By Anmol Alphonso
A video claiming to show US President Joe Biden falling asleep during a live TV interview is doctored. BOOM found that the original video is from a 2012 interview with veteran singer and actor Harry Belafonte, which was edited to show Biden sitting in Belafonte's place.
The 18 seconds video shows a news anchor trying to introduce the interviewee "live from New York," only to discover that Biden appears to have his eyes closed and is snoring. Despite the anchor's repeated calls of "Wake up, wake up," Biden continues to sleep and snore, prompting laughter in the newsroom.
The viral video was posted on X by the handle Mark Lewis (@Maga4liberty) with the caption, "Joe Biden Falls Asleep On Air!"
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that US President Joe Biden did not fall asleep on live TV as being claimed on social media posts. The viral video has been doctored replacing a veteran singer who was actually being interviewed, with Biden to make the false claim. The snoring noises heard and the sarcastic news tickers at the bottom of the screen have been edited into it.
The same doctored video was viral back in August 2020, when it was posted on X (formerly know as Twitter) by then White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications Dan Scavino during Donald Trump's administration. Scavino had posted the doctored video on August 30, 2020, targeting the then Democratic Party presidential nominee Biden, in the run up to the 2020 US Presidential election.
John Dabkovich, a CBS journalist who was co-anchor in the studio that day, had called out Scavino quote tweeting him on August 30, 2020, stating that the viral video is fake. Several fact-checkers at that time including AFP had fact-checked the viral video.
In the original broadcast from October 2011, the anchor from TV station KBAK in Bakersfield, California was attempting to interview veteran singer and actor Harry Belafonte, who was in New York City.
Belafonte, who was 84 years old at that time, seemed to have fallen asleep before talking to the morning show "Eyewitness News". However, the singer had blamed a lost connection that made him unable to hear the host talking to him.
Reacting after Trump's aide had posted the doctored video on X, Belafonte in a statement to Deadline on August 31, 2020, was quoted saying, "They keep stooping lower and lower. A technical glitch in an interview I did nine years ago now becomes another one of their lies, more of their fake news."
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The visual of Biden with his eyes seemingly closed which has been edited into the viral video in place of Belafonte, is from an endorsement of the then nominee by former Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton on April 29, 2020. Biden lowers his eyes several times throughout the video, which make it seem possible that they were closed at some point. This can be seen below:
