Biden Did Not Fake-Drive the New Ford F-150
The Claim
A secret service agent was steering during President Biden’s Ford F-150 Lightning test-drive.
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Emerging story
On May 18th, U.S. President Joe Biden visited Ford’s electric-vehicle plant to talk about his electric-vehicle proposal and encourage manufacturers to keep production sites in the U.S. The visit was also part of his goal for the US to get a jump on the impending switch towards electric vehicles and become a major producer of vehicles before other countries surpass them.
In this spirit, he traveled to the Ford electric-vehicle plant and later asked to test drive the new F-150 Lightning pre-production model. Later that day social media users and right-wing news outlets began claiming that Biden did not drive the truck and that a pair of hands visible in the passenger seat were steering instead.
Misbar’s Analysis
The video shows President Biden driving a vehicle and pulling up to speak with reporters. It is during this conversation with the press that people claim there is evidence of Biden not driving the vehicle himself. Those spreading this claim use the following frame from the video as evidence:
They allege that a steering wheel installed on the passenger side of the car is being manipulated by a Secret Service Agent. If a viewer continues watching for a few more seconds, however, the passenger side gets a better view:
There is no passenger side steering wheel. This evidence aside, the test drive was an impromptu happening, with no time for Ford to re-engineer a truck for an additional steering wheel. That also explains the strangely patterned material covering the truck: manufacturers use this to camouflage models that have not been fully released to the public. Finally, while it’s true that presidents current and past cannot drive on public roads, this took place at a private facility.
The new Ford F-150 Lightning harkens to the days past of big engines using lots of gasoline. Ford’s original F-150 Lightning had a 5.8 liter v8 pushing 240 horsepower, 340 foot pounds of torque, and managed only 13 miles to the gallon. With surprisingly low horsepower (which was standard for the time) the Lightning got faster and better. Even so, production ended in 2004. Ford is attempting to revitalize the energetic name with the introduction as their new electric truck. Famously teaming up with electric vehicle producer Rivian, Ford means to focus heavily on electric car manufacturing and move further away from the conventional internal combustion engines.
