Obama Cried Fake Tears at Press Conference-Reported as Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
It’s been rumored that President Obama used Vicks VapoRub or a cut onion to summon tears at a press conference on executive action on background checks for some gun purchases.
The Truth:
There’s no evidence to support speculation that President Obama cried fake tears while talking about the Sandy Hook Massacre at a press conference.
Right-wing critics of Obama have speculated that the president used trickery to summon “fake tears” while talking about the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that left 20 first graders dead in 2012.
Obama becomes choked up around the 34-minute mark of a video of the press conference. “…First graders in New Town. First graders. And for every family that never imagined that their loved one would be taken from their lives from a bullet from a gun,” the president paused and choked back tears, “Every time I think about those kids it gets me mad. And by the way, it happens on the streets of Chicago every day…”
An article posted on Glenn Beck’s website under the headline “Obama’s Tears: Real or Manufactured?” questioned whether the president had rubbed Vicks VapoRub beneath his eyes to induce tears with its strong menthol scent. The article quoted Beck:
“I was fascinated by the the fact that he [Obama] reached up to touch his eye before there were any tears,” Glenn said. “He reached up to his eye, and he was like, ‘And I’m really feeling horrible now, and I have to reach up to my eye where there is no tear,’ and then suddenly that eye would not stop tearing. It was fascinating.”
Glenn Back once used Vicks VapoRub to induce tears during a photo shoot, so he does have experience with it (a video of Beck sobbing uncontrollably during the shoot can be viewed here).
Still, Beck doesn’t offer any evidence that Obama used Vicks VapoRub to cry fake tears. Also, the way that Obama cried during the press conference looks nothing like Beck’s uncontrollable crying with VapoRub beneath his eyes.
Others have suggested that Obama used cut onions to cry fake tears — but again, there’s nothing to lend that claim any credibility.
This isn’t the first time Obama has shed tears over the Sandy Hook massacre, either. The president also became choked up and wiped a tear from his eye during a press conference held immediately after the shooting in 2012. Again, many of Obama’s critics accused him of crying “crocodile tears” back then, too.
So, because there no evidence that Obama cried fake tears during the press conference, we’re reporting this one as fiction.