Was President Joe Biden "ignored" during an impromptu visit to a Pennsylvania gas station as Sean Hannity claimed in a Facebook post? No, that's not true: The claim is not supported by the videos of the event. The recordings show people engaging with Biden at the Sheetz gas station.
The claim appeared in a post (saved here) on Facebook by Fox News host Sean Hannity on April 18, 2024. It began:
Biden tries copying Trump by visiting a gas station in PA - instead he's ignored by virtually everyone there.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Tue Apr 30 12:54:22 2024 UTC)
The post shared a video with a visible C-SPAN logo capturing Biden's visit at a Sheetz gas station in Pennsylvania.
Contrary to the claim, it did not show anything that could be interpreted as people at the facility ignoring him.
As Biden walks into the station, the recording shows people looking at him. He stops for a brief exchange with two children who smile at him before he moves farther into the gas station. Meanwhile, other customers make room for the president, attentively observing the scene.
At the register, Biden talks to the workers and then moves behind the counter to take pictures with them.
The video shared by Hannity doesn't show anyone ignoring Biden.
A different video of the same event (saved here) aired by CBS News captured Biden shaking hands and taking pictures with one more man at the gas station.
The same claim was also debunked by PolitiFact (archived here).
The footage of Biden at the gas station was used in other claims, too. For example, Snopes (archived here), reported one version of the footage had manipulated audio intended to show people were yelling at Biden, though that didn't happen on this occasion.
A larger narrative on social media (archived here) compared Biden's visit to a gas station with Trump's appearances at a fast food restaurant in Atlanta or a bodega in Manhattan (archived here).
However, this narrative omits that Biden's visit was not a scheduled campaign event (archived here). Thus, it's unsurprising that at 3:30 p.m. on an average Wednesday, when people are typically done with lunch and are back at work, the crowd in the Sheetz was relatively small.
Other Lead Stories fact checks about politics can be found here.
Other Lead Stories articles on claims related to Joe Biden are here.
