White House Criticizes ‘Cheap Fakes’ of Biden
The White House has labeled viral clips portraying President Joe Biden as frail and confused as “cheap fakes.” This response came from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a press briefing, where she criticized these videos for being created in bad faith and intended to mislead. Jean-Pierre pointed out that many credible news organizations had dismissed these clips as misinformation, often propagated by right-wing critics who have previously been caught spreading misinformation. These statements were made in response to increasing scrutiny over Biden’s fitness and mental acuity as he seeks re-election at the age of 81.
Viral clips showing President Joe Biden in situations in which he looks to be frail or confused are being dismissed as “cheap fakes” by the White House.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre sought to discredit the videos, which have proliferated amid concerns about 81-year-old Biden’s mental acuity and physical fitness as he runs for a second term, when a reporter pressed her to address them during the White House press briefing on Monday.
“I think you all have called this the cheap fakes video, and that’s exactly what they are. They are cheap fakes video,” Jean-Pierre said from behind the podium.
REPORTER: “There seems to be a rash of videos that have been edited to make the President appear especially frail or mentally confused…”
KJP: “They are cheap fakes video. They are done in bad faith.” pic.twitter.com/uXJ2sgxMiE
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 17, 2024
“They are done in bad faith,” she continued. “And some of your news organizations have, have been very clear, have stressed that these right-wing, the right-wing critics of the president have a credibility problem because of the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation.”
Jean-Pierre went on, “And so we see this, and this is something coming from your part of the world, calling them cheap fakes and misinformation.”
One recent video showed Biden wandering away from other G-7 leaders watching skydivers descend during a photo op in Italy. Another from over the weekend showed former President Barack Obama grabbing onto Biden at a fundraiser in Los Angeles and walking with him off the stage.
Such clips are often posted to X and the media coverage they get have prompted fact-checker criticism and denials from the White House and Biden’s allies.
Jean-Pierre called the Italy clip along with another from Normandy “cheap fakes” that “actually attack the president for thanking troops.” What happened at the fundraiser, she added, was a display of how Biden and Obama “are friends.”
An X account for the Republican National Committee, which often posts the unflattering clips of Biden that go viral, fired back at the White House press secretary.
“Karine Jean-Pierre is BIG MAD that we distribute unfiltered, unedited, publicly available clips of Biden in public. (We’ll do more),” the account said. “Jean-Pierre has a conniption over raw footage of Biden wandering around in public,” it said in another post. “This level of coping and seething hasn’t been seen in YEARS!”
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