The Biden campaign has allegedly established a dedicated team to minimize the influence of videos depicting the president experiencing malfunctions in public.
White House staff members have grown increasingly concerned about videos featuring President Joe Biden and have started to engage in disputes with their media partners regarding the portrayal of Biden’s age, verbal slips, and instances of perplexing confusion captured on video. The term “cheap fakes” was coined by the White House following the circulation of a video on Sunday showing former President Barack Obama guiding Biden off stage after the president seemed to freeze during a fundraising event.
That’s a wrap on record-setting Democratic fundraiser for Joe Biden’s reelection campaign (netting $28M). Former President Barack Obama and President Joe Biden offer final waves to Peacock Theater crowd as Obama then grabs Biden’s hand to lead him offstage following 40-minute… pic.twitter.com/xbE2jf3jdz
— Chris Gardner (@chrissgardner) June 16, 2024
On June 13, yet another video surfaced, depicting Biden seemingly wandering away in Europe, only to be redirected by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to rejoin the group of world leaders who were observing a skydiving spectacle. Additionally, a third video captured Vice President Kamala Harris and her allies dancing at a Juneteenth event, while Biden appeared motionless with a vacant smile on his face.
In response to these incidents, a Biden official informed Politico’s West Wing Playbook on Tuesday evening that a taskforce had been established to address the potential risks associated with deceptive videos. The official emphasized that social media companies and media allies also bear the responsibility of minimizing the impact of such videos.
CBS News labels the clip a “digitally altered video” but it’s the exact version shared by the White House – https://t.co/7YT3DKUGfI
Just stunning misinformation and gaslighting… https://t.co/3PKHqIWZv7
— Steve Krakauer (@SteveKrak) June 19, 2024
“Voters deserve accurate information to inform their choice this November, and our campaign will be vigilant in calling out these lies when we see them,” Biden campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told Playbook. “We hope media organizations and others with influential platforms follow our lead.”
Not all individuals were convinced by the “cheap fake” narrative. According to Steven Cheung, the Communications Director for the Trump Campaign, the videos showing Biden malfunctioning in public are authentic.
“The truth hurts,” Cheung said. “When the Biden campaign is confronted with that cold, hard reality, they offer ridiculous claims that anyone who clearly sees Biden acting like a brain-dead dope is part of some media-wide conspiracy.”
