Did the U.S. Capitol lower its flag to half-staff during the week of July 22, 2024, because President Joe Biden had died? No, that's not true: The flag was lowered on July 22, 2024, to honor Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, who died July 19, 2024, a representative for House Speaker Mike Johnson told Lead Stories. Beyond notification that Biden had recovered from COVID, there was no other White House statement about the president's health at the time of writing, and Lead Stories could not find any proof in an online news search to substantiate the claim.
The claim appeared in a post on X, formerly Twitter, (archived here) on July 22, 2024. The post's caption read:
Dude I actually think Joe Biden fucking died.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Tue Jul 23 13:31:59 2024 UTC)
The post included two images: one of the U.S. Capitol's flag at half-staff and a screenshot of the government website usa.gov explaining that a U.S. flag at half-staff/half-mast symbolizes the country is in mourning. The post does not specify when the picture of the lowered flag was taken.
Lead Stories called the office of Speaker Mike Johnson to ask why the flag outside the U.S. Capitol was at half-staff. On a July 23, 2024, phone call a representative for the office who said the flag was at half-staff on July 22, 2024, for Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee's passing. Jackson Lee was a Democratic representative from Texas who died on July 19, 2024.
At the time of writing, the White House had not released a statement about Biden's health beyond his COVID recovery.
Reuters reported on July 23, 2024, that Biden had tested negative for COVID-19 and was headed back to Washington, D.C. According to The Washington Post, Biden is set to deliver a speech the evening of July 24, 2024.
Lead Stories searched using keywords on Google News, visible here, and found no credible documents or reporting to prove the claim (archived here).
Lead Stories has contacted the White House and will update this article when a relevant response is received.
At the time this was written, Full Fact had reviewed the same claim.
More Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning President Joe Biden are here.
