Fact check: Joe Biden was not 'taking a knee' after seeing National flag in Pennsylvania, was talking to a child

The snap of the former Vice President was taken while he talked to a child near his childhood home in Scranton

UPDATED AUG 1, 2020

A Facebook post with a picture former Vice President Joe Biden kneeling at his childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania has gone viral on social media after it was claimed that he went down on his knees after seeing an American flag nearby.

The post was first uploaded on July 11 and went earlier this week, with more than 3,000 sharing it on their timelines. A caption attached to the photo of Biden read, "Joe Biden takes a knee after spotting an American flag near his childhood home in Pennsylvania."

The uploader, Renee Hudson Perfecto, commented, "And he wants to be President of this great country? If he will bend a knee to our flag for the mob, what will he also bend for with foreign envisions and other Countries? Wow! Never vote for someone this weak!"

However, Politifact, a non-profit project dedicated to vetting the accuracy of the news, reported that the photo of Biden was taken as he posed with activists who were protesting the Memorial Day death of George Floyd.

Floyd, a 46-year-old truck driver, had died in the custody of four Minneapolis Police officers who had arrested him for allegedly counterfeiting a $20 bill, and the incident resulted in protests across the country and the world.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden stops in front of his childhood home on July 09, 2020, in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The former vice president toured a metal works plant in Dunmore in northeastern Pennsylvania and spoke about his economic recovery plan. With fewer than four months until the election, polls continue to show Biden leading in Pennsylvania, widely regarded as a battleground state in the race for the presidency (Getty Images)

During his visit to Scranton, Biden took the knee to show his solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement that had adopted the gesture to show their defiance against police brutality and systemic racism.

Politifact said that the viral Facebook post did not include this entire picture before adding that, in this particular case, the former vice president was kneeling to talk with a child. The organization pointed to the caption of the original photograph, taken by Associated Press photographer Matt Slocum, which read, " Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden kneels to talk with a child during a visit to Biden's childhood home in Scranton, Pa., on Thursday, July 9, 2020."

The post was also flagged by Facebook for displaying "Party false information." The social media giant said that the "information in this post is a mix of true and false statements or it could simply be incomplete" and that "in some cases, the information is misleading."

It's not the first time that Biden has been mocked by the right for kneeling either. In June, Donald Trump's re-election campaign mocked the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate for kneeling at a church in an ad referencing the Black Lives Matter protest.

The ad was shared by the president's campaign manager Brad Parscale with the caption, "ANTIFA is looting & burning our cities. Extremists demand we DEFUND the police. All while @JoeBiden is KNEELING to leftists causing chaos in the streets. @realDonaldTrump stands for law & order, protecting minority businesses, and STANDING for our flag."

In the footage, a photo of Biden kneeling while meeting with black leaders at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilmington, Delware, his home state, was superimposed with violent scenes from George Floyd protests.

Bethel Church, however, had praised Biden for his visit and then criticized Trump for using them as a "prop or photo op."