This new talking point is just plain weird. It’s all over Fox News that Biden doesn’t care about the Maui fire victims:
Okaaaay:
For some weird reason, the fact that Biden stopped to talk to a dog handler and pat the dog is being portrayed as more evidence of his cold indifference to suffering. Whatever.
This is clearly an official talking point that’s coming out of Republican circles following the old Karl Rove strategy of “attack your enemy’s strength” as they did with John Kerry. But that was attacking him for something he’d done long in the past that couldn’t be verified. This is something that’s happening in real time.
Not that it will stop them. They have realized that they can say anything — up is down and black is white — and their audience will believe them because they see nothing else. And if they do happen to see something that refutes the MAGA media, they just think it’s fake news.
And honestly, the right is so performative now that it’s really all just a big game show to them. It doesn’t matter if it’s true. All that matters is if it owns the libs. I don’t think the rest of the country is on board with that though. At least I hope not.
Also this:
“Joe Biden just fell asleep in the middle of his meeting with victims of the Maui fires”
— Text posted on social media with an edited video featuring President Biden, Aug. 22, 2023
Attacks on President Biden’s age and overall mental and physical fitness are far from new.
This latest example — a moment clipped from the live coverage of the president’s Monday visit to Lahaina, Hawaii, by Gray Television-owned Hawaii News Now — shows how the internet can be used to amplify, escalate and manipulate a moving image.
The Facts
An isolated 32-second clip, posted and reposted by several accounts, seemingly showed an octogenarian president, head tilted down, struggling to stay awake at an event as community leaders expressed the pain felt by Lahaina residents reeling from a deadly wildfire.
It was a viral moment, thanks to shares from notables like Fox News host Sean Hannity, Rep. Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.) and others, who framed the clip as yet another example of Biden demonstrating that an old and tired president was unable to lead the country through moments of crisis, as he was once again caught nodding off by roving news cameras.
Though misleading and lacking context, these posts didn’t make use of video editing tricks; instead, they relied on selective isolation.
The outright manipulation comes in the form of an even shorter version, cut down to 12 seconds. The edited video featured in a post by Matt Wallace, a conservative influencer with more than a million followers, shares the same markings found in the longer viral version and sourced to a Hawaii News Now broadcast. However, it slices and dices through the moment — cutting away from Biden right at the moment he nods his head while gazing down, clearly awake. This catchier edit of “sleepy” Biden gained more traction, racking up over 12 million views. That reach was extended through shares by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), a right-wing House freshman, as well as others.
The moment in full, of course, paints a different picture. It shows a somber Biden, reacting when directly addressed, tilting his head down and nodding as the speaker continues to illustrate the challenges facing a devastated Lahaina community. At the 19:30 mark of this higher-quality C-SPAN feed of the same camera angle, viewers can see fuller detail — and get a better look at Biden’s gaze, which remains clear and wide-eyed.
The Pinocchio Test
This is a classic case of manipulated video. Anyone who shared it earns Four Pinocchios.
And this too:
There are no limits on social media.