False claim Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson said he regrets voting for Joe Biden in 2020 | Fact check

Joedy McCreary, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson said he regrets voting for Biden in 2020

An April 6 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a clip of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson answering a question during an interview with Fox News.

“The Rock regrets voting for Biden in 2020,” reads both the post’s caption and text in the video.

It received more than 400 likes in five days.

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Our rating: False

He never said that. The claim distorts Johnson’s statement that he will not publicly endorse anyone for president in 2024.

‘The Rock’ didn’t mention his vote, didn’t use the word ‘regret’

Johnson, a professional wrestler-turned-movie star, sat down for a 50-minute interview with the Fox News show "Fox & Friends" that aired April 5. The Instagram post shows two short clips from that interview in which Johnson discussed publicly endorsing political candidates.

But the claim in the post is false. At no point in either the clip or the full interview did Johnson disclose how he voted in 2020 or use the word “regret” at all. What he said was that he will not endorse any candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

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With nearly 400 million followers, Johnson’s Instagram account is one of the most widely followed on the platform, according to Forbes India. He brought up his following in his answer to a question about his endorsement of President Joe Biden in the previous presidential race, explaining that he once believed having so many people following him came with an obligation to "exercise my influence" and take a public stand. He later concluded it had become too divisive to make any endorsement at all.

“The takeaway after that, months and months and months, I started to realize, like, ‘Oh, man, that caused an incredible amount of division in our country,’’ Johnson said in the interview. “So I realize now, going into this election, I’m not going to do that. I wouldn’t do that, because my goal is to bring our country together. I believe that in my DNA."

He continued by saying, "So, in the spirit of that, there’s going to be no endorsement. Not that I’m afraid of it at all, but it’s just, I realize that this level of influence, I’m going to keep my politics to myself and I think it’s between me and the ballot box."

After Johnson’s statements were mischaracterized, interviewer Will Cain explained during his Fox News show April 8 that the former wrestler “did not say to me that he regrets endorsing Joe Biden. He did say he regrets making any political endorsement.”

Endorsements of political candidates have spawned misinformation on social media. USA TODAY previously debunked false claims that former Vice President Mike Pence said he would not vote for former President Donald Trump and that an image showed musician Taylor Swift wearing an anti-Trump T-shirt.

USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post but did not immediately receive a response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dwayne Johnson didn't say he regrets 2020 vote for Biden | Fact check