Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

“A bird pooped on Joe Biden during his speech” in Iowa.

false false

President Joe Biden speaks in front of a pile of distillers grains at POET Bioprocessing in Menlo, Iowa, on April 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

That wasn’t bird poop on Biden’s jacket. It was distillers grains

If Your Time is short

  • President Joe Biden gave a speech in Iowa at a bioprocessing plant to discuss a new ethanol strategy to lower gas prices.

  • A substance landed on his jacket mid-speech, leading many to think a bird had left its mark.

  • Video from the scene clearly shows what one newspaper called distillers grains flying around from the top of a large pile near where the president was speaking.

All presidents face some bad luck while in office as events they often can’t control affect their agendas. But one would have to have pretty bad luck — or pretty good luck, by some beliefs — to get pooped on by a bird indoors while giving a speech.

That’s what many on social media are falsely claiming happened during President Joe Biden’s visit to Menlo, Iowa, on April 12.

"A bird pooped on Joe Biden during his speech today. You can’t make this up," read the headline of a video posted on Facebook by conservative activist Ryan Fournier.

Actually, you can make this stuff up. 

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Biden was at the indoor event at a bioprocessing plant to discuss an effort to lower gas prices by lifting a summertime ban on higher-ethanol gasoline blends.

While he was speaking, a substance fell and splattered on his suit jacket. Biden did not appear to notice and continued his remarks.

But it was not bird poop that landed on Biden, according to the Des Moines Register. The paper reported that while there were birds in what the president called the "giant barn" where the event was held, one of its photographers said the substance was distillers grains, which it described as a "a co-product of the ethanol production process."

The article shared a wider photograph of the scene showing a large pile of the grain near the stage. It also showed a closeup image of the president’s jacket, which clearly shows a yellow color, not the traditional white usually dropped on us by our avian friends.

Justin Sink, a White House reporter for Bloomberg, tweeted that the substance was bits of corn that were flying around the site.

Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, tweeted to the RNC that "If you guys knew your way around a corn silo at all, you'd know it was corn."

An article by the conservative website RedState backs the White House explanation.

It shared a video from another angle, posted to Twitter by the local news site Iowa Starting Line, in which you can see the grain flying around the room off the top of the giant pile. The article also shares a tweet by NBC News reporter Gary Grumbach, who was at the event and said, "Corn powder particles were dripping on all of us periodically throughout the event."

Fournier was not the only one spreading the false claim.

Also participating in the misinformed smear were the New York Post,the Republican National Committee and Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who added some bird sound effects to the video.

It became clear fairly soon after that the theory was a load of bird poop, but by that point the video had been widely shared.

Our ruling

A Facebook claim said that a bird did its business on Biden’s jacket while the president was delivering a speech in Iowa.

Something did stain the president’s suit during his speech, but it was distillers grains, according to reporters in the room and the White House. A video clearly shows particles flying around from a giant, nearby grain pile. We rate this claim False.

Kate Bedingfield, tweet, April 12, 2022

Justin Sink. tweet, April 12, 2022

Audubon, "What makes bird poop white," Nov. 27, 2017

Des Moines Register, "The internet says a bird pooped on Joe Biden in Iowa. Here's what really happened." April 13, 2022

Snopes, "Did a Bird Poop on Biden?" April 13, 2022

Red State, "White House Has Explanation for 'Bird Poop' on Biden: It Was Corn (Pop?)" April 12, 2022

Iowa Starting Line, tweet, April 12, 2022

Gary Grumbach, tweet, April 12, 2022

The New York Times, "Biden will allow summertime sales of higher-ethanol gas," April 12, 2022

In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.

Sign me up