Politics Fact check: Joe Biden didn't have a birthday party without masks. The video is from 2019.

The claim: A video shows Joe Biden celebrating his birthday last week without a face mask

© Alex Brandon, AP President-elect Joe Biden speaks during a meeting with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., Friday, Nov. 20, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware.

Last week, President-elect Joe Biden celebrated his 78th birthday.

To mark the occasion, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms tweeted a video of herself next to Biden, leading a crowd in a chorus of "Happy Birthday."

Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning.

Lindsey Graham says he's spoken with multiple battleground state officials about ballot counting

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key ally of the president, said he has spoken with officials in a number of key swing states about the election and ballot counting/Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger accused Graham Monday of pressuring him to find ways to exclude or invalidate legally cast absentee ballots and reverse Trump’s loss in the state, an accusation the South Carolina Republican called "ridiculous.

Fact check : Photo shows Biden with Byrd, who once had ties to KKK, but wasn' t a grand wizard. A photo circulating on Facebook and Instagram claims to depict former Vice President Joe Biden with Yup that’s the Democratic party ,” the text above the image reads. The image, posted to Facebook on

Fact check :No evidence Biden wore wire at Ohio debate. Reaction to the report. "Any credible investigation would have sought the underlying financial records at issue and spoken to the involved parties ," they continued. Fact check : Joe Biden called troops 'stupid bastards,' but only 'jokingly'.

"Wishing our President-Elect @joebiden a VERY Happy Birthday from the great Blue state of Joe’gia!" she wrote.

Soon, the video had spread across the internet as apparent proof that Bottoms, Biden, and others were not wearing masks to protect against the coronavirus.

Conservatives Today and Daily Patriot Post — conservative online news websites — pointed to the video as evidence of hypocrisy.

"You’re not allowed to have Thanksgiving with a few of your family members, but Joe Biden and his hundreds of pals can all get together, mask-free, and party like it’s 1999," their identical articles read. "Why, if you looked at this video and didn’t know better, you’d think there was absolutely no 'COVID pandemic' at all," both articles also read.

Sen. Lindsey Graham faces ethics complaint over call to top election official in Georgia about ballots

Sen. Lindsey Graham was the target of an ethics complaint after his phone call with an election official in Georgia over how the state counts ballots. Your browser does not support this video Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger accused Graham earlier this week of pressuring him to find ways to exclude or invalidate legally cast absentee ballots and reverse Trump’s loss in the state, an accusation the South Carolina Republican called "ridiculous." Graham said he had also spoken with Arizona's Republican Gov.

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden during a campaign event this month in Hampton, N.H.Credit Elizabeth Frantz for The New York Times. At the same time, he has sought to parry criticism from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party about the record he has compiled over his

Who is Joe Biden ? Current job: Democratic presidential nominee. Family: Biden is married to Jill Biden , an educator. Together they have a daughter named Ashley. In January 2019 , Biden said "We need border security but that's not the border security we need" in reference to the wall Trump

Conservatives Today and Daily Patriot Post could not be reached for comment.

The Cambodian Broadcasting Network shared a different clip of the birthday celebration with Bottoms and Biden and claimed that it had occurred "yesterday."

"So Biden can have a birthday party yesterday but we can’t have Thanksgiving? Not a single mask. No social distancing," its post read. "They’re singing happy birthday in a crowd but singing in Church is dangerous? It’s time to #FightBack."

The Cambodian Broadcasting Network has not responded to a request from USA TODAY for comment.

Fact check: Some inauguration prep is underway, but a viral photo of it is actually from 1993.

Wishing our President-Elect @joebiden a VERY Happy Birthday from the great Blue state of Joe’gia! pic.twitter.com/knv2XtcqYq

— Keisha Lance Bottoms (@KeishaBottoms) November 20, 2020

The video was made in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic

In reality, the footage of Biden, Bottoms and others celebrating without masks was made in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic.

