Why did people think Joe Biden died in Las Vegas? Blame social media

After Biden was diagnosed with COVID-19, cutting his Southern Nevada trip short, rumors began spreading on social media about his health.

While isolating in Delaware on Sunday, Biden ended his re-election campaign. And he didn’t make any sort of public appearance until Monday, when he reemphasized his support for Vice President Kamala Harris to take over his operation in a phone call.

The misinformation about the president’s well being was amplified on social media X by far-right commentators, including Turning Points founder Charlie Kirk and journalist Tucker Carlson, both of whom spoke during the Republican National Convention last week.

Kirk wrote that “a source close to Las Vegas Metro,” seemingly referring to the Metropolitan Police Department, had called to tell him that officers last Wednesday — after his COVID diagnosis — were instructed to make way for Biden to be transported to University Medical Center.

The department said Tuesday that this part was true.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department was notified that President Joe Biden was sick on July 17th during his visit to Las Vegas,” according to a statement. “We did not know the nature of his illness. As a precaution, LVMPD proactively began to shut down roads leading to UMC Hospital.”

The statement added: “The Secret Service then advised LVMPD the President was going directly to Harry Reid International Airport and would be leaving Las Vegas.”

Kirk’s post on Monday, however, said that his source alleged that Metro was “ordered to stand down” because Biden was going to “medevac” to Johns Hopkins.

“Apparently the rumor mill in the police department was that Joe Biden was dying or possibly already dead,” Kirk wrote.

Journalists embedded with Biden recorded him boarding Air Force One at Harry Reid International Airport, and getting off the airplane in Delaware.

Kirk on Tuesday morning shared a video of Biden’s return to Washington D.C. But his previous post — which was still up Tuesday afternoon — had already racked up more than 23 million times on X.

On his show Monday, Carlson read Kirk’s post verbatim. He and his guest, Jack Posobiec, then mocked Metro’s investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history in Las Vegas, Oct. 1, 2017, and the “secrecy” around it.

The White House could not immediately be reached for comment.

“Clearly something is going on here, obviously,” Carlson said. “I don’t know what it is.”

“I know its hallmark, which is secrecy,” Carlson said about the department.

“Secrecy is the hallmark of lying,” he added. “So if you want to know when someone lying, well, I don’t know. Is he hiding something? Well then he’s lying, so, they’re lying.”

Biden, meanwhile, flew back to Washington from Delaware on Tuesday, where he was photographed embarking on Air Force One from Dover Air Force Base and then disembarking from Andrews Air Force Base. He has announced he will address the nation about his decision to end his re-election bid at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

‘Take a few steps back’

Negativity bias against someone could prime people to believe that something catastrophic happened to a figure they oppose, UNLV psychology professor Stephen Benning told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

That could be particularly true in this instance, which happened days after former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt, making some realize that “the worst could happen to political candidates,” Benning said.

Motivation for purveyors of misinformation could simply be due to increased engagement, Benning said.

Benning recommends media consumers to think critically before believing or sharing speculative coverage.

“Take a few steps back: shut off some screens for a while and do other things while information is gathered,” Benning said.

In the short and long term, that could be beneficial to one’s mental health, he added.

Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com.