In July 2024, Telegram channels circulated a video purportedly of the US President saying, “My name is Joe Biden and I am Joe Biden’s husband.” We have verified the accuracy of these publications.
In the video, which Russian-language Telegram channels published on July 6 and 7, 2024, US President Joe Biden stands behind the podium at an event. “My name is Joe Biden, and I am Joe Biden’s husband,” bloggers quote from this speech. Such publications, according to TGStat, collected about 8 million views in two days. Among the most popular are posts in channels “Live broadcast • news"(693,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "KB"(226,000), "Solovyov"(224,000), "Russia now"(212,000), "Putin on Telegram"(206,000), "Ne.Sugar"(205,000), "Uncle Slava"(180,000), "Observer"(179,000), "Evil proof" (173,000), "Rhymes and punches" (170,000), "Dmitry Vasilets"(148,000), Zergulio (148,000), Kosti (143,000), "Emergency / Crimea" (142,000), "Bocharik (yep, that same one)"(139,000), "Voblya•news"(126,000), "Sheikh Tamir"(125,000), "Ukraine.ru"(125,000), "Pool N3"(115,000), Rus_criminal (110,000), "Banksta"(104,000), "Kirill Fedorov / War history weapons" (103,000) and "Belarusian security officer"(102,000).
A video of Joe Biden saying he is Joe Biden's husband went viral about a week after the first official debate. past ahead of the US presidential elections. They pitted the current head of state against the previous one, Donald Trump, the most likely Republican candidate. By almost unanimous opinion leading American media, Biden performed unsuccessfully during the debate: he stammered and misspoke a lot, often looked lost to the side and, in principle, looked uncertain, thereby strengthening the widespread opinion that the 81-year-old politician will not be able to effectively govern the country for another four years. Politico publication citing sources reported, that the US Democratic Party began to think about replacing the candidate in the elections, and the editors of The New York Times in an open letter directly called Democrats will field a younger politician against Trump, despite all Biden’s achievements over half a century in public service. However, the head of state himself insiststhat he is not going to leave the election race.
Using Google's reverse screenshot search tools, Verified found that Internet users had posted a viral video with similar comments three weeks ago - for example, on June 19, a video with subtitles “My name is Joe Biden, and I am Joe Biden’s husband.” posted Spanish-speaking TikTok user on his profile.
The day before, June 18, the US President took part in the celebration of the 12th anniversary of the adoption of the law DACA. In 2012 (Biden was then vice president in the Barack Obama administration), this law allowed migrants who came to the country as children and were in its territory illegally to request a deferment of deportation and, with an additional two years given to them, enroll in university or find a job. Transcript of the gala event published on the White House website, and the broadcast available on the verified YouTube channel of the President of the United States.
First lady Jill Biden took the podium first, and her short opening speech was interrupted several times by applause. Then the floor turned to Javier Castro, who, thanks to DACA, was able to stay in the United States, get a higher education and begin a career in medicine. After talking about how the law affected the lives of thousands of migrants and how it prevented families from being “torn apart,” he invited Joe Biden to the microphone. Thanking Castro for his speech and his work as a nurse, the US president said: “My name is Joe Biden, I am Jill Biden's husband.” This was followed by laughter in the hall and a ten-minute speech by the American leader.
The video, which went viral on Telegram channels, was not even edited - in it, Biden also says that he is Jill Biden’s husband. Probably, bloggers simply did not know or chose to ignore the fact that the first lady has a name that is similar to her husband. Speech style of the US President, from childhood struggling with a stutter, is somewhat peculiar (especially in recent years), but he pronounces the word “Jill” quite clearly. It is significant that the viral video with such comments spread mainly outside the English-speaking segment of the Internet, that is, the vast majority of native speakers (at least those who watched the recordings) did not see anything worthy of special attention in the video.
The US President regularly introduces himself at public events as the husband of Jill Biden, with whom he has been married for more than 45 years. He did the same in 2023, and in 2022, and in 2021, And before his election for the post of head of state. This usually happens during Biden's speeches in the presence of the first lady.
So Joe Biden didn't call himself Joe Biden's husband - in the viral video, which wasn't even edited, he pretty clearly introduced himself as Jill Biden's husband. This is not the first time that an American president has used such a rhetorical device in his speeches.
Cover photo: White House
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