'That's his first love': Biden has more foreign policy experience than his 4 predecessors

The president-elect already knows many of the players on the world stage – from Vladimir Putin to Angela Merkel to Benjamin Netanyahu.“I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy,” Bush told reporters at a joint news conference, in what turned out to be an embarrassing misconception. “I was able to get a sense of his soul.

Fact check : Biden owns 2 of the 4 homes pictured in a viral meme. With the election just days away, Democratic nominee Joe Biden ’s adversaries continue to push false narratives about his finances to try to raise doubt around "Middle Class Joe 's" trustworthiness.

Joe Biden said the president "changed his mind every second" and his campaign team added that Mr Trump "clearly does not want to face questions from the voters". The Trump campaign answered back, with manager Bill Stepien calling the commission's decision to "rush to Joe Biden 's defence

After the outcry, Bottoms took to Twitter to clarify the context of the video she had shared.

"Pre-Covid! This was in the @TPStudios White House following the @DNC @msnbc debate on 11/20/19," she wrote, referring to Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.

Details in the video confirm the time and place the footage was taken.

For example, the red tie that Biden is sporting in the clip is the same tie he wore at that night's debate, per the New York Times.

Television screens with the words “Debate Viewing Party” are also visible in the video that The Cambodian Broadcasting Company shared, and in clips from other angles.

Fact check: Trump lawyer Sidney Powell falsely stated he won election 'by a landslide'

In 2020, Biden spent his birthday masked and in meetings

In 2020, Biden spent his birthday meeting with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer D-N.Y., in Wilmington, Delaware.

Biden, Harris, Pelosi, and Schumer all wore face masks and sat several feet from each other around a large rectangular table, per the New York Times. It was their first in-person meeting since the election.

Fact check: Joe Biden outperformed Hillary Clinton in most major metro areas

Claims that vote counts could not be accurate due to the sheer number of votes Biden received are circulating online. Rasmussen Reports, a conservative-leaning pollster, shared an article by right-wing media group Gateway Pundit on Twitter, which was screenshotted and shared to Instagram and Facebook. Rasmussen’s tweet pulls a quote from the article.Start the day smarter. Get all the news you need in your inbox each morning. “Biden underperformed Hillary Clinton in every major metro area around the country, save for Milwaukee, Detroit, Atlanta and Philadelphia ...

Though the meeting focused on coronavirus and the economy, Pelosi still brought a birthday present for Biden — a white orchid.

This is not the first time photos of Biden and other Democrats from before the pandemic have been used to claim that they are not following public health guidance on mask-wearing and social distancing.

In fact, USA TODAY has debunked at least four other similar claims since July.

Fact check: False claim that electronic voting software companies Dominion and Smartmatic have closed

Our rating: False

Based on our research, the claim that a video shows Joe Biden celebrating his birthday last week without a face mask is FALSE. The video was from 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic necessitated the use of masks. On his birthday in 2020, Biden wore a mask for a meeting with fellow Democratic leaders.

Our fact-check sources:

• Keisha Lance Bottoms, Nov. 20, tweet
• Keisha Lance Bottoms, Nov. 20, tweet
• New York Times, Nov. 23, No, Joe Biden did not have a maskless birthday party last week.
• New York Times, Nov. 20, Meeting With Schumer and Pelosi, Biden Keeps Focus on Virus and Economy

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

Election 2020 updates: Ben Carson was 'desperately ill' from coronavirus; Trump Jr. uses COVID isolation to clean guns

Sen. Blackburn's staff says she 'misspoke' when she called Biden presdident-elect; Trump Jr., feeling well; Gov. Cuomo to get Emmy – election updates.Be sure to refresh this page often to get the latest information on the election and the transition.

This fact check is available at IFCN’s 2020 US Elections FactChat #Chatbot on WhatsApp. Click here, for more.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Joe Biden didn't have a birthday party without masks. The video is from 2019.