FACT CHECK: Did Joe Biden Fall Asleep During An Aug. 27 Meeting With Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett?

A video shared on Facebook purportedly shows President Joe Biden asleep during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.

Verdict: False

Biden was not asleep during the meeting. A longer version of the video shows Biden awake and responsive after Bennett’s comments.

Fact Check:

Biden met with Bennett on Aug. 27 to discuss challenges in the Middle East, Israel’s Iron Dome and the Israeli-Palestine conflict, according to the White House. Towards the end of the meeting, Bennett made a speech about the “friendship” between the U.S. and Israel, footage of the meeting posted by C-SPAN shows.

An Aug. 29 video of the meeting shared on Facebook seemingly shows Biden with his eyes down while Bennett speaks. “As 78 year old Joe Biden takes a nap whilst meeting the Israeli Prime minister, it begs the question ‘should there be an age limit for political representatives?’” text accompanying the video reads.

The clip, however, leaves out footage of Biden before and after Bennett’s speech, and does not show Biden sleeping. Check Your Fact found footage of the meeting between Biden and Bennett in its entirety posted by C-SPAN. In the full-length video, whenever Bennett is speaking, Biden can be seen clearly awake and moving in his chair while listening. After the clip shown in the Facebook video, the C-SPAN coverage shows Biden immediately raising his eyes and responding to Bennett.

“Well, thank you,” Biden said. “And you give me credit, much of which should go to Barack Obama, for making sure that we committed to a qualitative edge you would have relative to your friends in the region. So, he’s the one that deserves the credit.”

Had Biden actually fallen asleep during his meeting with Bennett, national media outlets certainly would have reported on it, yet none have, except to debunk the claim. (RELATED: Did Joe Biden Make This Disparaging Remark Disregarding Americans In Afghanistan?)

This is not the first time social media users have claimed Biden was sleeping on the job. In August 2020, Check Your Fact debunked the baseless claim that Biden was asleep during a TV interview.

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