show the granddaughters as the voice adds, "Where did they go? Where did those two girls go? They were clearly between Jill and Ashley and they're not there anymore. Witchcraft. They're nowhere, they're not there anymore."
According to Reuters, the sequence of footage and the watermarks on the video shows that it was genuine and the clips were taken from the official White House YouTube channel. However, insisting that Biden's granddaughters were present throughout the oath taking ceremony, the outlet claimed that reason why the granddaughters are no longer visible in some of the shots is a change of camera angle.
Jill Biden Different Footwears During Inauguration
Another conspiracy theory hinting at the ceremony being staged was fueled after Jill Biden was spotted wearing two different set of shoes during the ceremony. While the FLOTUS wore nude Jimmy Choo Love pumps as she arrived at the Capitol for the inauguration and during the parade later, she appeared to be wearing blue Jimmy Choo Romy shoes during the ceremony. The second pair matched her blue outfit she wore on the occasion.
"It was crazy! And beautiful! At times people disappeared and appeared. It's look just like a magic trick. My favorite part was whom @jillbiden changed her shoes on her way out. Plus they all looked very nervous like they have done something wrong," tweeted a user.
"I heard it was pre-taped. Thats why there are pics of Jill Biden in 2 totally different pairs of shoes!" mentioned another user.
Debunking the claims of inauguration being fake, Reuters stated that Jill Biden did change her shoes, but this is not evidence that the inauguration was staged.
