FACT CHECK: TikTok Video Does Not Show Authentic CNN Clip Of Biden

Christine Sellers | Fact Check Reporter

A video shared on TikTok purports to show a CNN clip of President Joe Biden appearing to discuss oil smuggling in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

@user8264103848525♬ original sound – user8264103848525

Verdict: False

The original video shows a September 2022 “60 Minutes” interview between Biden and CBS host Scott Pelley. The audio of Biden appearing to discuss oil smuggling in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela was generated with artificial intelligence (AI), according to Lead Stories. A media forensics and AI expert denied the video’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.

Fact Check:

Biden’s re-election campaign “raised $42 million in January,” giving him a total of $130 million for his 2024 presidential bid, according to USA Today. At the end of December, Biden’s re-election campaign had raised $117 million, NBC News reported.

“The governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela tried to get around our sanctions by secretly piping and shipping out petroleum on untraceable vessels. Dead divers and pipelines below the sea and crewless ships spewing petroleum in Tobago tell us what we need to know and we’ll end it,” Biden appears to say in the TikTok video, which has been shared over 7,000 times. The clip bears a CNN logo.

The video does not show an authentic CNN clip of Biden discussing oil smuggling in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela, however. The original video, which has been shared on YouTube, shows a September 2022 “60 Minutes” interview between Biden and Pelley. While Biden does not mention purported oil smuggling in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela during the interview, he does highlight the fact that he was criticized “for releasing a million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” according to the video’s 5:34-minute mark.

Likewise, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. In fact, the opposite is true. Lead Stories labeled the TikTok video purporting to show the CNN clip of Biden as false in a Feb. 19 article. In its article, the outlet noted that the audio of Biden appearing to discuss oil smuggling in Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela had been generated with AI using the website TryParrotAI.com.

Additionally, the claim is neither referenced on CNN’s website nor its verified social media accounts. The White House also has not publicly commented on the claim. (RELATED: Image Claiming To Show Barack Obama Being Arrested Is Digitally Fabricated)

The false claim made via the TikTok video appears to be circulating in relation to a recent oil spill in Trinidad and Tobago that prompted the country’s prime minister to declare a national emergency.

Dr. Walter Scheirer, a media forensics and AI expert at the University of Notre Dame, denied the video’s authenticity in an email to Check Your Fact.

“This is a Deepfake-style video of President Joe Biden. There is an obvious rectangular artifact around the mouth of the image, which has been rendered to attempt to match the synthetic audio track. The audio does not match Biden’s current manner of speaking (it seemingly mimics a younger Biden). Most importantly, CNN never aired this fake interview, nor does it appear on any official record of Biden’s activities,” Scheirer said.

Check Your Fact has also contacted CNN and the White House for comment and will update this piece accordingly if one is received.

Christine Sellers

Fact Check Reporter

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