Video of U.S. President Biden's visit to Hawaii manipulated to include profane slogan

By: Rajini KG
August 24 2023

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Context 

U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden visited the wildfire-affected area in Maui, Hawaii (locally called Hawai'i) on Monday. They assessed the damage and met with families of victims and first responders, Maui County's official website reported. As many as 115 people were killed in the wildfire that started on August 8.

Soon after their visit, a video of the couple walking is circulating on social media with the claim that the residents of Maui raised profane slogans slamming Joe Biden. Sharing the video on X (formerly Twitter), one user wrote, "Sleepy Joe landed in #Hawaii The entire population there are shouting - "Fk Joe Biden" #MauiFires (sic)." The video shows the President and Jill Biden walking with Hawaii's Governor Josh Green and his wife. The post had garnered over 6.3 million views at the time of publishing. The video has been shared by several other users who claimed that the people of Maui welcomed Joe Biden with a derogatory slogan. The archive can be found here and here.

Screengrab of the claims shared online (Source: (X/@etoptimist/Facebook/Marc Chabot)

However, the abusive chants were digitally added to the original video of President Biden and his wife.

In fact

WMBD News uploaded the livestream of President Biden's visit to Maui on its Facebook account on Monday. The viral footage can be spotted around the 0:44 timestamp. The movements and gestures of the President, Jill Biden, Governor Josh Green, and his wife match the viral video. However, no slogans can be heard in the video.

The viral video had the 'C-SPAN' logo in the bottom right corner. C-SPAN had uploaded videos of the visit on its website, and one clip, shot from a different angle, showed similar visuals as the viral footage. President Biden can be seen assessing the damage and conversing with officials of Maui in the video, but there is no audio of people chanting any slogan in the background. 

CBS News also posted the full video on its YouTube channel on Tuesday. The viral footage can be spotted around the 0:18 timestamp, and here, too, no slogan can be heard. CNBC Television and Washington Post also aired livestream video of the visit, and no derogatory slogans can be heard in their video coverage as well.

The above-mentioned evidence establishes that the audio of profane slogans was added later to the original video. 

The verdict

A video of Joe Biden's visit to Hawaii to assess the destruction caused by the recent wildfire has been digitally manipulated to include audio of abusive slogans to mislead people. Original videos published by several news outlets do not include the derogatory chants as the viral posts claimed.