Fact check: Videos from town halls altered to show Biden describing alien encounter

Chris Mueller, USA TODAY
·4 min read
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The claim: Video shows Joe Biden describing alien encounter

A Feb. 15 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows President Joe Biden and on-screen text that says, "Joe Does Really believe In ALIENS."

"Bro what is really going on lol.. we are living in the twilight zone frfr," reads the video's caption.

Some commenters appeared to take the video seriously.

"Perhaps it's time for the guy to retire," reads one comment. "I will be kind about it. He needs to relax at his age have an ice cream cone and take a nap."

The video was shared more than 2,000 times in two weeks.

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Our rating: Altered

The video is made up of misleadingly edited clips taken from three different town hall events with Biden broadcast by CNN in 2021.

Video shows clips stitched together from three town halls

The video is a compilation of footage taken from three town halls held Feb. 16, 2021, July 21, 2021, and Oct. 21, 2021.

The clips of Biden shown in the video are stitched together in a way that fundamentally changes the nature of what he said in each case. Biden never said he believes in aliens or described an alien encounter as the video asserts.

For example, the Facebook video shows Biden saying, "There’s a man on the moon, or whatever," and, "Whether those aliens are here or not," but the full clip shows Biden used those phrases while talking about his desire to restore trust in government in response to a question about vaccines.

"Think of the people – if your kid wanted to find out whether or not there were — there’s a man on the moon, or whatever – you know, something, or, you know, whether those aliens are here or not – you know, who are the people they talk to beyond the kids who love talking about it?" Biden said, according to a White House transcript of the July town hall in Cincinnati. "They go to people they respect, and they say, 'What do you think?'"

US President Joe Biden and US Representative Terri Sewell (D-AL) gesture before Biden's remarks to mark the 58th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 5, 2023. - More than 600 civil rights demonstrators were beaten by white police officers as they tried to cross the bridge during a 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery, on March 7, 1965. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

The video continues with Biden saying, "I promise you – I guarantee you," but the full clip shows Biden was actually responding to a question about the cost of higher education at the October town hall in Baltimore.

"I promise you – I guarantee you, we’re going to get free community college in the next several years and across the board," Biden said, according to a White House transcript of that event.

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The video also shows Biden pointing, which is a gesture he actually made at the October town hall when he joked first lady Jill Biden "went like this," then pointed "down the hall," toward another White House bedroom after learning free community college wouldn't be included in a piece of legislation, the transcript says.

The video makes it appear as if Biden says, "I was raised very, very high" in reference to an alien encounter, but the sentence is actually stitched together using two separate statements.

Biden said, "I was raised," during the February town hall, held in Milwaukee, as he described his first few weeks as president.

"I don’t know about you all, but I was raised in the way that you didn’t look for anybody to wait on you," he said, according to a transcript.

He said, "very, very high," while responding to a question about Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows border officials to expel migrants based on concern that their entry could further spread COVID-19.

"And that is – we’ve maintained that because of the extent of the – of the – continued extent of COVID in those countries from which people are coming.  It’s very, very high.  And so, we’ve maintained the policy," he said.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment.

PolitiFact and Check Your Fact also debunked the claim.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Videos altered to show Biden describing alien encounter