White House makes false claims while accusing Post of spreading false Biden videos

WASHINGTON — The White House launched an attack on The Post on Monday for describing President Biden’s weakness in a series of recent videos — only to make false statements of their own in the process.

Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accused the newspaper of spreading “misinformation” about videos of the 81-year-old president at recent events with G7 leaders and former President Barack Obama.

Those events included a video on Thursday showing Biden being escorted by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni after a skydiving demonstration and former President Barack Obama escorting his former vice president off the stage at a fundraiser in Hollywood on Saturday night.

Jean-Pierre called the clips “cheap fakes,” meaning the claim that humans had been edited through techniques like zooming and leaving out context — but he also incorrectly called them “deepfakes,” referring to the footage generated by artificial intelligence. With modified themes and audio. .

“I think you all called this video ‘cheap fake’, that’s exactly what they say, it’s cheap fake [sic]“It is done in bad faith,” the press secretary said in her regular press conference.

“And some of your news organization [sic] “She was very clear, and she emphasized that these right-wing — right-wing critics of the president have a credibility problem because fact-checkers have repeatedly caught them spreading misinformation and disinformation.”

Jean-Pierre then praised the conservative Washington Examiner for ostensibly supporting her claims, despite the publication merely Quoted from British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak He tries to explain Biden’s actions.

The article cited by the press secretary included quotes from the UK leader admitting that the president had not gone where he was supposed to go when Meloni had to return him to the group of fellow leaders.

“He just went to talk to them all individually and Georgia was like, ‘Don’t worry, they’re all coming to me.’ [us]The Prime Minister told reporters on Friday.

“We were supposed to line up so they could come in and then shake hands with all of us.”

“To their credit, we have the conservative Washington Examiner, which has also criticized them, and the New York Post has also criticized them,” Jean-Pierre said Monday.

“It tells you everything we need to know about how desperate Republicans are here.

“Instead of talking about the president’s performance in office — and what I mean by that, his legislative victories, what he’s been able to do for the American people across the country — we see these deepfakes, manipulated videos, et cetera.” “Once again, this is done in bad faith.”

After the briefing, Jean-Pierre admitted to The Post that she did not mean to use the term “deepfake.”

“It’s fake, cheap fake,” she said, referring to her incorrect use of the term.

Deputy Press Secretary Andrew Bates, who led the White House attack on The Washington Post’s coverage of the videos, tweeted praise of Jean-Pierre, writing On [sic]“.”

The White House argued last week that the fuller context showed Biden was trying to encourage skydiving in Italy and disputed the idea that he wandered off in an unusual way — despite Meloni’s unprecedented action to put it back in his colleagues’ heads. From the government.

As for the fundraising video, the president’s defenders said he was simply greeting the crowd.