Home False: Joe Biden disclosed the names of the U.S. Navy SEAL team members.

False: Joe Biden disclosed the names of the U.S. Navy SEAL team members.

By: Harshitha B

October 6 2020

Share Article: facebook logo twitter logo linkedin logo
False: Joe Biden disclosed the names of the U.S. Navy SEAL team members.

Fact-Check

The Verdict False

Former Vice President, Joe Biden did not leak the Navy SEAL team's identities, who were responsible for the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Former Vice President, Joe Biden did not leak the Navy SEAL team's identities, who were responsible for the killing of Osama bin Laden.Some social media posts claimed that Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden disclosed the SEAL team member's identities that killed the al-Qaida leader. The messages resurfaced a week after the death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State group, during a U.S. special operations raid. On May 3, after news organizations publicly disclosed the SEALs' role in the operation involving Al-Qaida, Biden, then vice president, gave a speech at the Atlantic Council Awards Dinner, where U.S. Navy Admiral James Stavridis received a military leadership award. He mentioned the SEALs again later in his speech, adding that he was "in absolute awe — awe — of the capacity and dedication of the entire team, both the intelligence community, the CIA, the SEALs." He didn't mention SEAL Team 6 or any of its members by name, as the post claims. Snopes, which fact-checked a similar claim last year, reported that it asked Stavridis by email if he felt Biden's words put SEAL team members' lives at risk. "The Navy Special Warfare community is generally (and appropriately) tight-lipped about their operations," Snopes quotes Stavridis as saying by email. "That said — I did not believe that night in May 2011 — or today — that Vice President's Biden's comments were in any way inappropriate or that they put at risk the lives of those who conducted that historic operation. I think he kept it at a level of generalization that made is completely acceptable in my view." Therefore, we mark this claim false.

Would you like to submit a claim to fact-check or contact our editorial team?

0 Global Fact-Checks Completed

We rely on information to make meaningful decisions that affect our lives, but the nature of the internet means that misinformation reaches more people faster than ever before