Is it true that Biden asked an invisible man not to jump during his speech?

In April 2023, the Internet was filled with posts about the strange behavior of the American president: he allegedly addressed a non-existent audience and asked someone not to jump. Russian media and Internet users believe that this is further evidence of a mental disorder caused by Biden’s age. We have verified the authenticity of the viral video.

On April 12, 2023, a video of Joe Biden's speech at the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland went viral. It is reported that while delivering his speech, the politician behaved strangely: he sharply turned his back to the audience, looking somewhere upward, and said: “Don’t jump!” - and added that he apologizes for the appearance of his back. According to numerous posts on social networks, users regarded this act as a manifestation of the illness of the 80-year-old politician.

In popular Russian pro-government Telegram channels, the viral video was accompanied by comments ridiculing Biden. For example, "Dmitry Vasilets"(213,000 views at the time of this writing): "He clearly hears otherworldly voices, sees ghosts and senses entities," Voblya (153,000): “The madness finally swallowed up the grandfather,” “Ostashko! Important" (103,000): "Biden is seeing imaginary friends again." Similar publications appeared in the channels “Observer"(196,000 views), "Uncle Slava"(150,000), "Petya the First"(70,000) and Putin TG Team (68,000), as well as in public pages on VKontakte (examples here, here And here), V Twitter and on YouTube.

A similar picture was observed in the media. In Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the official publication of the Russian government, wrote about the US President's communication with invisible people and joked about ghosts. On the Channel Five website reportedthat in the midst of the conference, Biden "begged" his imaginary friend not to jump. In Rambler news told, that this behavior caused laughter among the audience, and added: “To whom this warning was addressed and what exactly the US President wanted to say by this is not yet clear.” Similar headlines appeared on other resources, including social networks. TV channel "Constantinople" and IA Regnum, as well as the newspaper website "Capital C", RIA FAN, "Podolyak", KostaNews.ru And Blitz.plus. The editors of the publication “Moscow Region Today” went the furthest, which, to explain Biden’s behavior appealed for a commentary on the esotericist. The “expert” said that the president may be surrounded by “demonic entities” that came “not from our real physical plane” and direct the actions of the politician.

April 12 Biden really pronounced speech at Ulster University. The visit of the American leader, who There is Irish roots, was timed on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement on 10 April 1998 in Belfast, who put end of the conflict in Northern Ireland. The viral video with a clip of the president's speech is also genuine - it begins at the time stamp 10:57 in a recording of the broadcast published on the official White House YouTube channel. Full transcript of Biden's speech posted on the website of the Presidential Administration. Below is a translation of the passage we are interested in as it is presented on the White House website.

And I want all of you to know, especially the young people here today...

(Addressing the students.) And don’t jump, okay? (Laughter.) Oh, I didn't see you all up there. (Laughter.) As my father would say: “Please excuse my back. I apologize." (Laughter.)

But all jokes aside, the American people were with you—and are with you now—all along the way. This is true.

According to this fragment of the transcript, the US President was addressing some students located somewhere above. But were they invisible?

If you watch the broadcast on the White House YouTube channel from the very started, then from above, behind the podium where Biden spoke, you can see two balconies with people standing on them. The same two platforms with spectators visible in a recording of the event published on the Ulster University channel. Thanks to video, posted on Twitter by the US President, it becomes clear that there were not two, but three balconies. The situation is most clearly demonstrated in the video of the GB News TV channel, since in moment Biden's address to the audience from above, the cameraman stopped filming the president in close-up and showed a general plan of the room, capturing all three balconies in the lens.

In addition to video recordings, numerous photographs from the event can serve as evidence. For example, on photo from the US President's Twitter, the first and second balconies can be seen behind Biden, and on picture photo agency Getty Images, all three sites with people are visible at once.

This is not the first time Biden's request to "don't jump" has been passed off as a manifestation of his alleged dementia. For example, the Telegram channel of TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov shared (post has already been deleted) by a post from another propaganda channel called “Kremlin laundress”(275,000 views), which emphasized: “This is not the first time Biden has spoken in public with his invisible “comrades.” All this looks very much like senile schizophrenia. Such frequent and uncontrolled manifestation of symptoms indicates that the disease is progressing.” In December 2022 "Verified" sorted it out similar inaccurate reports regarding Biden's speech on the White House lawn.

In fact, the American president more than once asked not to jump to completely existing and visible people who were usually several meters above him and therefore often simply did not fall into the frame. Various Western publications called the phrase "Don't jump" gag, that is, a joke repeated more than once, with which Biden quite often amuses listeners.

Cover photo: screenshot “Verified” / video by The White House

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

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