In August 2023, news spread widely on the Internet that the US President fell asleep during a meeting with fire victims in Hawaii. We decided to check if this is true.

Many Russian media reported about the curiosity that allegedly happened to the American politician during his visit to Maui (for example, “Arguments and facts", "News", "Moscow 24", "Constantinople" And "Evening Moscow"), social network users ("VKontakte", "Classmates", Twitter) and blogging platforms (“Peekaboo", "Zen"). This news also became very popular on Telegram: the channels “Live broadcast"(668,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Dear Persimmon"(324,000), "Rhymes and punches"(171,000), "Bullet"(124,000), "Operation Z"(115,000), etc. TV presenters posted similar posts on their channels Vladimir Solovyov (278,000) and Ruslan Ostashko (109,000).

Joe Biden visited Hawaii August 21, 2023. The US President toured areas of Maui affected by recent wildfires, checked whether the victims were receiving the necessary assistance, and also met with local residents.

It was a fragment from the broadcast of this event that the media and bloggers shared, claiming that the American president allegedly fell asleep during a meeting with the Hawaiians. The 32-second clip appears to be taken from broadcasts channel Hawaii News Now, available on YouTube. At the 3:04:18 mark, Biden coughs, covers his mouth with his hand, and lowers his head down - from this angle it is really unclear whether his eyes are open. But after just 12 seconds. he begins to actively nod and raises his head - here it is clearly visible that the politician is not sleeping at all and his eyes are open. The same thing can be seen in the video that accompanies the news of Biden falling asleep, but due to the poor quality it is more difficult to see whether his eyes are open or closed.

The C-Span television channel filmed in higher quality and from a different angle - in video, posted on their website, it is noticeable that after Biden lowered his head, his eyes remained open (19:20).

White House officials also denied claims that the American president allegedly fell asleep during a meeting with residents of Hawaii. August 22 Tennessee Republican Congressman Andy Ogles wrote on social media X (formerly Twitter): “Imagine the President of the United States falling asleep while you describe the aftermath of the deadliest fire in 100 years. This is absolutely disgusting. Biden must resign immediately." On this right away reacted White House Deputy Press Secretary and Senior Communications Adviser Andrew Bates: "You really have to 'imagine' it." Because it didn't happen. What's "absolutely disgusting" is how easy it is for you to lie to your constituents." Bates also attached a link to the analysis of the fact-checking project Snopes with a refutation of this news.

Fires on Maui, according to some estimates, steel the most destructive in the last 100 years - at least 115 people were killed in them, and more than 1,000 are still missing. At the same time, the disaster has also become the subject of numerous conspiracy theories and speculations. "Verified" already sorted it out allegations spread in the Russian-language segment of the Internet that the fire in Hawaii was caused by Chinese laser weapons or organized by the UN, and none of such reports were confirmed. Similar publications were checked by our colleagues from Reuters, AFP, Lead Stories and other fact-checking projects.

Biden is often the subject of misleading publications ridiculing his age and mental health. Among them are reports that allegedly an American politician several times asked don't jump invisible peoplethat he didn't recognize and pushed British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak away at the airport or that he offered get vaccinated against a hurricane. All of them turned out to be either taken out of context or completely fabricated.

Thus, Joe Biden did not fall asleep at a meeting with victims of forest fires on Maui, he only lowered his head down for a few seconds - in the video being distributed, due to the angle and poor quality of the filming, one might actually think that he fell asleep for a few seconds. However, clearer videos taken from a different angle show that the American president does not close his eyes for long, periodically blinking all the time that his head is down.

Cover photo: Hawaii News Now