What context and dates accompany photos showing Biden touching girls?
Executive summary
Photographs and short videos that appear to show President Joe Biden touching girls have multiple origins and, in several widely circulated cases, been taken out of context, edited, or debunked by fact-checkers; some images are genuine candid photos from public events dating mainly from 2012 through 2022, while others are digitally altered or looped to create misleading impressions [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]. At the same time, several women over the years have publicly said Biden’s touch made them uncomfortable, a separate thread of reporting that documents concerns about his style of physical greeting rather than proven criminal conduct [1] [6].
1. Viral 2012 campaign photos: forehead touch at an Obama-Biden event
A frequently cited image shows then-Vice President Biden leaning his head to touch a young woman’s forehead during a 2012 campaign event with President Barack Obama; contemporaneous reporting framed the photograph as an example of Biden’s tactile greeting style and at least one woman told The Washington Post in 2019 she felt he had encroached on her personal space (Business Insider compilation of incidents) [1].
2. The 2022 Rehoboth Beach beach photo: high-resolution context matters
A blurry beach photo circulated in late 2022 implying inappropriate contact was clarified when higher-resolution versions were published: Getty’s caption and fact-checking reporting locate the image at Rehoboth Beach on June 20, 2022, and show that what looked like an off-camera hand was actually the older girl’s arm, not Biden’s, meaning no inappropriate contact occurred (Africa Check’s analysis and Getty caption) [4].
3. Natalie Biden voting photos and edited videos from October 2022
Photos and short clips from Oct. 29, 2022, show Biden accompanying his granddaughter Natalie Biden when she voted and placing an “I voted” sticker; some social posts cropped or looped the footage to make it appear he touched her chest or kissed her in an improper way, but AP and PolitiFact trace the originals to that 2022 polling-station visit and conclude widely shared clips were edited and miscontextualized (AP fact-check; PolitiFact reverse-image search) [2] [7].
4. Altered 2021 Capitol Child Development Center image and other doctored photos
An October 15, 2021, photo of Biden greeting children at the Capitol Child Development Center was digitally altered and circulated in May 2023 to suggest inappropriate touching; the Associated Press and PolitiFact both identified the original images and concluded the versions on social media were manipulated to mislead (AP reporting; PolitiFact) [3] [8].
5. Edited/looped video campaigns and platform moderation rulings
Some social-media posts went further than cropping: videos were edited to loop a split-second contact repeatedly and layered with provocative audio, a manipulation Meta and the Oversight Board reviewed; the Board noted the clip was edited to loop the moment and concluded that platform policy at the time did not classify that post as AI “deepfake” manipulated media even while acknowledging the video misrepresents the original event (Oversight Board decision) [5].
6. Repeated pattern of “comfortable/uncomfortable” allegations vs. criminal claims
Independent reporting catalogs multiple women who say Biden’s hugging, kissing or touching made them uncomfortable over decades, and at least one alleged sexual assault claim (Tara Reade) became publicly reported and disputed during the 2020 campaign; coverage distinguishes these personal accounts and contested allegations from the separate category of doctored or out-of-context images that have proliferated online (Business Insider compilation; Wikipedia summary of allegations) [1] [6].
7. What can be said with confidence and what remains outside the record
Fact-checkers reliably establish that several viral images were either from specific public events (notably Oct. 15, 2021; June 20, 2022; Oct. 29, 2022) or were digitally altered/looped to mislead, while reporting also documents a pattern of women saying Biden’s touch made them uncomfortable; assertions beyond what these sources cover—such as private incidents not publicly reported or legal conclusions about intent in candid photos—are not established in the cited reporting and therefore cannot be affirmed here (AP; PolitiFact; Africa Check; Business Insider; Oversight Board) [3] [8] [4] [1] [5].