"It looks like John Fetterman no longer has tattoos on his forearms," says a September 14, 2023 post on X, formerly known as Twitter. "They sure are getting sloppy with these doubles."
Similar posts spread across X and other platforms, including Instagram and TikTok. Internet personalities such as Joey Mannarino and Benny Johnson, both of whom AFP has fact-checked for spreading misinformation, amplified the claim.
The posts are the latest to promote a baseless conspiracy theory that Fetterman has a body double.
Such claims surfaced in March 2023 as the Pennsylvania Democrat prepared to return from a weeks-long hospital stint. Similar rumors and hoaxes have circulated about other public figures, including NFL player Damar Hamlin and singer Avril Lavigne.
Fetterman has rejected the allegations -- and there is no evidence he removed the tattoos on his forearms.
The senator said in a September 2022 op-ed (archived here) that the tattoos are "personal" to him and "reminders of the people we have lost and what I am fighting for."
One shows the zip code for Braddock, Pennsylvania, where he served as mayor for more than a decade. The other lists nine dates when people...
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