White House says videos showing Biden freezing, appearing to wander are ‘cheap fakes’

The White House on Monday criticized what it termed “cheap fake videos,” a series of recent clips that have raised questions about President Biden’s health because they show him appearing to wander off or freezing.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the videos are being shown by conservative outlets to attack Mr. Biden because they are “desperate.”

“They are done in bad faith and some of your news organizations have been very clear and stressed that the right-wing critics of the president have a credibility problem,” she said. “Fact-checkers repeatedly caught them repeating disinformation.”

In a clip circulating on social media, Mr. Biden appears to walk away from the group of leaders at the G-7 summit in Italy during a skydiving demonstration. He appears to be approaching a skydiver who is taking a knee, and gives the individual a thumbs-up.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni then approached Mr. Biden, whose back was to the camera, and escorted him back to the group by hand. It followed a few days of strange incidents for Mr. Biden, including snapping at a reporter for asking an off-topic question and awkwardly saluting Ms. Meloni.

Ms. Jean-Pierre accused conservative media outlets of showing the video from an angle in which the skydiver is obscured. She called such a video “a cheap fake.”

She blamed Republicans for a “misleading video” in which she said the president was simply trying to thank a member of the military.

“Thanking troops. That is what they are attacking the president for,” she said. “It tells you everything you need to know about how desperate Republicans are.”

That clip was sandwiched between two others appearing to show Mr. Biden freezing during recent public events.

At the end of a star-studded campaign fundraiser in Los Angeles on Saturday, Mr. Biden appears to stand still for a full 10 seconds until former President Barack Obama grabs him by the hand and leads him off stage. Last week, another clip appeared to show Mr. Biden freezing during a Juneteenth celebration at the White House because he stood motionless for a few seconds while everyone surrounding him was dancing.

Ms. Jean-Pierre said both videos also were “cheap fakes,” saying that not dancing is not a health issue. She added that other people standing around Mr. Biden were also not dancing, but they were not visible in the narrow camera view.