Fact check: In interview, Biden was looking at video feed, not a teleprompter

Camille Caldera, USA TODAY
·3 min read
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The claim: Joe Biden used a teleprompter in an interview

On Sept. 15, former Vice President Joe Biden sat down with José Díaz-Balart for an interview on Telemundo. Of the 20-minute segment, about 20 seconds went viral.

Users on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter – including the president's son Eric Trump, senior adviser Jason Miller and the Florida GOP – claimed the clip contained evidence that Biden used a teleprompter.

Mayra Flores – the only user who responded to a request for comment – wrote that "there is no way to prove or disapprove he didn't have a teleprompter" and that the video was intended to be "a meme."

In the clip, Biden speaks about his plan to temporarily halt most deportations.

"There are going to be no deportations in the first hundred days of my campaign," Biden says.

"Let me get that right," Diaz-Balart interjects. "You are going to freeze deportations?"

"Freeze deportations for the first hundred days, and the only people who will be deported are people who committed a felony while here, that's number one," Biden replies.

"OK, I lost that line," Biden says – or at least that's what the posts claim he said, in quotes with a confused emoji.

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Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, departs the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del., on Oct. 1, 2020.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, departs the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del., on Oct. 1, 2020.

Speaking to a voter via video, Biden said he 'lost that lady'

Biden was referring to a video feed and said he "lost that lady," not "that line," as the posts claim.

The interview – available in full on YouTube – featured questions from potential voters, who spoke to Biden via videos broadcast onto a nearby screen.

A voter begins to ask her question at the nine-minute mark. At the 10-minute mark, midway through his response, as the feed cuts out, Biden notes, "OK, I lost that lady."

Marc Caputo, a reporter for Politico, said on Twitter that he asked Diaz-Balart if the teleprompter claims were true, and the Telemundo anchor replied, "Of course not."

Caputo said Diaz-Balart explained the moment: "He was asked to answer questions from Telemundo viewers – they were on a monitor. He would answer the monitor. In one moment, the monitor went to black – he said, ‘I lost the lady.’ I told him he could answer looking at me, and that was that."

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Our rating: False

Based on our research, the claim that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden used a teleprompter during an interview is FALSE. He was looking at a screen that displayed a video feed of a voter asking him a question.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: In interview, Biden looked at video feed, not teleprompter