Reports of recent drone sightings in parts of the U.S. have raised concerns and launched conspiracy theories involving aliens and foreign adversaries. But some social media users claimed President Joe Biden can explain the mysterious drones.
A Dec. 15 Facebook post shared a video of Biden with a red “Breaking News” banner and headline that read, “Biden breaks silence on drones and UFO sightings.”
In the 44-second video, Biden supposedly said, “Listen, man, there are no drones over the United States. None anywhere. We don’t need Homeland Security. I mean, what even is that? The drones aren’t real, man. They’re manned aircraft by real people.”
(Screenshot from Facebook)
This 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 Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)
But that wasn’t Biden in the video. The video was likely generated with artificial intelligence.
In the video, Biden’s mouth moves oddly, not always aligning with the audio. This signals the video is a deepfake.
When PolitiFact conducted a reverse-image search of this video using Google Images, we found videos with similar depictions of Biden that were labeled as AI-generated videos. Some had a label saying the video was made using Parrot AI, a tool that allows people to make AI-generated videos of celebrities and politicians.
We also found no credible news or government reports that Biden said this about the drone sightings.
Senior officials with the White House, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Administration have said they have no evidence that the drones spotted in New Jersey and other states threaten national security or public safety. Investigations into these drone sightings are ongoing.
We rate the claim that a video shows Biden saying, “There are no drones over the United States” False.
Truth-o-meter Ruling
IF YOUR TIME IS SHORT
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This video appears to have been generated with artificial intelligence.
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We found no credible news or government reports that President Joe Biden made these remarks about the recent drone sightings.
Statement
Context
a postSpeaker/Target
Statement Date
Our Sources
Facebook post, Dec. 15, 2024
Reverse-image search using Google Images, Dec. 16, 2024
PolitiFact, "How to detect deepfake videos like a fact-checker," April 19, 2023
The White House, "Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby," Dec. 12, 2024
The White House, "Background Press Call on the Ongoing Response to Reported Drone Sightings," Dec. 14, 2024
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