A video of President Joe Biden with a mother and her infant is spreading on social media with claims that Biden leaned in and sniffed the child.
“Joe Biden caught sniffing a kid… BRO WTF!,” reads the caption of a July 7 Instagram post that shared the video.
In the 13-second clip, Biden appeared to be talking to the child, who remained offscreen. “Did you take all these pictures?” Biden is heard saying. “You’re good.” Biden leaned in and said, “Let me whisper a secret,” followed by three loud sniffing sounds before he stood back and said, “Don’t tell mommy what I told you.”
But the video is altered. Not only is it zoomed in to omit context about the child Biden is interacting with, it was cut short and sniffing sounds were added in.
The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The recording is from June 9, when Biden met with military members and their families at Fort Liberty, in North Carolina, to sign an executive order aimed at improving job opportunities for military spouses and caregivers.
The woman in the video posted the full, unaltered version on TikTok that same day, with text overlaid that said, “So I met the president of the United States today,” and the hashtag #fortliberty.
There are no sniffing sounds in the video, which is 41 seconds long. And the full video makes clear that the person Biden is talking to is a baby carried by a mother. The rest of the footage shows Biden smiling to take a photo before the woman tells him she was recording and they laugh. He then poses for a photo with the crowd.
In the comments, the woman wrote that Biden was pretending to say something to the baby and that the people spreading the manipulated version “don’t have better things to do.”
We rate the claim that Biden was caught “sniffing a kid” False.
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Truth-o-meter Ruling
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This is an altered video. It was zoomed in and cut short, with sniffing sounds added in.
Statement
Context
an Instagram postSpeaker/Target
Statement Date
Our Sources
Instagram post, July 7, 2023
TikTok post, June 9, 2023
Defense.gov, Biden moves to improve opportunities for military spouses, June 9, 2023
WhiteHouse.gov, Executive order on advancing economic security for military and veteran spouses, military caregivers, and survivors, June 9, 2023
Translations
Language: en