On June 6, 2024, reports appeared on the Internet that at an event dedicated to the anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy, the US President allegedly wanted to sit on a non-existent chair. We have verified the authenticity of the video provided as evidence.
On June 6, 2024, France celebrated its 80th anniversary landings American, British and Canadian troops in Normandy, which marked the opening of a second front against Nazi Germany during the Second World War. Many world leaders took part in the celebrations, including US President Joe Biden. Official representatives of Russia at commemorative events in Normandy not invited.
That same day, a short video circulated online in which Biden was reportedly trying to sit on a non-existent chair. According to the TGStat service, in less than 24 hours more than 300 channels wrote about the video on Telegram, whose posts in total received about 3 million views at the time of writing this analysis. Among them "Sanya in Florida"(359,000 views), "Ne.Sugar"(198,000), "Putin on Telegram"(147,000), "Freshness"(140,000), "Truthfulness"(121,000), Voblya (112,000), "Belarusian security officer"(105,000), Rus_criminal (97,000), "Country politics"(84,000), "Petya the First"(80,000), "Bullet"(71,000), "Bocharik (yep, that same one)"(67,000), "Scott Ritter on Telegram"(47,000), "Signal"(22,000, post deleted), "Markov logic"(22,000), etc. Public posts were written on VKontakte about how Biden “disgraced himself” by trying to sit on an invisible chair (examples here, here And here) and media: Izvestia (twice: here And here), "Constantinople", "Regnum", Ura.ru, News.ru And "Strana.ua"
IA "Regnum” describes what is happening in a 12-second viral video: “The embarrassment occurred on stage, where his French colleague Emmanuel Macron stood next to the US President with his wife Brigitte. As can be seen in the footage, the American leader shook Macron’s hand and then tried to sit on a chair that was not there.” Author of the note in Ura.ru even refers to the official recording of the event on the social network X: “Biden shook hands with the French leader and made several attempts to sit on a chair that was not next to him on stage. The White House broadcast shows how Macron is trying to pretend that he does not notice the actions of the US President; he decided to defiantly look away.”
The ceremony was broadcast by numerous world media outlets. On the above mentioned stream from the White House, the required fragment begins at the 34:23 mark, while the recording is from a different angle. However, already at 34:37, the cameras show the scene from the opposite side - it is clearly visible how Biden and other participants in the event sit down on the chairs standing directly behind them. Moreover, if you watch the entire broadcast, you will notice that the US President listened to all the speeches of the invited guests, sitting on the same chair.
The channel conducted a similar broadcast NBC News, and here is the recording of the publication The Guardian slightly different - the shooting angle is almost the same as in the viral video. There, the passage you are looking for begins at the mark 26:35, and already in 26:50 Biden can be seen sitting down in his seat - where he originally planned. Apparently, when the American leader wanted to sit down in his chair, he heard the announcer address those present and froze in anticipation until he said the name of the speaker. Immediately after this, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin began his speech, and the country's president spoke after him.
Moreover, even in the viral clip, despite its low quality, the outlines of chairs can be seen behind Macron, Biden and their spouses.
Thus, Biden sat on a completely existing chair, and the Russian media and owners of large Telegram channels distributed a video taken out of context, accompanied by false captions about the actions of the US President. Previously on the Internet more than once appeared misleading reports about the American leader's strange behavior - for example, that during his speech he turned to invisible listeners and asked them not to jump.
Cover photo: screenshot video @guardiannews (YouTube)
- Is it true that Biden asked an invisible man not to jump during his speech?
- Is it true that Biden said how they opened his skull a couple of times to make sure he had a brain?
- Is it true that Joe Biden gave a veteran a medal backwards?
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