Conservatives are sharing a deceptively edited video to promote speculation that President Joe Biden's mental faculties are failing and that he should be disqualified from the presidency.
The clip features remarks Biden recently made in a speech addressing inflated gas prices and pandemic-induced holiday supply chain issues.
In the deceptive video, Biden appears to say:
"Because of the actions we've taken, things have begun to change. End of quote."
This falsely led some to believe that Biden was reading technical instructions off of a teleprompter, a la Ron Burgundy, the protagonist of the 2004 comedy, Anchorman, whose penchant for reading anything off the teleprompter gets him in trouble multiple times throughout the film.
But a fuller examination of the comments revealed that Biden was, in fact, quoting recent comments from Walmart's U.S. CEO, John Furner, praising actions the Biden administration took to ease supply chain delays.
The whole clip shows Biden saying:
"And, by the way, you may have heard the CEO of Walmart yesterday on the steps we've taken. He said, and I quote, 'The combination of private enterprise and government working together has been really successful.' He went on to say, 'All the way through the supply chain, there's… a lot of innovation.' Because of the actions we've taken, things have begun to change. End of quote.
It was clear Biden was emphasizing that he was no longer quoting the Walmart CEO and had gone back to his prepared remarks.
You can watch a side-by-side of the clips below.
🚨 Disinformation alert: Right wing social media has deceptively edited a clip to pretend President Biden accidentally read teleprompter instructions saying 'end of quote,' referring to it as a 'Ron Burgundy' moment. Here is the full clip. pic.twitter.com/w8Uf6MAC68
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) November 24, 2021
People soon began calling out the purveyors of the disinformation, which was flagged on Twitter as manipulated media.
Viral clip combines misleading video edit (cuts out Biden saying Walmart's CEO "said, and I quote,'...") with tweet that makes zero sense. No one would write "end of quote" in a teleprompter as a stage direction. You have to say that *out loud* so people know where the quote ends https://t.co/W2Jt8yTJKo
— Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) November 24, 2021
That's how you read a quote. You identify that the quote is ending and say, "end of quote". I mean didn't we all learn this in H.S.?
— Jennifer (@jenniferkwd1) November 24, 2021
Do... do people not realize this is what you're supposed to say when you're finished quoting someone in a speech? Did y'all just never take a public speaking class? https://t.co/glNOY5O0VD
— Ryan Ducey (@ryan_dvcey) November 24, 2021
Here's Clay Travis posting a very obviously edited video. *See replies to his tweet for the real video vs the edited. (End of tweet) https://t.co/kih8ajGyky
— JerriLynn (@Jerri_Lynn25) November 24, 2021
Teleprompters do not dictate *end of quote*. As funny as this would be, its fake... again. This is getting exhausting to think people actually fall for stuff like this. And then call others "sheep".
— Jonathon (@bronzeback12) November 24, 2021
Be better Clay. He started with a quote and ended the quote.
— AeroAg07 (@AeroAg07) November 24, 2021
But disinformation travels fast, and the deceptive video has been retweeted thousands of times, with people still falling for it.
I can't believe this guy's the leader of our country what an embarrassment. https://t.co/X7bAGKARf6
— The Lion Keith (@TheLionKeith2) November 24, 2021
😂😂 I didn't catch this when I watched it live!! Lmao
— Erica (@lpn678) November 23, 2021
You can't make this up.. wow
— molman (@mcharmo) November 23, 2021
It is, in fact, made up.
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@sadcommunistdog; @froglok/Bluesky