Fact Check: Jill Biden Did NOT Lead President Biden Out Of Normandy Ceremony Before It Ended

Fact Check

  • by: Alexis Tereszcuk
Fact Check: Jill Biden Did NOT Lead President Biden Out Of Normandy Ceremony Before It Ended Not Early

Did Jill Biden lead President Joe Biden out of the Normandy ceremony before it ended, as a post on social media implies? No, that's not true: The ceremony on June 6, 2024, honoring D-Day veterans at the 80th anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings was ending when Biden and the first lady left the ceremony. French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron left the event two minutes after the Bidens, as video from the event shows. The Bidens did not leave early.

The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on June 6, 2024. It read:

BREAKING: Jill Biden just pulled Joe out of the Normandy event, Macron staying behind with the veterans

What's going on?

This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:

Screen Shot 2024-06-06 at 10.11.38 AM.png

(Source: X website screenshot taken on Thu June 6 16:26:30 2024 UTC)

The Guardian posted a one-hour video on their YouTube channel of the commemoration event on June 6, 2024, at the Normandy American Cemetery, which is near the Omaha Beach landing site where U.S. troops stormed ashore 80 years ago. The footage shows the Bidens leaving, with the Macrons following within two minutes.

At 1:02:55 in the video Biden and Jill Biden are holding hands and leaving the event as concluding music plays. The camera immediately turns back to show Macron saying his goodbyes and leaving the event at 1:04:22, just two minutes later. As the Bidens depart, the president pauses to shake hands with and greet some of the D-Day veterans who were at the ceremony.

After leaving the ceremony, the president and first lady went to another section of the cemetery to lay wreaths on American graves, according to the White House pool report. Macron did not go with the Bidens to the American graves. From the pool report:

They walked about 30 yards across the grass up to the wreath and paused in a moment of reflection. POTUS made the sign of the cross and they both touched the wreath before reading the grave marker and pressing their fingers to the letters in silence.

The White House released details about the grave, noting the soldier was from Delaware, Biden's home state:

President Biden is stopping at the grave of Private First Class John S. Greenfield, from Delaware, who enlisted in the U.S. Army on May 13, 1942 and served in the U.S. Army 115th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division during World War II. He was born April 23, 1914 in Talleyville, Delaware and resided in Wilmington, Delaware.

The president and the first lady then joined Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Britain's King Charles and other world leaders at Omaha Beach on June 6, 2024, as multiple news outlets reported, including PBS News (archived here) and NBC News.

Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning Joe Biden can be found here.

Want to inform others about the accuracy of this story?

See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:


  Alexis Tereszcuk

Alexis Tereszcuk is a writer and fact checker at Lead Stories and an award-winning journalist who spent over a decade breaking hard news and celebrity scoop with RadarOnline and Us Weekly.

As the Entertainment Editor, she investigated Hollywood stories and conducted interviews with A-list celebrities and reality stars.  

Alexis’ crime reporting earned her spots as a contributor on the Nancy Grace show, CNN, Fox News and Entertainment Tonight, among others.

Read more about or contact Alexis Tereszcuk

About Us

International Fact-Checking Organization Meta Third-Party Fact Checker

Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.

Lead Stories is a:


WhatsApp Tipline

Have a tip or a question? Chat with our friendly robots on WhatsApp!

Add our number +1 (404) 655-4223, follow this link or scan the image below with your phone:

@leadstories

Subscribe to our newsletter

* indicates required

Please select all the ways you would like to hear from Lead Stories LLC:

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. For information about our privacy practices, please visit our website.

We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By clicking below to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy practices here.

Most Read

Most Recent

Share your opinion