No, the Fourth of July visitors at the White House were not staged | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles, USA TODAY
Updated ·3 min read
159
President Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Hunter Biden with his son, Beau, watch the Independence Day fireworks from the White House on July 4, 2023.

The claim: Blank phones in a crowd show July 4 White House event was staged

A July 9 Facebook post (direct link, archived link) claims to unveil a clue that a July Fourth event at the White House was staged.

The video shows two TruNews hosts analyzing a clip of President Joe Biden greeting a group of people outside the White House. In the footage, members of the crowd raise their phones to capture images and videos of the president.

“Their phones were turned off,” says one host. “All the phones were black. ... I think it's a staged event. Look at the haircuts on the guys. These are obviously either government guys or military.

The Facebook post accumulated over 5,000 shares in two days. The video was pulled from a TikTok post, which was viewed over 700,000 times and shared 18,000 times.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: False

The phones in the crowd of military families weren’t turned off. The screens appear dark because they were outside in direct sunlight. In addition, the lower quality of the footage shared on social media makes the phones appear blacker. The original footage is clearer and shows images on phone screens.

Phone screens are harder to see in the sun

The sun’s glare makes it harder to see a phone screen when it’s used outside. The shinier a phone’s surface, the more the sun’s reflection bounces off of it – making it hard to see what’s going on.

The phones also appear particularly black because the footage shown is low-quality and grainy, indicating it's been reshared. The original footage that was captured by the Independent shows a clearer picture: The phones still look dark, but it is easier to see that people are using their cameras.

Fact check: False claim KFC is using 'lab-grown' meat in products

There's also ample evidence the event was legitimate in coverage from various news organizations.

The crowd in the video was made up of military and veteran families that were hosted on the South Lawn of the White House. Both the president and first lady Jill Biden made remarks to the families as they were joined by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his wife Charlene Austin. White House visitors posted to social media about the event, including this TikTok post which shows a view of the president while he addressed the families.

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user who shared the claim, as well as the White House, for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim that phones show White House event was staged | Fact check