At the end of July 2023, a quote from the President of the United States went viral on the Internet saying that cancer was over in the country. We decided to check if he really said anything like that.
This loud statement was reported by the media (for example, “Russian newspaper", "Russia 24" And "Constantinople") and information portals. Social network users (“VKontakte", Twitter), who spread the news, ridiculed the American president. Posts about this in Telegram channels have become popular Vladtoday (221,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), “KB"(208,000), "Bullet"(142,000). TV presenters reposted publications about Biden’s statement about victory over cancer Vladimir Solovyov (215,000) and Ruslan Ostashko (115,000).
The earliest Russian-language publication that Biden allegedly declared victory over cancer, which “Verified” was able to find, appeared on July 25, 2023 at 23:09 Moscow time in the Telegram channel “RIA Novosti: USA" It says: “Biden said that the United States has put an end to cancer. The president did not disclose details about the panacea for cancer,” and also includes a 12-second fragment of Biden’s speech. At the same time, in the English-language segment of the Internet, the first messages this sensational statement appeared even earlier. Note that, despite the name, this Telegram channel is not mentioned on the official website of the Russian news agency among its accounts on social networks, therefore, apparently, it has no formal relation to RIA Novosti.
On July 25, 2023, the American president actually spoke at the White House - his speech was dedicated to expanding access to mental health care in the United States. The fragment that spread across social networks and the media was not edited; it is a real excerpt from a recording of Biden’s speech, which posted on the White House YouTube channel. Subtitles added to the video, as well as a transcript of the speech published on official website, leave little room for fantasy about what Biden really meant. The passage about cancer can be translated as follows: “One of the questions I get asked all the time is: Why do Americans seem to have lost faith that they can do great things? "If you could do anything, Joe, what would you do?" I said, "I would cure cancer." And they told me: “Why cancer?” Because no one believes that we can do it. Here's why. But we can. We can end cancer as we know it.”
The American President does have some problems with diction, so sometimes his speech does not sound entirely clear. So, for example, at the end of the fragment being analyzed, Biden says: “We can end cancer” (that is, “We can end cancer”), but due to the distortion of the microphone and the peculiarities of the pronunciation, these words of the politician can be heard as “We ended cancer.” However, in the context that we are talking about a hypothetical situation when the president is asked what he would do (obviously, we are talking about the future tense) if he could, it is clear that Biden is not talking about his merits, but about plans for the future. In addition, right before this phrase, he repeats several times: “No one believes that we can,” “we can.” These phrases would be meaningless if Biden were talking about something that has already happened.
In addition, just before the words that ended up in the video that went viral in the media and social networks, Biden says: “In the last two addresses to Congress, I laid out what I call the Agenda of Unity. It consists of four big things that we are going to do together as a nation." Beating cancer is one of those big goals. The other three are helping veterans, fighting opioid epidemic and overcoming the mental health crisis (the US President's speech was mainly devoted to this topic).
Politician quotes are often taken out of context to portray him in a negative light. Thus, “Verified” has already refuted reports about recognition Biden, as if he sold a lot of state secrets, oh racist jokes from his mouth and call vote for Trump. It is also not uncommon for a video to be edited to make the American leader look crazy, such as when internet users claimed that he allegedly sniffed the child at a public event, and later it turned out that the sound of snoring was superimposed in a video editor. In this case, we are not talking about editing, but Biden’s words were interpreted incorrectly, and even in that 12-second fragment that was distributed on social networks and the media, it is obvious that we are talking about the president’s ambitious plans for the future, and not at all about achievements to date.
Cover photo: YouTube The White House
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