The left-wing, so-called “fact checking” site Snopes worked diligently to spin a story about Joe Biden wearing a construction hard hat backwards during a campaign stop, but the site failed so badly at running flack for Biden, it had to reverse its own ruling Saturday.
Before it got to Snopes, the story about Biden wearing the hard hat backwards began tearing through social media after Minnesota’s Democrat Sen. Amy Klobuchar posted a photo on Thursday of Biden standing with several construction workers when he visited a bar in Superior, Wisconsin.
Nothing like having a beer with some great union workers and yes, that would be @JoeBiden in Superior, Wisconsin. @AFLCIO pic.twitter.com/caMGiRXjPe
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) January 25, 2024
In the photo two hard hats can be seen. A blue one on the bar top and one perched atop Joe Biden’s head. The one on the bar top is clearly sitting with the front facing away from the camera because you can see no bill and the fitting tightener is seen facing the camera. The tightener knob is supposed to be worn behind the head so the wearer can adjust the fit of the hat to fit snugly on the head.
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But the one on Joe’s head also has the tightener knob facing forward and laying across his forehead, so he is clearly wearing the hat backwards.
Social media users very quickly began slamming Biden for wearing the hat the wrong way.
Hat backwards because “he’s a man of the people”
He’s never done a hard days work has he 🤦♂️ pic.twitter.com/ZhbItTau70
— Frankly Frank (@CastiglioneFrnk) January 26, 2024
Do you trust Snopes?
Nothing says “I’m a blue-collar guy with full cognitive function” like a backwards hard hat https://t.co/FxYRN0n4a3 pic.twitter.com/L9SOq9EkvW
— Wyatt Reed (@wyattreed13) January 26, 2024
One X user even posted an infographic on the proper use of a hard hat to show that the tightener is supposed to sit behind the user’s head near the nape of the neck.
Print this out for the Big Guy for me. pic.twitter.com/bw2xhFLzlK
— The Populist Mad Ox (@TheRealMadOx) January 27, 2024
In its original post on the photo, Snopes, though, tried to say that detractors slamming Biden for wearing the hat backwards were wrong.
The purported “misinformation checking” site concluded that Biden was not wearing the hat backwards.
“The photo is genuine. And it does look, at first glance, like Biden was wearing that hard hat backwards. But after comparing it to other photos and videos of the same event, we were forced to reach the opposite conclusion: The hat on Biden’s head was facing forward, bill to the front, not backward,” they wrote in their initial post in which they gave the “wearing backwards” claim a “false” rating.
But the backlash hit the site hard. Snopes did not get much support for its claim that Biden was right in how he wore the hat.
Even Snopes’s own explanation seemed to belie its own ruling that Biden had the hat on correctly.
Snopes explained: “Do construction workers sometimes wear their hard hats backwards? Yes. But to do so, the internal suspension has to be reversed to fit correctly, which explains why, when Biden donned the hat with the brim forward, the nape strap ended up on his forehead.”
This explanation seems to prove that Biden wore it backwards, in fact, even as Snopes was trying to say he didn’t. What can be gleaned from the site’s explanation is that the tightener knob is always worn at the back of the head even when the worker has removed the suspension straps from inside the hat, then reinstalled them so the little brim that usually sits in front is then sitting in the back.
Snopes fact-check: “Biden wore a hard hat backwards” is misinformation
Who are you going to believe:
Snopes or your lying eyes? pic.twitter.com/p30Qu0uWlY— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 27, 2024
In the end, Snopes had to make an about face on its attempt to run cover for Joe Biden. By Saturday evening, the site had changed its rating from “false” to “true” and had to admit that Biden really was wearing the hat all kinds of wrong.
The page was updated to read: “The prevailing counter-argument is that if the suspension of the hat has been purposely configured by its owner such that the bill and tightening knob are worn to the back (as was the case of the hat Biden wore), to wear that hat with the bill facing forward is, practically speaking, to wear it backwards. Therefore, it’s argued, it’s actually true that, in the photo op discussed below, Biden was wearing it backwards. The strap and tightening knob, which should have been behind Biden’s head, were on his forehead.
“A corollary to that argument is ‘Biden looks damn silly in any case,’” Snopes added.
And so, the rating had to be changed.
“We find these arguments sound. Therefore, the claim ‘President Joe Biden wore a hard hat backwards during a photo op with union construction workers in Superior, Wisconsin’ is true, and this fact check has been re-rated as such. Thanks to all who argued on behalf of this correction,” Snopes concluded.
This was a huge slap in the face to the so-called fact-checker. In their effort to come to the aid of Joe Biden, they made themselves look like fools.
