Yahoo Autos Fact check: False claim different images of John Fetterman prove he was replaced by a body double
The claim: Images prove John Fetterman was replaced by a body double
A March 27 Instagram post (direct link, archived link) shows a screenshot of a tweet featuring two images of Sen. John Fetterman.
“It’s a miracle … In only 3 weeks, John Fetterman got a total head replacement,” read the tweet. “Man, he has some good doctors.”
The post's caption includes the hashtags #notthesame and #double.
The Instagram post received over 80 likes in less than a week and the original tweet accumulated over 70,000 likes. Similar posts have spread widely on Instagram.
Our rating: False
The photos in the post do not prove a body double replaced Fetterman. A forensics expert said the pictures look different because they were taken under different conditions and from different angles.
Body double did not replace Fetterman
The body double conspiracy theory was amplified by conservatives such as Juanita Broaddrick, who accused former President Bill Clinton of sexual assault, and George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide who served a two-week prison sentence for lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts.
It also spread on websites like Gateway Pundit, which USA TODAY has debunked numerous times, and by supporters of the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory.
Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, checked into the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland to receive treatment for clinical depression on Feb. 15, as USA TODAY reported. He is expected to return to the Senate in April.
The photos in the post are not proof he was replaced by a body double.
The image of Fetterman in a gray hoodie smiling was taken in May 2022 when he was discharged from the Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital after suffering a stroke. The original image shows Fetterman next to his wife, who also tweeted a video of him exiting the hospital.
