Audio clip of President Joe Biden threatening war against Texas is fake

Sara Swann
·3 min read
8
Texas National Guard troops patrol the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass on Jan. 9. Texas has denied U.S. Border Patrol agents access to 2.5 miles of the southern border in Eagle Pass.
Texas National Guard troops patrol the banks of the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass on Jan. 9. Texas has denied U.S. Border Patrol agents access to 2.5 miles of the southern border in Eagle Pass.
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TikTok posts

Statement: President Joe Biden said he will “send F-15s” to “wage war against Texas.”

As tensions simmer between the Texas government and the Biden administration over access to part of the U.S.-Mexico border, some social media users are claiming President Joe Biden threatened to dramatically escalate the issue.

In a Jan. 13 TikTok video, President Joe Biden appears to say, "We’re going to make sure those cowboys don’t stop the surge of military-age men from entering. If we have to send F-15s to Texas here and wage war against Texas, so be it." (F-15s are fighter jets used by the U.S. Air Force.)

Biden doesn’t appear in the TikTok video, although a voice that sounds like his is featured. The video shows images of military service members at the U.S.-Mexico border and a large crowd of migrants waiting to be processed in Texas. Text on the video reads, "Who is more treasonous, the tyrant or the people (who) let it happen?"

Another TikTok video, shared Jan. 14, included the same audio clip of Biden supposedly threatening to wage war on Texas. TikTok identified these videos as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content.

Similar videos were also shared on the social media platform X, formerly called Twitter.

However, a White House spokesperson said the claim that Biden made these comments is false.

We found no evidence in speeches, public appearances or news articles that Biden has threatened to send F-15 fighter jets to start a war with Texas. PolitiFact has previously fact-checked audio clips that were edited to sound like Biden.

The audio in these TikTok videos was likely generated by artificial intelligence because "the cadence of the voice is typical of AI-generation," said Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley professor who specializes in digital forensics and misinformation.

For almost a week, Texas has denied U.S. Border Patrol agents access to 2.5 miles of the southern border, including Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, one of the busiest areas for illegal migration from Mexico. Texas officials fenced off the area as part of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star border mission.

Tensions between Texas and the federal government intensified over the weekend after three migrants, a woman and two children, drowned near Eagle Pass.

After that incident, the Department of Homeland Security on Jan. 15 sent a cease-and-desist letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. But Texas has refused to comply.

The Homeland Security Department letter warned that if Texas did not stop its border blockade, it would refer the matter to the Justice Department "for appropriate action and consider all other options available to restore Border Patrol’s access to the border."

But neither Biden nor his administration have threatened to send F-15s to the border to "wage war against Texas." We rate this claim False.

Our sources

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Audio clip of President Biden threatening war against Texas is fake