As the general election season approaches, White House officials are dismissing as “cheap fakes” a series of videos circulating on social media that appear to show a decline in President Biden’s mental acuity. But a conservative tech expert says the videos are actually disturbing and that Biden’s shop-like protests are part of an “electioneering” effort aimed at pressuring social media platforms to “take action” against it.
“Discredited right-wing critics President Biden White House spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News Digital, “Those who spread debunked falsehoods, including that the 2020 election was stolen, are clearly under threat from the wide array of nonpartisan fact-checkers who have pulled back the curtain on the cheap fake slander they’re forced to rely on — because the last thing they want to discuss is Joe Biden’s agenda to cut taxes for working families and bring violent crime to historic lows.”
“His panicked reaction to mainstream journalists, including the Washington Post, NBC News and PolitiFact, citing misinformation experts fact-checking cheap fake anti-Biden articles says more than we could ever say,” Bates said.
Social media mocks Biden for being escorted off stage by First Lady
The Republican National Committee’s research division posted several videos on Thursday that showed President Biden in a “continued state of confusion.”
In recent weeks, videos of Biden at various events have shown him appearing “confused.” One video showed him talking to a parachutist as he walked away from a group of world leaders at a D-Day anniversary event in France. Another video showed him unsure of when to sit down, and another video this week showed him saying he was “confused.” taken off stage This speech was given by former President Obama at a fundraising event.
On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre emphasized that these videos are “cheap fakes,” which are defined in the media manipulation case book as “altered media” that does not require advanced technology, such as “photoshopping (including face replacement), lookalike videos, as well as speeding up or slowing down videos.”
The term was used in some news articles In early 2019But Biden’s video on social media this week drew a significantly larger following.
“It sounds horrible because it is.”
“It’s also very disrespectful to the people, the viewers who are watching it. And so we believe we should voice it. We’re calling it a ‘cheap fake.’ This is something that has come directly from the media outlets, the fact-checkers have called it so … called it so. And so we’re definitely going to be very clear about that as well. And we will voice it from where we are, where we stand,” Jean-Pierre told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday.
Karine Jean-Pierre reiterates her reaction to ‘cheap fake’ Biden video: ‘So much misinformation’
President Biden walks across the South Lawn to board Marine One before departing the White House on December 8, 2023. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
However, not everyone is accepting this explanation. According to Jake Denton, a technology researcher at the Heritage Foundation, this is all “a matter of election slogans and buzzwords.”
“It’s very clear what’s happening here,” Denton told Fox News Digital. “They’re trying to impose a new school term of misinformation Trying to put pressure on social media companies to take action on these types of videos.”
The term “cheap fake” is also being used just a week before Biden debates former President Barack Obama. President Trump, The Republican Party’s front-runner in the general election.
“It requires a ramp-up phase where you allege that something is a ‘cheap fake,’ or that it’s malicious in some way related to misinformation, and then you essentially have the evidence, the fact pattern, whatever it is, so that you can then pursue the social media companies with a takedown request because it’s misinformation about the election. So to me, that’s kind of the seed that’s being planted here.”
Denton further includes “misinformation experts” under the umbrella of “pseudoscience” born out of “digital politics.” Denton said that failed academics who then try to rebrand themselves have found a place in this emerging field online, independent fact-checking websites and organizations, and even media outlets.
Biden’s ‘persistent confusion’ on display in Normandy amid growing cognitive questions
President Biden and Former President Trump (Win McNamee/Getty Images | Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
“Ultimately, there’s not much science to it,” Denton said. “They’re experts, but what are they actually analyzing? It’s true that deepfake production requires expertise, but when it comes to something like this, a cheap fake Or more broadly speaking, you’re mainly sifting through rubbish on social media and telling us what’s real and what’s not; that’s not really a scientific or professional practice.”
Click here to get the Fox News app
Denton further said that the administration’s intention is to convince the American public that what they are seeing on social media falsely reflects their current state. However, the reality is that the videos accurately reflect their current cognitive ability, he said, and urged people to “reject these words and discussions and evaluate the videos, as they are very reprehensible.”
“It feels horrible, because it’s true,” he said.
The president’s mental acuity has become a focus of political discussion this month after a stunning Washington Journal report, denied by the White House, revealed that many lawmakers on Capitol Hill had questions about Biden’s mental acuity, with several saying his age could be gauged in private meetings.
