As President Joe Biden has been on camera somewhat more frequently recently, he has faced more comments than ever about his age, with many arguing that his frequent gaffes and halting, stiff gait indicate that he is not fit to lead America, particularly in a moment as dangerous as this one. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre lost it over some of the videos used to show concerns with Biden, such as a recent one of him with Obama.
As background, the video at issue shows President Biden, while at a fundraiser in California, waving to the crowd and basking in that crowd’s cheering. However, in the video of the clip that took off on X, he stays on the stage waving, with his arm staying still as he does so, leading many to comment that he “froze.” It didn’t help Biden’s case that former President Obama took him by the arm and helped lead him off the stage.
Watch that clip here:
So, during the Monday, June 17 White House Press Briefing, KJP was asked, “There seems to be a sort of a rash of videos that have been edited to make the president appear especially frail or mentally confused. I’m wondering if the White House is especially worried about the fact that this appears to be a pattern that we’re seeing more.”
Responding, she alleged that the video of Biden on the stage was a “cheap fakes video” mean to incorrectly give the impression that Biden is older and frailer than he really is. She said, beginning her response, “Yeah. We, and I think you all have called this the ‘cheap fakes video,’ and that’s exactly what they are. They are cheap fakes video.”
Continuing, she alleged that it was in “bad faith” that the GOP is sharing such videos of Biden, saying, “They are done in bad faith. 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 the fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them pushing misinformation, disinformation.”
She then blamed two outlets by name for the so-called “cheap fakes,” saying, “And so we see this and this is something coming from from your, your part of the world calling them cheap fakes and misinformation. And, I’ll quote The Washington Post, where they wrote they wrote about this and they said how Republicans use misleading videos to attack Biden in a 24 hour period. And to their credit, we have a conservative Washington Examiner, did call them out as well, calling out the New York Post.”
She then claimed that the embarrassing videos from Normandy were “cheap fakes” as well, saying “Ironically, several recent cheap fakes actually attack the president for thanking troops, for thanking troops. That is what they’re attacking the president for, both in Normandy. This happened and again in Italy. And, I think that it tells you everything that we need to know about how, how desperate, how desperate Republicans are here. And, instead of talking about the president’s performance in office. And what I mean by that is his legislative wins, what he’s been able to do for the American people across the country. We’re seeing these deepfakes, these manipulated videos, and it is, again, done in bad faith.”
Watch her here:
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