Does a photo show a young Hunter Biden, injured from a car wreck, as his father Joe Biden was sworn in as U.S. senator from Delaware in 1973? No, that's not true: Although Hunter Biden was present at the swearing-in ceremony, the child in the photo is his older brother, Beau Biden. Both of Biden's sons had sustained injuries in a car accident that killed their mother and sister. Eighteen days after the car accident, the swearing-in took place at the Delaware hospital, where Beau remained with his leg in traction.
The claim appeared in a December 2, 2024, post on X (archived here) that was captioned:
This is Joe Biden being sworn into the Senate.
That little boy is Hunter. He has a fractured skull and brain injuries from the car wreck.
Joe made him get dressed up for a photo op cause he thought it would be good for his career.
Hate Joe. Pity Hunter. Kid never had a chance.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Dec 16 16:13:44 2024 UTC)
The image pictured above is an Associated Press (AP) photo (archived here). The AP has noted that the original caption on the January 5, 1973, file photo was corrected on August 15, 2020 -- but the correction, shown below, had nothing to do with the child in the picture. The man holding the Bible had been misidentified as Biden's father, but he was his father-in-law. The child in the photo is Beau Biden, and he was correctly identified in the original caption.
CORRECTS THAT ROBERT HUNTER IS JOE BIDEN'S FATHER-IN-LAW, NOT FATHER - FILE - In this Jan. 5, 1973 file photo, four-year-old Beau Biden, foreground, plays near his father, Joe Biden, center, being sworn in as the U.S. senator from Delaware, by Senate Secretary Frank Valeo, left, in ceremonies in a Wilmington hospital. Beau was injured in an accident that killed his mother and sister in December 1972. Biden's father-in-law, Robert Hunter, holds the Bible. (AP Photo/File)
The day after the car accident, December 19, 1972, reporting from the New York Times, now in the Times Digital Archive (archived here) said:
His wife, Nealia, 30 years old, and his daughter Amy, 18 months, died when the family's station wagon was hit broadside by a flatbed tractor‐trailer on Route 7, the state police said.
Joseph R. Biden 3d, 4, suffered leg injuries and Robert, 3, sustained head injuries, according to a hospital spokesman.
Another AP photo (archived here) taken at the swearing-in ceremony on January 5, 1973, shows that Beau Biden's leg was in traction -- which aligns with the injuries he is reported to have sustained in the accident. Also pictured, in the arms of his grandfather, is Beau Biden's then-3-year-old little brother Hunter Biden. The photo is captioned:
Joseph H. Biden Jr., left, offers words of encouragement to his bedridden son, Beau, before Bidden was sworn in as the United States Senator from Delaware in ceremonies in Wilmington hospital on Jan. 5, 1973. Biden's other son, Hunter, talks with Robert Hunter, Biden's father-in-law. Beau is still in traction from an auto accident on Dec. 18, in which the Senator's wife and daughter were killed. (AP Photo/Brian Horton)
Other fact check agencies have also reviewed this claim, including PolitiFact and USAToday.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims involving Joe Biden or Hunter Biden can be found here and here.
