FACT CHECK: Viral Image Claims To Show Hillary Clinton In Blackface

Brad Sylvester | Fact Check Editor

An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wearing blackface and former President Bill Clinton wearing overalls and a straw hat.

Verdict: False

There is no evidence Hillary and Bill Clinton are pictured. A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton denied the picture shows the Clintons.

Fact Check:

A number of white lawmakers and celebrities have faced criticism for wearing blackface over the years, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

Now social media users are sharing a photo of a woman wearing blackface next to a man wearing overalls and a straw hat, claiming it shows “young Bill, with Hillary in BLACKFACE.” This particular post also features a logo from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

“The Democrats aren’t going to like this one!” reads the caption. “The Clinton’s at a costume party many years ago.”

But, aside from the pair having a passing resemblance to Hillary and Bill Clinton, there is no evidence the Clintons are pictured. The woman wearing blackface in the photo appears to have dark eyes, whereas Hillary Clinton has blue eyes. The man that the post claims is Bill Clinton has visibly different facial features from the former president.

Photos of Hillary and Bill Clinton also show that the height difference between them appears to be larger than that of the pictured couple, according to Reuters.

“The claim is 100% false,” said Nick Merrill, a spokesperson for Hillary Clinton, in an email to the Daily Caller News Foundation. (RELATED: Did Hillary Clinton Once Say She Wanted Trump To Run For Office?)

Chelsea Clinton also denied that the picture shows her parents, tweeting that the pair “looks nothing like my parents (the woman’s eyes aren’t even blue).”

The image first appeared on Twitter in 2015, when user @Brian_Tourville shared it on his timeline, according to Snopes.

FactCheck.org later tracked down the person behind the account, Brian Tourville, who admitted that he “didn’t believe it was them” and found it online a few years before he “just put it out there to stir interest.”

Despite being widely debunked by fact-checkers, the image has resurfaced on social media more than once, at times garnering thousands of shares and retweets.

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Brad Sylvester

Fact Check Editor
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