On April 3, 2023, a Twitter user posted a video of U.S. President Joe Biden and claimed it showed that his team was using former President Donald Trump's hush-money indictment in New York to prevent the former president from taking power again.
"And there it is - he said the quiet part out loud," tweeted @DC_Draino. "Biden all but confirmed that his team is coordinating these Trump indictments to 'stop Trump from taking power again.'"
While the video clip posted by the user is authentically of Biden, the claim was false. The clip was a part of a 54-minute video from Biden's news conference on Nov. 9, 2022, the day after the midterm election results, meaning Biden was not referring to Trump's criminal indictment announced by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office on March 30, 2023.
Twitter attached a Community Note to @DC_Draino's tweet saying it was "a digitally altered video created by a meme account called 'I Meme Therefore I Am' that claims to be 'parody at times.'"
The Twitter user then challenged the Community Note. "This video was flagged by @CommunityNotes for being a deep fake but it's a real clip from Biden's presser on 11/9/22," and in doing so, acknowledged Biden's remarks were made months ago, and not after Trump's recent indictment on charges he paid off ex-film star Stormy Daniels to stay quiet before he was elected.
BBC reporter Shayan Sardarizadeh, in a series of tweets, also said the video was of Biden. However, he too pointed out the false claim by noting that Biden's remarks were "in response to a question on Trump running again, not the recent indictment." Biden's remarks were focused on the midterm election results that showed the Republican Party not doing as well as it had expected, and G-7 countries expressing concerns about Trump's comeback (after 2024).
Biden's made the remarks after a reporter asked him about his reaction to the former president's imminent announcement of another run for presidency.
"We just have to demonstrate he will not take power by, if he does run, making sure he – under legitimate efforts of the Constitution – does not become the next president again." His exact remarks begin around the 25:47 mark in the video.
After Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Trump's indictment, a number of Republicans and conservatives rushed to his defense and criticized Bragg, including Trump's potential rivals for the 2024 GOP nomination.
Given that a real video clip was used to make a false claim about Biden coordinating Trump's indictment, we rate this claim as "False."
