Posting wrongly claims Communist Party USA endorsed Joe Biden for president | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·2 min read

The claim: Communist Party USA endorsed Biden for president

An April 14 Facebook post (direct link, archive link) claims President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has won the support of another political party – one with a hammer and sickle logo.

“In case you need another reason to vote Trump, the Communist Party USA has endorsed Joe Biden,” reads text in the image.

It was shared more than 90 times in five days.

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Our rating: False

The organization did not endorse Biden in either 2020 or 2024, a party leader said. The group does not endorse candidates from other parties.

‘We never endorse members of other parties’

This claim isn't new. The image in the Facebook post first circulated on social media in 2020 before Biden defeated Republican incumbent Donald Trump in the general election that year. As those candidates head for a rematch in 2024, it has resurfaced.

The claim was false then, and it remains so. The Communist Party USA has not endorsed Biden, Secretary-Treasurer Roberta Wood told USA TODAY.

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The group's live-streamed meeting of party leaders March 1 was titled in part, “Why we aren’t endorsing Biden for President." During that meeting, co-chair Joe Sims said the group backs positions on certain issues – abortion rights and affirmative action, for example – but not specific candidates who are not party members.

“It’s a very important distinction to make, because people keep ... accusing us of endorsing Biden,” Sims said. “‘All y’all are just tailing the Democratic Party. Just tailing Biden. All you think about and dream about is Joe Biden.’ And it’s not true.”

In an April 2020 post on X, formerly Twitter, from the party's account, party officials explained that “we do NOT endorse bourgeois candidates like Joe Biden, and third parties cannot win under the two-party system.” They stated in a subsequent post that even if Biden were “a leftist or more progressive, we never endorse members of other parties.”

Political endorsements have regularly spawned misinformation on social media. USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that former Vice President Mike Pence said he would not vote for former President Donald Trump and that an image showed musician Taylor Swift wearing an anti-Trump T-shirt.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim Communist Party USA endorsed Joe Biden | Fact check

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