Reading Time: < 1 minute

Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

During an Oct. 22, 2020, debate between then-President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, Biden referred to Trump facetiously as Abraham Lincoln after Trump invoked the 16th president.

Trump said: “Nobody has done more for the black community than Donald Trump. And if you look, with the exception of Abraham Lincoln — possible exception, but the exception of Lincoln — nobody has done what I’ve done.”

Biden later replied, referring to Trump: “Abraham Lincoln here is one of the most racist presidents we’ve had in modern history.”

An ad that ran on Facebook and Instagram falsely stated that Biden called Lincoln one of the most racist presidents in history.

The ad ran Feb. 3 and 4, 2024. It targeted people in Wisconsin and other states and offered a free “Trump 2024” flag.

The ad was placed by Liberty Defender Group; its Facebook page contains no description of the group.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

CNBC Television: Joe Biden calls President Donald Trump one of the most racist presidents in history

ABC News: Biden and Trump speak on institutional racism in America

Facebook: Liberty Defender Group Facebook-Instagram ad

Facebook: Liberty Defender Group

Creative Commons License

Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.

Tom Kertscher joined Wisconsin Watch as a full-time Milwaukee-based reporter in October 2024 after starting as a freelance Fact Briefs reporter in January 2023. In addition to contributing to Wisconsin Watch’s collaboration with The Gigafact Project to combat online misinformation, he reports on Wisconsin policy, labor, energy and the rapid expansion of data centers across the state. Kertscher is a former longtime reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a contributing writer for Milwaukee Magazine and the author of two sports books, on Al McGuire and Brett Favre.