Did Sheriff Joe Arpaio hold a press conference on Barack Obama's birth certificate in February 2025? No, that's not true: The posted footage of the press conference held by the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona is from 2016, not 2025 as is implied by a post on social media. The press conference was documented by local media in 2016.
The February 19, 2025, X post (archived here) appeared with the caption under the title "Barak (O'Banana) Obama." It opened:
Wow, the fact they are reporting this is unreal.
Obama's fraudulent Birth Certificate being exposed to the world.
This is how the post appeared at the time this was written:
(Source: X.com screenshot - with blue border added - taken on Thu Feb 20 20:03:00 2025 UTC)
The footage posted on X shows the Fox 10 News Channel logo.
Lead Stories conducted a Google search (archived here) using keywords "sheriff joe arpaio press conference barack obama birth certificate" and found an article (archived here) posted on December 15, 2016.
The video of the press conference was posted on the Fox 10 Phoenix YouTube page (archived here) on December 15, 2016.
Arpaio was sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, from 1993 until he lost the election in 2016. He has not held an elected office since losing the 2016 election.
Obama's birth certificate has been the subject of conspiracy theories since he first ran for president in 2008. Here is a copy of his birth certificate on file at the National Archives (link archived here).
Other Lead Stories fact checks on claims regarding Joe Arpaio can be found here and Barack Obama can be found here.
