A flurry of recent clips, many of them edited or lacking context, laid bare a major challenge for the president as he tries to persuade voters he has the energy for a second term.
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In the past few weeks, misleading videos of President Biden’s public appearances have gone viral online.
President Biden has many adversaries in this year’s election. There are his Republican opponent, former President Donald J. Trump, and the independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
And then there is the distorted, online version of himself, a product of often misleading videos that play into and reinforce voters’ longstanding concerns about his age and abilities.
In the last two weeks, conservative news outlets, the Republican National Committee and the Trump team have circulated videos of Mr. Biden that lacked important context and twisted mundane moments to paint him in an unflattering light. Among other things, they created the impression that the president:
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Wandered off during a meeting with other Group of 7 leaders, an image that The New York Post ran on its front page (he was greeting paratroopers)
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A video edited and shared by The New York Post on X claimed to show President Biden wandering off during a Group of 7 gathering. The New York Times annotated additional footage showing Mr. Biden giving a thumbs-up to some paratroopers.
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Was escorted out of an event by his wife, Jill Biden, while President Emmanuel Macron of France stayed behind to greet veterans (a longer video showed Mr. Biden greeting veterans before his exit and then walking out with Dr. Biden)
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Footage shared on social media by the Republican National Committee appeared to show Jill Biden leading President Biden out of a D-Day event while President Emmanuel Macron of France greeted veterans. Longer footage shows Mr. Biden also greeting veterans and walking side by side with the first lady.CreditCredit…The New York Times
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Struggled to sit down at a D-Day commemoration ceremony (after seemingly hesitating for an uncomfortable few seconds, he eventually took a seat when the next speaker was announced, as did others), an image that spawned wild and false claims. It also generated approximately 12,000 mentions across social media platforms — an unusual level of attention — and 372 English-language articles, according to Chiara Vercellone, a senior staff analyst for NewsGuard, a company that monitors online misinformation
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The Republican National Committee shared a clip that sought to show President Biden awkwardly crouching. The full video shows him eventually sitting down after the next speaker was announced.
Announcer: Distinguished guests, please welcome the Hon. Lloyd J. Austin. Distinguished guests, please welcome the Hon. Lloyd J. Austin III, Secretary of Defense of the United States of America.
The Republican National Committee shared a clip that sought to show President Biden awkwardly crouching. The full video shows him eventually sitting down after the next speaker was announced.
A New York Times review of these videos found that some scenes were cut short and taken out of context, while other clips were cropped in a way that omitted crucial details when compared with additional footage.
Campaigns and political groups have long disseminated damaging videos of their opponents, sometimes misleadingly edited ones.
But the flurry of clips released this month is a fresh reminder of the steep, multifront and evolving challenge that Mr. Biden, 81, faces in convincing voters that he is spry enough to serve another term. As polls show a close race, many Americans harbor doubts about his fitness — and selectively sliced snippets from his routine public appearances are fueling those worries and sending conspiracy theories spiraling across social media.
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Source: nytimes.com
